What were these professions!

[Treetotal]

That brought back memories Stan...anybody who was nobody had it done back then...almost like wall cladding
Carol

[stanmapstone]

It was also called scumbling, it must have been a fashion in the 1950s, I can remember doing it on one of the doors in my parents house.

Stan

[Treetotal]

Yes...thanks for that.....I was trying to remember the name...my Uncle used to do it too...it kind of left a raised pattern to the touch.
Carol

[Greensleeves]

I didn't realise it was a '50s thing, I had assumed it was earlier.

[stanmapstone]

Scumbling was not just a 50s thing. Graining and marbling are a very old professional processes.

Stan

[LizzieW]

anybody who was nobody had it done back then...almost like wall cladding

Reminds me of my mother who always wanted to be one better than the neighbours - she had formica put on our kitchen walls in the 1950s   I have no idea where she got that idea from.  A few years earlier, when we moved into a new house built by a builder friend of my father's, she had the bathroom tiled with black tiles.    all my friends used to come to see the bathroom.

[Maggie.]

Gosh this is a blast from the past.  All the woodwork in our house was subjected to scumbling in the 1950s as my Mum must have thought it was wonderful.  As a small child I remember watching the 'scumbler' at work with rags and something like a comb.  It was fascinating to watch.

At a later date she also had a wonderfully dark mahogony dressing table stained (or scumbled) a horrible light tan colour.