Perfect English Style
Imagine how different this bedroom would look – how much atmosphere and character it would have lost – if there were fitted carpet and a fresh coat of vinyl emulsion. Instead, the time-worn elm floorboards are bare, and later layers have been scraped back to reveal original paint, faded and mottled, but intensely evocative and romantic.
Perfect English Style
Patina
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here are many ways to ruin the atmosphere and period feel of an old house. You can strip out the original windows and replace them with double-glazed uPVC replicas.You can prise up floorboards and stick down new ones without holes, gaps or inconvenient slopes. Uneven flags can be replaced with smooth limestone that lies perfectly straight and flat. And if you want to be thorough, you can hack off old lime plaster with its waves and wobbles and soft corners, and replaster with gypsum, being sure to get sharp right angles by using metal corner strips. If you do any or all of these things, you will have lost something irreplaceable. Patina, as well as the craftsmanship RETIREMENT
today
Simon Brown ©Ryland Peters & Small
of the past, is what you throw away. Patina describes the alterations to the surface of a material that occur over time through exposure to the elements, or through use. As a term of approval, it is applied to materials that are robust enough to last and continue to look beautiful – usually naturals such as stone, wood and leather. A plastic garden chair will acquire a different finish if left outside for long enough, but the effect would probably not be described as patina. Old
buildings acquire patina, both inside and out, and being careful to preserve it is the difference sensitive restoration and over-restoration. In the antiques trade, the patina of a piece of furniture is a key element of its desirability and value. If it is wood, it will have acquired a depth of colour and sheen conferred by generations of dusters and polish. A painted piece dating from the 18th or 19th century may have been worn bare around its handles, its colours may have faded, its
