Got a Before & After to share? Let's see 'em!

[Mick_VT]

The colonial era finished in the late C18th, classical and greek revival generally became popular later. I had also heard that a lot of colonial homes were originally unpainted. I have seen evidence that wooden houses were also sometimes unpainted in our town in the C19th, but that may have been a cost issue more than anything else.

[Gothichome]

Fire place before, just after purchase.


Ok, fireplace after.

Not much done just added some details. Oh, the wallpaper, just after we bought a fellow came by from the heritage community an expert of some sort. Strongly suggested that might be the original flock paper. If we can get confirmation it stays if not it'll probably come down. All we have done is take a broom to it to get some of the dust and dirt off it.
Fireplace after the after, slowly filling up.

[jharkin]

The colonial era finished in the late C18th, classical and greek revival generally became popular later. I had also heard that a lot of colonial homes were originally unpainted. I have seen evidence that wooden houses were also sometimes unpainted in our town in the C19th, but that may have been a cost issue more than anything else.

Ive read the same, lots of unpainted houses, and the wealthier ones that where painted where generally monochrome (no contrasting trim) and in bright colors. Lots of earth tones such as yellow ochre, oxblood red, etc. Blue if you where $$$$$ wealthy and could afford imported pigments. Ive seen old photos of my town from the 1800s in the albums at our historical society and you can see even the local catholic and congregational churches in the center of town are painted in dark colors. Very odd looking to the modern eye but its how it was.


White supposedly got started in the Greek revival era.... which makes sense, going for that marble temple look. White siding, green shutters, black door.

[Gothichome]

Interesting, I always thought white paint was used because it was cheap. When multi colour painting went out of fashion the easiest and cheapest thing to do was paint every thing white. For the longest of time after, well up into the early eighties every one assumed that white was the traditional colour of any Victorian due to the modernization to white paint in the early nineteen hundreds.

[Vala]

Maybe we should branch off another thread to talk about white paint and/or unpainted colonial houses. Don't want to hijack this thread. What you all think?

[lovesickest]

I've been (finally) working on my back porch. The ceiling had painted over wallpaper that was becoming unstuck. I scraped off what I could, painted over the edges of the wallpaper that wouldn't budge with alkyd paint, then skim coated the edges and the old patch. Ceilings are my least favourite house part to contend with, combined with the much hated sanding of plaster. I felt very grouchy doing this.

I primed it, then painted it. It is just a porch ceiling so the ceiling repair is good enough. I repainted the room then pulled up the carpet lino. I love carpet lino, too, but this was in very poor condition with 80% of the pattern worn off. I was relieved that the floor was some sort of salvaged wood in acceptable condition. Some of the wood has been painted, some hadn't - there were lots of knots and flaws.

(During this time I gave away the 1920's stove I posted on WV. Recipient is a vintage clothing dude, so I felt hopeful that it was not going to be sold for scrap. Much excitement about reclaiming that floor/room space.)

A friend helped to hang up the cabinets, and we improvised a counter from a couple of boards. I patched and sanded the screw holes and flaws, primed and painted it.

I am in the process of painting the floor with high gloss alkyd enamel (yay $ 15.00 mistint in generic gray !). The evenings have been cool so my first coat took much longer than expected to dry, which had me worried. I still need to second coat, touch up the trim, repaint the door, and so some caulking and touch-up - but it is much improved I think.

BeforeporchCeiling1.jpg (22.35 KiB) Viewed 10613 times

AfterPorchCeiling.jpg (21.2 KiB) Viewed 10613 times

Duringporchfloor.jpg (14.58 KiB) Viewed 10613 times

DuringPorchFl1.000.jpg (14.17 KiB) Viewed 10613 times

[Sow's Ear Mal]

Just beautiful! Great job!

[TexasRed]

You'd never know what condition that ceiling was in before! Nice work!

It may have made you grouchy to do the work, but I bet you are smiling now.

BTW, I love that light fixture. So cute & fitting for the room.

[Gothichome]

Chasing knob and tube
Before

During

After
Looks almost the same, all the changes are under that floor.

[oaktree]

Looks almost the same, all the changes are under that floor.

I'm impressed...it's a ton of work. Also, I like the green tile.