“People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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Ya’ll seem to love yesterday’s look at the Venable/Sypple staircase, so let’s look at what else is cool about the house. Notice the wallpaper; Ornate but subtle. The Sypples found rolls of the original wallpaper in the attic, and they used it to repair a leak over the front door transom (below). Quite a difference, eh? That’s because the Venables heated the house with coal, and decades of black heat sullied the wallpaper’s bright gold. It didn’t do much for the other colours either.
no coal smoke
The Sypples found other wallpaper rolls in the attic. Note the matching framed art on either side of the fireplace below (there’s a closer shot further down). These are wallpaper samples from the attic. If the wallpaper still hangs in the house, it must be on the upper floor we did not tour. It would be dulled by the coal heat like the parlour walls, but as art, it is vibrant and fabulous. You won’t find classy wallpaper like these anymore.
wallpaper as art
closer
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