Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
If I ever meet the woman who painted all the wood trim in our 99-year-old house with thick layers of oil-based taupe—yes, even the pocket doors—I won’t be accountable for my actions. Scott Mosby runs into such operatic tragedies daily, as his company, Mosby Building Arts (645 Leffingwell, 314-909-1800, mosbybuildingarts.com), restores old houses’ hidden or stripped-away beauty.
How else do eager homeowners destroy beautiful old houses?
By covering up the hardwood with carpeting. In the ’50s, carpet was the upscale trend, and everybody wanted to be current and stylish…so there were a lot of beautiful floors covered with carpeting that became problematic later. We never realized how good we had it! Also, a lot of people have painted solid mahogany raised paneling because it’s “so dark.” I’ve pulled down 1 ½–inch solid mahogany raised paneling that had coats of oil paint and then coats of latex on top of that—which didn’t stick to the oil.
There have to be better options, if you want to lighten a room.
Of course there are: the pickling, the whitewash, the semitransparent stains that can wash that wood with color and change the hue and brighten the surface without blotting out the character and personality. However, the real answer is probably not in the wood at all. It may be a lighting problem, not the darkness of the paneling. The simple, direct answer is not always the best one. Look at Monticello! There’s a lot of bright white paint, but also some phenomenal dark woodwork. It’s a balance.
What mistakes do people make with exteriors?
Those narrow, plasticky, nailed-in-place shutters come to mind. Invariably, the mistake is taking the easy way out. There is no such thing as maintenance-free. There is less maintenance. The original shutters on those houses were functional shutters that were half the width of the windows. They closed for storms, and in earlier days defense, as a barrier to arrows and other projectiles. Louvered shutters were for ventilation in humid places, like New Orleans…and sometimes here. So when you’re replacing something, remember its roots.
Do green materials like bamboo and cork work in a turn-of-the-previous-century house?
For us, Missouri oak is more green than bamboo. Bamboo’s fine in Asia, but by the time you ship it halfway around the world, you’ve lost the sustainability. When you’re choosing wood, go back to the roots of the house. Go back to its birth. And go back to the palette.
Why are kitchens getting so big?
That’s actually not new. The whole house used to be the kitchen. We muddled it up in the last 200 years. It’s the same with open communal living—that’s not new. We segmented houses into smaller rooms so we could get the room count up and make the house seem more valuable. We also got obsessed with square footage. When spaces were smaller, there were some very creative solutions: little shelves, niches, alcoves, sliding drawers. We got lost on “more space is better.”
Have you seen any creative uses for old-fashioned parlors and dining rooms?
No. If you don’t deal with them, they stay orphaned most of the year. People tend to use spaces as they were designed to be used. So the first thing we do, when people call us to do a room addition, is try to get rid of the walls. About 35 percent of the time we don’t even end up needing to add space; we just get rid of barriers. What’s great about dining rooms is that the room is already in the right place, close to the kitchen.
What do you think of all this new pre-finished hardwood?
It’s a lot like fiber cement siding, which is a wood knockoff. Wood gets painted, so for maintenance reasons, they prefinish the siding. But when you have a perfect finish, 1. humans can’t install it without scuffing it up, and 2. was wood ever intended to have a perfect factory finish? It looks fake. It looks like vinyl. So they’ve had to make the surface rougher, so it’s not so perfect. With prefinished hardwood, you don’t need to sand it or stink up the house. But now you have this perfect finish that looks like plastic. And you have paid a premium for it. Homes where you feel at home generally have some flaws and some texture.
What should you make sure to save if you’ve bought an old house?
The paneling—even if you’re taking it down, hang onto it. Pocket doors, windows, woodwork around the windows, mortise hardware on doors…
Is there any advice you can provide to those seeking to reuse those elements?
Don’t try to make a duck into a goose. If it’s a nice piece of ornate wrought iron, it may not belong in somebody’s Formica bar. Don’t change the spirit and character of the object. Don’t paint it and try to make it something it’s not. That falseness, that pretentiousness, comes through.
What’s your favorite detail in an old house?
Plinth blocks—I love plinth blocks. They’re those little blocks at the base of the doorframe, and there’s usually a bullet block at the top. The purpose of a plinth is to intersect dissimilar materials, like 8-inch baseboard and 4-inch casing. The easy way out is to not have them, but then there’s not so much charm, because you haven’t taken as much care.
Why are we so charmed by the results of somebody having sweated over their labor?
It’s artwork. It’s gratifying. Humans inherently recognize the care, craftsmanship, and love that go into that work. And if it’s an enduring material like wood or stone, that value tends to continue and outlive the craftspeople.
