We were recently sent these pictures by a customer of their refurbishment of a Victorian house and wanted to share them as they are such a good example of just how much difference can be made to a sympathetic restoration project with carefully chosen plaster coving.
As you can see from the first shot of the empty room, the fireplace has been removed from the chimney breast leaving nothing more than a rectangular block protruding from the back wall, it also looks as though some built in wardrobes or similar have also been removed from the alcove at the side judging from the different coloured paint, which were probably built to even off the back wall, removing the feature of the chimney breast completely, leaving just a rectangular featureless room completely out of keeping with a Victorian property.
The classic Victorian plaster cornice is the swan neck profile, seen not only in decorative plaster mouldings but also in furniture and the exterior of buildings, so called because of the way it sweeps out across the ceiling, which makes it particularly striking when fitted around a chimney breast emphasising the shape and creating an elegant intersection with the ceiling. The Victorians would have no more left a joint like this without plaster coving than they would have left off the skirting boards or architraves.
The chimney breast is further accentuated by the addition of panel mouldings and even in the second picture when the walls are only undercoated you can see the transformation has begun, the final picture shows the finished decorated room, with the chimney breast once more not only the central feature, but also unmistakably Victorian in style.
The plaster cornice used in these pictures is LPC017, on of our range of large Victorian plain plaster cornices, other similar designs are LPC072, LPC073, LPC036, LPC030.
If you do not have the ceiling height of this room but like the style MPC065 our medium swan neck coving will give you just the same effect.
We hope this post has shown just how much difference the re introduction of period features such as plaster coving can make a massive difference to a room.
In the customer's words (Instagram):
"I won’t be taking credit for this however, @plasterceilingroses recommended a fantastic guy called Steve @fibrous_moulding_serviceswho specialises in Fibrous plaster installations. When he whipped out the hessian (and god knows what other magic tricks he used to tackle these wonky walls) it was confirmed that I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to do this myself without there being a murder committed within the family 😂 so THANKS STEVE you saved lives today 👏🏼"
