I’m continuing with the ceiling details and it’s starting to look more impressive. I’m waiting for some more wood carved appliqués to arrive for the section between the picture rail and the cornice; I decided in the end to add more as it looked better. Apart from that I’m nearly at the end of adding the mouldings, next will be completing some paint detail. I’ll update you on whole room pictures when we’re at that stage.
In the meantime another glimpse. The room has gone from plain white like this….
to this…
This last section cost less than £50, and was so simple to complete (just like the frieze detail). If you dis-count drying time it took a maximum of two hours!
Paint the wood carved appliqués
As with the details between the picture rail and the cornice, pre-painting the wood carvings mean that you save yourself a lot of mess when you try and paint them in situ.
Mark where the main mouldings will go
With chalk mark where your central wood appliqués will go with crosses. As you do each one start to draw a straight line between each pair, using the spirit level.
To make the placement of the crosses easier I just took the spirit level length, about a meter long, and placed its end flush with the cornice edging. Making sure it was straight I marked the area with a cross. On the corner sections I marked the intersection of a spirit level length from the two walls.
Glue the first appliqué on
I started with one of the middle appliqués first. Place it so it’s over the centre of the cross, then line the ends of the width so they’re touching the horizontal lines. Hold the appliqué in place for about 30-60 seconds.
Glue the wood carved lengths so they start at the furthest length on the horizontal and run along the same line.
When you glue them try and get glue along the length of the length so it sticks properly, but don’t use too much so it squirts out of the sides.
Add a corner moulding
Add a corner appliqué next, but place it on a horizontal angle. As you can see below the two length appliqués have to come out of these at different angles so that they follow the chalk lines.
These is what it had started to look like.
My original intention was to add in half rounds to link the sections along the chalk line. However I started to think that the details were sufficient on their own, and adding the half rounds may have highlighted any inconsistencies in the connections. So I just continued with the details.
Continue round the room like this. Here is a close up of the title photo…
You can see it’s all starting to come together. I’m so pleased with the effectiveness and price of these wood mouldings. If you add wood appliqués in Amazon or ebay you will come up with a grand selection for any project you wish to try.
Firstly, let me apologise for the quality of the pictures I’ve taken. The dining room is at the front of the house and it’s not a brilliant light source to photograph in.
This armoire cornice is from the one that I tried to put back together in the spare room, but I found it had warped so the doors couldn’t go on. For those who follow the blog (if you don’t please hit the subscribe button) you may remember that I used the ornately carved door panels to add interest to the plain, 1970s style door here.
I’d decided that I’d be using the curved top for this project as soon as I made the decision to use the panels.
One of the reasons I wanted to use the armoire in this way, resulting in just buying another one rather than attempting to fix it, is that it can be far more economical to do this than buy wood carved mouldings for various projects. For example, a large moulding for a door like this one will set you back at least 100€. I can buy an entire armoire for that from a brocante and salvage various pieces to use in numerous projects. So, like I said, hit subscribe because this one armoire will be used in a few more projects coming up.
I know I’m talking armoire here, but the English wardrobe from the spare room could have been used in a similar way.
Just a quick reminder, here is how the doorway in the dining room looked prior to today’s work.
The small moulding just above the door came from another armoire. Our rental property when we moved here was ancient and a wonky floor meant the doors opened in a dangerous way and it collapsed as my husband was putting it together!
The moulding is lovely, but very small and didn’t stand out a lot. So the very first thing was to remove it from the wall as it was still too high to allow the wood moulding to fit above it.
The wood carved moulding is heavy, so I had to be sure that it was firmly secured in place. Here’s how I did it.
Pay attention to your drill choice
I used stone drill bits and two drills. One to drill in the wood of the moulding, and the other for the stone wall. Or what I thought was the stone wall, but more of that in a bit.
Our house is ancient; we know it was built pre 1850, but as the French didn’t keep records until then we can’t be sure exactly when. As a result of its age the majority of the walls are stone and when I first started to try and put up pictures in the house I had to drill into the walls. However it was always hard work as the drill isn’t powerful enough.
The drill I was using for this job actually belongs to my father and had enough power to get the job done. I’m just telling you this as if you’re struggling to drill into walls in a period property it may not be you, but your tool.
Brackets
To ensure this heavy item stayed on the wall and didn’t come away – with the danger of causing someone serious harm – I used these brackets. They acted as a mini shelf for the moulding to rest on. They only cost about 3€ per bracket and I got four.
Raw plugs
I chose these multi use raw plugs that separate as a screw is driven into them, and therefore anchor themselves well into the wall. Make sure the head of the screw is flat, so that the moulding can rest flat against it, and is bigger than the screw hole in the bracket.
Cut off the sides of the armoire top
Obviously the armoire top couldn’t go up as it is, so the top needed to be removed and the sides sawn off. I started it off with a screw driver and hammer to prise as much as I could away, then I used a mini saw that’s used to cut off tree branches to do this rest.
Measuring
I did this using the measure app on my Apple phone. If you haven’t seen them they are amazing and, as I always have it with me, it means that I’m ready to measure any piece of furniture for possible fits when I see something in the brocante.
Here’s a photo I took of the measurements.As you can see I took them of the arch and the two sides that would touch the brackets.
Then I marked out where the arch and side lengths where on the wall to ensure a central position, and where the holes for the brackets would need to be.
Drill into the wall
When drilling into the wall start by selecting a drill bit which approximately fits the size of the raw plug. If you’re unsure always use the smaller drill bit first; it’s kind of like cooking. You can always add more, but you can never take it away.
Insert the raw plugs and tap them in with a hammer if necessary. Screw the brackets into the wall.
Add the screw holes to the moulding itself
I rested the wood carved moulding in the brackets and was relieved when they bore the weight. Then I marked where the screw holes needed to go, removed the wood and drilled into the markings.
Prior to placing the moulding on the wall I covered it in no more nails type super glue. Many of you will have noticed the little holes in the wood, it’s obviously had termites. Elsewhere in the armoire it was evident these had been dealt with with a dark, wax substance which was plugging the holes. However the back of the wood obviously wasn’t dealt with.
When I rubbed the wood with my finger there was no residue. I’ve found that active holes will have this. Even so I used so much glue not just to ensure the wood stuck well to the wall, but to plug those holes and stop any termite spread. That’s why there’s so much glue.
Place the moulding in the brackets and screw in place
With the moulding in position, glued and screwed. In place it was onto making it look more polished.
Applying additional wood mouldings
The next thing I did was put the previous, ornate wood moulding back on the door. I just used no more nails type glue to do this, in the exact same method as the wood mouldings on the coving.
Then I glued and added these quarter rounds to the top of the door frame and bottom of the main moulding to cover the brackets and finish the job nicely.
Using filler in stages
Add wood filler or acrylic filler to fill any gaps. Do this in stages as if you keep smoothing over the same area it may result in the filler just being pushed back into any gaps, rather then creating a filled surface. You can see two stages of filler below, note the difference between the first two images and the last one.
Each time you apply filler smooth it out as much as possible with your finger. It’s very hard to go back and correct acrylic filler in particular as it has a plasticky texture that can’t be sanded easily.
Here it was before….
Here It is the mouldings fixed to the wall. Obviously I’ve just painted it white so far, it’s just an undercoat. I need to decide whether I paint the whole door and maybe even panelling teal.
You’ll notice the little square gaps in the detail are; the struts went there. I’ve ordered some additional square, carved appliqués and will add them prior to painting properly. At present though this little job coast around 20€? Not bad.
My main goal next year is to finish our new kitchen at long last. I’ve written about it many times, but we still haven’t finished. Nevertheless when it is finished our plan is to move the dining room to the room that’s beside the kitchen, connected via the small entrance area that I spoke about in yesterday’s post.
I love chinoiserie and thought about how I could get the look in the hallway, bedrooms and now I’m thinking of the dining room.
Chinoiserie is expensive, so the only way we can realistically afford this look is if I hand painted it with the help of stencils. I’ll, of course, share here when I do it. However in the meantime you can click on this link to see my last attempt at painting birds with a stencil like tool.
Now to the chinoiserie.
Blue
Neutral
Taupe
Green
Panels
Grisaille
Which is a way of painting in shades of grey, as the name suggests. I love it, but I don’t think I’d ever be able to manage it myself. Here are some of the images that make me want to blow the budget though.
I know there’s has been a lot of decor posts lately – I feel like I’ve been living in between Church feasts, but I am starting to look toward All Saints and All Souls in terms of decorations I want to craft and share. In the meantime though I’ve been finishing off the dining room as well as doing some upholstery in the living room.
So I thought I’d share this quick post that shows you the full dining room doors (the close up off the salvaged carving above the bi-fold doors you can find here). Here’s the painted bi-fold doors….
I love the slight gold highlight and the colour makes the handle stand out beautifully. The bolts I’ve just spray painted gold as they’d been painted white previously.
The latch is actually a modern one that I bought here; it wasn’t expensive, but I’m really pleased with how it fits the period of the doors.
The other door in the room is this one…..
Here’s a close up of the handle….
It’s actual the sign for Mary, with an ‘A’ for ave interlaced with the ‘M’ for Mary and the inscription ‘the most blessed’. As this is going to be the formal dining room for celebrating Christmas, Easter and other feasts it seems appropriate. Particularly when the main feature in the room is the medallion here.
This post has taken me a long time to write, because I became distracted by other projects when I went to finish the second valance. Yet finally, finally, my curtains are finished. This how to isn’t how I made the curtains, as I think they’re pretty self explanatory, (if anyone wants a how to on that let me know and I’ll do one as I have plenty more to make for the house), it just focuses on the valances.
I decided on a valance with a pole as one with a box seemed a bit complicated for my first outing – they use a double pole bracket. The measurements are obviously dependent on the width of your windows.
Identify the depth you want the valance to be
I had to cover these box structures which hold electric shutters, it’s one of the main reasons I want valances in this room. So for me the depth naturally flawed from that.
Identify its length
Then I identified the length; the width of the curtain pole plus the additional fabric needed to go around the end of the poles in order that the end curtain hook can be attached to the end curtain ring of the curtains (see the photo). As I knew I wanted pleats I cut my material to include the depth and twice the length – so two lengths of material. You may need three, or two and half dependent on the width of the window, or how many pleats you want.
Join the material lengths
Join up your lengths of material so the pattern is still evident. As I have a damask, striped curtain this pended itself quite easily to this.
Hem both lengths and ends
I just used a 1cm depth for the lengths and let the natural stripe of the curtains guide the ends.
Pin the trim along the bottom length
If you’re using trim pin it along the bottom, then sew it in place.
Pin the trim along the length where the curtain pole will be
I used to types of trim along this length; lace and a bobble trim. Again, because is specifically wanted the end of the valance to cover the shutter box, I measured the distance between where the curtain pole was and where I wanted the end of the valance to be and started pinning trim along this stretch.
I used three lengths of trim. In order to have the depth of lace I wanted I had an opposing, double length of lace. Pinning it along the length with curves down, then another length with the curves up so they overlapped as in the picture (you may of course find lace with a design you like, which is thick enough for your purposes).
I then pinned the length of bobbled trim in between the two and sewed them in place. After it was sewn I double checked that all three pieces were firmly secured.
Decide what pattern you want your pleats to have, then hand sew in place.
I chose a more random, pleated pattern with a. central double pleat, single mid pleat and multiple pleats to the end. You may want a more regular pattern of course, but pin them in place at this point.
If, like me, you use a bobble trim you may need to snip some of the bobbles to ensure the material can lie flat – obviously ensure you’re sure you have the pleats in the right place before you do this.
Pin a stiff, curtain tape strip to the rear.
I used a really stiff strip of curtain header tape in order to hold the shape along the pole better. Pin it in place on the rear of the main length of the curtain where the trim is excluding the side of the valance where it will wrap around the end pole to attach to the curtain ring. Add extra pieces to this section of the curtain too – the divide will help the valance keep its shape too. Then sew both pieces.
Put curtain hooks in
Start about an inch in to make sure the material, stiffened by the curtain header, remains close to the wall, then place a hooks along the length of the curtain. Keep two hooks back. Hang the curtain valance and then add a hook each end in order to make sure they correspond with two curtain ring that you keep outside of the curtain pole brackets which will be you penultimate hook prior to the end one attached to the curtain (again, see the above picture).
Shutter box covered and a lovely period feature – I’m pleased with the result.
When we rented an old farmhouse in France we found that many of the lights just had wires and a bulb attached. The house owner wasn’t a cheapskate – it’s normal here. Sometimes the bulbs go too! Whenever I remember this I’m struck by the generosity of the people who we bought from as they left not just light shades, but curtains and others things too.
As a result, and because we had planned to stay there a long time originally, I bought many light fixings. One of them was an empire chandelier. It looked a little bedraggled in the shop, but having taken it a part and cleaned it up I think it looks fine now.
You may notice too the ceiling rose which I’ve painted along with the ceiling. It was quite tricky being that it was in situ, and as a result I didn’t take any photos to show you how I got the slight, white edging on the leaves. I’m going to do another soon for the hallway and as it’s in a box at the moment I’ll do a step by step then.
This is a look before…
and after the ceiling rose has been painted….
You can see the cornice and dado rail that I’ve been putting up too, but I’ll tell you about that soon. Sorry about the quality of the photos, the room is a little dark as it’s north facing and a grey day here. If I can I’ll upload better photos later.
I have some really pretty tea sets that I’ve bought over the years and since we’ve moved to France I’ve managed to buy some soupières for a couple of euros each. I wanted to display them, yet even though there are some glass display cases in the salon I wanted the soupière at least to go in the dining room. When we arrived there was this cupboard here….
I hated it as it looked so functional and odd just there on the wall (I kept expecting to find an electric circuit behind it it as so utilitarian to my eyes). As I wondered what to do – change the handles? Add some decorative mouldings on the doors? Or some above the casing? – I came across a bargain in my local Centrakor. There on the shelves was some paint for walls and wood that cost just 1,99€ in the perfect shade of blush pink. I knew immediately that it would reflect the colours in my Nativity medallion and, as paint is extremely expensive in France, I couldn’t resist.
That’s when I started to think that perhaps I didn’t need the doors at all. I tested the paint on the inside door and, convinced as to how fantastic it would look, the doors were off and painting seriously begun.
I made sure that I left four hours in between coats and the recommended 24 hours before I placed anything on the shelves – there have been so many times I’ve not let paint cure properly and when I’ve put something on them they’ve proved tacky. It’s a worry when you’re trying to pull China away from a shelf, believe me.
lacoeursacre.wordpress.com 