C19 Colour Scheme and modern paint

[Nigel Watts]

Trial of new paint scheme for my hall, inspired by John Soane's dining room:

I think the colour matches my carpets better, but does the picking out of the mouldings work? This is the kind of thing they did ion the early 19thC.

The paint is from Fired Earth, who dont do oil based eggshell. If I use water based eggshell on my woodwork could i cover with a matt varnish to give it a nicer finish I wonder?

Off to get a much needed haircut. Need to look a bit less like a tramp before Wednesday!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Aw, don't worry, I've always had a soft spot for tramps! (my own hair's gone a bit alarmingly purply after some recent experimentation with discounted hair dye at Asda).

I like your red and blue/grey mouldings! They're very jolly - it's a big contrast! That red is going to look amazing, much better than the yellow in my opinion!

As for the current dearth of oil eggshell, it's a complete b*tch. It would be worth knowing how you can fake the look, 'fraid I've no answers there!

Did you do that wood-graining in that photo? Or is it real mahogany?

 

[ilona73]

hiya!!!
colours look good... but if you are feeling ostentatious and i dont know if you are or not... one of the bandings you could do in a gold perhaps to break it up and add a little more glamour???
As for the fired earth eggshell... i have just used this on my lounge and i have to say the waterbased eggshell i was disappointed with... it promises a tough durable finish but to be completely honest... it scratches very easily and is no more durable than a standard flat emulsion and its twice the price.. so if you are thinking of using it you almost certainly need to seal it with a flat matt or satin varnish depending on what type of sheen you are wishing to use
hope this has been of some help and hasn't put you off... just wanted to make sure you know what i have found having just used those paints myself good
luck love the colours
make sure you post the afters!!

x

 

[Michelle]

Hello, I read this forum often (thanks everyone) and I think it's about time I joined in. I like the red. Very keen to visit John Soane's house. Do you know Rose of Jericho, based in Dorset? They produce oil eggshell. I haven't tried the oil eggshell yet, but I have just used their flat oil on my matchboard panelling in the living room and am quite delighted with the finish. www.rose-of-jericho.demon.co.uk

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks for the kind remarks. The mahogany is fake, painted by me. I only went for Fired Earth because I liked their red colour. The easiest option is probably going to be to find a similar colour from a different manufacturer. I have heard of Rose of Jericho but never tried them. Impossible to judge colours on the net but Tuscan Red could be promising.

The next question will be what to do with the cornice and ceiling:

I rather fancy a pale blue ceiling (Joce didnt approve last time I suggested it). Cornice in grey perhaps? or left how it is even (as some people who have seen it have suggested to me).

Lock stitching interlinings is sooooo boring. Helping my son make a cubist sculpture for art homework is much more fun. I have suggested he does one of those cafe still lives, but based on a modern Starbucks or McDonald's. I wish I could go back to school. So much more fun than having to work for a living.

 

[ilona73]

Thanks for the kind remarks. The mahogany is fake, painted by me. I only went for Fired Earth because I liked their red colour. The easiest option is probably going to be to find a similar colour from a different manufacturer. I have heard of Rose of Jericho but never tried them. Impossible to judge colours on the net but Tuscan Red could be promising.

The next question will be what to do with the cornice and ceiling:

I rather fancy a pale blue ceiling (Joce didnt approve last time I suggested it). Cornice in grey perhaps? or left how it is even (as some people who have seen it have suggested to me).

Lock stitching interlinings is sooooo boring. Helping my son make a cubist sculpture for art homework is much more fun. I have suggested he does one of those cafe still lives, but based on a modern Starbucks or McDonald's. I wish I could go back to school. So much more fun than having to work for a living.

well what you do with this depends on the overall look you want to achieve or your room... personally i would leave it be... i think there is a lot to be said for the eclectic mix of paints and textures within a room....if it were me and i had such architectural details as you are lucky to bestowed with... i would paint the centre of the ceiling in a vivid colour and leave the rest..... sort of old meets newer in an elaborate apocolypse of colour (okay thats designer speak coming out now)
have you thought about your styles of furniture? what you doing with the floor? as all will have abearing on how you move forward with this? have you got pictures of the rest of the room as it is now? walls etc.. etc...
at the end of the day it depends on the kind of look you are trying to achieve on the whole as to what you do with the ceiling etc....for me personally i would go for the old aged classic baroquesque type look... but everyone is different ...
Its all bout you
your taste
and what you want to achieve
and above all else... it has to be something you will personally stand back and say ..."yes i love this room..."

 

[jocelyn plummer]

I have used Tuscan Red, it is a good colour, somewhat more subtle than the one you have shown . I suggest you ask Rose of Jericho for sample tins ( around £3) of the colour in each of their finishes-- their distemper finishes are second to none when it comes to the way in which the colour refracts around the room as the light, both natural and artificial reflect on walls. I have recently tried their casein distemper as opposed to soft distemper and it positively glows.
They are the only company I know of who send samples of the actual paint finish, be it oil, chalky, distemper or whatever. Be aware that they may be finding it difficult to produce certain finishes in this very cold weather, so there coul d be a delay. My order for distemper was delayed by about 3 days during the very hot weather in 2006.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

PS.Rose of Jericho are also very good at advising on colour combinations over the phone . They really know how theri colours work, all you have to do is give an indication of room size, height and aspect.

 

[Nigel Watts]

have you thought about your styles of furniture? what you doing with the floor? as all will have abearing on how you move forward with this? have you got pictures of the rest of the room as it is now? walls etc.. etc..

Its my hall. Only furniture is a rosewood chiffoniere. Pictures mainly prints. Floor is polished boards/painted (on stairs) with rugs/runners.

House dates from 1840. For my main rooms I am working on a heavy early 19thC look - lots of fake oak & mahogany, dark and/or bright colours, antique regency/early victorian furniture...

Miss Michelle - I forgot to say you are very welcome, and I hope you will put up with all our eccentricities.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I really must explore the Rose of Jericho range this year; it sounds fantastic.

The mahogany is fake, painted by me.

It looks so good! You've been VERY modest about your abilities at this, but that looks brilliant.

The next question will be what to do with the cornice and ceiling:

I don't know - I might have to change my mind about the contrast between blue and red as it's one I love - I just worried that you'd end up with a load of clashing colours. If you went for something similar to the current grey/blue (maybe slightly lighter) I think that could work very well. The cornice does look incredible just as it is, but if you change the ceiling I guess you'll have to change that too. It's really hard to imagine what would be nice without having seen the hallway, so you really will just have to invite me to make my pronouncements on site. Bring paint charts on Wednesday - I've got F & B, all the Womersley range, and Little Greene here.

A very warm welcome to Miss Michelle as well!

 

[Jill]

Nigel, are you intending on repainting all of the blue? The front door, stairs, skirtings etc. In my opinion wouldn't it be a bit too red with the reddish wooden floor and rugs. Something lighter possibly like the edging on your stair carpet, but then that would also depend on whether you are keeping the yellow walls.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Hello, I read this forum often (thanks everyone) and I think it's about time I joined in.

Warm welcome Michelle.

 

[ilona73]

have you thought about your styles of furniture? what you doing with the floor? as all will have abearing on how you move forward with this? have you got pictures of the rest of the room as it is now? walls etc.. etc..

Its my hall. Only furniture is a rosewood chiffoniere. Pictures mainly prints. Floor is polished boards/painted (on stairs) with rugs/runners.

House dates from 1840. For my main rooms I am working on a heavy early 19thC look - lots of fake oak & mahogany, dark and/or bright colours, antique regency/early victorian furniture...

Miss Michelle - I forgot to say you are very welcome, and I hope you will put up with all our eccentricities.

WOW!!!!!!!!
you lucky devil!!!!
My house is from 1687 so i have none of the fineries you are so lucky to have bestowed on you!!!
simply stunning!!!!!!

If it was me personally i would go with your first idea.... a very very pale blue/grey colour on the ceiling..... then on the walls take it two tones lighter... but leave the cornicing etc alone.... it will accentuate everything... make it light and airy... but also add to the dramatic effect of your ceiling... the red and blues you are thinking of for your architraves skirting etc will pull it all together and warm it up too along with your mahogany doors and polished floors... then i would add a few heavily gilted framed pictures for the walls ....etc..etc....

Miss michelle welcome to the mad house!!!


good luck.. i can't wait to see the end result!!!

 

[Moo]

Nigel - if you've got time, pop round to Papers & Paints (or perhaps it should be Paints & Papers - always get confused) in Chelsea. Anyway, it's not the one that has a chain of shops around the country but the one run by Patrick Baty, who is an historic paint enthusiast. His shade cards come with generous daubs of actual paint, and he will colour any sort of paint you want. We've used his flat oil on all the interior woodwork in our house and it's stood up very well to a dozen years of neglect. As have the colours we've used on the walls.
I've not met him, but am reliably informed that he can bore for England on the subject of paints.

I'm so glad that people like your unpainted cornice. Ours isn't nearly as grand as yours but I, too, like it 'in the raw' so much that doubt whether it'll ever get painted.

 

[MattW]

Nigel - I think you should go with the blue/grey ceiling idea. It give a hint of what it might look like, below are two pictures taken on our 1st floor as we started to peel back the layers. The yellow was the second paint scheme in the room (there was a green & brown panelled scheme underneath) - we don't know when it dates from, but as the first wall colour was c.1832, then it is possible that it is contemporaneous with your house. Whether the blue grey ceiling colour is original I don't know - it could be a discoloured distemper that was originally white, or perhaps it is very similar to how it first appeared. This colour was found on the ceilings in the ground floor and 1st floor principle rooms.
View attachment 1

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[jocelyn plummer]

In my humble opinion, I think that many modern paint colours look very harsh and flat due to the content of the paint. Of course paint colours looked bright and fresh when they were first applied in whatever century, but they always looked quite soft in texture --- note the difference between the yellows in the pics. In general I would apply a ceiling colour that is a few shades lighter than the chosen skirting colours, if the cornice must be painted, then it could be be a darker tone of the ceiling colour,try Venetian White distemper against a very soft bluey grey ceiling .

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks for all the helpful ideas.

Moo - my yellow came from Papers & Paints, as did the blue in my bedroom but I havnt been there for quite a few years (its a pain to get to from Islington) but thank you for reminding me. I am planning to go to Chelsea on Friday to order some bedroom furniture for my 10 year old, so I might pop in.

MattW - this blue/grey seems to have been ubiquitous. All the ceilings I stripped back had this, as you have found. This is one of the reasons I want to try it. My book on Georgian decoration also mentions sky blue ceilings being in fashion in the early 19thC. In grander interiors this could be accompanied by painted clouds.

If I paint the cornice it will be in soft distemper, which I will make myself. The walls, because they go up the stairs, will get quite heavy wear so I am more inclined to use a modern emulsion.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Was there ever a dado running up the stair way?
I papered below dado and emusioned above in our 18thc house ( I really miss that one).Your pics are giving me itchy feet again

 

[Nigel Watts]

Jocelyn - there was never a dado as far as I know, although there is some simple panelling leading down to the kitchen (this is a modern replacement, as are the stairs and bannisters, because the original had been largely removed or was rotten). The panelling was probably not completely original to the house as we found at least one old layer of wallpaper behind it. The paper would have got very bumped here with the servants running up and down, so it would do doubt have been put there for entirely practical reasons. (The doorway on the landing is where the original back door would have been. It now leads to our lean-too side extension.)

The hall was originally papered, I am sure, and continued to be papered until well into the 20th C. When it was being stripped we found at least ten layers, the bottom one being fake ashlar in a honey colour with greenish veining lines. This kind of fake stone block effect (up market version of which can be seen at Sir John Soane's house) was very common in early to mid 19C town houses (our previous 1850 Islington town house also had it). I have been tempted to reproduce this, but I have not seen a paper I like enough and although I could probably manage to create the effect by hand if I put my mind to it I dont really feel I can afford the time to do so.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Your house is so lovely. I agree, it will take forever to do a stone effect finish! Best to be a practical as possible these days, and then simply enjoy all the original features .