By the time major restoration projects were done, Gene and Leigh had decided to bring the interiors
back to their original, mid-19th-century grandeur. They engaged the architectural conservator George
Fore, who developed a several-hundred-page historic-fi nishes analysis of Rosedale.
CONSERVATORS HIRED
Microscopic analysis of paint
taken from woodwork and plas-
ter uncovered four faux-wood
patterns, six faux-marble pat-
terns, trompe l’oeil treatments,
wallpaper remnants, and poly-
chromed plaster fi nishes. Fore
recommended oil glazes and
ground-in-oil artist’s pigments
for repainting, as acrylic glazes
are too opaque to reproduce the
translucency of historic paints.
Talented craftspeople grained
and marbleized fi replace man-
tels, doors, and baseboards.
Gene Imes also engaged
Candace Volz, an architectural
restoration specialist based in
Austin, Texas, to assist with the
choices of wallpapers, fl oor-
cloths, and carpeting. Gene
had been fortunate enough to
discover—and purchase—one
of the country’s largest collec-
tions of Belter furniture, along
with Old Paris porcelain and
Rococo and Renaissance Re-
vival lighting, from a collectorwho’d decided to sell it all. Volz
developed period-appropriate
fl oor and wall treatments for
each room to complement the
furniture. Decorating began
in the 55-foot-long entry hall,
where an absence of carpet
tacks indicated that a canvas
fl oorcloth had been used. The
staircase did have tack holes,
indicating it had been carpeted.
The new runner is ‘Rose Medal-
lion’, reproduced from a mid-
19th-century English design.