This isn’t really anything old, we just thought that part of the pattern created where some of the old paint came off with the wallpaper looked sort of like an “evil leprechaun.”
Giving the walls a closer look, we discovered that the blue and rust colors were actually covering other stuff below them. As you can see in this photo, there are areas of bright color peaking out that look like they’re in the shape of a flower.
This photo also has some bright colors in what looks to be another flower.
This is the area above the opening to the Sitting Room. We were wondering what the square looking areas were, and then remembered a story that our next door neighbor told us. In the 1910s, when Samuel and Mary Gibson owned the house, Mary had some work done on this level to “modernize” it. That work included faux painting all of the woodwork to look like oak, as well as having the columns installed between the Dining Room & Sitting Room and between the Sitting Room and Parlor.
We figured out that the square areas were where the old door frame once was that led from the Dining Room to the Sitting Room. When we brought this up to our neighbor, she said that, “Yes, that Mary had told her that originally there was a set of french doors between the Dining Room and Sitting Room, and there were pocket doors between the Sitting Room and Parlor.”
This is what looks to be an elephant.
The old furnace adjuster plate.
Behind the corner section, there was some interesting looking old wallpaper. Since the pipes were installed right up next to the wallpaper, it most likely predates the plumbing, which was installed around 1912.
Shot of the lower section of the corner.
Close-up of the upper part of the corner.
Detail of the old wallpaper.
Here, you can see some of the reflective parts of the old wallpaper.
Removing the upper part of the woodwork above the doorway.
With the side woodwork removed, you can see more of same wallpaper as in the corner.
Top piece almost loose.
Top piece completely removed.
Removing the woodwork from the other side.
There’s more of that old wallpaper.
Working on revealing more of that elephant that was hidden under the wallpaper & woodwork.
The rest of the elephant. Since there was originally about another foot and a half of wall there, it sort of makes you wonder what else may have been painted next to the elephant. I guess we’ll never know.
Detail of the elephant’s head.
I discovered that if you used a razor blade, and scraped at a certain angle, you could remove the top layer of blue paint to reveal what was below it. Here, is a bird (Belted Kingfisher?) sitting on a stump in the water with some cat tails.
Detail of the bird.
One of the spots where you could see the bright colors peaking through. A flower, with some leaves.
Another bird, in flight.
scraping off the blue paint to reveal even more.
A boat.
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