So in the “parlor” section of the house (I just refer to it as part of the living room since they’re both connected), there was an interesting piece of woodwork that looked like a fake fireplace. I didn’t understand the purpose of this thing. Obviously it (was) a mantle, but why have the hole/outline/whatever in the center of it if there was no intention of it ever being a real fireplace? I thought it looked dumb and that a huge bookcase/library setup would look better in that spot. So out it went.

Before:

The thing came off of the wall all in one piece and very easily, since it was basically just nailed on. My only concern was for the gaps at the very bottom that it left behind. I don’t know if they make that kind of baseboard/trim anymore. However, since a set of bookcases were going in that spot, it wasn’t much of a worry so I just covered the holes with a couple pieces of scrap wood that were cut to fit.

Now the walls in this room were covered by some ugly beige wallpaper, which was stripped down. The center of the mantle was also papered and I found an interesting surprise behind it.

It looks like people who papered the wall had signed that spot. There is one name I couldn’t make out, but it said May 1928. The big one in the middle says Papered by Chae (or Elise) H. Bell - Sept 29 1936. This woman might have been an artist, considering she drew a whole ribbon outline around her signature. Above her name is another signature that is blurred, but what I could make out looks like the same handwriting as Ms. Bell. I couldn’t make out the month and day, but it looks like she re-papered the walls again in 1949. Then last, but not least, we have someone named “E.M. Van Inuragen”, who papered the wall on October 12th 1960. I assume he (or she) was the last, because the paper sure looked like it was up since the 60’s. Information about this will come in handy soon when I hit the local library and museum to see if they have any info about previous occupants. That’ll be documented in future posts.

Anyway, the wall was washed, spackled, sanded and primed with white paint. No color has been decided on yet, so white the room will stay until then.

After:

The library/bookcases are Sauder (Mission Collection) and were purchased at furniturebuzz.com for $358.75, including shipping.

Despite the headaches I got putting those things together, I think it looks a lot better than that mantle. They will look even better with books and plants on them and I’ve also got enough room for one more bookcase if I need more storage space.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 11th, 2005 at 11:32 am and is filed under Interior, Projects (completed). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.