We could have done this room by room, decorating and finishing each one before moving onto the next. We probably should have done this room by room - T has a new job, I'm working full-time and doing an MSc, which means that making this house feel like ours is going to take some time.
I figured that blitzing the whole house like a pair of wallpaper addicted locusts would mean that over time we'd become "blind" to old white plaster walls rather than the horrendous colour scheme we have now.
The upside of this house is that there are still quite a few original features, the original doors (although 2 were hiding under hardboard cladding), rim locks on most of them and 1930s ovolo mouldings.
Unfortunately the previous owners had a teak-fetish phase, guessing sometime in the 70's, and the windowsills (all teak-clad) and staircase didn't fair so well.
Anyway in the front bedroom one thing led to another, and then another! The wallpaper continued on behind some built-in cupboards. Useful for storage, but not so easy on the eye.
So out they came. Along with the plasterboard that was covering up the fireplace...
Alas no fire surround hiding under there, but the fire brick is in good nick:
Our surprise discovery was the remnants of old wallpaper giving a hint of how the room used to look. Not sure, but guessing this might have been the original 1930s/1940s décor. Took lots of photos and kept a few bits of the wallpaper for posterity.
Even the decorator's marks were there:
Empty and ready for painting:
I've also spied the original black and white brick tiles in the kitchen still visible behind one of the cabinets. They've been tiled over, but I'm hoping that we might be able to restore them.
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