Vestibule

When we moved in the entire upstairs house was carpeted in a serviceable but rather dull (and in places rather threadbare) green carpet.  Bit by bit we have had some of the worse rooms recarpeted but we haven’t done anything about the main hall, vestibule and stairs – partly because it is an enormous and expensive job, but mainly because I have to be honest and say that the carpet really doesn’t need replaced.

The vestibule is a different story because at some point the carpet there has been hacked up (presumably for pipes or electrics) and it really doesn’t look great.  I had high hopes that I could remove the scratty carpet and find genuine encaustic tiles under it (partially because a previous owner of the the house had told me they were there), but pulling up the carpet revealed a nasty 1980s lino, with modern floorboards under it.  So we have decided to lay tiles there ourselves.

First of all I thought of getting real encaustic ones, but the price of them is extortionate, partially because the tiles themselves are expensive, but mainly because laying them is a very labour intensive and skilful task because they are irregular in thickness and have to be bedded individually.  And then because they are porous, they have to be specially sealed.  So we are getting ceramic reproductions and they are being laid professionally by the same company who did the excellent job on our bathroom last year.

We are going for a black and white mosaic style which was popular with the Victorians (and actually with the ancient Romans as well) in high traffic areas.  Even with the ceramic tiles this is not going to be cheap because the “vestibule” is 6m square – as big as many full on halls in less extravagant houses.

I had been thinking of getting the outside porch done as well, but the tiler convinced me this would look overblow.  So I will get some stone strengthener and paint it over some bits of the external porch floor which is looking a bit flaky.