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srw

It's a bit more complicated than that...
Was there any point in Artex apart from covering up nasties? Was it a decorative look that people actually wanted. I'm not knocking it if they do/did, just genuinely curious.
Yes - people actually liked the swirly look, in the days when plain and clean was seen as dull, and period features were old fashioned.

You only need to visit a museum with Roman decoration or a 19th century stately home to see how taste varies.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Yes - people actually liked the swirly look, in the days when plain and clean was seen as dull, and period features were old fashioned.

You only need to visit a museum with Roman decoration or a 19th century stately home to see how taste varies.
My sister had a house with it back in the 70s. She also had faintly greasy shag-pile carpets on the floor which she had inherited from the previous owner. I didn't think it was a good look at the time, just a means of covering up some iffy lath and plaster ceiling above. It's quite difficult to get rid of without pulling the whole ceiling down, I believe, but pulling down a ceiling and stuffing up a new one really isn't a big deal unless you want to preserve some special mouldings. A bit messy, but simple to do.

Apologies, DIY looms large right now at Chateau slowmotion. I'm currently dealing with the consequences of ripping down a woodchip papered ceiling. Ah, Anaglypta!
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
We had (thanks to my dad, who liked 'em) polystyrene tiles on the living room ceiling.
None of the walls could have been straight (and the house was a council jobby, built in 1960) as there were always crooked bits near the edges.
Also, periodically, as we sat watching telly or whatever, a tile would float down from the ceiling, and we'd stick it in the kitchen till dad got round to putting it back up again :okay:
 

Julia9054

Legendary Member
Location
Knaresborough
We had (thanks to my dad, who liked 'em) polystyrene tiles on the living room ceiling.
None of the walls could have been straight (and the house was a council jobby, built in 1960) as there were always crooked bits near the edges.
Also, periodically, as we sat watching telly or whatever, a tile would float down from the ceiling, and we'd stick it in the kitchen till dad got round to putting it back up again :okay:
We had these in the bathroom (and a very modern avocado bathroom suite) Periodically used to drop off on you in the bath.
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
Polystyrene? It burns very well and gives off a satisfyingly large amount of dense black smoke. We cleared a site that had a few sheets of two inch thick polystyrene, as well as a few rolls of bitumen roofing felt. They went on the bonfire next to a housing development. It was a bright windy day, and a lot of people had their whiter than white sheets hung out to dry.
Not for long.
It was before I knew about the details of domestic life, and I really didn't understand what the fuss was about..
 

swee'pea99

Squire
I can't remember who was it told me about moving into their new house and letting the dog out in the back garden to let off some steam while they started sorting things out. Half an hour or so later they went outside to find he'd dug up half a dozen cats the previous owners had buried over the years....
 

slowmotion

Quite dreadful
Location
lost somewhere
One of my favourite hobbies is reading old newspapers spread under carpets in old houses. EDP from 1973 can be fascinating.
I've come across newspapers from the Fifties that were used by the builders for packing etc. It's slightly spooky to look at the advertisements of the day and imagine the the man who put it there. Well worth keeping.
 

Vapin' Joe

Formerly known as Smokin Joe
Horrid bloody stuff - but at least the only people that had to see it were inside the house. Far worse was the crappy fashion of stone cladding. Lovely Victoria red brick houses coated in pretend stone! How it was not illegal (preferably punishable by public flogging!) I will never know.
I get the feeling that laminated flooring will be another thing that will make an estate agent's heart sink in a few years when the novelty has worn off. Wood warps with time and plastic soon gets scratched and looks crap, especially when people don't fit it under the skirting boards and use that tacky beading instead. I bought enough to do a small room we use as an office when Focus DIY were closing a few years back and offering massive clearance discounts. It sat in the garage till just before Christmas when we gave it away to someone who had just bought her first home.
 
I had a call from new "neighbours" who had moved in a couple of streets away

They knew I was a Naval Medic and wanted advice on the contents of their loft!

The previous owner had half inched the majority of a field medical hospital including drugs like morphine

Quick call to the Medical Stores at Haslar who arranged for it all to be collected and launched an investigation into how it had arrived there
 
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