Golden Valley-Based PlasterCenter Brings Custom Color Options to Homes
Inside a Golden Valley warehouse, there’s a workplace where it’s okay to play. The PlasterCenter and its team of five employees create color lines for paint and plaster products sold in high-end paint stores.
“It’s always changing,” said Drew Beninati, president of the PlasterCenter. “It’s only limited to your own creativity.”
Beninati says he’s always had a fascination for color.
“I tell my colleagues I started coloring in my parents closet when I was a kid,” he said.
He fell in love with the paint industry after a layoff in his health care job.
“Two weeks after being laid off, I was back into painting and fast forward 30 years, still in the painting industry,” said Beninati.
example of decorative wall coating
PlasterCenter Paint Creations Go Global
Today, color ideas developed at the PlasterCenter are spread to customers near and far.
“It’s kind of crazy, but our color lines are available in both China and Japan, here in the United States,” said Beninati
Product technology has come a long way, transforming homes in ways never before thought possible. Beninati showed CCX News how paint coatings can transform ceramic tile countertops.
Other coatings can reinvigorate bathroom walls.
“A cement-based finish. A lot of interest in these cement products right now,” he said.
The company also has a color and seal system to rescue 1980s-era homes filled with golden oak.
“It was developed to allow consumers or paint maintenance companies to touch up wood work without infusing the entire house with solvent smell,” Beninati said. “It’s brushed on in two coats, it dries, it’s beautiful.”
System used to treat golden oak
High-Tech Products That Are Easy to Apply
The latest product at the PlasterCenter called “Urban Mud” took two and a half years to develop. It will be available on the market this spring.
“It is a cellulose-based, zero VOC coating that has the ability to change color as you trowel it. So if you took a really close look at it, looks like you’re using three colors here, but we’re actually only using a paint-base in one,” Beninati said. “It camouflages minor imperfections, nail holes from pictures or just lousy paint jobs that have been done in the past. It’s really great for hiding.”
The PlasterCenter offers training for its products. For about $200, DIY customers can learn several different techniques over a couple two-hour sessions. Beninati says while the products may seem high-tech, they’re relatively simple to apply and cost-effective too.
“Options that are less costly than deconstruction of your home. You can do simple recoats in a week. They make sense. They’re eco-friendly and very, very cost-effective.”
