1860s House: Office We had to finish this room first, while the downstairs was being demolished, to get the computer in and connected to the internet for thevictorianhouse.com and housemouse.net. It is one of the two smaller converted children's rooms on the second level. For the office, we painted the paneling white on three of the walls - a short-cut - instead of bringing all the walls back to the plaster. One wall's paneling was removed to the horsehair plaster to get the feeling of earlier times. The electrician added outlets and we reconstructed the door moldings before painting the plaster wall a lighter and cleaner shade of the original mustard yellow that it had been painted. Often in the renovation of the house, we found ourselves repainting rooms in colors they had been painted long ago - maybe a coincidence!