| This hallway consists of a dark stained ash wood ceiling and staircase. Doing analysis on the walls, I was able to get down through several layers of paint in different sections of the room to see what the first coat of paint was. It was a rich red. As recommended by decoratators and critics such as Charles Eastlake, Clarence Cook, and Samuel Coleman, to name a few, this color was most accurate and I reproduced it. There were rements of a heavy geometric stencil pattern on the wall what appeared to be a darker red but I couldn't make it out, because when the walls were painted by whomever, they would have to sand down or wash off the old stencil to get a new smooth surface paint. I wanted a stenciled front hall so I decided to go with a hallway I admired very much. That was the Mark Twain House hallway stencil designed by Tiffany and the Associated Artists in 1881. As you're not allowed to take pictures in the Mark Twain House, I had a photo in a book of the hallway, which I scanned in and enllarged. I then traced and cut these stencils out on a stiff waxlike paper. The ceiling lamp was in the basement in bad condition when I first looked at the house to buy. I asked the owners at the time to leave that amongst several moulding, woodwork, doors, etc. I saw in the house. On the Internet one day I found the exact lamp as the broken one in the basement and purchased it. This one is electrified and very well restored. |
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| The picture to the right is a close-up shot of the stencil work. Not all of the hallway stenciling was inspired by the Mark Twain House. The gold design was a design seen in the Olana house in Hudson NY.. The design above that in the opening was similar in pattern to a black and white photo of an entrance hall in a home in NY around the time of 1881. This is the first time I have ever stenciled and has been my proudest and most exciting accomplishment. |
| Directly above, you can see how the layers went on. That's me putting the black paint on the gold paint. In the case seen here, the gold paint went on first, then the black applied to it. I used Mylar paper for this design and was inspired by the Olana home on the Hudson River, which is heavily influenced by the Middle East. |
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| The Foyer |
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| Before the After |
| More pictures to follow here soon, but the wallpaper gives you an idea of what the hall was like. That lamp is a Bradley & Hubbard light fixture that moved to a new location. The wallpaper came off easily. Underneath was painted walls where I sanded down through layer after layer in sections to find original color and possible stencil. The hallay had wall-to-wall carpeting that I ripped out. This did ruin the staircase, but the floors underneath were otherwise very well preserved. Click the picture to make it bigger. |
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| Home About the House Tour the House Foyer Parlor Back Parlor Conservatory Dining Room Second Floor Hall Guest Room Servants Room About Myself |