Victorian Interior Decoration

[Nigel Watts]

Some of the better Arts and Crafts architects of the late 19th/early 20th had some good ideas on how to furnish their buildings, and the mediaeval ones from which they derived their inspiration. I think if I were the lucky owner of a 16th C house I might take a leaf out their book.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oooh me too. And that beautiful rush floor matting you can have made!

I dont disagree with any of the sentiments expressed but it is very easy to fall into an all-too-comfortable view of how a house of a particular period should look and be decorated. A few journeys into the unknown to broaden the mind can be helpful from time to time. A ruthless pursuit of authenticity, from which one then can draw back and modify, can be an exhilarating experience.

Buy the way, if you have downward pointing palmette and lotus frieze, how do you deal the corner in a 90 degree turn? I cant work it out. I feel so ignorant of the grammar of ornament.

I so agree with you, the more you find out about a period the more exciting the project becomes. I think the typical stance towards decoration is one of extreme ignorance of past styles, fear of the unknown, and limitation in 2010. Even from interior designers. There is so much to be learned from the past!

Will try and get my head round your question when I've had less wine and am less excited about my new skinny jeans.

 

[robgil]

i have done , some arts and crafts is quite nice but i also think some of it is a bit pants.
i managed to pick up this lovely old copper lantern for a song a while back , its from the arts and crafts stable but i doubt its a 16c replica.

i do like the storybook era and some of the houses are very nice indeed. i dont know if its a spin off from arts and crafts but its very similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storybook_house

 

[robgil]

actually in my search for an arts and crafts lantern i found this site , very very nice lights but very very expensive.

http://www.micalamps.com/products/storybook/index.html

 

[Nigel Watts]

This was more the kind of thing I had in mind (Baillie-Scott):

or this (Lutyens):

 

[robgil]

the painting is very nice and probably the way this cottage will go , to be fair though i have very little choice as some of the decor in a house like this is also its structural frame work.there will certainly be lots of traditionally made oak furniture etc but very little of it will be authentic antiques.
unless i win the lottery that is.

 

[Moo]

Yesterday we were in Wales and visited Castell Coch (Red Castle), a wonderful mad weekend retreat built for the Marquis of Bute.
The interior decor would make you go weak at the knees, Nigel.
Here's a link to one picture: http://www.urban75.org/photos/wales/coch1.html

 

[Nigel Watts]

Castell Coch ... would make you go weak at the knees, Nigel.

I've been there, and it did!

Cardiff castle has less picturesque surroundings but has some equally good interiors.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Gorgeous, utterly so. But if you used all that in a small space it would be mind bending I think.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Just been reading Dresser on colour theory and fiddling about with colour charts. I think a light is starting to glimmer, albeit faintly.

The human eye wishes to see all primary colours (yellow, blue, red) represented together, but in unequal quantities (these proportions, he says, have been determined by experiment). If all three are not present in their primary form they should be there in combination. Thus blue is complementary with (red) + (yellow) = (orange), red with (blue) + (red) = (green) etc. and if the red, for example, should be slightly on the blue side, the green should have more yellow etc.

I had tried a slightly blueish red against a blue black and put some blue-green in the mix. The effect was very harsh. Tried adding some bright yellow details - horrible!

An extremely dark green (such as Fired Earth's malachite) instead of the blue black looks much more promising against the red (and potentially gorgeous against my fake mahogany doors). I now think my stencilling onto the red should avoid yellow and use pale and dark green, or green and black instead. Where the green and my dark red meet there has to be good tonal contrast, so black, or very pale green, or white, or gold where they join. Blue and yellow seem to be getting pushed out of my scheme.

Off to buy some more samples and a copy of Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament

 

[JoceAndChris]

It's really interesting and thanks for sharing it all.

The human eye wishes to see all primary colours (yellow, blue, red) represented together, but in unequal quantitie

But I'm already wondering if I agree! If that were so, why is black and white together so successful - or a daffodil?

 

[JoceAndChris]

An extremely dark green (such as Fired Earth's malachite) instead of the blue black looks much more promising against the red (and potentially gorgeous against my fake mahogany doors). I now think my stencilling onto the red should avoid yellow and use pale and dark green, or green and black instead. Where the green and my dark red meet there has to be good tonal contrast, so black, or very pale green, or white, or gold where they join. Blue and yellow seem to be getting pushed out of my scheme.

Off to buy some more samples and a copy of Owen Jones's Grammar of Ornament

This is sounding very good - dark green against dark red - lovely.

 

[Moo]

The Welsh heritage people (CADW?) are very proud of their conservation work, but it was dismaying to see that someone had painted the stone walls in the spiral staircases with authentic magnolia gloss paint. Which was peeling dramatically in places.
I was oh so tempted to start picking at it, but managed to exercise iron self-control.


And, Nigel, I was most impressed by the quantity and quality of the stencilling.

 

[Nigel Watts]

I thought I was a bit of a dab hand at decorating but my copy of Elementary Decorating from the 1890s has put me firmly back in my place. I cant even do some of the most basic things, like paint a straight line of even width with a fine round brush and straight edge. I will need to up my game before I can execute any of my Victorian schemes.

 

[JoceAndChris]

No, no, no - I'm not having that. You're really skilled - much more than me. You'll certainly be able to do all the delicate painting.

When painting that thin, straight line for example, a wet or turpentine rag, wrapped tightly round the finger so the sharp edge of your nail is covered in it, can be pulled firmly along the edge if the straightness isn't quite perfect.

There are all sorts of devices and tricks, but ultimately it's just practice and good brushes - as you know- from all your amazing graining!

 

[Nigel Watts]

From reading my newly acquired books on Victorian decorating it seems that a great deal of hand painted ornament was applied to walls, woodwork and ceilings. Not just simple graining but the painting of much more elaborate motifs (eg wood inlaid with marquetry, multiple types on fake wood a single door), some stenciled, some drawn by hand were clearly thought to be part of the repertoire of the "elementary" decorator, "advanced" work being closer to fine art, such as the depiction of human figures and more elaborate forms. I have been quite surprised by the extent of such work, almost all of which will now have been lost, especially in middle class dwellings, because of its fragile nature and its going out of fashion in the 20th Century.

If I am going to decorate even in a much simplified version of this I need to acquire some basic skills, for example painting even bands of colour or lines on the walls without extensive use of masking tape or other props. I have started practising. My first stencil design is nearly complete and I will be trying it out on a piece of hardboard later today.

 

[JoceAndChris]

That's wonderful! Do post pics!

Yes, weren't they all artistic. I do embroidery, and am always struck at the skilfullness of old designs - like painting with threads, and even children could do it. Very little is produced like that these days.

Drawing was a serious accomplishment and given far higher priority than it is today. They also had a lot more time on their hands for arts and crafts - the middle classes at least. The tradesmen would need to be very good in a household where Miss Dorothea and Miss Eleanor sat round drawing wonderful likenesses - imagine the complaining if they weren't!

 

[Nigel Watts]

First attempt at stencilling:

The colours dont really reproduce properly in the photo. The palmette is a yellow green on a dark green. I am sure I can introduce more colours now. Straight lines were drawn with brush and straight edge only and are very wonky. Lots of paint also got under the stencil. Technique therefore needs improving significantly.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I really love this Nigel, and can't believe it's a first attempt. The neatness of it looks fantastic to me - I can't see any blobs at all. Remember no-one will be scrutinising for minute blobs. You see them when you're making them, finish the room and you don't see them anymore. It's just the same with my white lines in the hallway. They aren't absolutely perfect, but the overall effect is of straightness.

Tell me what the paints are? I'm imagining the colours with the tweaking you've explained - very bold, very nice.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks for the encouraging words Joce. You are right of course, few will notice but I still want to do a good job. The question also is how finished one wants the paintwork to be. Stencilling can look quite mechanical, so some variation might improve it. Wall colour is F&B Blazer, the dark green Fired Earth Malachite and the pale green Fired Earth Verdilith

I am now thinking about the cornice, which currently looks like this:

My current thinking is, starting from the bottom moulding, pale yellow ochre, then bright red for the hollow background with the foreground detail pale green, then perhaps a darker yellow ochre, then pale blue grey background for the rosettes with the rosettes themselves in raw umber, and finally the same pale yellow ochre as on the bottom moulding. Ceiling either darker grey blue or deep cream (difficult decision here as the ceiling goes on to become the stair soffit which carries on up the house, for which cream seems more appropriate). For the beam going across, a buff colour, its egg and dart in red and green and a deep grey blue for the ceiling panel.

The cornice will be done in distemper, for which I will mix my own colours. All this needs plenty of experimentation first, but with my initial wall and stencil colour I now feel sufficiently grounded to move on and introduce more colours.

Another question is how to apply the stencilling. As panels or just a frieze? If the former I need to design a suitable corner piece, if the latter, how do I stop it before it goes up stairs? Should I stencil a dado? What about the skirtings and door frames. Still plenty to work out, in short.