Keep It Original, But I Want That!
I am a person that totally appreciates keeping things original in an old house unless it can't be repaired or brought back to life. For about 6 years I have posted comments on different message boards and blogs how I feel about it.
The first time I had to eat my words was when we decided we had to put in a patio door and deck in order to have access to the back yard, as small as it is.
Second, is when I had to strip the old finish off of the woodwork because the top layer was peeling like dried egg whites (previous owner top coated shellac with old wax on it with water-based I conclude). I replaced it with the same original material, shellac, but went darker.
Our upstairs has original heart pine woodwork, never painted in all of its 90 years (except the bathroom). I want to redecorate the bedroom into a cottage style but the yellowish, brown color of the woodwork, though beautiful, doesn't look good with the whites, creams and blues I want. The woodwork would look really nice a cream color.
The woodwork needs to be sanded down because of the same egg-white peeling problem the downstairs had. Being it has to be stripped someday anyway because of this peeling, I'm thinking I may become the person I despise the most, the person that paints over original wood (heart pine, am I crazy?). I'm not having too much problem with this, because there is shellac underneath that would make stripping the paint off later with a heat gun quite easy. If I do this, I'll be such a hypocrite.
The first time I had to eat my words was when we decided we had to put in a patio door and deck in order to have access to the back yard, as small as it is.
Second, is when I had to strip the old finish off of the woodwork because the top layer was peeling like dried egg whites (previous owner top coated shellac with old wax on it with water-based I conclude). I replaced it with the same original material, shellac, but went darker.
Our upstairs has original heart pine woodwork, never painted in all of its 90 years (except the bathroom). I want to redecorate the bedroom into a cottage style but the yellowish, brown color of the woodwork, though beautiful, doesn't look good with the whites, creams and blues I want. The woodwork would look really nice a cream color.
The woodwork needs to be sanded down because of the same egg-white peeling problem the downstairs had. Being it has to be stripped someday anyway because of this peeling, I'm thinking I may become the person I despise the most, the person that paints over original wood (heart pine, am I crazy?). I'm not having too much problem with this, because there is shellac underneath that would make stripping the paint off later with a heat gun quite easy. If I do this, I'll be such a hypocrite.
Labels: heart pine, paint, shellac, woodwork
posted by Erie's Argonaut at 2/19/2007 09:19:00 AM
5 Comments:
Repent now, and change your mind. I've stripped too much paint to paint woodwork. I'm sure that there is another paint scheme out there you'd enjoy.
I'll confess though, that some woodwork isn't worth refinishing and some rooms (baths and kitchens) were very commonly painted originally.
Kurt, from Provo Bungalow
Another perspective....we have what we think is an original corner cabinet (ca. 1740) in our dining room. We wrestled for weeks, months even, about whether to strip it all down and "refinish" it.
We finally decided to have a go, and started sanding, only to realize early on that this particular cabinet was *meant* to be painted. We determined this in a variety of ways, not the least of which was the fact that it was face-nailed; the oldest layer of paint was also apparently milk paint; and when we looked at photos of "fully period restored" houses from the same era, every one of their corner cabinets was painted.
So just because there's woodwork in a house, doesn't necessarily mean it was meant to be stained/varnished/shellacked.
We are now in the process of having our dining room painted, and we've chosen a period-appropriate paint treatment for the corner cabinet.
In our case, we want to LIVE in this house and enjoy it, while still respecting its spirit. It's important to us not to become slaves to tradition, but instead be inspired by it.
Otherwise, we'd be cooking in a fireplace and using only candlelight. Which would make reading houseblogs kinda hard ;)
I'm not sentimental about these things. If the woodwork is funky, I replace it. It's not worth it to me to try to strip and restore damaged woodwork.
But I try to use the original profiles and design as much as possible.
That said, if you have woodwork you want to save it should probably be put aside for restoration when you get the chance rather than painted. For one thing, modern paints aren't as easy to strip as the old stuff. I stupidly primed an old oak door here when I moved in and it was difficult getting it off.
It's your house and it's up to you.
My grandma, rest her soul, loathed dark woodwork and any home she moved into that had dark woodwork was soon painted white. Period.
I can go on and on about how I hate stripping paint off of wood and tell you how you are "destroying" your house by painting it but you know what? It's just paint and paint can be removed.
I will say this about painted woodwork: It makes wall color pop.
My upstairs will have all painted woodwork and my downstairs will be shellacked then covered with poly and who knows, 20 years from now if I grow tired of the natural look, I might just paint it.
I'm with you that it is good keeping things original. But we shall not be slaves of this opinion and nobody wants to live in a museum. So if you like the painted wood better, just paint it. You don't destroy anything, because this paint can be removed. And on the other hand in old hoses wood was very often paintend. So I think this wouldn't be completely different from the style of the house. My grandma's house is over hundred years old, but there is no wood, shich is not painted, I mean originally painted, mostly white.
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