Wooden Radiator?

[Nigel Watts]

I am wondering what to do with my living room radiators.

I am painting the woodwork in imitation oak. The following picture shows some work in progress with a sheet of sample wallpaper I am considering:

The radiators are under the window and in front of panelling which will be grained in oak:

Do I:

a. leave the radiators as they are (white)
b. paint them in a solid colour, similar to the oak
c. paint them the same base colour as the oak, then apply the same glaze I am using for the graining but use an effect such as stippling
b. give them the full fake oak treatment?

Suggestion as to which of the above (or any others) gratefully received

Thanks

Nigel

 

[Moo]

Nigel - do you have Photoshop? If you do, you can try out all your alternatives without so much a lifting a paintbrush.
And then post them on the forum and we can all voice the usual chorus of conflicting opinions.

 

[worms]

I guess this is all a matter of personal taste, but I think I'd go for the Edwardian country-house approach of painting them a gold colour which will blend in with the stained wood.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Any ideas what type of paint this gold colour is? Sounds like an interesting idea.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Any ideas what type of paint this gold colour is? Sounds like an interesting idea.

 

[Nemesis]

I can recall it - a very dull dark bronze/gold.

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/electronic_books/radiator_retrospective/page22/page22.htm

If you want authentic have a look here - it doesn't come much more authentic than Cragside I suspect.

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/items_of_interest/heating/national_trust_properties/cragside/cragside.htm

Heaps of other rads on the site - this is just the Nat Trust ones.

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/items_of_interest/heating/national_trust_properties/national_trust_properties.htm

Pity this is still under construction:

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/electronic_books/radiator_retrospective/radiator_retrospective.htm

More pages (one of my favourites is the church at Cropthornes - which is a little gem anyhow, but the rad are a joy):

http://www.hevac-heritage.org/items_of_interest/heating/heating.htm


Newcastle's Lit and Phil should really join this Hall of Fame - must do something about that.

 

[Penners]

I think the one option on your list that I would definitely avoid is the full fake oak treatment. I reckon oak radiators would just look bizarre.

 

[Nigel Watts]

Lots of great ideas - thanks

I am now adding matt black to my list of options

 

[Nemesis]

I think it's the most authentic really - and most efficient.

 

[middi]

You could make a real oak window seat/radiator cover and solve your your painting problem.

 

[Geoffrey]

Just down to personal taste really - the beauty of paint effects is that if they don't work you just repaint. Are you using oil glaze for the oak effect? - not sure how that would cope with the heat.
I think I's go for black or gunmetal or similar - or you could try a colour from your wallpaper.
Have fun experimenting.

 

[Lime]

- or you could try a colour from your wallpaper.
Have fun experimenting.

I think the green would look good.

 

[Nigel Watts]

The graining consists of a modern eggshell base coat followed by a home made glaze of linseed oil, turpentine, artists' oil paint and a splash of Terebine driers. When the glaze is dry I might do some water-based overgraining (havn't decided on this yet) which would be simply malt vinegar or stale beer plus a water-soluable pigment such as Vandyke brown. The whole thing will then be varnished and waxed. I will leave out the water-based glaze if I do the radiator.

My original idea was to try to blend the radiator in usng the glaze colour, but avoiding the graining effect.

Thanks to feedback to this post I am now much less inclined to do this and prefer the idea of a more metal like effect - such as matt black or a dark bronze.

the window seat is a nice idea too, but although the room has high ceilings it is not that large and these may not work with the other furniture. Also, having real oak right up against my fake oak will, I fear, show up all the defects in my graining technique.

 

[Nemesis]

Looking again at the pics of the gold colour, I seem to recollect that from ones I have seen it was gold paint with a laquer on top - which dulled it.