Regency Drawing Room - Week Three

Now technically, this post should be entitled Week Five, but I've decided that as the past two weeks have seen no work done on the room while I waited for the fireplace to arrive that they won't be counted in the time taken. Hence I'm picking up again at week three of the project. The long wait for the arrival of the fire surround ended last Tuesday when my package from Jennifers of Walsall arrived. I love this fireplace and it was $30 cheaper than most of the others I'd been looking at for this room. Once I had the fireplace I centred it on the back wall and drew around it so i had a pencil outline of the fireplace on the wall. Next I made a final decision on the height of the panelling and drew a line around the wall at that height. Next came the hard part. I wanted to give this room a chinoserie style and the only way to do what I wanted was to hand paint the walls. It's not the painting that scared me, it was the trying to have it turn out looking like it was supposed to. Art is not a strong point of mine so making a picture where there was nothing before is very difficult. I started by drawing the position and shape of the vines in pencil, leaving space above the fireplace for an overmantle. This is why I wanted the firesurround before I started, so I could be certain the vines grew around the fireplace without being too close or too far away. Once I was more or less happy with the shape and position of the vines it started to paint. I used a brush called a 'blade' or a 'dagger' to paint over the lines with a beige acrylic paint. Then I went over the beige in places with a light brown to give the vines some character. Next I used some green to paint random leaves onto the vines, trying to keep the leaves smaller at the top and larger at the bottom with sometimes limited success. While I had the green out I added some grass around the bottom of the wall, or rather the top of the panelling, between the vines. Last were the flowers. Some experimentation on scrap paper proved that I can not paint a flower. Period. So I settled for light pink blobs with a deep pink dot in the centre.

A chinoserie wall would normally have birds among the vines as well. There is no doubt that I can't paint a bird, so decided not to push my luck. Perhaps I could find some bird decals and use them? Anyway, even without the birds I am quite proud of the walls. I may have to stop claiming I can't paint if I keep getting results like this!

For the panelling around the bottom of the walls I had six plain picture frames purchased from D's Miniature Collectables on ebay. From memory their username is restless61 and they are well worth looking up. I positioned the frames on two strips of thin cardboard cut the height of the panelling. Unfortunately, having turned the corners of the walls into curves meant that I couldn't position the frames at even distances because the solid frame could not curve with the wall. Hopefully by the time the room is furnished you won't notice the big gap between the frames either side of the curves. After the frames were glued in place, the lot was painted with some white gloss and glued onto the walls. Next I need to find some braid to trim the top and bottom of the panelling, again curves mean that wooden trim and skirting board is not an option.

On the ceiling I added some pieces of scroll like . . um . . bits in the middle of which there will eventually be a ceiling rose and light fixture. Now I just need to figure out what sort of light fixture that should be and where to get one or how to make one. The other key feature still to be addressed for the room is a floor rug, but I'm yet to see one that would look all right with lavender, pink and green walls. It should be an oriental rug, but can't be too busy. I was also thinking that the curved walls might make an oval rug a good idea.

And finally, a warm wlecome to this blog's newest followers Natasha and Cyndy. I can't seem to find a blog for either of you, but let me know if you have one and i'll add the link.