household renovations for period home

[Drygoods]

I do not know where to put this question, as it doesn't really fall into CW, but is a question for material culture....here goes. While doing renovations on our home, yesterday we peeled some card paper off of the lower wall of our dining room. Although we knew that exterior walls are brick, lined with wood, then lath-muslin-plaster over that, we were surprised to find under the card stock two additional layers of old wall paper. My question is this, can anyone recommend a book or source for dating this antique wall paper? I would guess that the card stock had to cover these two previous wallpapers for at least 60 years, who knows about the stuff underneath. We left the other layers of paper for someone else to discover, I'm just interested in the two layers that I found.

One pattern of the paper was cream with small blue dots, over that was a layer of beige with medium blue bows with bouquets of flowers, both very nice.

Second question, I am thinking of engraving some narrow bone pieces, so could anyone suggest a tool, modern or old, that could do the trick quickly? Once carved, I plan to dip in ink so that the carved impression will show. This is to go along with some other scrimshaw pieces that we have, and I figured that someone here likely has done some pieces with their outfit.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: household renovations for period home

I have no idea on the wallpaper, but as for the scrimshaw tool, if you aren't committed to a period method a Dremel would do (and I'd recommend the cordless for ease of maneuvering.)

[chelsea98]

Re: household renovations for period home

A couple of places to take a look at are:

http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/tpsd/wallpaper/index.htm

The NationaL Park Service has this site that deal swith historic wall paper

Also check out:

http://www.historicwallpapering.com/links.htm

Rick Finch

[claynpendleton]

Re: household renovations for period home

Judith,
I know from my historic preservation work that old mail-order catalogues are a good place to look for wallpaper designs (esp. if the house is 1870s or later). Many of these can be found in digital form or reprint,I would try googling it. Also, here is a website that might be helpful to get you started:

http://www.historicwallpapering.com/links.htm

in particular, here is a link to an online database of wallpaper from 1730s-1930s:

http://www.spnea.org/wallpaper/catalog/search.htm

Another good thing to look at that covers a lot of preservation/restoration topics are the NPS Preservation briefs:

http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/briefs/presbhom.htm

Good luck!
-Clay

[Drygoods]

Re: household renovations for period home

Excellent sources and suggestions, thank you both for writing.:D This will be my project for next week.;)

[Diochra]

Re: household renovations for period home

There's also Wallpaper In America: From the Seventeenth Century to World War I, by Catherine Lynn (boy, they write books on everything):

http://books.google.com/books?id=DMsGDj6NR90C&pg=PA377&lpg=PA377&dq=owen+jones+wallpapers&source=web&ots=apEW8i-BA8&sig=RqV4Xsc9OxPpiLvTpWufByKixgE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=3&ct=result

For those interested in wallpaper of "our" period, I would also suggest Owen Jones' 1856 book The Grammar of Ornament, which is still in print today. (Though it's likely a reprint of the second edition, 1868, which added 12 chromolithography color plates to the first's 100, plus a color frontispiece.)

http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/treasures/arts/jones.html

This book heavily influenced the style of the day. Anyone interested in period patterns may also want to keep an eye out for designs by William Morris of Morris & Co.

These gentlemen, however, were designers fighting an uphill battle against what they saw as the morally degrading design trends of the day: wallpaper with illusionist scenes of depth (portraying, for example, a group at a picnic); an overabundance of tsotchkes and textiles; not an open, airy place in sight; false finishes emulating different materials; over-ornamentation of objects; &c.

This is well captured in Hunt's "The Awakening Conscience" from 1853:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Hunt-AwakeningConscience1853.jpg

Note the abundance of mismatching textiles, mismatching faux wood finishes on the piano, ornament on the piano, mirror frame, painting frame, table edge...!

To fight this, they created flat, non-illusionist wallpaper and textile patterns inspired from nature and simpler, beautiful furniture with "truth to materials":

http://www.sandersonfabrics.co.uk/acatalog/Morris_Wallpapers.html

http://www.achome.co.uk/pictorial/morris.htm

I say all of this, of course, to mention that their style was only a part of what was happening in interiors at the time -- obviously, what they fought against was quite popular as well! I just don't have information for those works. Jones and Morris are taught in design schools now because of the minimal trail we've followed after them. (Hence, why I can rattle this off. :D)

[Drygoods]

Re: household renovations for period home

Miss Middleton, you certainly were right on the money when it comes to period decor. Although, I have to say that I'm not a fan of the Morris crowd, too wild for our tastes. Last night I was reading about period wall techniques for decor, and I know that faux graining, feathering, combing, or marbling, is fine, as well as stencils, but what about sponging? I do remember seeing someplace, which escapes me at the moment, of seeing a kitchen with whitewash walls and black sponge dots done in a pattern, but has anyone seen or found evidence of a period home that has a sponged design wall? What I am talking about is a wall painted with a solid color and then lightly sponged with one or two different colors. I do not believe that this sort of 'decor' sprang about from those wanting that 1970s 'country look,' however, I would like to know just how far back sponging dates. And although sponging might be a period technique, was is done mostly for the poorer classes who couldn't afford to hire stencils, murals, or wallpaper?

Locally here I know of quite a few old houses that have lovely Scandinavian or German painted trim on the doors and furniture, even painted floors. I must say that it's beautiful, but our house isn't an ethnic style, so I'm struck with keeping it Federal period. In my view, nothing looks worse than having a period home and giving it the wrong decor treatment, but when you buy an old pile it's a bit of work to scrape away layers of bad choices. The 1950s modern ranch-house, and the 1960s rambler styles of decor have a lot to answer for! I mean what were these people thinking to do this to my house!:angry_smi

and I'm sure that plenty of folks are wondering what does this have to do with a CW forum? But where else would you ask such a question to know about period material culture and restore everything to a specific date? for instance, we all should be able to tell the difference between these different styles of homes, such as; cape cod, saltbox, two-story colonial, federal, dutch colonial, and georgian....even cottage, cabin, farmhouse, were treated with carpenter gothic or Italianate. And if you don't know the difference, you should, because in my view a good LH reenactor should be able to give a fine description of every house back in your hometown.:D So if you don't know what a period home looks like, get out there and sign up for a house tour.

[MD_Independent]

Re: household renovations for period home

and I'm sure that plenty of folks are wondering what does this have to do with a CW forum? But where else would you ask such a question to know about period material culture and restore everything to a specific date? for instance, we all should be able to tell the difference between these different styles of homes, such as; cape cod, saltbox, two-story colonial, federal, dutch colonial, and georgian....even cottage, cabin, farmhouse, were treated with carpenter gothic or Italianate. And if you don't know the difference, you should, because in my view a good LH reenactor should be able to give a fine description of every house back in your hometown.:D So if you don't know what a period home looks like, get out there and sign up for a house tour.

Mrs. Peebles,
I agree 110%... This past summer, I was heavily involved in renovating a house built in 1704 or so. A stone colonial, a beautiful, ableit small, house. Our renovation consisted of modernizing the inside of said house while returning it to a more 18th century appearance. In the 1850's, the owners of the time did the first documented renovation. It turned out, I believe, pretty badly. They cut the already small downstairs into four tiny rooms. The fireplace was bricked up and a wood stove installed in it's place.

In tearing out the layers of panelling, wall paper, plaster, and wall studs, I got the impression that i was receiving a lesson in the history of interior design and carpentry. Underneath it all, amazingly, were hand-hewn floor joists and beams in pretty decent shape. I found that the plaster used in the 1850's utilized what looked like cow hair as a binder of sorts. Awesome stuff, really, to hold a handful of hair from an 1850's cow. We rebuilt the fireplace in brick which, though we installed a modern insert as a safety precaution(this house is, afterall, a rental), added greatly to the original appearance. The floor boards were replaced with pine flooring from New York City. This flooring was sawn from timbers salvaged from buildings in NYC that dated back at least to the 18th Century.

There is only one regret I have about this project. We had originally intended to leave the ceiling joists exposed. Unfortunately, the timbers were just too ugly to get away with this. We actually just finished throwing up the drywall on the ceiling last week. As for the walls themselves, well, they're all the original stone, cleaned up and re-mortared. I've gotten a few pics, but in retrospect, I know I should have gotten more.
Did get a few hundred hand-cut nails, a silver spoon, and a few pre-CW bottles, though...:)

Billy Birney

[YoungCampaigner]

Re: household renovations for period home

Hi,

But where else would you ask such a question to know about period material culture and restore everything to a specific date?

Try this forum:http://enonhall.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

The "Old House Discussion" sub-forum should be of some help.

My family is restoring a historic home as well (and blogging it), and we have found a lot of advice through other people who are doing similar projects. There are plenty of people out there in the home restoration community who have probably found information on the same wallpaper.

[Drygoods]

hooray, more help for the age-ed

Gentlemen, many kind thanks for your links and encouragement. I was rather thrilled to see the YC site, I thought to myself that perhaps I should have one too, some sort of 'your old mama's brigade' sort of a site, a place for cranky dowagers who always wanna be right.;) No kidding though, that YC site was a nice read.

Although I doubt that many here would be willing to live in a period home, or take this hobby to the extreme of living it 24/7, it does take quite a challenge and is quite rewarding. Restoring a period home takes more than just the memorization of dates and people and knowing where to shop, this is your life and home. I've been in the midst of renovation for 10 years now, and although have lived in this hell-hole-cash-pit for nearly 25 years, the old pile is still full of surprises. For instance, while taking out an old ww2 canning shelf closet upstairs, I was amazed to find that we had another bedroom fireplace. Who woulda thought that our chimney was a split chimney? And just last week we cut out an old interior phone box out of our dining room that hadn't been used in a few decades. How would I have known that I ended up cutting my phone lines? I still had computer, but no dial tone, so imagine the shock and surprise of the alarm company as they had to figure out the fishing-line knots of 90 years of phone lines underneath the house.:confused_ We have 9 lines into our house, which I suppose dates mostly to the 1960s-have-a-princess-phone-in-every-room-philosophy. Still I wouldn't give this up for all the world, as it is quite the lesson in building and history.

Amazing as it is, I found a Victorian house for sale last August in the heart of downtown Eureka (28K pop) that sold without electricity or plumbing. A house two blocks away is just the same, has none of those luxuries. I know of other places, old houses that are on the outskirts of country that are like this, only a wood stove for heat and cooking, yet few today would accept such a home, at least a very small pocket of folks would take up such a challenge. As crazy as this sounds, if you can't cook your meals on a woodstove or a fire, you're missing some of the best that LH, or life, has to offer.

Again, let me say my sincere thanks to those who have answered my questions with solid advice and tips to links to help me research and find the correct answers. Ain't this just the greatest site!:D