The following post was written by Kathleen Kiefer, Senior Conservator of Textiles.
Many of us at the IMA are working towards getting the Miller House ready to open to the public. In the spring of 2011 visitors will be able to tour the house in small groups, accompanied by a guide, embarking from the Columbus, IN Visitors Center.
Miller House living room with view out to the gardens
One of the many details to consider when designing a house tour is mapping the exact route visitors will take through the house. We want to provide an authentic experience of the architecture, interior design and gardens while protecting the original fabric of the house and its furnishings.
To accomplish this we will install custom sized carpet runners to mark a path for tours to follow. The carpet runners will be placed to create some distance between visitors and fragile furnishings, yet will allow visitors to move within the architectural space, rather than peering at it from a distance.
Kathleen Kiefer, Senior Conservator of Textiles, and Bradley Brooks, Director of Historic Resources, measure for carpet runners to mark the path for Miller House public tours.
We have been careful in considering the color of the carpet runners we will be using. In some settings, high contrast between runners and the surfaces they cover may be desirable, but in the Miller House, we have opted for the same tone as the floors. This will allow the runners to be as visually unobtrusive as possible.
Non-adhesive-transfer blue masking tape used to mark the desired distance for a runner away from a fragile living room rug.
Beyond marking the way and allowing visitors to be clear about the areas where they are welcome to walk, the carpet runners will be beneficial in trapping some of the dirt and debris inevitably tracked in on visitors’ shoes. Some historic houses issue visitors booties to be worn over their shoes, but we believe the drawbacks associated with booties would out weigh the benefits, for our purposes, at the Miller House.
For an in depth look (over 900 pages!) at approaches to preventive conservation care and stewardship of historic properties, see the National Trust Manual of Housekeeping.
What do you think is best, carpet runners or booties?
Filed under: Conservation, Design, Local
August 20th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I am excited at the prospect of seing this property as you describe. Runners seem far superior to booties as they creat less waste and you don’t risk people failing to wear them, or ripping through them, or running out of them, etc.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Our thoughts exactly Jean!
March 28th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I am so excited that this house will be made available to the public!! It’s worth a trip to America just to see it. With regards to floor runners, we used to have clear plastic floor runners in our house which were ideal as you could see through them and they were very durable. But even better would be to wear “booties” as this would then allow people to move freely throughout the house taking photos (if that’s allowed) from any angle. People do this in Japan all the time (particularly at Castles and other historic buildings) and nobody seems to mind about changing shoes. Here in Australia, a lot of housing estate display homes expect people to take their shoes off just to look inside. For the priviledge of seeing the Miller House, I would even have a whole bath and wear a sterilized suit!!!
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