Little Brick Cottage: More Surprises!
So remember how excited I was to find the old oak plank flooring under the kitchen linoleum? That was a really sweet surprise. Well I found another sweet surprise…
This was the dining room before we did anything:
It had carpet and this floral striped wallpaper. We removed the carpet and pad to find a maple floor in okay condition. For the walls I was thinking that I would just paint over the wallpaper, which is actually fairly commonly found in old houses because wallpaper didn’t have vinyl in it, and the old rough plaster walls were made smoother with the paper. However, it only is a good idea to paint over wallpaper if the paper is very well adhered to the wall, and even then you have to be careful because the paint on it can dampen the paper and cause it to fall off.
The other day I was looking closer and realized the paper was split and gapping a couple inches from the baseboard in one spot in the dining room. I went to examine it closer and found a secret hiding behind that gap. With a little work, this is what I uncovered:
Below the 1970’s floral wallpaper is another layer of wallpaper, the white and green paper that looks to be probably from around the 30’s or so, then below that, is what at first seemed to be plaster, but because it was cracked and peeling in a tiny spot, I was able to chip it away and uncover below it the original beadboard from over 130 years ago.
At some point in the history of this house an owner must have decided that the beadboard was too dated, and instead of tearing it out, they removed the chair-rail trim and just skim-coated over the beadboard to fill the grooves in it and then wallpapered over that.
So today I went to the little brick cottage with a couple of different putty knife type scrapers and a spray bottle of vinegar water in hand. As I kept spraying, and letting the water penetrate into the skim coat, it would, with some strong encouragement from my putty knife, give way in tiny little chips. Here is the same wall with a little (well actually a LOT) more work:
It’s plaster above the beadboard, and you can see where the chairrail trim used to be. It will be a lot of work to finish the whole room, but how can I possibly even consider not doing it? Right there before my eyes is a wonderful treasure hiding just behind a few layers. I hope it’s all intact, but no way to know for sure until I get the skim-coat off and expose it.
I’m linking up at:
http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/
http://www.remodelaholic.com/2012/01/quote-printable-and-ra-105/
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2012/01/show-and-tell-16.html
Posted on January 11, 2012, in Dining Room, DIY - Crafts - Floral, Little Brick Cottage, Re-purposing and tagged chair rail, skim coat, wallpaper. Bookmark the permalink. 22 Comments.
Oh my goodness. I would have cried. How much patience you have! Great job getting it down! Thank you for sharing off at my place!
Melody
ChattyChics.com
PS Hope to see you again Wednesday!
How awesome! you definitely have to restore the old beadboard.
yep…working on it!
Wow! What an exciting discovery!!! I can’t wait to see it all exposed. Thanks for linking this treasure to my Show & Tell party.
Sharon
What a great discovery, to uncover the original bead board. You are in for a whole lot of work, but it will be so worth it. Thanks for sharing your inspiration at Sunday’s Best!
What a wonderful discovery. I hope you find the remaining boards in tact and that you are able to restore them to their original beauty.
Wow! What a find! It needs some cleaning up, but what a hidden gem. I can’t to see how you work with it!
Looks like you found a jewel! I can’t wait to see this project completed. Thanks for sharing at the Open House Party. xo, Sherry
Wow, you have a LOT of work ahead, but the REWARD will be sweet bliss! Good luck on your endeavors…I know it will be beautiful! andrea@townandprairie
What a neat find!!! I love seeing the history in old homes! FUN!
What a great find but lots of work. Good luck.
Wow! you really uncovered a gem! I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
It’s interesting, as we’re working away on it, so far we’ve discovered one little hiccup…but I think I have an answer to that…
Love this post! It’s linky party time again on my blog! I hope you can join! Here is the link! Your friends are welcome too! http://www.thesouthernproductqueen.com/one-stop-shoppe-linky-party-2
I’ll be there! Little Bit
kind of like people!
Very cool
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