All that glisters....

"All that glisters is not gold,

Often have you heard that told"

How true, for had I my own Duchy or were I a Russian oligarch I probably wouldn't give a second thought to splashing 24 carat gold across the walls and ceiling like it were paint (forgetting that when it comes to gilding, less is more). However, the challenge with pulling off the project of WBP (and quite a fun challenge really) is to achieve the look on a budget. So often people who attempt to do this end up with plasticy imitations, tacky eyesores to behold (one does not merely grab a can of dazzle spray paint off the shelf at the hardware store and glitz up the coffee table in one's drawing room).

Above: Alchemist trying to create gold.

There must be, I thought to myself, an acceptable solution somewhere in the world of high end paints, metallic oxides that gave a very close approximation of gilding without the crippling cost. Luckily I did not have to resort to the dark art of alchemy.

I came across 'Dutch Gold', also known as schlagemetal. This is gold coloured metal alloy. Most golds are a combination of Zinc and Copper (Brass). Some are a mixture of Copper and Tin (Bronze). Others are a mixture of three or more metals. The more zinc the yellower the gold. Compositions usually range from 88% Cu/12% Zn to 84% Cu/ 16% Zn. 

Above: Raw Copper (Cu).

Below: Raw Zinc (Zn).

 Below: Tin (Sn).

Many paints use suspensions of these compounds to recreated a gilding look. The are several companies that include a metallic range. Some we found were:

Porter's Paints

Peter Fell Paint

Ralph Lauren 

(as Peter said "Is there anything Ralph Lauren doesn't do")

& Modern Masters

We are having family bring over some samples of the Modern Masters paints over from the US in March when they visit. The one we think may be suitable is Pharaoh Gold, closely followed by two others:

Pharaoh Gold 

Rich Gold

Olympic Gold

Between these we should be able to choose one which works. And they come in gallon pots, not just 30ml bottles like Martha Stewart's gold paint.

Here are two examples of how we wish to gild the Ballroom and The Music Room. We may also use a little in the gold drawing room. The rest of the house will be left alone.

 

Update 1 April 2015

We have now painted a sample of each of the paints and are very happy with the one on the left, which is Pharaoh's Gold. So, we will be going ahead with this paint in the Ballroom, Music Room, Gold Drawing Room, and perhaps the Dining Room...

Water Spouts and Rain Heads...

My discovery of the down pipe on the Adelaide Art Gallery got me thinking about the other details of the gutter systems. Willowbrook Park has three water supplies, which is very handy. Firstly we will have roof water for domestic use. The quality of rain water in rural NZ is very good, and the manor house has a large catchment area. We are using slate shingles instead of lead or glue and chip tiles which would taint any water making it non-potable. Secondly we are connected to the town water supply, and thirdly we have a bore down to an underground river, which doesn't run dry even in droughts and will be used for farming and irrigation purposes.

With the large catchment area of the roof, we have to have not just gutters and down-pipes, but also large rain heads to cope with large volumes of water, and the rain heads themselves must also have an overflow hole or spout to push excess water away from the house if they overflow.

Determined to customise even these, instead of having a steel box on the wall, we are looking at a variety of iron and copper detailed rain heads, and also holes and spouts. As WBP has ended up having a slight lion theme to it (the front entrance, the courtyard fountain, the terrace fountains and the door knockers) I think having a lion detailed on the side of the rain-heads, with its mouth functioning as an overflow spout would be rather fun and fitting...

Below: Our rain heads have to be fairly large as they sit at the confluence of 3 slopes...

The importance of a decent rainhead:

There are a variety of other traditional shapes...

There are even modern versions of gargoyles, whose purpose was to shoot water away from buildings from the gutter line...

with complementary fittings at the lower end of the down pipes...

We won't be using these obviously, as the water goes straight into a filter and sterilisation system, and then into two large underground tanks. But they are very decorative.

Pictures of copper rainheads taken from www.rutlandguttersupply.com