plaster work – Carlow Cornice

Update your sun room

On a sunny day like today all you want to do is to be outside. Unfortunately all days are not like this, summer can sometimes feel more like monsoon season on Ireland. So how do you create that outdoors-indoors feeling. Sun rooms are still popular both on new builds and as an extension, but often they feel like a flat pack with no character. Why not get some standout features and turn it too a beautiful room, fit for any purpose? Take a look below for some great inspo (all pictures from pinterest.com)

What a dream! This is more like an orangerie, taking you back to colonial India

Add a Gothic feel with the vaulted dome for a real WOW factor. We can make besopke mouldings for your purpose if you don't happen to have an excellent wood carver at hand — Add a Gothic feel with the vaulted dome for a real WOW factor. We can make besopke mouldings for your purpose if you don’t happen to have an excellent wood carver at hand

For a more modern touch, but non the less impressive, the skylights gives you all the air and light you need and the cornice and panel works gives you a real indoor feel

Want it greener? Team cornice and panel work with a green lush colour and plenty of low maintenance potted plants

Who says it must be off kitchen? I'd love it if this was my home office — Who says it must be off kitchen? I’d love it if this was my home office

Out of space? You can still have the sun room of your dreams, the painted wood and white panels makes this as elegant as any New England porch

Speaking of New England, why not go all in? French doors, naked hard wood floor and light blue

10 most beautiful ceilings in the world

A ceiling can be so much more than just a white page, it’s a blank canvas! Here at Carlow Cornice we can help you pick out Centerpieces and Cornice to make your ceiling a focal point in your home, and with the use of paneling work, the only limitation is your imagination.

The BBC listed the 10 most beautiful ceilings in the world during the week, and it’s definitely worth to look it up. See full article here.

Unfortunately none of the beautiful ceilings around Ireland made the list, but there are so much excellent plaster work all around the island. Much of this is getting restored today and we are very proud to be a part of conserving that cultural heritage

BBC1 — Castello di Sammezzano, Leccio, Italy

BBC3 — Solna Centrum Metro Station, Stockholm

BBC6 — Nine Bridges Golf Club, Yeoju-gun, South Korea

BBC7 — Heydar Aliyev Centre, Baku, Azerbaijan

BBC9 — Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, Temple of Heaven, Beijing

The art of running cornice

After yesterdays short interview on KCLR96FM we’ve been getting a few questions about the secrets behind running cornice. We decided to give you a bit of a sneak peak when Brian runs some bespoke cornice as a part of a restoration job in a Victorian house in Dun Laoghaire.It is a long process requiring not only exceptional skill but great patience. If the cornice has enrichments they are cast separately and fitted in situ.

The principle is straightforward, a perfect shape of the cornice and casting plaster, the details are trade secrets! Speaking of that, back in the day the trade secrets were kept close and often the doors would be locked as the craftsmen ran out the cornice by hand on the ceilings.

The story starts with some mesh for support and a layer of plaster

We pour the hand mixed plaster by hand

Slowly building the base

A shape is starting to be pulled through

A good few more layers added on and the design of the cornice has started to come through

Some closeups

Finished! All it needs now is a few days to dry out naturally and the to its off to its proper home.

If you have cornice that has seen better days, but you don’t want to loose the original designs, give us a shout on 059 9143930

Black Friday – Black plaster

As the Black Friday sales seems to be the hot topic of the day I put together some inspirational pictures of how to use black Cornice, Centrepieces and Plaster mouldings. I hope you find something you like, and if you’re not keen on the black, plaster can be painted in any colour you like

All pictures are found on Pinterest, great for inspiration for absolutely everything, find us there as Carlow Cornice.

Starting off with some opulent eastern dreams…

I love how you can see the dark blue sky through the ceiling details.

Here’s a more classic, gothic style ceiling, I really think the fine details striking in black

This is my favorite of the week, I have a real hankering for trying something similar, it’s nearly as if the Centrepieces have melted together. Love how the photo is taken in the mirror.

I admit, this is cheating, it’s in charcoal rather than black, but it was too nice not to add!

Such as cozy room, black isn’t only for the modern look, it’s a great frame for any room, no matter what style

Cornice is often left out of the bathroom, it’s such a shame, just see how stylish this finish is.

And for the last pic, something very modern. If you like spots or strip lights we can encase them in a design of your choice, and why not elongate space by giving it a contrasting colour.

Centrepieces are ART!

An new trend we’ve seen in a few bars, restaurants and interior design stores is the use of Centrepieces or Ceiling Rosettes to provide a powerful design statement for a wall. We have Centrepieces started at as little as €15.00. If this is something you might like, pop in to our showroom just south of Carlow town and we’ll help you to plan it out.

Why not just go all in, Centrepieces everywhere!

Or go sleek, just one statement piece, this works so well with the ”shabby-chic” look

Try a coloured background and some metallic paints

Want a more Zen like home with an oriental feel, try this design and colour scheme

We have similar styles to what you’ve seen here, and much much more, any size and any design is possible, just let us know

Preparing for Halloween

In order to get ready for Halloween Carlow Cornice & Mouldings has dived deep in to the dark depths of the internet to find some pretty scary places, with beautiful cornice, centrepieces and plaster work.

This is Denbigh Asylum, or North Wales Hospital, completed in 1848 it could room 200 patients with psychiatric illnesses. Victorian asylums is frequently featured in horror movies and novels, I can’t help to be fascinated by the beauty of the architecture in the places were they put to most marginalized people in society. As much as we love restoring old buildings and get out all the detail of the plaster work, I’m happy I don’t have to get on to this site. The hospital didn’t close until the mid 1990’s and performed lobotomy on patients well in to the 1940’s. Oh, and it is supposedly haunted to.

Take flight to Germany, and have a look at another institution. This is the Military Hospital in Beelitz, Germany. The hospital started as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients and became a military hospital in the First World War. This is were Adolf Hitler was treated for a leg wound acquired in 1916.

Looks like the setting of a romantic movie, unfortunately I’d say it contains more amputated limbs and gangrene…

Happy not to be on that examination table. More than likely the ceiling would have been framed by some ornate cornice.

Truly hauntingly beautiful. You can still make out the fantastic detailed plastered ceiling.

Perhaps to beauty of the ornate cornice and plaster mouldings helped with the healing process?

Moving down on the continent, take a trip to Chateau Miranda in Belgium. A Neo-Gothic castle, it has been abandoned since 1991, and the owning family is refusing financial aid to restore this once orphanage, wonder why…

Look at this two fantastic rooms, the plaster finished arches, so typical for the architectural period. The fantastic details framing the windows can easily be done in plaster, if any reader is after some Gothic-revival!

Let’s finish up with what Halloween has come to be about; fun, games and horror!

Here are some abandoned amusement parks to help you sleep at night

Spree Park Berlin

Gullivers Kingdom Yamanashi Japan

Six Flags; New Orleans

Cornice Kitchen Dreams!

Many of us dream of a big country kitchen, the centre of the home and family. This week we’ll show you some design ideas of how cornice can help with that effortless, homely and yet enviable look f the Country Kitchen Dream (even though Dermot Brennan clearly reminded us that there is such a thing on Room to Improve last Sunday on)

Lets start with something white, bright and light. See how the cornice just frames the room, barely there, just that extra touch to complete a flawless design

Want it even cleaner? Check out how the thin cornice works with the wood paneled ceiling on this one!

The other too plain? Look at this indulging kitchen, the cornice framed cupboards and the beautiful decorative plaster design on the ceiling.

Looking for something more detailed and a splash of colour? Here’s what kitchen dreams are made off! The cornice and ceiling work is just beautiful.

If the previous kitchen was to old fashioned, check out this classic yet modern design in black and white.

Before and after!

Have a look at these fantastic before and after pictures of a beautiful Victorian cornice in a private home in Dublin. If you have the privilege of having this art in your home, give us a call to see how you can get the most out of it.

New cornice design in the making!

We’re getting some new products, here’s a sneak peak of our latest design, a modern sleek cornice inspired by the elegant simplicity of Art Deco.

Here’s the beta version, just hand run on the bench in our Carlow based factory. Watch this space for the finished cornice!

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Tag: plaster work