What's missing?

[Delta]

Hello, I'm, after a spot of advice on what's missing. I have some nice arches in the alcoves either side of the chimmney breast in one of my front rooms. To set the scene we are talking about a modest old farm, c1800, double fronted. As you can see below, the bottom of the arches look rather broken. The walls were re-plastered in the early 80s, so we probably lost any detail then.

View attachment 1



The window shown was put in c1920, when it was first "modernised", they added the bathrooms then as well The more recent 80s updating has left me with the gypsum plaster and artex on the ceiling, don't get me started.

Thanks

 

[Nigel Watts]

I suspect the beads/moulding would have been continued down to floor level using one of these:

 

[JoceAndChris]

I agree with that. I can't believe you've asked that on the very day that, having excitedly found my identical arch mouldings under wallpaper and filler, I'm joyously painting them.

Here they are picked out in black in a photo that's from 1984 ish

The mouldings are made out of wood in my case.

In your top photo, on the right, it looks to me like the moulding is still there but needs carefully revealing. I'm not sure what's happened on the left, it looks chopped about.

 

[worms]

Could it be that originally it was lath & plaster which has been replaced by plasterboard, reducing the overall thickness and removing the corner moulding?

 

[Delta]

Thank you all, I'd never have guessed at full height moulding. Hmm... not sure how I can put that back easily, maybe a job for a pro.

Worms, not sure about lathe and plaster. The current wall is gypsum, onto OPC, onto 14" of brick. I believe this was done as part of a 1980s renovation, with the cement presumably as damp proofing type layer. Upstairs the original plaster has survived and it just onto brick, so not sure why they would have done any lathe and plaster there. There does seem to be a variation in thickness between what is there now and the arches, so maybe the original plaster was thicker, but it is only 1/2" so would they have had space for lather and plaster

I may learn a bit more when I remove the rest of the wallpaper. Some has gone already but only because we had the choc block wall light wiring done properly.

 

[worms]

Others here can give you a better indication of the likely original depth of plaster, but I would have thought that it might have been deeper than the OPC and gypsum replacement.

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Love the blind fabric ------ tell me more?

 

[Delta]

Worms, I think the plaster may well have been deeper as you suggest, that way it woudl line up flush with the arches as they remain.

Jocelyn, It's fabric. I'm a man.

I asked and the Mrs can't recall, something Chintz? from Laura Ashley she thinks. The blind is actually made up from the off-cuts from some very long and heavy curtains we picked up from eBay. The curtains fit the main front window, and still pool on the floor, and the blind now does the side.