Set these images beside a painted wall in your mind: the difference is in the movement and depth. They are conceptual references showing limewash on masonry, stucco and interiors in pale and dark mineral tones, useful for choosing a direction before you test boards on your own walls.
Interior walls and rooms
Chalk-white limewash wall with a walnut sideboard
Warm ivory limewash wall in a living room
Clay-pink limewash in a powder room
Putty-white limewash in a bedroom
Deep mushroom limewash on walls and ceiling
Oatmeal limewash in a double-height stair hall
Creamy limewash on a range hood and kitchen wall
Warm-white limewash over primed drywall
Close detail of limewash brush movement
Brick, stone and fireplaces
Brick fireplace in chalky warm-white limewash
Weathered white limewash on a brick garden pier
Brick house limewashed in soft warm white
Fieldstone entry and chimney in bone-white limewash
Interior brick wall in pale stone-gray limewash
Sand-colored limewash on cement stucco
Commercial interiors
Warm taupe limewash in a restaurant dining room
Gray-green limewash on a curved lobby wall
Pale clay limewash in a boutique interior
Hand-brushed limewash sample boards
Discuss your limewash project
If one of these looks better to you than paint, say which surfaces you have in mind and where the property is.