Trend or travesty: Plaster ladies
‘If they’re original I love them. If they’re fake I hate them.’
Readers, we need your help again. This time, on behalf of my friend Mia, she of the expensive mega trend and of the above quote. It relates to her new house in South London, an amazing building site early Victorian Coach house – yeh with character, original features, all that. I got a tour of it just before Easter. It’s still at the early bit of renovations when all of the budget seems to be going on damp problems and roof replacement, but despite that it’s totally exciting, not least because of the controversial stairs.
Those plaster ladies! Here, have a good look up close…
There is a lot of twiddly-ness going on there with the four graces so understandably there’s a massive decorating dilemma at hand. Do you keep them? Do you remove them? Put it this way, if they were added in the 80’s does that cloud your opinion of them? Nobody knows the answer to that by the way.
My thoughts are that they could look sort of fabulous when the whole wall – dado, ladies and all – is painted one great colour. But what do you think? Please do leave your thoughts below.
Paint the background Wedgewood matt charcoal/black and leave the ladies white. If it looks terrible you can always paint over them.
It’s true that if someone said ‘they are original!’ It does make you think differently. However, personally, original or not, if I don’t like them I wouldn’t want to keep them. I think if you paint it all one colour (a dark one personally) it could work but I’m not a fan of them. It may be where they are. May look better elsewhere? If possible
To chip off and keep ( probably not)
Don’t mind a strong textured wallpaper on stairs there but plastered ladies ?…. Not for me ! 🙂
I agree–paint them the same color as the wall. Neutral matte. I’d consider a shade or two off the color of the wall above the dado. It may then register simply as texture? If they are, in fact, contemporary, I’d crack a bottle of champers, blast the radio and have a go with a mallet!
A trend too far I’d say.
Ooh wonderful, thanks for leaving your thoughts. It’s tipping one way at present…
I’d try living with them and if they didn’t drive me nuts I’d keep them. I always feel these things take time. Strangely they’re growing on me already.
I know what you mean and that’s the best measured approach. I had some textured wallpaper in my house when I moved in, which I’d assumed I’d remove until a friend suggested not doing so. I now quite like it.
If in doubt how about keeping your options open? Depending on the overall look that you’re going for you could put a construct of panelling over the ladies, up to the dado and make sure it’s seamless, to give it that lovely shabby chic, vintage look (I’m talking current trend panels, not 1970’s bad!). Then paint the panelling and dado one shade so it looks like it always was there and above a tone of the same colour. That way you get a modern look and preserve the hidden ladies just in case they are priceless (although, let’s face it probably not!) I hope you are seeing what I mean!