Started another long day at 7:15, this time downstairs. Here is a before:

This room is amazing. The wall paper is hand blockprinted on linen on 18″ squares. It was made in France in 1842. It was installed at Rosedown in the late 1950s when the Underwoods totally restored the house. They knew that a mural-type wallpaper had been on these walls, and found this paper in an antique store in France. It is in very good condition, considering its age. Read the rest of this entry »

Before:

At 7:00 this morning when I started.

At 7:30 tonight when I finally finished. Tomorrow I move downstairs for a new pattern in a very glamorous entry hall.

An update from my latest adventure to the South…

I arrived back at Melrose on Monday morning and installed the last of the four floorcloths there. They did a great job refinishing the butler’s pantry, and the floorcloth installation went very smoothly.

Garry, a guide at Melrose, gave me a tour. It was great to get all the background on the place. It’s survived through some amazing times.

I trucked on down to Rosedown (in my shnazzy Eclipse rental)

When I got there I unrolled the canvas underlay for the back hall and proceeded to measure this to cut down to size. The museum requested this additional layer of canvas because the floors are particularly unlevel. This is working out well. The underlayment acts as a template for the painted, finished #4 canvas on top.

Here is the canvas in the hall:

So here it is all cut out and tacked down, with the canvas underlayment tacked underneath.

I have to admit that I took an hour long lunch break today. It was a beautiful day- mid 70s, sunny and the gardens at Rosedown were glorious. I went to the local deli/gas station and grabbed some fried catfish and found a picnic table at Rosedown and enjoyed every moresl of the fried fish. Then I went for a stroll through the very expansive gardens. I’m terrinle with plant names, but I know roses, and I’m guessing those really nice-smelling flowers were magnolias.I had trouble getting myself to go back to work. You could spend hours strolling through the gardens there. Here are a couple of pics. I don’t know if I’ll post tomorrow, but I’ll try to on Thursday.

After two full days of packing, the eight Rosedown pieces are ready to make their trip half way across the country to Louisiana.

This was extreme packing, as every piece was large and heavy, and to top it off I am shipping #8 canvas to go under all the finished pieces to help smooth out the uneven board floors a little. We used the #8 around the outside of the finished pieces to act as protection. One of those packages is over 130 pounds! We had to build wooden corner supports too, as the cardboard isn’t enough to support the weight of all that canvas.

The next step is for me to follow the floorcloths and install them in the three large rooms and the 35-foot hallway. I’ll try to post on here when I’m doing that. Sometimes I get so carried away with the installation process that I forget to take photos. I’ll do my best.