A Picture Rail Curiosity
See the bit-o-picture rail to the left?
That is the original location of the lost rail.
But it looks really odd. I mean, it is HIGHER than the horizontal door trim. Bo commented on this during his recent visit, and I had previously wondered about the same thing. But I never had a piece of picture rail on the wall to really see how this would look.
And it looks odd.
The window trim is taller than the door trim, and the picture rail dies into the trim in a visually comforting way.
But not with the door trim. I have an instinctive urge to pull the picture rail down a bit so its top aligns with the horizontal top of the door trim. Right?
In 1894 the room was almost certainly entirely papered. There would have been a wallpaper (fragments of which are in situ), a frieze paper, and a ceiling paper.
But what did the frieze paper do above the doors? Such paper was, as Bo informs, a standard 20-inches in height. Which is the dimension between the picture rail and ceiling. But between the ceiling and horizontal door trim is like 22-inches. WHAT infilled that “extra” space????????
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Perhaps the answer is that not all wallpaper friezes were the standard height. Most friezes at the top and bottom have horizontal designs that could be trimmed to shorten the frieze and of course, still have the same overall design. It is also possible that additional lengths of the frieze were trimmed, and pasted as an infill below the main frieze.
Are you allowing for a crown molding? I don’t recall seeing any mention of one, so there may not have been one originally…but adding one would allow you to put the picture rail where you think it looks right…
Crown molding is something not usually seen in houses of the era.
And what choice do I have but to install the picture rail in the exact original location? What choice!
What a conundrum…I knew that you had never mentioned a crown molding in your house, but there were some houses of the era that had them, mine being one. The “new” part of my house was built between 1886 and 1896, and does have some surviving crown molding in a couple of rooms. I am 99% sure that it is original, since the wall surface beneath it has never been painted or papered; also, the shellac finish exactly matches the original trim in the room. It was nothing elaborate, surprisingly plain considering the rest of the trim. Basically, it is just a simple 2″ maple crown, profiled much like the cheap pine stuff available at any home store today. I guess that, with all of the fancy wall and ceiling papers, they did not need or want a fancy crown that might detract from the paper. I admire your dedication to the historic narrative, but I think that you should do what makes you happy. This is your house now. Installing something historically accurate but annoying would be like wearing a pair of boots that are too small. You might learn to live with it, but it will always irritate you.
Hi Mike!
In my comment above I mention that crown molding was not usual for the period. I almost never see it in archival images of the period.
However I do not mean to suggest it did not exist. I have seen 1890s houses with crown.
Also, I doubt that the picture rail in the parlor would have looked odd when first installed. The architect would have certainly considered the rail in his overall scheme, and I suspect that the rail not aligning with the door trim would have been handled in a way now lost.
There is no way — no way, man! — that I would shift the location of the new rail from that of the original rail. I think when all is painted and done, all will look well. I hope! I do also love historical curiosities!
Most wallpaper friezes and borders in Victorian era wallpaper sets had horizontal areas, often matching on the top and the bottom. Therefore, if one wanted to shorten a 20″ frieze for a room with a lower ceiling height, it was possible to do without altering the design or total effect. Therefore it was also possible to decoupage these same pieces and extend the bottom of the frieze, and thereby fill in the space between the cross house door trim.
Ross, I knew you wouldn’t move it lower, that’s why I suggested such a thing. Sometimes, all that we need to make the right choice is a devil’s advocate to suggest something else 🙂
Were there different widths of picture rail? Or some kind of double rail for ornate purposes at different places in the room? (I know nothing about this time period)