In reply to Melissa.

Thanks Melissa! They’re from Ikea a while back. Don’t think they still sell them, but maybe try ebay?

xo
s

I don’t know – it’s a totally different type of house when held up against the previous two, even though they all seem to have some interior features in common. What worked in a mid-century ranch may not work in a more traditional style home. Evolvement in conceptual design could be a good thing.

I wouldn’t put *skills* in that category, though, Heather. I think John has come a long way there.

This looks to be a very traditional-style house built in a straight-up and timeless Colonial design, which is probably why the original owners/builders went with a traditional dark wood finish. What was once the family room (a fairly newfangled concept for its building date, as you didn’t begin seeing those in new homes until the 70s)incorporated an Early American vibe in its design.

And when I say *early* I mean EARLY, as it evokes the early 1600s by adding wainscoting, chair rails, thick moldings etc. The late Tudor and early Jacobean palettes – we do have a British influence, after all – were saturated in jewel tones for walls in wealthier homes. Whitewashed plaster for the masses above their woodwork, as paint was far more expensive then and the deeper the tone, the more pigment was needed and the more expensive it became (much like clothing dyes of the era).

Our ancestors managed to get by with very little sq ft until the 1970s; most *mid-century modern* homes are less than 1000 sq ft and have small rooms that *fit* the scaled-down furniture trends of the era.

This family room would’ve been the equivalent of a *great hall*, which was beginning to go out of vogue by the end of the Tudor era and probably would have been jettisoned for the trendier front of the house *reception room* had it been built in the era it’s *faking*. It would have been the gathering place to entertain guests while smaller rooms were for the family itself.

This house, if it had existed at the time, would definitely have been considered a wealthy man’s home by its sheer expanse of square footage alone. Its walls would have been painted rich, pigment-drenched colors like garnet, sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst, peacock blue, the defining deep *Tudor green* – a chip or two closest to 80s hunter green, with no blue undertone in it.

Only the lower classes lived with a neutral indoor palette. If you had money, your deep jewel walls told visitors that. Dark woods do look best when paired with dark wall colors.

People of the Tudor and Jacobean eras embraced color vividly after centuries of living with stone, slate, wood, and whitewashed plaster interiors. Textiles were also applied directly to walls then in the form of rugs (too precious to be walked upon), tapestries, and woven, patterned fabrics – think of it as early wallpaper. Glass was expensive and a lot of heavily draped windows was another way to subtly broadcast one’s wealth.

They’d think modern people were crazy to let their heat out the windows by leaving them uncovered to let the light stream in and fade expensive textiles and paints. They’d also turn up their noses at a neutral palette. When paint and fabric caught on for home decor back then, it caught on in a huge way, on both sides of the pond. The American Colonial palette with its deep colors isn’t that different from what was fashionable in England at the time.

I personally like elements of brick, stone, and warm dark woods in a home. But we all know they’re going to put white paint over it all. There’s no mystery reveal coming here. I’d like to see it preserved but I’m not holding my breath.

I can see painting the BR, bathroom, and foyer doors white to match since they’re hollow core (hate those, sometimes you can’t even hang a simple hook without having it pull out and making a mess if they’re not beefed up with additional molding) and the woodwork was previously painted in those areas. If the LR had already been vandalized by that awful blue paint, or was cheap paneling or MDF faux board and batten, I’d paint over it in a flash and have done so.

But not real, solid, chunky wood. You simply don’t see that in your average new builds anymore. It’s all faked with veneers, paneling, MDF, plywood, or cheap, soft pine *if* they bother to add details like that at all. I’d want to preserve that last holdout of unpainted wood, restore it and make it glow with welcoming warmth. White may be crisp, but it’s also cold.

I’m surprised you’d even considering covering up real wood in the one room that is always the heart of the home. You *pass through* other rooms to perform specific functions, but you really live in a LR.

F5 does not clear your cache. It only refreshes the page.

To truly clear your cache, you need to go into your browser tools and delete temp files, cookies, and history. Of course that will sign you out of everything each time you do it, if you’re the type who doesn’t sign out of sites when done for the day. But it will make your computer snap without having to drag all that rubbish with it with every new tab opened.

It always amazes me how many people think computers are self-cleaning. No, just like self-cleaning ovens, you need to start the process. Especially if you’re online a lot, as that stuff accummulates likes crazy. If you don’t clear your cache at least once a month (a heavy user should do it weekly), you’ll find that the process seems to take forever once started because there will be a ton of temp files.

Every single graphic on a page visited is in there, in addition to the cookies for the page itself. Now think of how often you’re on Facebook with its gazillion ads and avatars alone. That adds up to a lot of drag and wasted space on your computer if you don’t flush it away every so often. F5 isn’t doing a thing for you in that respect. Find the gear icon up top and familiarize yourself with the cache purging process. Your computer will thank you.

My grandfather always covered brushes and rollers in Reynolds Wrap and stuck them in the freezer. That was a sight back in the day when a freezer was the most miniscule part of an icebox and meant only to contain Sunday’s roast. I owned one of those old fridges when I was in college and you could barely get a frozen pizza in there. I’ve followed his advice on many housepainting projects and it works. You do need to open the foil and let brushes thaw out for a little bit to regain their pliability, but rollers can go right from the freezer to the wall.

In reply to Mandy.

They’re from Ikea a while back but they no longer sell them. Maybe try ebay?

xo
s