C19 Colour Scheme and modern paint

[JoceAndChris]

Completely wonderful to see Nigel today who made it through extraordinarily heavy snow to Lincolnshire - exquisitely dressed in tweed and cashmere ( I've stolen his cap it was so nice)- and talk about this, and many other things too. The colours on the paint chart are not done justice to in the photos here; I'm sure that dark red will look superb.

Really, Nigel's taste is so refined he does not need our help!

 

[DaveBrigg]

This is Soane's design for one of the rooms in Downing St. The colour is a fairly recent choice and described as 'terracotta', so I'm not sure if this matches with your Tuscan Red.
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Below - a detail of the plasterwork on the ceiling. The highlights have been picked out in gold, which works quite well I think, although only for rooms that can take it.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

"I can stand an awful lot of gilt"

 

[Nigel Watts]

Really, Nigel's taste is so refined he does not need our help!

It's wonderful to be flattered, but this is simply not true. Joce rescued me from making a potentially disaterous choice (aesthetically and financially) of curtain material for my living room and then steered me firmly but tactfully in the right direction, for which I am truly grateful, and she continues to give me sound advice.

I cant begin to do justice just now to the Arcadian Idyll in which I was being fed vension stew and homegrown plums in Amaretto yesterday chez Joce, especially since I'm now at work and need to read all my e-mails. This will have to wait I'm afraid!

 

[JoceAndChris]

DaveBrigg- that is a very handsome colour scheme- thanks for posting it. I think the white ceiling works well with the dark terracotta because the white and gilt is repeated in the ornamental mouldings on the walls. Had the architrave been dark, and the fireplace of dark marble, I think a white ceiling begins to look very disconnected. This is one of my hard decisions - the ceiling colour is so tricky, if you want to use a strong colour on the walls.

Nigel - there is no need or you to construct a eulogy - the pleasure was all mine! To cook for someone so appreciative, who brought delicious velvety vintage wine, who fascinated my cat, who praised my chickens, and who was so utterly nonchalent about such beautiful attire being dragged through a foot of snow, now this was rare pleasure indeed.

 

[Michelle]

Thanks for the lovely warm welcome! Delighted to hear that we have at least one wearer of tweed and cashmere. Nigel, your house looks wonderful. I too have read about ceilings being painted blue and sometimes with clouds, but have never seen one in real life (whatever that is). Jocelyn, I was very interested to read about your experience with the RoJ distemper. Hope to be experimenting with distemper in 2010, although firstly I have a lot of patching up of lime plaster to tackle in each room (it'll be my first time...). Very impressed to hear of Nigel making his own distemper. Is this as daunting as it sounds? Also I hadn't considered the possibility of distemper not being hardwearing enough for a stairs area. Might it look a bit ropey quite quickly?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Do tell us all about your house Miss Michelle! ( Not that I'm nosey you understand).

I haven't used distemper, but its reputation is that it is more hard wearing than limewash but less hard wearing than a modern emulsion. Others will say more, I'm sure. I suppose it depends on the narrowness of your stairs and the kinds of objects that are regularly carried up and down. In my last house bicycles were frequently carried up and down, and even modern emulsion needed a yearly touch-up. My own philosophy is that it's best to have things you really love, even if they're labour-intensive and require a lot of attention - but then I have the luxury of time on my hands.

Inspired by Nigel's cornice, which is currently revealing the different historic layers of paint (and which, after discussion, I think would look best painted afresh), I have been doing some anti-painting on some old timber today. Using a combination of a scraper, a heat-gun, and a blade I have managed to achieve a scruffy, mottled, grey/buff/brown finish that is pure Prada shot in Well-Worn Interior locations. I certainly prefer it to the current white gloss that is everywhere here, and both the environmental and financial cost were very slight.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Miss Michelle, I used the R o J linseed oil bound distemper below dado and ditto up the stairs, it withstood muddy dogs and sticky fingers pretty well. It is wipeable, and I think I repainted the area after about 2 years. Obviously not as wipeable as some other products claim to be!