Restoring A Border

I recently had the opportunity to work in a beautiful home in Boston’s Historic SouthEnd. The homeowners are lovingly restoring this 5 story brownstone, floor by floor, with only the top two floors left to go. This year, their home was to be on the Annual Southend Historical Home Tour, so the first three floors were very busily given the final touches needed.

My task was to replace a stenciled border that had to be painted. The owner very wisely had made a copy of the stencil that was original to the house, making my job much easier!

Here you see the border as I first saw it, painted a cream color. Now you are getting just a glimpse of all the beautiful woodwork that has been restored in this home! I painted the border a gold tone and sized for gold leafing. The owners said the border had a gold background and the design was a deep brown, so that was the look we were going for.

I applied the leaf, but knew it would need to be glazed to give it a much more aged look.

After a few layers of glaze, I felt I finally had the patina where I wanted it. Be sure to click on the pics to see the details.

With the stenciling in progress, I was good to go!

This was so much fun!

Here is the reveal:

So, now let me share some of the other wonderful moments while working here. There are so many fun details in this home.

All the doorknobs look like this.

A to-die-for kitchen, with 2 beautiful soapstone sinks, custom cabinetry to replicate what was there, and the original, restored and working dumbwaiter and intercom system.

Here’s a closer look at the hardware that operates the dumbwaiter and the intercom, which is a pipe system you talk into.

One of the best perks, was free parking out back! A rarity when working in Boston!

Not only were the homeowners two of the nicest people to work for, everyone working in this home while I was there was also very special and talented. I had the pleasure to meet the carpenter who has done all the custom cabinetry and woodwork; a painter, and a gilder working on a huge, antique mirror. I hope I am invited back again some time.