In this post on Lincrusta I shared the most beautiful freize and how I couldn’t afford it. When you’re refurbishing a period home you must be careful with your budget, obviously, as there are so many hidden costs. So being resourceful is a necessity. How did I get the look I wanted? I turned to wood carvings. Again.
They’re becoming a bit of a go to of mine; they’re inexpensive and you can use them in so many projects. In this one I thought I could use them as a border. It was a very simple process that just involved measuring out the space and putting the wood carvings within a suitable distance of each other.
Paint the wood carvings
I quickly spray painted my carvings prior to using them. It means that I don’t have to paint them in situ and therefore didn’t have to worry about overlapping the contrasting colour of the wall itself. Just put them in a large box and spray paint; the box will act as a shield for the surrounding area. Spray paint can be super messy.
The coverage of the carving wasn’t thick, but that’s ok. I can touch up just the tops later and not risk ruining the walls.
Measure the distance and calculate the positioning.
I had 23 wood carvings. On the wall with windows there could only be three wood carvings realistically, so that left me with three walls and 18 wood carvings. So six carvings per wall.
As the wood carvings are 30 cms and the wall is 380 cms I divided the wall into eight, then the difference between the length of the wood carving and the length of divided wall was the distance between each wood carving.
So in this case 380 divided by 8 was 8 x 45, with 20 remainder. I then divided that 20 by two and added ten cms additional gap on both ends. The adjoining walls and the optics of the two corner wood carvings meant that this didn’t look out of place.
Mark where the wood carvings go
I drew lines with a pencil where the wood carvings would go. I did this for two reasons. One, it allowed me to make sure I was happy with the arrangement and two, because I could ensure that the line was straight, and therefore it would give me a good guideline for positioning the wood carving itself.
Just glue in place
It’s this simple. Just get some no more nails type glue, add sufficient glue on the back and glue in place. Be careful if it’s white as it could destroy the paint job underneath; put it in larger areas and not too much so it doesn’t splurge out of the sides.
Stand back and admire it
Yes, that simple.
So how much did it cost?
Remember I told you that a Lincrusta border was £300? Well this cost me less than £40.
The paint work needs to be touched up and I have more details to add to this ceiling area, hence my briefly sharing here. I hope to update the next part shortly.
Also, if you have Lincrusta or Anaglypta wallpaper have you kept it? Do you want some? What are your thoughts on this period homes staple? Or do you think you would be happy with the wood carved, cheaper option? Let me know in the comments below.
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