Burgman Building Restore: More Frescos and Landscape restoration continues

Well you know me, never satisfied. It kept bugging me that the ceiling in the Garland Parlor seemed too simple given the artistry on display elsewhere. The simple blue sky seemed well, just too simple, so off on another 'investigation.  In looking at the ceiling the paint seemed thicker in one corner and dental picks and blades in hand I began to carefully check the crackling that was evident in that area and well...as they say...here we go again.

As I suspected there was a top bordered wall design panels, It has a floral theme similar to the frieze. Still more conservation work to do, but it looks like I can get enough to create pattern that will allow me to replicate this detail. It appears they had a paint failure in the ceiling at some point, maybe a leak and the ceiling was scraped and the blue ceiling put on, for whatever reason , laziness perhaps, the painter didn't scrape one corner which  probably had firmly attached paint , or MAYBE they felt someday someone might come along to restore/recreate this feature?

So now we have another project.

Meantime outside we have been busy transplanting flowers and bused and starting the fence install around the area where the vegetable garden will be. We plan on replacing the brick edging with stone.

We also added a dry creek with a dry well under it because we are installing gutters on the carriage garage which will direct water away from the side wall of the garage.

Busy times around here.

"Blue Sky" Garland Room, The Burgman Building Restoration

As we remove the latex we are able to see some of the ceiling

While winter is upon us, we have been working diligently away on the upstairs rooms of the residence. One of the rooms of primary concern is of course the Garland Room, This is the main reception room of the residence and was the are where normal guests might have been met and entertained. The grand Persian Parlor probably reserved only for the 'best guests" lay beyond  a pair of double doors, alas missing, though it is my hope to locater suitable replacements or we will do an elegant portiere treatment.

This shows the size of the frieze

This room is nicknamed the "door room". for a relatively small room 12x12 square and opens to four other spaces (and it has a window opening) so actual wall space is limited. As a result the artisan who dis the painting focused the eye upward in an attempt to visually expand the space. A "garland' of flowers and leaves, a Frieze that extends a little more than two feet down. There is a small gilded strip of wood used as a handing rail at the top.

Fine artistry is evident

The question always has been what did the ceiling look like? The "decorators" that owned the building for several years elected to paint the walls up to the frieze in a rather haphazard fashion using a color not that close to the original green of the wall. The ceiling they simply scraped and painted. FORTUNATELY they did  a crappy job and  parts of the original painted ceiling are intact under a layer of cheap latex paint.

Can you believe ANYONE would do this, much less someone 'claiming' to be a decorator?

This room suffered the additional indignity of having a closet built in it and Lattice work hung from the ceiling, "designing hillbillies" comes to mind every time I recall the arduous task of removing this hanging "decorator" mess.

So after some careful removals of the latex  we know more than we did. 1.) The ceiling was treated to a blue sky treatment. 2.) There was circular floral band  of smaller delicate flowers about 3 1/2 feet in. and 3.) There was a center plaster ceiling medallion that was 26 inches across. 4) There was a chair rail at 34 inches and a small border of flowers above and below it. 5.) The wall below the chair rail  was painted a darker green color

Now we have to decide how best to proceed. We maybe have 20 percent of the ceiling paint intact and the thought is to conserve it, and in paint the rest. We will reinstall the chair rail and restore the floral design, re-gild the small hanging rail and lastly try to find what we think would be compatible ceiling medallion in the same size.  At least we have a conservation plan.