The Beast Named Ambivalence is Slain

That is right. We’re sick of all the indecision, so we put it out of our misery with brutal, decisive action. The beast has been slain, and the walls of the master bedroom will be painted. All of them. No half and half or accent walls. We want the cracks filled and the room to be light and airy. The time for progress is now.

I could go into a long, drawn out explanation of it all, but we think that this will be the best path. Moreover, we’re keeping two of the original dinning beadboard walls in a glorious, naked, and oiled state, so I can’t feel too bad about covering this wood up.

Gary, in one of the comment sections, suggested that I research the original treatment for walls like these. I haven’t done extensive research, but I can tell you what most folks did with walls like these, they covered them with tack & canvas wallpaper. This is all of the moldy, brittle shit we’ve been finding under the wood paneling, sheet rock, etc.

Here is a picture of our most recent find.


Apparently, to get a nice finished look, the original layer of tack & canvas wallpaper was put on before the base boards, door trim, etc. This has made removing it tricky. In a couple places, we’ve had to gently pry the boards out a little and pull the paper loose from the tacks with needle-nose pliers.

I’ve spent some time over at Enon Hall reading about the colonial style, face nailed boards. Mostly, I want confirmation that nails (or tacks) can be driven into the wood (at least flush with it) and painted over and still look nice. I’ve been won over, so all we have to do is scrub 100+ years of filth off the bare boards. This has been slow going. I you angle the brush the right way, you can scrub the canvas remnants off their tacks without too much trouble.


[Sorry this picture is so dark. I didn't realize it until I went to post it, and I'm too lazy to fix it now.]