KALSOMINE

Here’s a sample of the wallpaper we’ve probably selected for the dining room at the farmhouse. I say we selected it, but out of hundreds of designs, this was the only one that was appropriate and appealed to me. (Well, there was another, but it turned out to be discontinued.) Big Mike the Contractor said he had never worked with wallpaper and he would leave it to us to replace it. I asked a niece, an interior decorator, if she knew someone who would hang it for us, and she said, “No one who’s alive.” The Sherwin-Williams store said they knew of only one person who might still do it. Mike is contemplating doing it himself, as he has in the past, with his faithful assistant (me) at his side.

Today’s subject is “kalsomine,” however you spell it.  My grandmother Ina wrote the following to my dad in July 1933:

Available kalsomine tints, c. 1930s

Well, the week before June 25, Earl kalsomined the two big rooms and the “north room.” That was done in canary yellow walls and light cream ceiling. The living room the same tone as before when you were here, and the dining room walls canary yellow and below the chair rail a jersey cream in flat paint, --- not done yet, no time. There are gold-colored grenadine curtains with the design in white, said by the “World’s Greatest Store” to be the latest thing. They are very pretty. The new living room curtains are grenadine with flowers, etc., in green and orchid. These improvements came from my Mother’s Day dollars. We all worked hard that week to get ready for a friend of Earle’s and Bernice’s who was driving through to Coeur d’Alene with her friend. They were to manage a camp there for undernourished children. One is a trained nurse and the other a teacher. Their plan failed, and we were disappointed but had the satisfaction of fixing up anyway – and that lasted.

As luck would have it, I found in other family ephemera this brochure for “Dekorato Wall Tints – A Sanitary Cold Water Kalsomine,” manufactured by W. P. Fuller & Co. It’s undated but probably from the ‘30s. So amazing what people will keep! [See tints above.] Here’s an excerpt from the brochure – “Directions for Mixing:”

Add sufficient water to the Dekorato dry powder to make a stiff paste, stirring until all lumps are dissolved, then add sufficient water to make it of the proper consistency for brushing. After mixing, Dekorato should be allowed to stand at least one hour before using. Best results are obtained when the mixture is allowed to stand overnight. If it appears to have jelled too stiff for brushing, simply stir well and it will return to its former consistency without the addition of more water. A five-pound package requires about four pints of water and will make about one gallon of Dekorato ready for use. One pound of Dekorato will cover about one hundred square feet on a smooth hard surface. When the walls are rough or porous it will take from 20% to 40% more. KW

SHADES OF WHITE

From living room, across dining room, into kitchen

It’s time to pick paint colors for the farmhouse – at least, we think it is. The living room, dining room, and kitchen need to be painted as well as a shade of white chosen for the kitchen cabinets. I was stressed about making choices for a while, but then I realized I didn’t need to re-invent the wheel even if Sherwin-Williams did buy Columbia Paint, our original company. I’ll just take my Columbia Paint colors to Sherwin-Williams and ask them to match them or suggest a similar line. Problem solved.

In 1945, my dad had returned to the farm and evidently while Grandma and Grandpa were away visiting relatives, he decided to do some interior painting – or maybe Grandma asked him to. His brother, Earle, was a shop teacher who also worked as a painter on the side, and he provides the following advice, written from Idaho Falls on January 7, 1945.

Uncle Earle in 1953 (57 years)

You will find it difficult to get paint in anything but white [because of WWII], therefore, let me give you some instructions on tinting the white: If you choose an off-white, get a pound can of burnt umber – or a small tube will do – and use about ½ teaspoon to one gallon of paint. If you wish it to be a little more off, add more burnt umber – a very little at a time – and stir well, pouring the gallon back and forth by using two containers. This mixes it better than any other process. In tinting paint, always add the color a little at a time. Of course, you see why. Use the “Colors in Oil” tints. Any brand will be o.k.

In case you do not want the off-white color and prefer the ivory, get some Raw Sienna color and add it a little at a time until you reach the right shade. I prefer light ivories. I’d mix at least one gallon of the enamel for both rooms. It is always smart, when you have to tint paint, to tint enough for the job, as it isn’t so easy to mix to a tint afterwards. It can be done though, by saving a sample of the original tint.

The great advantage of doing your own tinting is that you can get the exact tint you want. If you buy ready mixed tints you get only standard colors, and all in between shades are left out. [I can attest that this is no longer true!] I never buy any other colors except whites and do my own tinting. It is a lot of fun [I’ll bet!!] and if one is careful he can get exactly what he wants.

I expect my dad kept this letter because he found it entertaining. I can hear him chortling away.

I remember my dad saying in a tone of disdain that if my aunt had her way, everything would be painted in a shade called “Princess Ivory.” I researched that color just for the fun of it and discovered such a shade in the Behr line (here). I also recall that back in the day, those tinted paint shades would get darker as time went on. KW