In The Doghouse
The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday March 28, 1984
It was wedged behind the built-in cupboard in the study, between the side partition and the wall. A reasonable indicator then of the era of the last lot of works and, as the cupboard was installed on top of the wallpaper, the mighty staying power of woodchip. And how did we come by this little gem of historical enlightenment? By taking the cupboard down. It has not been straightforward. Of course it was my idea. Do not pass Go. Do not collect £200. Proceed directly to la maison du chien.
Mike does concede that the room looks so much better now.
The main difficulty has come from those wires. They were hidden away quite effectively prior to this minor structural realignment. Apparently re-routing of the cables and chasing them into the walls has added a week to the work.. even with the benefit of the new toy that had to be purchased specifically for the job, mais naturellement.
No, I don’t know which particular spot the ‘X’ doth mark.
It’s one of those things I am becoming loath to ask.
Meanwhile, the matchpot tally has now reached 27.
I had intended to use casein distemper on the walls, which accounted for the first 18 of the sample pots from a well known premium paint manufacturer. It’s a breathable paint suitable for covering lime plaster. But there’s a problem. Quelle surprise. Distemper wouldn’t work so well on the assortment of other surfaces in the room, like the modern plaster and emulsion.
So now it’s going to be claypaint and a whole new ballgame. A different manufacturer. A different set of matchpots. With a more limited colour selection to choose from this time, I reckoned one of the first four mini pots I acquired would have to provide the solution. Yes? No.
.
How much do you remember from 1984?
Regrettably I don’t have the paper’s front page, but Arthur Scargill and the miners’ strike preoccupied the thoughts of the Editor that day. Other topics of note seem depressingly familiar: the use of chemical weapons in the Middle East and Government security leaks. On a lighter note, the personal columns yield some interesting opportunities.. cheap at double the price:
STEINWAY GRAND Piano Model M (1928). Good condition. Repolished. £4,000 o.v.n.o.
WYE VALLEY. Wing of country house. Beautiful countryside. Slps 6-7. Everything provided. Pre-season long weekend from £50.
Round the world from £675.
NERJA [Southern Spain]. 2 b f/f villa, nr sea & golf, com. pool. Bargain £22,000.
And then there was this:
Spring In the Air
The Kent-based COUNTY BORDER NEWS offers this advice to housewives shopping for a new bed: “Never be shy in a bedding shop of taking off your shoes and bouncing about on as many beds as you like. If your husband isn’t with you, ask the salesman. He’ll be quite used to it and give you helpful hints between bounces.”
Goodnight!
It’s fascinating when you discover glimpses of the past when stripping rooms and renovating homes. Amazing what gets hidden when previous work has been done.
It is fascinating. In the last house we opened up an old inglenook fireplace that had been bricked in. There were all sorts of trinkets stashed away in there. Nothing valuable though unfortunately!
I rather like the second (from the top) color, though it appears a tad too green. I would paint it (or the one you like best) over the others to see how it looks on its own; you might be surprised. How exciting to have the project coming along so nicely.
Marian, having briefly glimpsed your comment earlier I’ve done exactly that now. Tomorrow morning, when the paint has properly dried, I will have a look at it again. The second from the top, the seasonally appropriate ‘Mittens’ is my favourite so far although it is a bit green. It may also be too dark, but I really love the colour!
Of course there is always Magnolia! ( I jest ). Does the paint company produce a background wash/undercoat that would give you the same colour base over all the different surfaces?
You jest, but I’ve narrowed it down to two colours, ‘Mittens’ (see above) and ‘Piglet’.. which in another world could easily have passed for Magnolia! The newly discovered clay paint company suggest applying a diluted coat as a base.
I like the second from the top too….not yellow toned which I always thinks looks like you are smokers but a good foil.
The bottom one is interesting –
Friends have just painted their front room in F&B Downpipe and it looks sensational… the room is dual aspect so gets flooded with light.
Lovely floorboards by the way;-)
I wish I was brave enough to use a really dark colour. In a very light room I bet that does look fabulous. The woodwork paint here would once have been white but has yellowed significantly over the years, I know just what you mean. It’s looking very tired now.
So do you get some money back on the testers when you buy the paint? I thought I had overdone tot when I had four testers in total.
No, no money back. I have used F&B for years and years so have accumulated a large number of match pots. If I have them I might as well use them!
Hysterical housewives advice. A thing of it’s time :o)
Did you read the article last week about some legal papers dating from the 16th C discovered in a wall of a house being renovated? Keep unpicking the walls and you never know…
No, I missed that one. It would be great to find something spectacular like that. The best I’ve done so far is a Barbra Streisand LP. Not quite in the same league!
Gosh, 1984, moved house a long way, had my first “grown up” birthday party, but I can’t remember much else! Not sure that I will be taking up any of the personal columns! I hope that you can settle on a paint colour, it is harder to chose than you think it will be isn’t it! xx
This has been the most difficult colour matching I’ve ever done. The light in the study changes dramatically from one moment to the next, making the colours suddenly look very different. Plus the base colour of the curtain fabric seems almost impossible to match up, or even to find something that tones with it.
In 1984 we bought a one bedroomed Victorian flat with two pretty balconies leading from the living room and the bedroom for £36,000 in Pimlico, London. The mind boggles to imagine how much it must be worth today.
Would Annie Sloan’s chalk paints work on your walls?
Goodness yes, London property prices have just exploded over the last thirty years. I will check on Annie Sloan, thank you Rosemary. They work well on furniture I know but I hadn’t thought about using them for walls. It’s the chalky effect that I’m after, it’s more traditional than modern emulsion.
It’s amazing what you find when you start stripping walls in an old house. At least it means you can have a rest to read what you’ve found!
I thoroughly enjoyed sitting back and reading the paper. It seems about 30 years ago I last had that luxury!
I remember my parents helping my cousin and her family because two of her menfolk were out on strike and she was struggling. In 1984 I had just started a year long placement researching the history of a church where we lived in Lincolnshire for exhibitions and a book for their 700th anniversary. I think I like the greyish colour 3rd down best – what a lot of work you have done and have still to do and it always seems that the more you take back the more work it entails. We once found something unprintable written on the wall behind the wallpaper in one of the houses we lived in:)
It doesn’t seem that long ago really and yet when you think how much has changed.. that was pre-internet. The way we live now is so very different. Mike has removed a redundant plug socket from the wall this evening.. and revealed another huge hole! Two steps forward.. I think if we get it done by the end of January we’ll be doing well.
slowly maybe but you are making progress with some interesting distractions, one of the things I find interesting watching old TV sitcoms is the prices and the political jokes at the time, I remember them well when reminded in this way, it does look better with it gone and the floor looks alright, you could just decorate the walls in match pot patchwork 😉 Frances
I did that with match pots once.. but in a room that we were using as a temporary kitchen knowing that it would be painted over. Actually it looked quite good!
I’ve always wanted to unearth something exciting (preferably a whole room that I never knew about) and can remember hiding countless Time Capsules as a child. My mother in law gave us a chest of drawers still lined with sheets of 1957 newspaper that gave us something to read for a while. Will watch your painting progress with interest as I’m trying to find something suitable to cover walls of different ages and composition as the current paint is peeling off some walls, though looks pristine on others.
It’s the stuff of dreams, finding a hidden room. The bricked up inglenook that I spoke about in the reply to Mark and Gaz was a bit like that. A huge space occupying the central portion of the house and we had no idea what was in it. I got so impatient the builders bashed a hole just large enough for us to peep through. There was something metallic glinting inside, like a big box. I was so excited for weeks. Then when the big day came all we found was a decrepit old range, too far gone to restore. I was heartbroken!
I am off to find a bed salesman…..
Enjoy.. 🙂
hee hee….this reminds me of the time we stripped the wallpaper from a bathroom in an old house we were redecorating. (fortunately no structural changes!!!)…we got down to the last layer….and someone had written something to the effect….’what in the #@$# are you doing, stripping off this #$&%## wallpaper. Do you have any idea how hard this bathroom is to paper?!!!’
Lovely story Steph! Someone had a great sense of humour. If I was putting wallpaper back I’d be very tempted to do similar!!
Fancy finding that little gem. Maybe it was left there deliberately for someone to find?
You know, I had just assumed that it was there to plug a gap in the wall. But reading your comment, and Alain’s below, I wonder…
For 25 years we had a Victorian house where the previous owners had always put in some newspaper as a time capsule when renovations were done! We found it quite interesting and actually we kept on the tradition. The inside wall of the garden shed had notes – lists of what varieties of rose bushes had been planted in the 1940’s.
What a fabulous thing to find in the shed! It was a common practice, in old thatched properties here, to leave good luck charms hidden in the roof when it was replaced. I hope we find something when we get that far. It’s great that you’ve carried on the tradition. I’m now thinking we should do the same.
No grey. That is ALL I have to say on the matter. And in 1984 I was just deciding it would be a bad idea to continue training to be a psychiatric nurse. Went on to have children and become a teacher instead. So no difference, really…sigh…
No grey? Not even a little bit? I shall have to cheat. The cupboard to replace the built in one is painted in French Grey. Which in most lights is green.
Psychiatry and teaching would be equally demanding. And equally rewarding.
Paint? Any colour so long as it’s white. Which means you could use the casein distemper on the parts which need it, and ‘modern’ stuff on the parts which don’t. Not all whites are the same so you will have gentle contrast around the room. Sounds mad but I’ve done it, and it really works :}
As for 1984 – you could try this http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ (be warned, it’s addictive and time consuming!)
I’ve heard about the genome thing.. haven’t tried it yet, but I will. The paint thing would be very challenging.. modern plaster and lime co-exist in the same wall. Take the picture with the paint swatches on it.. lime on the left, gypsum to the right. A right royal nightmare.
I love finding old wallpaper etc when decorating it’s such a window into the past. I’m up to 4 match pots for my hallway, 27 is mad. You could paint a mosaic and not bother buying the actual paint.
27 is mad. And probably a testament to how indecisive I can be when it comes to paint colours. It’s so much easier with flowers. We can just shift a few rootballs if we’ve made a mistake.
What an adventure you are having with the renovation. It will be an accomplishment to be proud of when you are finished.
I hope so Dorothy. I have a horrible feeling that the adventure is only just beginning. But at least when my study is done I can lock myself away somewhere and hide.
Gosh 1984!! Well I had a three year old, we lived across the road from my brother in law and his wife and their baby, and we used to take it in turns to hold cider and egg bun nights. Woo hoo I knew how to live the wild life back then 😉
I find old newspaper finds fascinating and finding things written on walls when you strip back the wallpaper, it gives you an excuse to stop work and have a read …. as if an excuse were needed 😉
Cider and egg bun nights sound good fun to me. Although one sip of cider and I am done for, I wouldn’t have been able to make it back across the road.
Really enjoy your blog RD.
I’m probably not the best person to give advise on wall colours. Once decorated our kitchen twice in a month as couldn’t stand the 1st chosen colour once it was in the wall. Would agree re white though, other items could dress up the room and then give colour.
We inherited a shed over the allotment and found a journal that was left inside it. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
In 1984 I got married. We’ve never remembered an anniversary and have bickered over the month <strange but true. It was also the year we had our 1st born. A piece of national news was a bomb blast during the Conservative party conference in Brighton, I remember it as it happened at the time I had our son.
Love the idea of asking a sales assistant to jump on beds – could brighten up a dull afternoon.
Now going to look at Jayne's recommended site.
Hi Karen, thanks and welcome to rusty duck.
I was planning on going for an off-white all through the house, and then ring the changes with different highlight colours in each room. Old cottages can be very dark and the more light I can reflect around the better. But the study is a real problem. The off white that I used in the kitchen looks like a muddy beige on the wall there. Hence so many match pots. I can see I might well be painting twice as well..
Oh an exciting find Jessica. March 1984 is significant for me as it was the month himself kissed me for the very first time 🙂
And the rest is history, as they say. What a lovely memory. I’ve been trying to remember the date of the comparable event. And I can’t..
It’s all worth it if you (or rather, Mike) can acquire a new super-duper tool
It’s the only way Janice. Mike is gadget man extraordinaire. But if it gets the job done.. ?
Have you changed your header photos, I have been wistfully trying to show my husband your wonderful renovation project. Love the newspaper find too.
I haven’t changed the header photos, but they are not on individual posts, only on the ‘Home’ page. If there was a particular photo you had in mind let me know and I’ll give you a link to it.
Hmmmmmm….1984……knee deep in kids….age 10, 7 and 5….and ….I was 34…..gotta love it!
30 years, doesn’t time fly eh?
How interesting getting a blast from the past, we often get aged newspapers in at the rescue, some have proved rather valuable!
Is it possible to mix the colours to get a shade you like?
It looks so much bigger without the cupboard, exciting times eh?xxx
I’d been thinking about mixing up a bespoke colour. At the start it seemed a bit of a faff, although we can get a base breathable paint and then the dyes to play with. I’m now wondering if that might be the best solution.
1984 – on first thought it didn’t seem that long ago but then I put it in context of my own life and realized, well, yes it was a long time ago. The room certainly deserves a remodel. I’m sure it will be beautiful once all the hard decisions are behind you. I hear that redecorating is a lot like childbirth – you forget the pain once it’s over.
Having not been through childbirth I can’t vouch for that bit, but redecorating and certainly house renovation is most definitely like that!
My only advice is to go two shades lighter than you think is right, and to make sure you are wearing particularly nice socks in the bed shop.
Knowing my luck the ‘salesman’ would be a she. How times have changed!
Hints between bouncing on the bed? lol normally you find news paper under carpet
I feel the need to know what sort of ‘hints’ might be on offer. Extensive research is the only way forward I think.
The 2nd from the bottom, the blue-grey. Soothing.
Believe it or not, on the colour chart it was beige! The light in the study is really crazy. I can’t have blue in that room, but I will be keeping the match pot and hope that it pulls the same trick somewhere else, it’s a lovely colour isn’t it.
I can’t help liking the matchpot mosaic idea… sort of a quilt block look might be possible… and since the paint will look different on the assorted surfaces, why not? 😉 In the house we lived in during 2013, they must have had a dilemna similar to yours because every other wall did seem to be painted a slightly different shade of that brownish grey that’s been so popular here (I prefer the off-white myself!). As it was an open floor plan, the colours simply met at the corners; it didn’t look bad as long as I didn’t think about it! Good luck with more exciting discoveries in the nooks and crannies 🙂
I am discovering that light has a huge bearing on how a colour appears. It could be that the same colour looked very different on each orientation within the room. Or it could be they ran out of paint and used different batch numbers!
The more I read of your adventures, the gladder I am that we didn’t take on a house needing renovation the last time we moved!
I am beginning to wonder about the wisdom myself..
In one of the rooms we don’t go into very often I found a newspaper dated 1912……oh, definitely the blue grey!
Wow, that must have made really interesting reading. The year the Titanic sank.
I loved the advice on choosing a bed – I wonder if it would work these days? Finding old newspapers is really interesting isn’t it – does hold up the job in hand somewhat though.
Even if it did work these days, sharing the experience with so many onlookers in an out of town megastore might diminish it somewhat!
Oh my you’re having fun! I’m glad that we’ve come so far since 1984! Now men too can doff their shoes and bounce from bed to bed with strange salespersons.
We have come a long way and I too am glad of it. The fact that it’s no longer assumed that women do the shopping and that all salespeople are men is a good start. Happy bouncing!
It seems you adventures in DIY are taking you all over the place including back to the 80s an era of papers that we have found much off in our house! As for 1984 well enjoying life as a teenager is what I was up to ;). Can’t quite get my head round the fact that that was twenty years ago tho’…….
The previous owners of the house moved in about mid 80s. It could have been a lot worse thinking of some of the wallpaper styles back then. We did have to remove cork tiles from the kitchen walls though, that was a job and a half.
So much to discover, so much to see in this world…Loved the story of how this all came to be.
I have a feeling our voyage of discovery is just beginning, we haven’t started on the oldest part of the house yet. That’s what makes it exciting.
How lovely to find a bit of history in your house, I burst out laughing when I read Woolythymes’ comment about what they found behind the wallpaper after stripping it back! I have only wallpapered ONE wall in my old Victorian house and that was enough. One day, when this house is knocked down, someone will find all the things I have accidentally dropped down between the floor boards, most of which I am not even aware of, but one thing I do know I have dropped is a list of names and telephone numbers to everyone I know. It’s under the floor in my living room, but impossible to retrieve unless I take up the floor. One day someone will find it and have a laugh – or try the numbers for a laugh – might still work some of them, depending on how long this house will be standing!
Gaps between floorboards is something I am going to have to get used to here.. some of them are enormous. So far the most exciting thing we have found under the boards is mouse droppings!
1984, was the year I got my first job. I remember the miners strike well!
You do know Jessica that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right. You’ll be muscle man and woman at the end of this journey 🙂
Now, had you chosen to come to Scotland – you’d have not got much plastering and decorating done at this time of the year – it’s too damp and takes forever too dry 🙂
Angie, it’s just the same here. The garden has become a bog (hence no GBBD post) and Mike was complaining only today how his plaster is refusing to dry.
Oh my it is always more than we imagine…we are not making structural changes, but clearing out stuff and rearranging the house…it will not be as easy as I think as it never is…glad you have found some solutions.
I’m not sure we’d have started this job if we’d realised how much work it was going to be… not before Christmas at any rate. The house is a tip!
March 84 I was newly pregnant with the daughter who is pregnant now.
We unwittingly painted our living room with a colour that looks different on each wall, all because of how the light falls. I can’t wait to paint it again, probably white for safety’s sake!
I was very tempted to go for white too. But I have the last two pairs of curtains brought with us from the previous house that I want to use and they have an off white background.
Yesterday I finally decided on the colour, an off white that has a grey/green tinge. Mike went straight out and bought the paint before I could change my mind again. I just hope it looks the same on all the walls!
We have similar paint dilemmas here. One problem we have is an area of kitchen wall where nothing seems to adhere. Last try was with clay paint about a year ago. it is gently falling to the floor in flakes as I type… Good luck with yours. I like Mittens!
This is decidedly unsettling news Elizabeth! Mittens is what we went for in the end. Suitably seasonal and it goes with the curtains. What more can I ask.
Oh dear, it seems to be one step forward, one step back. Still, it will all be worth it when it’ s done.
That last bit about bouncing on the bed with the salesman- you made it up didn’ t you?
Made it up? Wash your mouth out Missus. Nope, a direct quote from the paper. I only wish I’d known about it at the time. 🙂
Love hearing the 1984 news – probably passed me by as I was kept busy by 20 month old Elder Daughter at the time 😉
It must have passed me by too. I remember the miners’ strike, but thought us ladies were already far more liberated. Perhaps it was bed salesmen who were to blame.
It’s the top match pot colour for me. I must go and try some beds! X
If you find anything suitable let me know..
I know this isn’t going to be helpful, but colours change within a room depending on the way the light falls from wherever the light source is, or gets bounced from … so I’d paint up a decent square of paper and pin/bluetack it to the darkest and lightest places and then see. I did a room with headlight windows and an inglenook and nearly went nuts trying to get a consistent colour. Sometimes “Perfect” ain’t going to happen!
They certainly do, and then the whole lot changes again at different times of the day. When the sun was out I went for one colour, under artificial light a completely different one. At least with an old house, nothing is ever perfect!
Hope you soon find the right colour! We always found the F&B paints can hide a multiple of sins on uneven walls, but the colours can alter so much in different lights! I wouldn’t have mind that break for £50 the recommendation of testing the beds did make me smile! Sarah x
Yes, F&B colours do change a lot with the light. We shall soon find out whether clay paint does the same.