Room Makeover – French Friday

I had in mind this understated little room in Vaux le Vicomte when redesigning the dining room. Well….at least I have panels now.

In the 1980’s many houses in Perth were built with what was then known as “Feature Brick Walls”

It was basically a clever ploy by the builders to have large expanses of brick wall left unplastered, and then claim it gave some sort of “country” feel to the plan. It didn’t.

Our dining room. Note the exquisite “feature brick”

We are particularly earthquake free in Perth…I will have to tell of the terrible “tremor” of 1979 another time. Hence Perth is peculiar, as most houses are fully brick inside and out.

Our home is no exception. We bought it to house a large family and had to live with the “exposed brick”. It was a boon when the kids were little. They could throw food up and down the walls, bash the chairs against them and sometimes their heads, and leave no mark. The downside is that we always hated exposed brick.

The Panels – actually internal feature doors, as all I got was looks of blank incomprehension when I asked for “wall panels” at any shop. “Yer mean plasterboard mate?” was the closest I got as a reply.

So at last, now that I have a few spare days, I determined to change our brick wall into French paneling. This sequence of photos shows you how I got there in the end. I am still just deciding whether to fill the top panels in fabric inserts, a la the French style, or hand paint some matching Renaissance designs to complete the effect. Apologies for the blurry photos. Actually doing physical labor brought on an attack of the palsy.

The panels propped against the wall. Already I feel the joy of not seeing the brick we have lived with for 15 years.

One wall attached! It only took me two days to get to this point. (I did have to paint everything first though!)

Getting closer! Just one upper panel to complete.

Where we are now. Panels are finished but I still need to complete the upper inserts. My nearest and dearest suggests a discrete fabric insert. I am for a Florentine arabesque. What do you think?