So the ceiling is finished, right? Wrong!

A couple weeks ago Phil Carroll, from the company Flying Colors, put his final touch on the atmospheric ceiling, his signature. Although the flowers and vines are finished, there is still more to be done. See the plain pink area between the plaster crown molding (ornamental molding along the edge of the ceiling) and the vines? This area is going to be filled in with faux moldings, which we can see hints of in a historic photograph.

You may recall that the formal dining room also has faux molding on the ceiling, but it is not as ornate. In the Central Parlor, we are going to copy some of the original cornices from the Grand Salon and use it as our model for the faux molding.

After printing out pictures of the Grand Salon molding, Phil is using a light box to trace the image and create a stencil. One tool he is using to help with the consistency of his shapes is a French curve, which is like a ruler only it has different curves that you can trace instead of just a straight line.

Once he has traced out his pattern, he will cut the pattern out of plastic which can then be placed on the ceiling and painted over, rather than doing each individual shape by hand. Can you see from the picture why it is called egg and dart molding?

This is a photo of color samples Phil as created for our Director and Curator to choose from. We can’t wait to see this go up in the Central Parlor. Keep on rolling, Phil!