Fleur de lis painted wall border 1900s & 1920s

[masraum]

Interesting. We're working on buying a home that is quoted as being built in 1920. The dining room has a fleur de lis pattern painted at the top of the walls.



I've been surfing other old homes for sale in the general area and found a home that was built 20 years earlier and ~30 miles away. This one has the same pattern painted just above the chair rail.



I think I'll be taking a couple of detailed photos and tracing the pattern so we can duplicate it if we ever need to.

[jyl]

that would look great in silver or gold too

[fintstone]

You can find lots of Victorian fleur stencils like those online but there were so many different ones that it would be difficult to get an exact match. Making your own would probably be the best choice.

[Zeke]

Many times that's a wallpaper strip.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Many times that's a wallpaper strip.

That's what I expected too, and that may be the case. In the home that we're looking at the downstairs ceilings are very tall so I wouldn't be able to get a close look without a tall ladder.

But the pics aren't giving away any seams or edges. Or do you think the entire wall is covered in white wallpaper that has the pattern an the top?

These are pics from the inspection where the guy noted cracks in the wall due to settling. That's why there's a red mark in the one.

[john70t]

My understanding is vertical cracks are okay.
Settling in one area of the foundation.
Can be fixed with basement joist blocking to spread the load across the entire perimeter. Interior supports can also be added.
Also fix outside yard drainage and downspouts flowing into the foundation. Need to divert it away.

Beware of horizontal cracks. That equals total shift.

[stevej37]

The house I grew-up in had the same pattern in the kitchen.
It ran above the cabinets on two sides of the room...there it was wallpaper strip...about 10 inches tall.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by john70t

My understanding is vertical cracks are okay.
Settling in one area of the foundation.
Can be fixed with basement joist blocking to spread the load across the entire perimeter. Interior supports can also be added.
Also fix outside yard drainage and downspouts flowing into the foundation. Need to divert it away.

Beware of horizontal cracks. That equals total shift.

This is pier and beam and the inspection showed that things were in pretty good shape underneath the house with modern hardware despite the house being 100 years old. Of course, that didn't involve any of the fancy digital measurement of things like when you get a foundation quote.

Yes, yard drainage is something that came up in the inspection as well.