Wednesday, November 28, 2012

New Project! Upstairs Bedroom

 Here is a view of my next project. While I wait for Cy to plumb the bathroom, and hang the special sheet rock that goes behind the tub, I'm going to tackle the upstairs bedroom. This room was plastered and trimmed out I think about 1810. This simple 3/4 cape probably had more of an unfinished attic space up here. Later on they added the luxury of plaster walls and a door to this space. As you can see it has been repainted and decorated several times. But it retains its original horsehair and oyster shell plaster, albeit with a few cracks. It also has its original coat of buttermilk paint in light blue. I'd love to keep it, but later decorators have dripped so much white paint on it from various ceiling coats of paint. And then there is the extensive crayon decoration. I've tried scrapping off the white drips in various ways, but so far no luck.
Meanwhile I'm going to try to restore the trim. I've taken a heat gun to all the different areas to see what it was originally.
 Here is the inside of the door. I wasn't sure if it was the right door, but look at the matching light blue paint on the door.

 There is a piece of trim here with a few hooks for hanging clothes, I would assume. Hum, I've never thought about collecting clothes from the period. Hummmmm.
 Here is the light blue paint under the lovely pink paint.
 Here is the trim next to the door. Sort of a light brownish red underneath.
 Here is the trim on the floor, luckily it matches the door trim.
 Here is the trim next to the window, looks like the light grey from downstairs over the original reddish brown.
Here is the floor, another project. The original wide floor boards have been painted shiny brown, oh goodie!
As you can see I have my work cut out for me. Stay tuned!