RENOVATOR’S TOOLBOX
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A detail of the frieze, hand painted and stenciled on canvas, that decorated the dressing room of Arabella Worsham’s Manhattan townhouse
in 1882. Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of The Museum of the City of New York, 2008.
Striking examples of original 19th century painted
finishes can be found at Olana near Hudson, N.Y.,
Acorn Hall in Morristown, N.J., the Ebenezer Maxwell
house in Philadelphia and, further afield, at the Linley
Sambourne house in London and Wightwick Manor in
Wolverhampton in England.
Designs on plaster were often executed in water-based
paints such as calcimine and distemper; oil paints were
favored for woodwork. Stenciling was useful for ceilings,
which in the late 19th century were lighter than walls
but seldom white, according to Roger W. Moss and Gail
Caskey Winkler in “Victorian Interior Decoration.”
The cornice and trim could be picked out in a variety of
soft colors, and paint manufacturers published many
examples. Some decorating books proposed painting door
panels and shutters with motifs such as vines and foliage;
examples abound at the Linley Sambourne house.
The owner and creator of Olana, Hudson River School
landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church, favored oil
paint on both woodwork and plaster. “Not a surprise for
a master of the medium who made very little use of watercolor,”
said William Coleman, Director of Collections
and Exhibitions at The Olana Partnership.
Church hired sign and carriage painters to realize his
complex designs, and colors were mixed under his
direction from pigment, oil and turpentine.
Decorative paint styles changed over the years but
remained popular well into the 20th century. In the
1980s and ‘90s, decorative paint effects from sponging
to trompe l'oeil experienced a revival, spurred by Jocasta
Innes’ book “Paint Magic” and the continuing influence
of the late decorator John Fowler of Colefax and Fowler.
“While Olana and the interior ornament that defines its
main house are certainly spectacular, Church was not
alone in making use of patterned interior paint to evoke
a mood,” said Coleman.