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Wylie House Stenciling Project

Bloomington artists John Thom and Jeff Thom, owners of Florentine Finishes, visited Wylie House Museum for the first time in June 2001. They fell in love with the house and offered to donate their time and talent to help us create a more authentic interior design. It was agreed to start with the parlor. They conducted research to determine what wall treatments were typical of the 1830s in the Midwest, and learned that either wallpaper or paint (stenciled or not) would be appropriate. We agreed that the Wylies, coming from the East, might well have chosen stenciling and decided to use that technique in the room. Working from a photograph of another period house in which stenciling had been discovered under many layers of wallpaper and from a book that documents historic stencils, John designed a beautiful all-over stenciling pattern that gives the effect of wallpaper.The Old Fashioned Milk Paint Company donated the marigold yellow paint that was used as the base coat. Three colors were used for the stenciling, as was typical of the time period. The images presented here document the two-week project from start to finish, and will give you some indication of the transformation. We hope you will visit soon and see for yourself what a wonderful difference this project has made in the house.

We would like to express our most sincere gratitude to these talented artists for their generous donation to Wylie House. We look forward to working with them again on further projects.

Click on the thumbnails to get a larger view of each picture.

July 14, 2001. Jeff Thom begins to apply marigold yellow milk paint to white plaster walls. John, after carefully measuring the room, begins drawing and cutting stencils.

Cutting stencils is painstaking work. The room is measured and stencil proportions are figured out, then the pattern is drawn onto special stencil paper and cut out by hand.

Old Fashioned Milk Paint comes in powdered form and has to be mixed with water before use. Here, Jeff is working the powder through a sieve to attain a smooth consistency.

This photo shows Jeff mixing red paint for stenciling the bottom border that you see, just begun, in the background, while John works on designing another stencil. Hanging from the mantel for safekeeping, you see the swag stencil that was used at the top of the wall.

Here John has begun to apply the first of the vertical stencils, in green.

This photo shows the top swag (unfinished), the green vertical pattern, and the bottom border (unfinished)

Jeff is holding up a test panel with a corn stencil on it so that they can decide if that is the stencil they want to use for the second of the vertical stripes.

July 26, 2001. This photo shows the completed stenciling. Notice the detail that was added to the swag and the addition to the bottom border.

Here is a view looking south into the parlor after the stenciling was completed and the furnishings were put back in place.

Another view of the finished project looking at the southeast corner of the parlor, and out into the entryway.