Pros/Cons of 'accidental' exposed stone wall in bedroom? (Solid stone walls, old house)

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I think it would look good left exposed. We did similar with the chimney breast in one bedroom, hacked off the plaster, cleaned up the stone and had it pointed.

The stone work is "ugly" as it was never intended to be seen but I think it has it's charm and place in the house. 

-taff

Once it's been pointed I'd leave it as it is....I like that kind of look

ST1991

-taff said:

Once it's been pointed I'd leave it as it is....I like that kind of look

Thanks Taff!
This was my initial plan, but some of the edges need some 'help'. There are holes at the top of the wall leading directly into the loft, and around the window isn't the neatest looking (plus we need to pop some mortar around the UPVC window fittings anyway as they are currently attached to nothing at all...!)
I quite like the idea of only applying 1 or 2 thin layers of limewash, just so that it 'blends' a little better with the repaired bits around the edges, and to give it some overall finished look but keep it rustic looking

-taff

I was watching one of those improve a house for more money type shows and saw this, I thinkit look lovely and it's the same kind of thing, it has a white wash over the top. I know it's a kitchen but....

RelievedSheff

I think I would just repoint it and leave it exposed as well. Makes a nice feature there.

phoebe1989seb

Sorry to be the dissenting voice, I think it's fine for a kitchen - although in all but the humblest of cottages it was never intended to be exposed - but not a bedroom.

In our last-but-one house (a Georgian stone, thatched building), the previous owners had removed every last remnant of plaster, had all the stone repointed in lime, and left the whole lot exposed.....and this was a 2500 sq ft, five bed property, so an awful lot of stone!

Imho, it was sooooo dark/dreary, plus it harboured spiders and it was impossible to hang any art on the walls.
Obviously, if you're doing just one wall that last point wouldn't be an issue, but spiders lurking in all those crevices where I was sleeping wouldn't be for me..... 

I find the look a bit 'disney', but guess I'm too much of a purist, lol!

ST1991

It's good to have mixed feedback about it! A bit like marmite... but i think we could have the same discussion about anything and have mixed feelings as most house decor is down the personal choice. I'm actually somewhat suprised that so many people think leaving it exposed is a good idea - i certainly think it is, but i'm not usually one who has 'agreeable' ideas!

Side note - If someone is put off buying this house in the future because one wall has exposed stone (but can easily be covered if that is their taste)... i don't think an old house is for them

We are only doing it on this one wall as - #1 we only discovered the issue whilst decorating and i knew there was a damp problem in the plaster on that wall already, and want to put it right. Plus #2 we don't have the money to start doing redoing the whole house. Baby due in Nov/Dec so trying to tidy this up as much as possible now without discovering more problems (yet! lol)

We are still undecided on how much to leave exposed, but i am a huge spider-phobe and the ones i find in this house are the size of my hand... so regardless of what we do, the repointing will be as flush as possible not to make hidey holes, and it will be washed with a light colour to make spiders more visible... lol!

Thankfully our windows are big, and the bedroom is south facing, so regardless of the colour scheme it should always be fairly bright in there!

FreeBear

ST1991 said: the repointing will be as flush as possible not to make hidey holes, and it will be washed with a light colour to make spiders more visible... lol!

Get yourself a tub of Singleton Birch lime putty - It has a lovely creamy white colour to it. The tubs of Ty Mawr putty that are sitting here have a grey ting to them. Use the putty for pointing (mix in three parts sifted sharp sand), and you can also mix your own lime wash (50:50 putty & water). If you want to add a bit of colour, artists pigments work a treat. I used Cadmium Yellow (1g per kilo of plaster) in my kitchen. Blues & greens don't work too well with lime unless you can get it on the walls as soon as it is mixed, and even then, there is a chance that the colour will fade.

Tip for lime wash - Apply in very thin coats and brush it out well. Let it dry for a day or two before putting a second coat on.

If it goes on too thick, it will crack and flake off as it dries.

ST1991

Small update -

We hadn't done anything with this for a while as work and life just got in the way a bit.

In the last week, my partner has been chipping away at the old pointing bit by bit after work, which is taking much longer than we originally thought. The left hand side of the wall is still to go! Hopefully by Thursday/Friday this week we can start on the re-pointing and filling of holes before eventually tidying the whole thing up with finishing plaster on the rough bits and then we can start to layer up the lime-wash until we're happy with the colour.

I've bought the supplies from a local company that were working on a beautiful old house in Bristol, so i was able to just drive to them one day and they have pre-mixed everything for me ready to use (that might be the lazy way to do it... but doing this job DIY was a bit of a push as it was already without figuring out ratios and mixes, adding the right amount of fibres... etc etc!)

The room is far too dusty to sleep in any more, and we've got a new bed frame + mattress arriving on Saturday (hello super-king size!) as a very much well overdue replacement for an old double that's moved with me more times than i care to remember.
We've relocated to a mattress on the floor in our second bedroom (far from ideal for me, 6 months pregnant and suffering with back/hip pain - getting up and down from the floor is killing me!)
So we're aiming to get the majority of the 'dusty' bits and re-pointing finished this weekend... fingers crossed!

travis-powers

Apart from the window which looks out of place! That looks fantastic! 

 You are so lucky! It will be a sod for dust but well worth it!