Part 4 Adding Mouldings to the Ceiling; A Wood Carved Ceiling Detail

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….

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to this…

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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.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Part 3 Adding Moulding Details To the Ceiling; A Wood Carved Border

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.

Part 1 Adding Mouldings to Your Ceiling (and What To Do When It Goes Wrong)

My pops, a plasterer by trade, was repelled when I said I was going to do this. Ok, maybe repelled is too strong of a word, but he was not happy. How did I, his beloved daughter, risk the alienation of my papa? I put up a polysterene coving.

We need to go back to when we first moved into the house. Despite our French home being ancient, built in the pre 1850s, there are no real period features. But I wanted our village house to have something of a classic, Edwardian look about it. That meant mouldings. In the centre of the room was a medallion and I’d decided I wanted to highlight this by having a coloured ceiling. A closer inspection of the ceiling when I started work showed that it wasn’t an original feature, but a modern, polystyrene addition.

In addition to the medallion I wanted coving, and when I was searching on line I found that what was readily available was the polystyrene kind. A further search revealed that even the more expensive resin type coving was prohibitive, let alone plaster.

Added to that I was in the house on my own and would need to put it up myself. So I ran the risk of buying some.

It’s light weight and you can therefore put it up singlehandedly as a woman. However I did run into some difficulties.

Firstly it said how it would be easy to cut an angle. Well I completely mucked that up and it was a bit of a bodge job looking like this…

Unfortunately I seemed to have lost the original photos, but on some of the corners there where huge gaps between the two side. I managed to salvage them by getting some extra pieces of coving and pushing them into gaps and gluing them in place prior to caulking, caulking, caulking. Caulk was my friend, but I was unhappy with the results for quite some time. Even where there where two straight sides in a run, they looked amateurish. Not happy. More on that in a bit.

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Just to note at this moment though – I’ve since bought one of these to cut angles. They’re definitely worth it.

The next difficulty I ran into was that I didn’t make sure I smoothed out the glue as I applied it. I don’t know why I didn’t do something so basic. I could literally kick myself now. However I just stuck it up there and thought I’d smooth it out later with sandpaper – that doesn’t work. Whether it’s caulk or glue smooth it out as much as possible with your finger for a professional finish.

Can I just add that with the ceiling medallion in the hallway I painted that prior to putting it up and I had a much better finish. The one in the dining room was difficult to paint in situ. Obvious I know, but worth mentioning. If I was ever wanting to highlight a relief in different colours I’d definitely paint first and then touch up in situ.

Having grown so fed up of looking at shabby joins I finally ordered these wood decals from here. Those of you who have followed my mouldings series from the hallway will no I’m a appliqué queen – admittedly a small kingdom – and so I simply glued these to the coving to cover any unsightly gaps. They don’t touch all the way, but they still work.

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I used clear no more nails type glue on the back of the wood decal and pushed it against the coving where I wanted it to go, holding it there for two or three minutes. This isn’t a complicated fix, you just have to be a little bit patient.

Stay in the room afterwards. If they fall off add more glue, then put them back. This happened to me a couple of times, but eventually I won the battle.

Afterwards I painted with white chalk paint to give it a plaster like texture. This had the additional benefit of securing the appliqué further.

Here’s the room before….

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Here’s the after we painted….

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And this is it with those little details added…

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I’m going to be adding more details to this room so subscribe to see how it goes.

20 Gilded and Engraved Victorian Signs

So inspired by these at the moment; in fact I’ve got a little project coming up that I’ll share with you soon. In the meantime enjoy!

Art Nouveau Stained Glass

I want to do something with our boring upvc front door. I’m an admirer of Artt Nouveau stained glass, as this post showed. I would really like to see if I can imitate that on our dull front door. In the meantime here’s some inspiration….

I have one more to show you, but I might basing my attempt at repeating Art Nouveau stained glass on it; so more of that later.

God bless!

Art Deco Stove

You may remember my beautiful Art Nouveau stove that I managed to find at a brocante, well it’s been sat in my front room with fairy lights in it. It won’t be it’s final home, but I love it so much I couldn’t let it sit there on its own. The lights are so effective that I regularly walk into the room and think ‘Oh lovely, a f…oh no, no fire’.

The other day we had guests for dinner and one of our guests sat in a chair that is situated behind the chimney area. He did a double take as he suddenly realised there was no flue and went to check the front. Here’s what it looks like….

Anyway, we definitely want a working woodburner, so I was super excited to find this Art Deco one in the same brocante. It was only 80€ and as a regular stove costs upwards of 1500€ I thought it was worth a gamble. Here are the pictures…

and this is a more detailed look at the other stove.

God bless.

10 Art Nouveau Details For Your Home

I’ve expressed my admiration for the period before, but today I thought I’d highlight some details you can incorporate in your home. Some are inexpensive and easy to find, others tricky and will cost your pocket more. But they’re all lovely. 

1. Fingerplates

These are actually  really inexpensive way to get a touch of Art Nouveau in your home. Easy to fit on wood doors they add a touch of elegance to a period interior, or even one that’s modern with period touches.  Buy them on eBay; new tend to be cheaper that the genuinely, vintage article.

2. Lead light windows

I would love a lead light windowed door, I think they’re stunning. However if, like me, you’re not lucky enough to have one in your home already you can find the real McCall on, again, eBay or from salavage merchants.

Altenatively you can’t try a DIY project for a low cost alternative. I hope to have a couple of different methods coming soon to the blog, so sign up to follow and here about it straight away.

3.Tiffany lampshades

I have a very inexpensive version and it’s stayed with me since my first house purchase, a turn of the last century terrace house. I used to have a beautiful pendant light with dragonflies on it, but made the mistake sacrifice of giving it to my mother in law.

I would give the advice though that if it’s going to be a central light be sure to be careful about your colour selection. One of the reasons for giving my dragonfly light shade to my mother in law was that it had been a central light fitting and it’s blue tones gave people a deathly pallor as they stood in my hallway where it was located. So, if you don’t want to be continually reminded of the scene at dawn between Juliet and her Romeo, chose a warm colour for a central feature.

4. Artwork

I have a framed Klimpt print in our bedroom, as I said in this post here about our Art Nouveau wood stove. It’s beautiful and the colours are wonderfully evocative of the era. Mucha is of course a favourite. If these aren’t your style there’s some more inspiration below.

5. Fireplace

Again, unless your lucky enough to have one already in your period home, this can be something bought on eBay or salvage dealers. Some of the finer pieces in these examples will be more specialist and, understandably, more expensive. Dreams cost nothing though, don’t they?

6. Tiles

Art nouveau tiles are surprisingly expensive. I would love some, but I know I will have to use them incredibly sparingly as on our small budget the cost is prohibitive. Tant pis pour moi!

7. Frames

No matter how modern your decor, the wonderful thing abot Art Nouveau is that stand alone pieces can be at home in even the most modern of decors. There are good reproductions, though one of my favourite stores Past Times has closed down.

8. Draw pulls

I was going to have these in our kitchen, but my mind has turned to other things. I don’t doubt though that a creative furniture project may have just such a touch in the nearby future.

9. Anaglypta wallpaper

Incredibly hard wearing in hallways, Anaglypta wallpaper is wonderful for wainscoting. However similar, paintable wall papers are also used on walls and these are less expensive and easier to apply. I’ve added some more modern treatments in the illustrations to give you a newer take if that’s the way you want to go.

10. Illustrations

These are examples of the Art Deco period, often confused with Art Nouveau, but they’re so lovely. These and illustrations of the earlier period can be bought imexpensively, framed and displayed. If you’re going for authentic period decor maybe it’s a no no, as I don’t think it was the norm to have any outside of commercial enterprises.

Oh My! Art Nouveau Stove

Art Nouveau is my favourite decor period; it has the more restrained elements of the Edwardian period, after the excess of the Victorians, but still maintains beautiful, intricate details. The decorative style wasn’t as commercial as the aesthetic it’s ofen confused with, Art Deco, primarily because the latter is more easily mass produced having cleaner lines. However where I find Deco too sparse and clinical (sorry to you Deco fans), for me Nouveau communicates the romance and, perhaps, innocence of the prewar period.

I naturally gravitate to the colours of the period too and have found, having researched it, that many of the decor items I already owned are of this time. In fact if you look in my wardrobe it reflects this tableau of era’s colours.

The tones are far lighter than the Victorian palette, primarily because of new technologies. The Victorians had acquired wealth, so their decor was opulent with lots of fuss and nicnacs in order to show that new found money, but due to the gas lighting a lot of the textures and colours were sought for their capacity to hide the resulting soot marks. With the introduction of electricity this wasn’t such a necessity.

I say all this to introduce you to a find I fell for today – hook, line and sinker. This little Art Nouveau stove. It’s dirty and I doubt I’ll be able to get it to work, but I still couldn’t resist it. The beautiful intricate metalwork, that soft Art Nouveau blue – heaven.

I naturally did a little research on it as it’s name was proudly emblazoned on the top. I found this website of a company near Fareham, coincidentally my old stomping ground, where they refurbish old, French stoves. They’re a mine of information.

The company, Deville & Cie of Charleville in the Ardennes, called the model ‘le non pareil’, or the none equalled. The French Antique Stove refurbishment company found it advertised in Deville’s 1930s catalogue with the subsequent information on it.

The stove was manufactured in the early part of the Art Deco movement, with production between 1925-1935, however the style is evidently Art Nouveau.

The design, described as a ‘pôele à bois’ visible et continue’ by the manufacturers, was revealed at the 1925 Paris exhibition. It was developed with style conscious Parisians in mind. The site continues that if you look carefully at the film Chocolat, you can see a honey brown “le non pareil” in Judi Dench’s character’s parlour, but I’ve done an internet search and can’t  find any images (not even on one of my favourite sites Hooked on Houses),

Here are some close ups of the working stove on the refurbishment site, just to give you a taster of what mine will look like when it’s been cleaned up a little. Mine won’t be in situ for a while; I have to finish the kitchen first (as well as the finishing touches on the dining room and the soft furnishings in the living room) and then move to what will be the family dining room. So, lots of work. Can you tell I’m loving it?

A Treasure Still

I found this beautiful bust in a Brocante high up on a shelf. It’s incredibly heavy and you can see inside where it’s been worked in the plaster, so I think it’s an original rather than a copy from a mould.

I’d been wandering around looking for something special to fill a little spot in our home and as I walked and looked I noted things that I might come back to. But she just spoke to me in spite of her slightly distressed appearance, or maybe because of it. There was no additional thinking needed, she was the one.

As I walked with her, the weight heavy in my arms, I fell under her charm even more. The gentle blush of her cheeks, the mauve on her eyelid – she’s been exquisitely painted.

She’s obviously of the Art Nouveau period, the lilies swirling around are typical of that style. Further, the pale lavenders and pinks go beautifully with our living room.

After I’d paid for her I noticed a man look at her, then silently catch the attention of his wife and signal to her to look too. They seemed to politely watch our progress, evidently in the hope that I’d place her down somewhere. Alas for them I walked out of the brocante and placed her lovingly in the car to take home.

I was rather perturbed when I was repeatedly asked the question ‘are you going to fix it?’ No! She’s beautiful as she is. It reminds me of Shakespeare’s sonnet 116;

“Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.”

Love. Beauty. An objective reality pointing to the existence of the divine.

Little Details

Just the door – don’t look at what’s around it (ha).

The bedroom is still a strong yellow, but I’m planning to have decorative paneling half way up the wall in this dusky pink and toning down the yellow above. But after we broke through the doorway I couldn’t resist painting the door after I did added this glad she door handle.

If you look at the other post you’ll see the door had wall paper on the paneling which actually had a fabric like mesh underneath. The only way I could completely remove it was with a heat gun – the kind you use to strip paint.

The top panel felt funny as I was working and then when I heard a cracking sound I realised why – it was a window. The other side of the door is padded and I didn’t  have a clue.

I carried on carefully working round the broken glass anyway as I remembered I had this ‘Josette’ window film from Laura Ashley tucked away. You can see in the next image the cracked glass which the film is now holding together.

The finger plate is an original, mirrored Art Deco piece and I got it from eBay along with the vintage glass handle.

I haven’t taken the other side of the door off yet so the panelling is behind the glass. It will eventually lead to a walk in wardrobe and then a bathroom if we’re able to get the plumbing in place. That’s going to take a little while yet though. In the meantime I’m loving the little vintage pieces.

What do you think?