How to Restore Antique Plaster Walls

Prepare the room. Plaster creates a lot of dust and this will get into the other areas of the home easily. Place a layer of plastic drop cloths over the floor and tape plastic up over doorways. Seal off all vents in the room. Protect yourself by wearing safety glasses, long sleeves, a respirator mask and gloves.

Remove any loose plaster. The areas around cracks and holes may have loose plaster. Break this off by hand or use a masonry hammer. Never use a regular hammer on plaster -- the chisel end of the masonry hammer allows you safely to remove loose pieces of plaster.

Fill in any large holes with plaster. Mix your plaster and load it up on a hawk. Use your trowel to fill in holes until they are even with the rest of the walls. Let these patches set -- about 30 minutes should be sufficient.

Apply a skim coat to the walls. A skim coat is a very light coat of plaster that is about 1/4 inch thick. Start in one corner of the room and work from the bottom up. Think of a sweeping motion with your arm -- you want to sweep the plaster on not just slap it on the wall. Press down with the trowel as you go up the wall and then feather the edges by stopping in a random sweeping motion. Try to get the skim coat as level as possible. Remember, you'll have to work somewhat fast -- plaster sets very quickly. This skim coat will completely cover over the entire wall with a new layer of plaster, restoring the finish.

Sand down any uneven areas. Don't worry, this happens to everyone. Use a block hand sander in a fine grade and go over your work, sanding until the wall is level. You can then paint the surface, or simply leave it as a beautiful white.

Clean up the mess. Use a shop vac to suck up all the plaster dust in the room. Then, remove all the drop cloths, folding them up to trap any remaining dust inside.