THESE ARE VICTORIAN DOOR BACK PLATES. Until very recently, they were buried under 120+ years of paint, so thickly coated that their exquisite patterns were completely obscured. Not any more. We got them off the doors, and Marion went at them with dangerous chemicals, brass brushes, rags and fierce determination.
The doors to which they were once attached are being sanded, scraped, puttied and painted. These doors have worked hard over their long lives, and their scarred history will definitely continue to show through, but now they will be a crisp white with a slight sheen. And they will be reunited with the handsome backplates above as well as the original black porcelain doorknobs, beautifully, gleamingly plain in design—and apparently indestructible, with not a scrape or crack on any of them.
This is just one small part of a big project consuming too many waking hours these days. It’s also why there is no recipe today. There will probably be one next week—there’s a simple dish I’m dying to try. But there will also probably be more weeks like this ahead, with no food, but with what I hope will be at least semi-interesting stories. Please bear with us.
Those are gorgeous! Sounds like one of those projects that you’ll be SO glad you did, although the doing can be somewhat tedious at times. Really worth it, though. Fun read — although we’ll take all the recipes you can dish up, nice to read about things like this, too.
How neat!
It is always good to have multiple interests. Those turned out really pretty.
So, so gorgeous! I brought an old painted door from Juniata St. with us to Texas, intending to strip/sand etc, primarily to have the old brass back plates and door knobs that are great, but not like your beauties!!! (13 years late…still not started!).
Beautiful! The doorknobs sound wonderful, too.
Looks amazing Marion! What did you use? Don’t laugh but I recently saw someone use a crockpot to slowly remove years of paint off hinges. Nice alternative to chemicals.
Thanks, everyone! Melody, Marion used Jasco Premium Paint and Epoxy Remover. We got it at The Home Depot. Toward the end, she used mineral spirits and a brass-bristled brush for little stubborn bits stuck in the detailing. When they were cleaned, she applied a few coats of spray satin-finish polyurethane to protect them from the elements.
Very cool! How did you come to realize these buried treasures existed?
Kendra, we could see their overall shapes under the paint and had seen similar backplates in old houses. What we couldn’t tell is what the actual patterns would be.