paint and patience

Last week I got caught up in what should have been a small project-

strip the paint off the original, solid brass switch plate in the vestibule. Let me back up. I painted the vestibule late at night a few weeks ago. My Dad taught me how to paint, and when you paint, you take care to REMOVE switch plates and outlet covers and anything else that should NOT get painted.

The old house has a few original toggle switches (very cool, by the way), but over the years
they were all painted over. It makes me so mad! I was not sure what the end result would be, but with a little hard work, I knew that removing the many (seven to be exact) layers of paint from this original piece
could be rewarding.

I spent two hours one evening, using mainly my fingernails, to scrape paint off the pearl inlay,
push-button toggle switches. It was really fun. The middle switch was different and would not clean up,
so off I went to visit the architectural antiques guy. He saw me three times last week... with all three children in tow each time. You can imagine the store... super kid friendly, not packed floor-to-ceiling with
antique fixtures, hardware, etc. Ha.

First visit, out of frustration, was to buy a restored-by-someone-else brass switch plate. The next to return said switch plate and buy an old replacement toggle switch. The final visit (for this project anyway) to exchange the toggle switch for a smaller size. Nothing was standard size 93 years ago.

I wired the replacement switch myself. It was easy, actually, but once I had it wired I could not get it back in the wall. Needless to say, I had to call the electrician. He even had a hard time, but he got it done.

- though this is not a photo of the vestibule switches, this is what it looked like before -

- restored by ME! -
- we will eventually replace the left switch (pearl inlay is sadly missing) -

- you get an idea of the new paint color in this photo - still a bit of trim work to finish -

I may have been lacking patience with this process. I mean who PAINTS OVER something so pretty?
It's not a .97 white, plastic switch cover (though I wouldn't paint over that either), it is old and solid brass!

I want to be clear; our switch plate was not this shiny after I removed the paint.

Sensing my frustration, the architectural antiques guy asked me to bring in the plate. He took it to the basement, gave it a buff and there it was. Restored. I was in shock. I really didn't think it was possible, but I will never forget what he said to me. "When you start with something of true quality, that's what you get."

The old house must be something of true quality.


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