Dining room cupboard

[JoceAndChris]

The roofing costs are holding up the ceiling repair work so we're moving on to the cupboard this weekend, which hopefully won't suffer too much during ceiling work.
Here it is:

After some debate we decided to keep it as it tells the story of the house - this used to be an exterior wall and this cupboard was put in where the window was, in the 'thirties, when the extension was added. Unfortunately it does look very of its time so I'm wondering about whether painting it might make it look more Georgian? What do you think? It's currently something of an eyesore but I'm hoping that lighting, and filling it with interesting things made of silver, might improve it as a focal point of the room, as well as create a much needed point of light in what will be a very dark paper: http://www.farrow-ball.com/the-st-antoine-papers-bp-920/st-antoine//fcp-product/200920
So Chris has bought these to instal:
http://www.screwfix.com/prods/58380/Lighting-Lamps/Internal-Lighting/Internal-LED-Lighting/Clear-LED-Striplight-Cabinet-Light-Contractor-Kit
Do you think the placement should be at the front, back, or middle of the underside of shelves?
Has anyone used this kind of LED lighting in cabinets and if so were you pleased with the result?

 

[robgil]

It might just look like a 30's cupboard thats been painted Joce, what is it made out of?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mahogany.
Which is the wood I'm using for furniture throughout the house, including the dining room.

 

[robgil]

So leaving it unpainted wouldnt be a crime, I would say a lot depends on the surrounding wall colours, it may look slightly overpowering if left unpainted against a light background.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Hmm, mahogany against soft light blue is a very well respected standard for period schemes.

But I think you might be right about it looking extremely odd as a painted piece.

 

[Juju]

I think it's nice and it looks Georgian to my eyes. If you going for a lighter wood then it might make sense to paint it but if it's going to tone in with the main furniture, I think it'll be fine.
J

 

[robgil]

Sounds nice Joce against the soft blue, i think the cupboard is what it is and there isnt much getting away from it so present it for what it is and enjoy it, it is a nice cupboard after all.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Probably better to leave the mahogany alone, however, you could consider putting sections of a stunning wall paper behing the shelves or alternatively use a contrasting paint colour, which will show off your display.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Bless you all for being positive. xx

Joss - I think that idea is great. We'll do that.

The Georgians understood pretty proportions in glazing bars and cabinet making - the 30s folk - what were they on? I know it's something to do with the tomb of Tutenkhamun, all those geometric sunburst patterns, but this infernal criss crossing and dividing up the glass with a million bars really gets me down.

There was a cabinet, a Georgian cabinet, ripped from an arched niche in some period property, in the Grantham junk shop. It was £800. The proportions were delightful, those fanned out glazing bars reminiscent of a spider's web. I wish I'd bought it and replaced this 30s nonsense without further ado.

But it was round backed, if you can imagine such a thing.

 

[Juju]

I suppose another (but expensive) option is to get someone to replace the glazing with something more simple? Not being a carpenter or whatever I don't know how easy it would be to keep the surrounding frame of the doors and cut out the middle bits and replace with larger sections of plain glass.
J

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's perhaps a good idea for the future - keep the cupboard, get the doors made up differently. I'd feel guilty about it but prefer the look of the room.

The paint colour for the woodwork (doors, shutters, plate shelf, panelling into music room) will be dark brown - the wallpaper next to this cupboard that dark red damask in my top pic. ( the blue, Rob, was just speaking hypothetically) The floor will be darkened pine boards with a dark red rug. The lighting mainly crystal.

Do you think the back of the cupboard could be tweed wool - like this?

http://www.kingdominteriors.co.uk/catalogue/AbrahamMoon/fabrics/Balmoral

 

[Gareth Hughes]

If it were mine, I'd take it out, turn the alcove round so it faces the room in the 1930s extension, and reinstall it facing that room instead.

 

[piper]

Having come to this thread late, I'm very relieved you seem to have thought better of painting it. It is 30's, and attractively of its period in my opinion. It is part of the history of the house. It is probably well-made - i.e.not a modern MDF fake imitation. The polished mahogany looks very good (at least in your photograph) with an attractive patina. If you painted it, someone in two hundred years time would be cursing you as they tried to remove the paint and get back to the original 1930's polished mahogany. (By that time of course, your house will be on an island in the Lincolnshire sea, occupied by several families of refugees and surrounded by the huts of others)

 

[Lime]

I can't really see the problem.
It looks fine.
Paint would make it look awful.
It would end up looking a hideous mess.
Can anyone say that they have ever seen a piece of old furniture that looked better painted with modern paint?
(I presume we are not talking about a coachwork finish here)

Filled with georgian antiques and some skillfully placed drapes it could look quite special.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: piper - the refugees will be most welcome, I'm sure there'll still be tons to do at that point. And how pretty Grantham will look drowned. :wink:
Anyway, thank you for your nice comments Piper and Lime. 30s stuff is gaining in popularity, so I probably would be cursed by the next owners if I removed or ruined it.
The problem is simply that I wanted a Georgian room. But it isn't one, now.
Gareth - why didn't I think of that? It's a lovely idea - how would you solve the plate shelf problem, as then you 'd have a gap where the cabinet was ( which has made me suddenly realise the plate shelf is 30s too. ) I know it looks missing in the top pic but that section is just down for work, I have all the bits. Would you just remove all the plate shelf too?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

You know that my view of the plate shelf is not the conservationist one...
However, you could have a new bit made to fill the gap, or just leave it for future owners to wonder what the gap's for.

 

[Flyfisher]

I quite like it as it is, but then I'm fairly hopeless with interior design. If it was mine then I'd probably just fill it with books and other accumulated 'stuff' and be thankful everything was stored away where it wouldn't get too dusty. Sorry.

 

[Nigel Watts]

The glazing looks quite Georgian to me and mahogany is a very Georgian wood. The one thing that is missing and perhaps makes it look more 1930 than 1770 is the absence of a cornice and pediment above the doors.

When the walls are a darkish red the mahogany (which I certainly think you should keep) will blend in beautifully. Interior lighting will also be a big improvement. The plate shelf, as you rightly say, is an early 20th C Arts and Crafts feature, but I wouldn't let that or the cupboard worry you. What you should aim for is a Georgian atmosphere rather than authenticity.

I put in small low voltage halogen downlighters in the display cupboards in my dining room. They work quite well but the light is very cold compared to candlelight or only fashioned tungsten bulbs. Not tried LEDs which may be better.

 

[Nigel Watts]

What colour are you doing the plate shelf? Have you thought of using mahogony? This could help blend the cupboard in rather better.

 

[JoceAndChris]

All of your opinions are very valuable, thank you so much.

Nigel - the plate shelf was going to be "Dead Salmon" or "London Clay", I hadn't decided.

I thought Dead Salmon ceiling and cornice, Eating room red paint above plate shelf, Dead Salmon plate shelf, Eating room red wallpaper, London Clay skirting. Window in Dead Salmon, sill in London Clay, shutters in the two colours. I've begun on this, but I'm not happy with it. It looks terribly gloomy and dingy. Pics to follow.

I know Gareth is a radical conservationist, and doesn't like my vision of Regency loveliness with plenty of curtain porn to be hampered by a not-particularly valuable and unlisted past. I'm sure if he were designing the room it would look just amazing, and I often wish I could just hand over.

But I find myself hampered, in the doing up of BC - by so many things, cost, mainly, and sentiment for Charlotte Burrough's really amazing efforts in the thirties - the fact that she, the grand-daughter, owned it after a hundred years of tenancy in her family. I feel very connected to her, though I don't agree with all of her choices.

Silly to be bossed by a ghost though.

It will end up being an eclectic mixture, as I'm sure our houses mostly are.