Decorated or undecorated?

[JoceAndChris]

I am very excited about the future hatching out of the Escalier Beetle!

 

[TimM]

Surely you'll get to a stage where the momentum ends and the work stops... the point when the effort of stripping that last door far outweighs the sense of annoyance that it's still painted mustard yellow...

 

[Juju]

I know what you mean Joce about the pull between having a shiny house and something more ancient/lived in. Our house was renovated by a previous owner 10 years ago so there's not much to 'discover' and I really miss that. I'm enjoying decorating it but we're just altering one person's modern taste for ours. Our cellar certainly has an ancient feel to it though!

We do however have one cupboard undecorated for some time- in our living room there's a little cupboard to the side of the fireplace. It hasn't been painted inside for years by the looks of it and has that mock wood grain effect on the inside of the door. As you can see, it is a very important cupboard in our house.... Hey, this is a good thread - photos of undecorated cupboards!

 

[JoceAndChris]

I am so glad I find someone to share my interest in undecorated cupboards! And that you understand my feeling! It's hard, impossible even, to feel nostalgic for a paper, a paint, a floor put in 10 years ago, but when it was done 70 or more years ago it's impossible not to feel nostalgic, I think, and to get that shiver down the spine and sense of dread if you meddle with it.

So would you decorate that cupboard Juju? It's so similar to one of mine!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Surely you'll get to a stage where the momentum ends and the work stops... the point when the effort of stripping that last door far outweighs the sense of annoyance that it's still painted mustard yellow...

Ask me that in ten years, right now you saying that is a bit like saying I'll get tired of eating breakfast or breathing air.

 

[Tom]

Joce, it's the same thing as is in most fridges

What, you mean the Fridge Goblins that my father told me turn the light on aren't real ??????

Another childhood illusion shattered. You'll be telling me next that if you undo your belly button your bum does not in fact fall off.

I'm sorry, I should have been a little more tactful. Would it help if I said I'm sorry and I was only joking? :wink:

 

[Juju]

No, I wouldn't decorate our cupboard. It's nice to keep something of the house's decorative history plus it is just used for drinks. It's become a real talking point for visitors - despite what you'd expect to be the room's obvious features (the flagstone floor, large fireplace, beams, etc) visitors always say first 'I like that cupboard - what's it for?' Then they discover it's the drinks cupboard and they like it even more :lol:

 

[Penners]

photos of undecorated cupboards!

Juju - that cupboard of yours looks very appropriately decorated to me. :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: Me too!

It's funny how fascinated people are with cupboards. Thanks for sharing that Juju!

 

[Penners]

Joce, it's the same thing as is in most fridges

What, you mean the Fridge Goblins that my father told me turn the light on aren't real ??????

Another childhood illusion shattered. You'll be telling me next that if you undo your belly button your bum does not in fact fall off.

I'm sorry, I should have been a little more tactful. Would it help if I said I'm sorry and I was only joking? :wink:

Ok Jaqy - just for goodness sake don't say a word about Father Christmas.

 

[inwood]

As for the light switches, I've just fitted three of these (or rather my sparky did!) for a customers bespoke wardrobe I built:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/FM140WB.html

They're a little more unobtrusive as they fit in the door jamb and are operated as soon as you open the door. They're also brass rather than plastic which looks a bit nicer.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I'm torn between wanting a shiny redecorated house or a scruffy museum. I want it to feel like a window to the past, so that I feel here as I felt when I went round Severs' or Handel's house - am I alone in wanting that?

Everyone has to find their own way.

On the shiny redecorated vs scruffy museum question there is I believe a middle way, which is to build up a decorative scheme which has a complexity and richness to it. It can be scruffy, but it doesnt have to be. If you are prepared to try some simple woodgraining or other paint effects, if you avoid bright and shiny modern paints etc you can create a depth and richness which would normally be associated with "shabby chic".

Another way (which many on this forum would hate) is to deal with different parts of the house in different ways. My top and bottom floors (of a total of four) have very little in the way of original features and would originally have been the realm of children and servants. I have gone for a modernistlook here, as I have with my steel and glass extension.

The idea of using different styles for different rooms is not a new one. Harlaxton Manor, for example, has a Baroque hall, a French Rococo drawing room and a Jacobethan dining room. Why not a modernist kitchen then?

 

[Feltwell]

I'm sorry, I should have been a little more tactful. Would it help if I said I'm sorry and I was only joking? :wink:

Jaqy, I do hope you're not apologising to me as none is required! Come to that I can't see that offence would have been caused to anyone else either......

 

[Ushy M]

We do however have one cupboard undecorated for some time

Juju - Nonsense, I quite like the idea: "I'm just off to the cupboard to get completely decorated!"

 

[Tom]

I'm sorry, I should have been a little more tactful. Would it help if I said I'm sorry and I was only joking? :wink:

Jaqy, I do hope you're not apologising to me as none is required! Come to that I can't see that offence would have been caused to anyone else either......

No, of course, I was joking....hence the wink at the end

However, for those who seriously believe in the Fridge Goblins......of course they're real !!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

Everyone has to find their own way.

On the shiny redecorated vs scruffy museum question there is I believe a middle way, which is to build up a decorative scheme which has a complexity and richness to it. It can be scruffy, but it doesnt have to be. If you are prepared to try some simple woodgraining or other paint effects, if you avoid bright and shiny modern paints etc you can create a depth and richness which would normally be associated with "shabby chic".

Another way (which many on this forum would hate) is to deal with different parts of the house in different ways. My top and bottom floors (of a total of four) have very little in the way of original features and would originally have been the realm of children and servants. I have gone for a modernistlook here, as I have with my steel and glass extension.

The idea of using different styles for different rooms is not a new one. Harlaxton Manor, for example, has a Baroque hall, a French Rococo drawing room and a Jacobethan dining room. Why not a modernist kitchen then?

I hope (and believe) you aren't really worried about your choices Nigel. There is nowt wrong with what you propose. I happily lived in a very modern converted basement flat in one of those many storey Victorian houses.

To an extent, the house dictates what you should do with it. If the period features have gone and all you have is 80s paint and carpets then do what you like, I say! (I still flinch a bit at knocking 2 rooms into one and that sort of thing though).

If you have a very large house I think it's easier to pull off an assorted period look. in this house I must aim for more concentration I think.

If you have a house that's a complete amalgamation of different epochs it's pointless arbitrarily installing a Thomas Crapper bathroom (as I was discussing with DWB just now- nice to see you Jaqy - got back OK despite one headlight and torrential rain!). You may as well just put in what you'd like.

If you have Virginia Woolf's house, though, I think you're duty bound to keep the whole house in the spirit of as it was when she lived there. I think it would be so so wrong to take out her claw foot bath and put in a modern plastic thing. When her bath wears out I sincerely hope they'll go for a like for like replacement. And though I can't make any real claims of grandeur or national importance for this cottage I can see that it is unusually preserved, (setting aside cement render and a few unsympathetic concrete additions), and whilst nothing in itself is staggeringly beautiful or precious as a whole the effect could be very startling. If I were to dilute that sensation of not quite being in 2009 by, say, going onto mains water, tarmac-ing the track, installing underfloor heating, something rather rare would be gone forever. There are so many done up period cottages, and not many that take you back to another world.

I agree with you that the best compromise is to go for a period scheme with authentic colours, textures, furniture and fixings as far as is possible. I would feel much happier about painting over the old wood graining with new wood graining than with a plain colour. I think Jaqy has finally convinced me today that I should dispense with ideas of converting the upper scullery into ensuite bathrooms altogether.

But this approach is perhaps the most complex of all, as it calls for knowledge and skill in the extreme. Far easier to buy ready made curtains and stick them up on a plastic track then to research curtain styles of the appropriate period and make them yourself complete with swags and tails, far easier to slap on the coats of paint than learn the techniques you mention.

It's a hard, but rewarding, journey.

 

[JoceAndChris]

inwood- thanks for the switch suggestion , that looks very nice.

 

[Moo]

People like me, who have houseworkphobia, don't seem to have your problem, Joce.
Just over a decade ago our house was quite smart, with authentic colours and all. Now it's simply oozing shabby chic, with the emphasis on the shabby.
All you need is benign neglect (and dark chocolate brown woodwork that doesn't show the dirt).

 

[Penners]

houseworkphobia......benign neglect

Don't believe a word of it, ladies and gentlemen. The National Trust uses the phrase, "a light touch" when it comes to repairs and renovations, and this principle has been beautifully applied to a certain Naarch house.

 

[JohnB]

Following advice received here, I went to the see the rebuilt houses at the Museum of Wales at St Fagans. The obvious thing about the period houses there is the small windows and lack of lighting. So the solution is to restore your house to their condition at a time when they were so dark inside you couldn't see the dirt and scruffiness :lol: :lol: