As I passed Gregor in the carpentry workshop at the end of a working day recently, I asked "What have you been up to today?". "You can see for yourself.", replied Gregor.
So I walked into the Great Hall which is where we are currently working. I failed to observe any visible change, and was too embarrassed to pursue the matter further, so I slipped past Gregor discreetly and exited the scene hastily.
The next morning, as I walked into the Great Hall, the difference was staring me in the face: where there has once been a blank opening with a stone wall behind it, was now a Gregor home-brew Victorian door.
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| Gregor's Door |
It's a pretty decent recreation of the surviving Victorian doors, all done without the intervention of a specialist carpentry workshop.
Here is a surviving Victorian door for comparison. This is still covered in the detritus of the building's ruination, which we haven't even attempted to clean off.
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| Original Victorian Door. |
The only different is the paint job! The Victorian door has a paint effect using light and dark brown paints to emulate oak. Gregor's door is just painted in the light brown colour (Mexican Tan). If anyone knows how to apply the paint effect using the dark brown paint on top, then please get in touch! I know that the technique is called graining or scumbling.
Scumbling is easy to do. I did a lot in my house to cover white painted skirting and door frames that my Father painted in the 1960s. You can get a kit. I did darker brown matt over a lighter brown gloss finish and it worked well.
ReplyDeleteOne difference only the keen eye can spot is that the victorian doors had handles but the modern ones are AI-operated so they don't need one.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great reinstatement. I did something similar at my own Victorian tenement where in the 1960s the centre panels were completely removed and infilled with glass. I had the doors stripped of paint and the glass removed. This left a frame of original timber. I filled the centre with a plywood panel and built a cross of plain pine which I glued onto this panel, before framing each part of the cross in pine to give the 4 panels. It's very convincing when everything has been coated in multiple layers of stain and graining.
ReplyDeleteTo grain, there are tools available including one which looks like a small roller with woodgrain ripples cut into the surface which you drag across the surface using a rocking motion to give the grain, or as the Victorians did, after applying the darker pain on top, you drag using a piece of cardboard to achieve a 'grain' and then use a dry paintbrush or several different sizes of brush to feather the stain til you achieve the look of whichever wood you're aiming to imitate. It takes time but is very worthwhile and oddly satisfying!