A rainy day spent in Spitalfields yesterday, admiring everything, including doors and shutters. The doors are glossy and their numbers engraved, with scant reference to brushed nickel, chrome or brass.
We stopped to examine the recherché combo of brown and cream gloss or cadmium yellow with old mustard a couple of doors down but the main theme, without being at all boring was
blue, bluey green, greeny blue and green, with a fascinating spectrum of subtle shades in between. They all go well with sooty brick. Some of the old houses have clung on to their peeling exteriors from past decades (not an accident), thus rendering colour choices absolutely unnecessary.
One
perfectly presented house on Fournier Street, an ash tray's throw from
the Ten Bells Pub on Commercial Street, was sparsely accessorised with a
couple of stone sinks on the pavement. Planted with rosemary, thyme and
erigeron, they looked very desirable and not very nick-able, due to
their considerable weight.
Was told at my local paint shop in Connecticut that high gloss paint is on the decline in the States because of "ecological awareness". Odd that Americans would stop short at glossy paint when we're so gung-ho about plastic bags, etc. Another of life's mysteries.
ReplyDeleteIs the land of the free no longer the land of the brown paper grocery bag?
DeleteDouble plastic, please.
ReplyDeleteugh, I want those troughs so badly.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, we yanks have odd priorities.
There must be some stone sinks kicking around in Mexico?
DeleteI'll have to mosey down to take a look. In the meantime, I plan to attempt a hypertufa version.
DeleteOne would have to look at this glossy vs. flat issue carefully -- not all glossy paints contain more harmful chemicals, and even those that do last far longer than flatter alternatives, leading one to wonder if ultimately they are the lesser of two evils.
ReplyDeleteOur thoughts are as one on this subj.
DeleteA very interesting article. Thank you. I have been observing the treatment of Spitalfields houses for the last thirty years and have seen a number of trends in terms of colour and finish. For the most part both bear little relationship to what had been used in previous centuries. The current manifestation is largely based on clever marketing by a major paint company and the readiness by many to believe everything that they are offered.
ReplyDeleteThe reality was somewhat different as can be seen in this essay entitled “The Colour of Chelsea” (for “Chelsea” read many parts of London and the Provinces): http://patrickbaty.co.uk/2010/10/20/the-colour-of-chelsea/
It has long been understood that a glossy finish tends to be more durable than a flat one. Furthermore, microscopic analysis of many hundreds of external surfaces has shown that such finishes were often employed. Nick Heywood makes the very good point that a longer lasting finish might be considered the lesser of two evils as far as environmental issues are concerned.
Was going to twitter on about my husband as a young man 'half-inching' a stone trough from a Derbyshire field (a feat which involved a 100 yard sprint from said field to open car boot.)
ReplyDeleteHowever will now have to go and look up Colourmans link. Far more i
nteresting.