ilikecobwebs
Member
- Messages
- 91
- Location
- Bristol, UK
We're just about to start re-decorating in our house for the first time in over twenty years. This morning I started stripping the chip-paper off the stairway walls. The paper has been on there since probably the early to mid 1970's, and was there when we moved in.
Directly under the chip-paper I found what could possibly be the original Victorian wall decoration. Our house is around 1870's and we have a dog-leg staircase. There is what seems to be a hand-stencilled design on the plaster, at the dado-rail position, going all down the stairs and around onto the half-landing; in mainly greens and blues, with dark reddish-brown border-lines. The lower half of the walls is /are a deep bottle green, and I can't tell fully whether they are plaster or planked wood, or a bit of both. The surface is hard but a bit rough, and some areas seem to have regular vertical lines, looking like wood planks. I havent scraped off any further than the half-landing so far, but am assuming that this patterning will follow all the way down the stairs. It seems also the upper half of the walls, above dado rail, was probably pale green paint.
Now......what should I do with it? The whole design is, unfortunately, not in particularly good order, it's very faded in many places and sharper in others. Should I photograph it for the sake of the property's history, and then carry on decorating? (with wallpaper, I hasten to add, not paint).
We have three neighbouring identical properties, none of which have any (or many) of their Vic features remaining, let alone wall decoration, so although the find isn't especially awe-inspiring, it's nice to know that we still have it.
I can't do a photo of it at the moment, terrible dark dreary day; but most of you will know what I'm talking about.
Any thoughts?
Directly under the chip-paper I found what could possibly be the original Victorian wall decoration. Our house is around 1870's and we have a dog-leg staircase. There is what seems to be a hand-stencilled design on the plaster, at the dado-rail position, going all down the stairs and around onto the half-landing; in mainly greens and blues, with dark reddish-brown border-lines. The lower half of the walls is /are a deep bottle green, and I can't tell fully whether they are plaster or planked wood, or a bit of both. The surface is hard but a bit rough, and some areas seem to have regular vertical lines, looking like wood planks. I havent scraped off any further than the half-landing so far, but am assuming that this patterning will follow all the way down the stairs. It seems also the upper half of the walls, above dado rail, was probably pale green paint.
Now......what should I do with it? The whole design is, unfortunately, not in particularly good order, it's very faded in many places and sharper in others. Should I photograph it for the sake of the property's history, and then carry on decorating? (with wallpaper, I hasten to add, not paint).
We have three neighbouring identical properties, none of which have any (or many) of their Vic features remaining, let alone wall decoration, so although the find isn't especially awe-inspiring, it's nice to know that we still have it.
I can't do a photo of it at the moment, terrible dark dreary day; but most of you will know what I'm talking about.
Any thoughts?
