For me, rooms are always far more interesting if they have some architectural interest – soaring ceilings, large windows, beautiful cornicing, chunky window casings, wall moulding, etc. While of course more contemporary architecturally-led building designs can have their own beautiful details, it is normally theseΒ hallmarks of older properties which make me fall in love with them.
I could never see myself living in a new building – mostly because I can’t afford to build something so spectacular that I can include these extraordinary features and also, why should I when there are so many beautiful old buildings about that I could make my mark on? Living in a country with so much history certainly has it’s perks.
While I’m incredibly grateful we were able to bag an older property ourselves (Edwardian, built in 1906, although it’s very similar to the Victorian properties built a few years earlier), there are certain original features that have sadly been removed. The original house when it was built would have had fireplaces in all the main rooms (living room / dining room / master bedroom / second bedroom)Β butΒ these have long been removed by someone who clearly felt it was better to modernise the property than hang on to something that might have been too costly/unnecessary. It makes me a little sad to be honest.
Original coving and picture rail in our living room. Sadly, no fireplace!
And while the main living room and the hallway have beautiful coving, aside from a picture rail, the rest of the spaces are pretty bland which is why in every room where we’ve been able, we’ve added more substantial coving in it’s place.
You can see in this picture the wider coving we added to the room. The picture rail is original.
We are lucky enough to have the original doors and skirting boards however – nice chunky things with a hint of detail but our windows lack their frames so it’s a bit of give and take. I was trying to find a picture that shows what we’re working with so this is a little older but as you can see, we’ve got a very simple narrow coving in there now and nice fat skirting boards but they are missing in front of the fireplace so we need to match them and add those back in.
I’m not sure if the coving that’s in the dining room is original to the house or not (I suspect, as there is no picture rail in this room when there is in every other one, it’s may not be but then Edwardian design is less fussy than Victorian) and I’m not sure if we’ll end up replacing it toΒ match the rest of the (new) coving we have in the other spaces we’ve remodeled or simply add some trim to bulk it out a bit. I wouldn’t mind replacing it completely but it would mean adding to our very long list of work and it’s not desperately required but maybe if I can catch Wayne on a good day, he’ll agree to it! IΒ planΒ to also introduce a trim around the door way into the kitchen (unseen in that picture but it’s just to the left of the window).
One thing that I’ve been absolutely in love with for some time is wall trim (or moulding or panelling, depending upon what you want to call it – I could find no absolute for the name). I’ve considered adding it in the living room but at this moment, with the dining room remodel imminent, it seemed to make more sense to just get this room right while we’ve got the opportunity. Kinda like this…
Gorgeous, no? I feel like the room needs a bit more architectural interest in it and with all the art that will be gracing these walls, adding wall trimΒ will make the art more of a feature. I’m quite excited about doing this as I love this look so much.Β From everything I read, this isn’t a terribly difficult look to create yourself, just an awful lot of cutting and measuring but the end result will hopefully mean a much more interesting space.
We’ll keep it fairly simple (we don’t live in a Parisian apartment after all and Edwardian properties were more classical than ornate) so I’m considering something along these lines although the squares will be larger as in the picture above…
I also want to paint the fireplace surround in black and tile the inside of it with a marble tile – more about this later! It’s all about the details here peeps!
So really, just because the room will be pale doesn’t mean it won’t also be interesting! I’m hoping with these added details, the room will really look rather grand ;) What do you think of the plans? Are you in love with architectural details like this as well? Perhaps you are lucky enough to have them in your own home? I always thought I would do rather well with a gorgeous Parisian apartment… perhaps I need to move again… ;)
Image sources: Space Design and Development / DecorPad / Four Walls and a RoofΒ – all others my own.
Oh that will be amazing. I’d love to add more molding to our house too.
I love these sort of architectural details – and also feel like I wouldn’t ever want to live in a modern property as I find them quite soulless.
When we moved in to our Edwardian house there was just one cast iron fireplace (in the dining room). I have since restored and installed two beautiful fireplaces in the bedrooms and they are a lovely feature – and not as much hard work as you might think. I like to display candles, wooden logs, or old glass bottles in the grates of the fireplaces to add some interest.
As for coving in Edwardian properties, we have very similar original plaster coving in our front room as yours – but no original coving in any other room. I once read that some Edwardian properties only had the plaster coving in the front room as this was the main formal entertaining space (and the first impression for visitors) – so it could be that it was never put up in the other rooms.
One of my impending DIY jobs is to add wainscoting/wooden panelling to our hallway. There are lots of tutorials on Pintrest that make it look pretty easy, as you can just add wooden batons and then paint the surrounding wall area the same colour – rather than cladding whole walls with large sheets of wood.
Looking forward to seeing your further decoration adventures – I keep thinking that a Swoon Worthy book would be just lovely :-)
I love these kind of architectural details too. We only have the simplest of coving in our house (two miner’s cottages from 1870, so despite being Victorian I doubt there was much in the way of grandeur!), but we do have a dado rail (grr, why not picture rail?) in most rooms and some nice skirting boards. Unfortunately bad wallpaper and paint jobs mean some of these have been ruined and will need replacing which is a pain.
I do absolutely love the look, but one thing nobody tells you is that they are a pain in the backside to dust! Well, maybe it’s just the amount of plaster dust floating around our house at the moment that makes them look so bad, but I find they need cleaning too regularly for my liking! :-)
Look forward to seeing what you do. x
I can’t wait to see this come together! The panelling with light grey is going to look stunning. It’s going to be such a transformation to that room! xx
Hiya kimberley, our house is a little bit older than yours, and unfortunately everything got ripped out in the seventies ?? we’ve put somethings back but not everything.
your ideas for the room are going to look stunning, we sprayed our living room fireplace surround a few years back to black and it still looks well.
I love spray paint, its amazing stuff xxx
Love it! I’ve always loved this, but alas, our modern house with it’s little rooms would look silly all decked out with the kind of paneling I covet. I’ll just have to live vicariously through you ;)
I love the architectural details you are planning to add. It’ll be gorgeous. I’d love to have some chez moi too.
I love adding personality in the form of architectural panelling. Hubby and I have been talking about doing it in our lounge for a few years now, just can’t quite make a decision…since we also have dark walls, Railings by Farrow and Ball and it’s a fairly uninteresting space, the panelling would definitely add character. Not sure if you have looked on eBay for panelling, but you can get it cut to size and then paint it any which way you want. Although I’m sure you’ve done your homework on this one. Can’t wait to see the transformation. Sharon x
Yes! I love these kind of details, they make walls look so interesting, and I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to do it beautifully.
We currently have half wall panelling in our dining room which unfortunately isn’t the most attractive kind of panelling, and currently it is all beige (bleurgh) so I’m hoping it’ll look a tad better once I get around to painting the room. If we weren’t planning on knocking down a wall in the near future, I’d have thought about ripping out the panelling, getting the walls skimmed and doing something like the examples you’ve shown.
Anyway, can’t wait to see your progress on this room! I think it’ll look gorgeous and fill you with light-filled energy :-) xx
A giant YES TO PANELLING! (Or at least, that’s what my brain defaults to calling it). Oh I am so jealous you have the opportunity to add it to your own home. I would deck the shit out of our apartment in panelling if I could. Oh it’s so beautiful, and I read somewhere the reason so many people gravitate towards panelling is because it architecturally makes you feel more comfortable. Like the panelling is more securely holding the walls in place or something. I love it.
Ugh, another reason why renting is giving me high blood pressure! Deep breath. My time will come. #ConcealDontFeel
I was nodding my head to that whole first paragraph :) It’s those details that I love so very much too and it will be perfect in your space :) xo
Yes, architectural detail is a must for me. I am with you on your thoughts about newer construction and it is funny to say, our new rental does not have the charm of a home built in the early 1900s but compared to the lack thereof in newer homes I would take 80s construction any day. This was one of the older homes we could find in our city in a good location and in our price range.