Art Restoration - a messy job.

We live our lives under works of art.

Our late 1920s bungalow has ornate plaster ceilings and our current 'home renovation' project is restoring them to their glory!

 Looking closely on this picture you can see cracks in the paint on the bottom left quarter. Our plasterer craftsman tells us that these ceiling were originally whitewashed and when they were first painted people often just painted over the whitewash, not knowing the paint would not stick well. Later generations have sanded the cracks, skim plastered and then repainted.

Without the luxury of  that ignorance we're taken the advise of our expert and have been pealing off the paint and washing off the whitewash. This photo shows a pale yellow area, stripped and washed, a darker area that needs to be washed and the detailed areas we haven't stripped as the paint appears to stick better there and we're only stripping what we need to.

The stripping is quite satisfying - it comes off far too easily! The washing is more effort - the whitewash comes off well but it's thick and my rag and then my bucket gets quickly saturated with the stuff. The worst patches are where someone has patched with new plaster and so the paint is sticks properly!

My job is the striping and washing and my man has started plastering and will sand then paint it with an oil based sealer before the ceiling paint.

We have at least three rooms to do and Miss Four insists her room needs doing - "I've can see cracks". Her and Mr Six have been earning money by scooping up the paint and putting it in the rubbish bag.

Some days a shower is just the best thing!

Blessings, Cheri