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House interiors

Covroad said:
I remember the paraffin lamp to keep the pipe from freezing, that was one of my tasks in the house along with clearing the ashes out and building the coal fire , once the fire was going you pulled the damper plate out (which was up the chimney) to get the hot water ready.
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We used to have paraffin heaters as well as coal fires. We would walk to the local shops to collect a gallon of Pink Paraffin. Esso Blue was available elsewhere. It all seems so dangerous now. I think they were the cause of a lot of fires.
 
My trick at the weekend was to get the coal fire going in the room off the kitchen, when that fire was established and the water was warming up I would open the door to the middle room as we called it and with great care get a shovel full of burning coals and transfer the coals to the fire grate in the middle room and get the fire going in there .
 
I remember being frightened when the chestnuts on the open fire, roasting (like in the carol) banged. I sat waiting for the pop!. That picture is like some peoples' houses today. My wardrobe was a bit like those, I ended up with an another with just hooks but no rail, there is a name for them. It was a lighitish wood with an ornate top, was part of a matching suite. I got rid of my grandparents bedroom suite which I had inherited, only a few years ago. The Charity shop jumped at it plus a hexagonal folding fire guard come table come card table, that went before they could put the ticket on it. My neighbour worked in there. Mum had a china dressing table set with a pot with holes in for pot pourri only we didn't have that word then. As I said my mum also did the decorating usually with grandad then later with me. Mum did everything but the garden, so it never got done or not regularly. She even did her own oil change. Marley tiles a blast from the past. That showroom was a bit like the ones in my parents Good House Keeping books they had when they got married and never read. I read them from cover to cover. All back in fashion now. It covered fancy dress, charades to spectacles, furnishings, embroidery, flower arranging gas cookers, recipes, hay box cookery to practical goat keeping, first aid, you name it. I remember polish in a lilac tin from the Betterware man. Then we had the Tupperware lady and the Avon lady. Ding! Dong! Mummy mummy it's the Avon lady, said the TV advert, and we had ding dong chimes, ones of dad's fads. I could do a chapter on dad's fads.
 
Nico said:
I remember being frightened when the chestnuts on the open fire, roasting (like in the carol) banged. I sat waiting for the pop!. That picture is like some peoples' houses today. My wardrobe was a bit like those, I ended up with an another with just hooks but no rail, there is a name for them. It was a lighitish wood with an ornate top, was part of a matching suite. I got rid of my grandparents bedroom suite which I had inherited, only a few years ago. The Charity shop jumped at it plus a hexagonal folding fire guard come table come card table, that went before they could put the ticket on it. My neighbour worked in there. Mum had a china dressing table set with a pot with holes in for pot pourri only we didn't have that word then. As I said my mum also did the decorating usually with grandad then later with me. Mum did everything but the garden, so it never got done or not regularly. She even did her own oil change. Marley tiles a blast from the past. That showroom was a bit like the ones in my parents Good House Keeping books they had when they got married and never read. I read them from cover to cover. All back in fashion now. It covered fancy dress, charades to spectacles, furnishings, embroidery, flower arranging gas cookers, recipes, hay box cookery to practical goat keeping, first aid, you name it. I remember polish in a lilac tin from the Betterware man. Then we had the Tupperware lady and the Avon lady. Ding! Dong! Mummy mummy it's the Avon lady, said the TV advert, and we had ding dong chimes, ones of dad's fads. I could do a chapter on dad's fads.
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The Avon Lady reminded me of the old joke ‘Knock Knock, who’s is there ......Avon your doorbell is broke’
 
Covroad said:
My trick at the weekend was to get the coal fire going in the room off the kitchen, when that fire was established and the water was warming up I would open the door to the middle room as we called it and with great care get a shovel full of burning coals and transfer the coals to the fire grate in the middle room and get the fire going in there .
Click to expand...
Mum had a special shovel for that, it was quite rounded and flat,. Once she dropped the coals from the front room on to the rug in the middle room and scorched it. Mum would like the front room fire only at weekends as the sun would warm it! So we lived in the middle room. Are we going to back to those times?
 
Nico said:
Mum had a special shovel for that, it was quite rounded and flat,. Once she dropped the coals from the front room on to the rug in the middle room and scorched it. Mum would like the front room fire only at weekends as the sun would warm it! So we lived in the middle room. Are we going to back to those times?
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i think we are i am opening my fire place up again
 
Vivienne14 said:
Remember these ? We had a picture rail in the front room only. So we hung our brass porthole mirror and French cafe painting using these. A very useful little brass hook, which clipped on over the picture rail. Viv.

View attachment 173338
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Yes, I remember these we had a picture and mirror (on a chain) hanging over the fireplace.
I remember the mirror was very Art Deco 3 panel sections, I was always reluctant to move it.
 
mw0njm. said:
picture rails and dado rails are trending again viv. we had a big mirror hanging by chains like that oneon ours i had it untill i moved here in 1999. View attachment 173339 :grinning:

Dado & Picture Rails | Wickes

Elevate your walls with our range of dado and picture rails. Explore timeless styles and shop the collection at Wickes today.
www.wickes.co.uk www.wickes.co.uk
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My goodness those picture rails are very expensive!
 
Covroad said:
Yes, I remember these we had a picture and mirror (on a chain) hanging over the fireplace.
I remember the mirror was very Art Deco 3 panel sections, I was always reluctant to move it.
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We had glass lamp shades suspended on three chains. Some were quite beautiful I wish I had kept them. Nan had an art deco lamp in silver metal with a naked woman holding it. She had a lovely blue marble fireplace in her sitting room, ours was the mottled brown. My partner's daughter still has one in her rented cottage, it is cream with a green centre piece, they hid it with a huge TV, there is a grey one across the corner of their small kitchen, it is partially boxed in but everyone trips over the boxed in hearth still. It has the remains of an old overmantel above, maybe not the right word, you can see where it was a big piece of wood, with huge hooks spaced out. Their doors are like painted shed doors with an asp/sneck/latch.
Parents kept their mirror too it was oblong with the corners cut off with a glittery bit on one corner. Nan's was oval and had an ornate bit in the middle at the top.It was hung on the wall fixed with wooden rawl plugs.
 
nan and grandads miners cottage in Derby had a huge chiffonier in the living room, (IT WAS A UGLY THING):( a sideboard that whistled lol.it was her hearing aid in the draw a black fire place with tiles around it and a gas lamp like the one in the pic hung from the ceiling it fasinated me, and a big table in the middle covered in a wooly table cloth. no electric only gas and candles. and home made rugs on the floor and the,and a one arm sofa
1664178731051.png
 
mw0njm. said:
nan and grandads miners cottage in Derby had a huge chiffonier in the living room, (IT WAS A UGLY THING):( a sideboard that whistled lol.it was her hearing aid in the draw a black fire place with tiles around it and a gas lamp like the one in the pic hung from the ceiling it fasinated me, and a big table in the middle covered in a wooly table cloth. no electric only gas and candles. and home made rugs on the floor and the,and a one arm sofa
View attachment 173349
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Mum made the half moon Podged rug and my great gran made the rag rug out of my great grandad's old suits with a red flannel bit in the middle which was very effective. Nan had 2 stylish black long 'haired' wool podged rugs she put at bedroom doors for the draught and an oval rug in pink and green strips that were sewn together a bit like a race track with lanes, but filled in to the centre.
 
In our first house we had lino downstairs and floorboards upstairs with small mats by the bed to take the chill off your feet when getting out of bed. It was later when we could afford the luxury of fitted carpet
Saturday morning used to be the mass sweeping, moping, and polish the Lino, it was like an ice rink for a few hours after
 
Covroad said:
In our first house we had lino downstairs and floorboards upstairs with small mats by the bed to take the chill off your feet when getting out of bed. It was later when we could afford the luxury of fitted carpet
Saturday morning used to be the mass sweeping, moping, and polish the Lino, it was like an ice rink for a few hours after
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Never had fitted carpet, just rugs. The kitchen and bathroom were tile, almost like dairy tile. My mom would put plates on the floor to keep things cold. No frig!
 
I don’t know when the term “DIY” came into common use, but it’d been going on well before these magazines became popular in the 1950s/60s. We just didn’t use the name “DIY”. Remember the programme with Barry Bucknall ? We always watched it, B&W programme, no frills, just practical ideas and advice. Viv.
 

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Dear old Barry Bucknall, he trashed more Victorian and classical houses than the Germans did in the bombing raids. In the building industry, if anyone messed up on a job we would say “don’t worry, Barry Bucknall would be proud of that”.

He would say “look at that horrid solid wood panelled door, and dreadful brass door furniture. Let’s stick some hardboard over it and fit a ball catch”.

Another classic was “looks at this Victorian marble fireplace. Lets rip it out and cover the aperture with hardboard and fit a lovely twin bar electric firer”

He would stick Formica to solid oak tables and when he mess up cutting something he would say “never mind, here’s one I did earlier”

I am sure he was doing up a house in Handswoth and managed to burn it down?
 
Morturn said:
Dear old Barry Bucknall, he trashed more Victorian and classical houses than the Germans did in the bombing raids. In the building industry, if anyone messed up on a job we would say “don’t worry, Barry Bucknall would be proud of that”.

He would say “look at that horrid solid wood panelled door, and dreadful brass door furniture. Let’s stick some hardboard over it and fit a ball catch”.

Another classic was “looks at this Victorian marble fireplace. Lets rip it out and cover the aperture with hardboard and fit a lovely twin bar electric firer”

He would stick Formica to solid oak tables and when he mess up cutting something he would say “never mind, here’s one I did earlier”

I am sure he was doing up a house in Handswoth and managed to burn it down?
Click to expand...
I remember covering 6 panel hardwood doors with hardboard and adding a ball latch! Hind sight is 20/20 so they say. Our last three houses all have 6 panel hardwood doors, 7 feet high with 4 hinges and wonderful hardware. Never used Formica on tables though!
 
Barry Bucknall was probably the first tv programme that hoodwinked the gullible into desecrating a house. It was designed to be labour saving but far from it: it encouraged the DIY market and ensured that many homes lost their originality.
Folk I knew used to watch as an entertainment, rather than an instructive programme. This was due to his many botched or hamfisted effort efforts - some which were shown, others not screened but could easily guessed.
 
Covroad said:
In our first house we had lino downstairs and floorboards upstairs with small mats by the bed to take the chill off your feet when getting out of bed. It was later when we could afford the luxury of fitted carpet
Saturday morning used to be the mass sweeping, moping, and polish the Lino, it was like an ice rink for a few hours after
Click to expand...
Did you ever put your foot in the guzunder by mistake, it happened in our house.
 
One of the things we have noticed since we have been here is an explosion in DIY. Because of constructional differences in property, there are quite a few unusual tools, and also hardware items. One big DIY chain is owned by the owners of B&Q, so some common branding.
A good thing here, that may be spreading to the UK, is doors are sold ready hinged and framed. Same styles of doors as UK, from hardboard through to wooden panelled, but easy to fit. The standard door hinge here is a pin and socket type, pin on the frame, matching socket on the door. Between 2 and 4 are fitted depending on the door style, which means that the door can simply be opened wide and lifted off out of the frame. Useful for decorating.
One thing that is not common here is the 'Yale' type of spring latch. You don't shut yourself out here by pulling the front door shut with the keys on the kitchen table :) . Doors are locked here by turning a (Yale type) key on exit.
And paint. Arghh. The price over here is far too high for a lower quality. I have brought paint back from UK trips several times. (Thanks Brexit).
Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
One of the things we have noticed since we have been here is an explosion in DIY. Because of constructional differences in property, there are quite a few unusual tools, and also hardware items. One big DIY chain is owned by the owners of B&Q, so some common branding.
A good thing here, that may be spreading to the UK, is doors are sold ready hinged and framed. Same styles of doors as UK, from hardboard through to wooden panelled, but easy to fit. The standard door hinge here is a pin and socket type, pin on the frame, matching socket on the door. Between 2 and 4 are fitted depending on the door style, which means that the door can simply be opened wide and lifted off out of the frame. Useful for decorating.
One thing that is not common here is the 'Yale' type of spring latch. You don't shut yourself out here by pulling the front door shut with the keys on the kitchen table :) . Doors are locked here by turning a (Yale type) key on exit.
And paint. Arghh. The price over here is far too high for a lower quality. I have brought paint back from UK trips several times. (Thanks Brexit).
Andrew.
Click to expand...
Doors & window are all pre hung here. Doors are pinned and usually have two to four hinges depending on size and weight. 4 & 6 panel doors are most popular.
 
Morturn said:
Dear old Barry Bucknall, he trashed more Victorian and classical houses than the Germans did in the bombing raids. In the building industry, if anyone messed up on a job we would say “don’t worry, Barry Bucknall would be proud of that”.

He would say “look at that horrid solid wood panelled door, and dreadful brass door furniture. Let’s stick some hardboard over it and fit a ball catch”.

Another classic was “looks at this Victorian marble fireplace. Lets rip it out and cover the aperture with hardboard and fit a lovely twin bar electric firer”

He would stick Formica to solid oak tables and when he mess up cutting something he would say “never mind, here’s one I did earlier”

I am sure he was doing up a house in Handswoth and managed to burn it down?
Click to expand...
I think you are being a bit hard on poor old Barry. Lots of people wanted to improve their old homes and make them easier to clean by getting rid of all those Victorian nooks and crannies. We all wanted more light in our homes too so moved to Glass panelled doors. Who wants to be cleaning brass door knobs. All those hearths were drafty too. Much better gas/electric fires than bringing in coal or cleaning up ashes.
 
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