The mystery of the leather revealed
One of the great things about being involved with TOH is their reach to a large network of experts. We have seen many.
For an analysis of our "leather"-covered room, TOH brought in our first expert, Richard Nylander, Senior Curator of Historic New England and historic-wall-coverings expert. We had been told that the wall coverings in the dining room were leather, but upon examination, he determined that they were embossed wallpaper made to look like leather.
In addition, he found the original green wallpaper behind book cabinets in the same room, and thought the installation took place in the 1920s.
We found an area behind the bookcases where we could see the original, dark brown coloring. The wallpaper had since been painted over in yellow, and he did not think it was worth restoring. However, we liked the idea of glazing the wall, stripping the paint from the brass tacks, then reinstalling the tacks to capture a similar look.
Richard also noticed the gas fireplace
in our family room that was original to the home, noting how he had not
seen many of these still intact. In addition, the great condition of
the wood details, original tile and painted slate framing were unique
features. He suggested that we consider cleaning up the brass and cast
iron components and maintain as a showpiece in the room.
Finally, Richard noted that the thin picture moldings were very much in character of a home of this period and suggested we keep them. We will likely keep them thin moldings in the front rooms, and then thicken them as we go back to the renovated sections.
In the end, most of the wall coverings were in bad shape, and there were none in Richard’s opinion worth saving or restoring. As for our leather covered wall, word of mouth wasn’t quite accurate over the years. Oh well, we’ll take a few snippets of each for our scrap book!
Posted by Paul Friedberg | Categories: Newton 2007 | Permalink
(5) Comments
Just wanted to drop a note of thanks for all the blogging. Looks like it's going to be a good season and the backstory is fun to know.
Isn't that thin railing actually picture rail. For crying in the night if so don't remove it, your plaster will thank you when you go to hang pictures.
Hamal-
Thanks for your comments...good to know there is some interest out there!
Tanya,
Yes, these are actually picture rails. We are planning to keep these in the front rooms. We have some heavier items, such as clocks, that we'll have to hang from the wall. I'll talk to Maddy and our designer Abbey about this. But we should definitely consider using the moldings for pictures. In the (new) Family room we're probably going to change these out for a thicker molding. These will help transition to the more updated, renovated section of the home. Thanks for your comments!
I'm in the interesting position of rather countering Mr Nylander here! However, dining rooms at this period often had heavy plate rails, and if they did the actual picture molding at ceiling level was kept narrow. I'd look for evidence of a plate rail at the level of the top of the mantle. later owners found that these plate rails divided the room too much and removed them.