Carmona's houses are being brought up to date a room at a time, and wallpaper is tempting as a quick change. Go carefully. The old walls are lime-plastered and need to breathe, the sea is near enough to put salt in them, and a house that stays closed for months has no one to notice a seam lifting. Paper pasted on such a wall in January can be hanging loose by September. The safe places are newly built or re-plastered inner walls, primed with an anti-fungal coat and covered in vinyl. Check the plaster for salt bloom first. Where a wall is damp, and in the rooms on the beach side, PVC panels are the honest answer.
- Newly modernised bedrooms: vinyl paper on the freshly plastered wall at the head of the bed, once it is primed against fungus, never on bare lime.
- Original lime-plastered halls: keep these painted so the walls can breathe, and confine paper to partitions added in later years.
- Villas near the shore: wallpaper only in air-conditioned rooms away from the weather side, with a spare roll stored for repairs.
Carmona is a small village between Varca and Cavelossim, set a little back from the beach. It is quieter than its neighbours, with old family houses along shaded lanes, a village church, and a few holiday complexes and villas near the shore.
Many Carmona homes belong to families who work abroad or at sea and return for part of the year. The houses are traditional, with verandas and wooden windows, and are often being modernised room by room.
Carmona is close enough to the sea for salt to matter, and the low ground between village and beach is wet in the monsoon. Houses that stand closed for months need airing and fabrics that resist mildew.
Sea-facing homes
Sea-facing walls take in salt and moisture, and paper lifts at the seams if the wall is not sealed. Use vinyl-coated wallpaper on an anti-fungal primer, and keep it to inner walls or walls that do not face the weather. Check for salt bloom on the plaster first.
Old Goan houses
Old walls are lime-plastered and need to breathe. Sealing them under vinyl can trap moisture, so a wall is tested first, and loose or powdery plaster is made good. Often the answer is to paper a later partition wall and leave the old lime walls painted.
