Apr 15, 20203 min read

Marvellous Morris

Victorian properties are my favourite houses to work on and theres a lot of them in Sheffield.

Filled with features like the big sash bay windows, deep cornice with high ceilings and not forgetting the beautiful staircases.

When we get a decorating project to paint and wallpaper a Victorian property in Sheffield I really get excited.

This particular decorating project we undertook was in Millhouses, Sheffield. The client wanted just about all the interior rooms re decorated and a bit on the exterior.

We made a big difference in the rooms as we stripped off the old wallpaper and Anaglypta, prepared the hell out of all surfaces, cross lined the walls with Wallrock fibre liner and he painted to perfection.

Wallrock fibre liner works really well on old crumbly walls with crack and other imperfections. Because its a fibre and not a pulp paper it knits the hairline cracks together and is really tough.

You can find out more about Wallrock fibre liner on on of my other blogs here.

But it was the porch, hall, stairs and landing that I was secretly looking forward to. The customer wanted to go full on arts and crafts style with a William Morris and Co. design. which was found by looking through the latest Morris & Co. collections at the Drew Decor Store in Sheffield.

The customer was big on Morris and wanted the pure honeysuckle and tulip design. Pure honey suckle and tulip by Morris and Co. is elegant in design and colour, this gravure printed wallpaper has been produced using mica and metallic effects and was inspired by Morris watercolour paintings of Honeysuckle from 1876. The Morris & Co. studio created this new artwork with fine ink, pencil and watercolour. This design is also available as a printed fabric and embroidery of the same name all available at the Drew Decor Store.

Underneigth the dado we installed an Anaglypta the suited the style of the property and wallpaper design.

We then painted the Anaglypta wallcovering in a durable Eggshell finish to make the below the waist area bomb proof from those miss guided suitcases, Children's paw prints or excited dogs!

Here is the staircase in its full glory. William Morris would be proud of.

The finished look. Morris & Co. wallpaper above the dado and Anaglypta below. Both available along with other designs and colour ways at the Drew Decor Store.

Here is Sam, crucial team member of Drew Decor applying a undercoat to the spindles. As you can see at this stage the walls have been striped, prepared and PVAed. Obviously Radio 2 or Radio 4 on (standard operating procedures).

At this stage the preparation is out of the way and Wallrock fibre liner has been applied to the walls before Anaglypta has been installed under the dado. Once the Anaglypta has been installed the colour can then be applied to the wallcovering.

The final thing to do before the Morris and Co. wallpaper can be hung is the wood work. Once undercoated, two coats of Satinwood can be applied to the door frames, skirting boards and dado.

Here are some before and after images. We had to sand the handrail back to bare as there had been a water based stain previously applied which was flaking off. Oil based products are always better on handrail because it will set rock hard. Water based products can be scratched off with your finger nail, no good for your handrail.