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historic house

House Progress

Our Kitchen Reveal!

WOW WOW WOW I cannot believe it’s finally time to reveal the completed kitchen space with you all! It has been a long nine months since we first became aware of the water leak in our kitchen and began making a plan to renovate (more on that here).

First, a quick walk down memory lane. These photos are so bizarre to me, after four years of living with this kitchen, it’s an unrecognizable room to me now.

This was the original plan, I always find it helpful to put my ideas in one place so that I can get a visual of how everything is working together. Now that it’s done, it’s interesting to see how this compares to the reality!

I pulled inspiration from historic kitchens like The Elms in Newport, and Biltmore House in Asheville. I knew I wanted to nod to the history of our home c.1895, but obviously couldn’t take that too literally. I made tile selections based on what tile houses had at that time period, and salvaged antique light fixtures. I wanted it to be not a true “restoration,” but a historic-ish rehabilitation.

We worked with a contractor who we loved, and was willing to go above and beyond with some of our asks. The biggest thing was the flooring. I studied historic floor patterns, and fell in love with this particular pattern that of course doesn’t come pre-made. I also noted many Victorian-era homes the tile had a contrasting border that went around the room. We chose a one inch hexagon tile that came in 1x2ft sheets. We ordered in two separate colors, and the tile crew did an incredible job laying the black border, and then filling in the rest of the floor with white tile. I then carefully measured and counted where exactly I wanted each black tile motif and marked it with a pencil. The crew was so gracious to carefully remove each one inch tile that needed to be replaced and switch it with the correct color. It was a huge ask, and the whole thing took over a week, but I am so pleased with the result.

For reference, this is the same angle before!

I thoughtfully decided to remove all of our upper cabinets so that we could run the tile all the way up to the ceiling. Traditional white subway tile is always a classic, no matter what trends come and go. With the addition of a bookshelf to store our daily dishes, one shelf made from a board from our home’s interior, and a large hutch with baskets, I have more storage now than I did previously with the row of cabinets up top.

I originally intended to use an antique sink, and I coulnd’t find one that met the specifics I needed, so I ended up ordering a simple black undermount sink, which I love. I think it makes the counter top (Negresco Granite, by the way, the poor man’s soapstone) longer since it doesn’t break it up visually, and it allows the gorgeous faucet to shine. A win-win!

Although we technically lost square footage by closing in the laundry, it feels more spacious. With the closing in of the laundry room, I knew we would lose some light because we would be closing in two windows, so I wanted a door that would let some light pass through. I found a french door on my local buy nothing group, and it needed some work to make it shine, I stripped the paint and stained it to make it look and feel older. Lace curtains on the inside obstruct the view of the washer and dryer while still lighting the stove area. With the walled in laundry room, it also gave us a little alcove for a breakfast nook.

I found the bench and the chairs on Facebook Marketplace, and the table for sale on the side of the road in my neighborhood. It’s a high quality antique I bought for $20! I sewed some cushion covers myself, which I do not recommend if you want to keep your sanity, but was helpful in saving several hundred dollars.

The only thing that was moved in the layout aside from building a wall around the laundry room was the stove. It works really well here, so I am happy with the decision to move it. Plus, it allows for our antique worktable in the center of the room. We purchased it at an antique store, and it is quite literally the most expensive piece of furniture I’ve ever purchased, but it was absolutely worth it. It helps bring a feeling of antiquity to the space.

We painted the pantry fridge cabinetry Sherwin Williams Billiard Green, to match the fridge. Which, by the way we love. It comes in several different colorways, and you can switch out the front panels to match your style. We also bought a dishwasher from the same line, but Ethan made the panel for it himself. We’ve had the fridge six months now and really like it (how’s that for an adult-sounding sentence?)

The paint color and all the trim and cabinets is Clare Turbinado, and the walls are Clare Timeless. I was super impressed with the coverage and love the colors! Of course I looked to historic house museum kitchens for color inspiration. Drawer pulls are these from House of Antique Hardware in unlaquered brass. They are already starting to get a slight patina as we’ve been using them, and they’re a nice solid quality. For the knobs I used simple wooden knobs and painted them to match. I also placed them about 1/3 of the way down the cabinet rather than in the corner, which I’ve seen in more English kitchen design.

I had grand plans of building my own replica of a light fixture for the island, and I eventually just ordered this one, and have no regrets. All the other light fixtures are antique or thrifted.

I really had this vision of an upstairs/downstairs vibe. Historically, “downstairs” would refer to workrooms, or servant’s living and working quarters in grand manors. Usually much simpler in their design than the upstairs public rooms. If you watch tv shows like Downton Abbey or The Gilded Age, you’ll notice this. I wanted to give a nod to the time period when kitchens were not the entertaining center that they are today but more the workhorse of the home, while mixing it with some glam that would have been reserved for the upper rooms. Hence upstairs/downstairs. It’s the mix of simple ladderback rush chairs with brass faucets.

This being the first kitchen I’ve ever done a single thing to, I learned a LOT. Made some compromises and didn’t get everything I wished I could have added (hello very normal budget), but I’m very proud of what we created. We are so so happy with it, and so so happy to be completely finished. It’s far and away the nicest room we have in our house now, which just means we have a lot more work to do.

That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!

September 26, 2023 by
House Progress

We’re Renovating Our Kitchen!

Eeek! I’ve been waiting four years to say those words out loud. And honestly I thought it would be a few more years before I did. We had plans to work on some rooms downstairs this year that would be smaller budget items.

But then a leak in the kitchen ruined the subfloor under our kitchen cabinets, and our plans changed. Due to extensive water damage, we are having to replace floors, cabinets, countertops, etc. So since a kitchen renovation was on the long term horizon anyway, we are diving in and going for it. It’s been pretty stressful up until this point, trying to work through finding the source of the water (it took three different specialists!), and trying to get contractor recommendations on an unplanned timeline. On top of things, our fridge died. It’s like the kitchen just decided it was her time to go, and she all went at once!

But now that we have wrapped our heads around the initial shock and urgency behind the situation, I’m getting excited about the design.

Our kitchen is currently a timestamp of the year 1997. The kitchen that was put in almost 30 years ago is dated, but I’m grateful to have had solid wood quality cabinets that have lasted. They’ve served us well until this point.

The only thing I did in this space was paint the floors before we moved in. I’m super excited to have the kitchen feel a bit more like the home it resides in, a Victorian built in 1895.

Of course we won’t have a truly period appropriate kitchen, we believe our home was built without plumbing, so there goes that, but I don’t want visitors to walk into the kitchen and be able to pinpoint an exact date. I’ll be using modern reproductions of historic materials, and adding free standing furniture pieces to contribute to an unfitted look. (Fitted kitchens where the cabinets are mounted to the wall were popularized in the mid twentieth century, whereas before that kitchens were a collection of different tables and shelving pieces.)

I plan to find salvaged and antique pieces to help contribute to the overall feel of the room, so although I have some photos listed below, they are general ideas and the actual execution will depend on what I’m able to find.

I’m calling it the historic-ish kitchen, because that’s just what it’ll be…ish. I’ll be sure to share updates here as things get rolling (demo is happening soon!), but if you want more up to date information, be sure to follow along on Instagram where I share much more in real time.

Now, I’ve got to get back to scrolling Facebook Marketplace incessantly in between planning the next antique store to check out, but I will keep you updated as soon as I have more! That’s all for today, friends! Have a wonderful day!

January 31, 2023 by
House Progress

The Power of Paint (A Phase One Bathroom Makeover)

Hi there! Thanks so much for stopping by today! Boy oh boy, do I have a before and after for you today! First, let’s get the backstory. We bought our home from a realtor who had purchased the house at auction following a foreclosure. That realtor listed it for sale, but went back and forth about whether he wanted to flip it himself. When we bought it, there were a few random half hearted attempts at restoration work. One random door frame stripped of paint, carpeting partially pulled up, wallpaper torn off in just a small section of a room. That was the case in the room I’m going to show you guys today.

So the upstairs of our house has three bedrooms and a full bathroom. When we did our first big amount of work in the months before we moved in, the only room we touched upstairs was the first bedroom for our son, leaving the bathroom and two bedrooms untouched. The house was built in 1895 with no indoor plumbing, and therefore no bathrooms. I’m not sure at what point it was added, but at sometime, a bathroom was poorly shoved into what would have once been a spacious hallway between the three upstairs bedrooms. This leaves us a bit perplexed as to what to even do with the bathroom, because the floorplan of the second story is a bit wonky. I’d love to someday see that turned back into a hallway, but alas, we need more than the outhouse that was originally here. Knowing that this bathroom was going to involve some structural changes, and that our needs in the house/bedrooms may change as we have more kids etc., the upstairs bathroom was literally at the bottom of the priority list. Out of sight, out of mind.

Until, that is, we moved the master bedroom upstairs. Then all of a sudden this upstairs bathroom was a little more on the forefront of my mind. I lovingly nicknamed this room “the dungeon bathroom,” because I was so scared to use it. Everything was fully functional, but the carpet (yep, this thing had carpet) that had been in there had been waterlogged and soaked through the subfloor. My brother actually pulled up the carpet and old subfloor and laid down new plywood. And that’s the extent of work we had done in the dungeon bathroom. But now our bedroom was right next to it, and it was a pain to go all the way down the creaky stairs right outside of our son’s room in the event that I needed to go to the restroom in the middle of the night. So I knew I needed to do something. But again, of all the “big projects” we have planned for the next couple years, this one is quite literally the last one on the list. So I decided to give it a little cosmetic facelift, a Phase One makeover to tide us over until we would eventually remodel this bathroom. So, without further ado, here is the dungeon bathroom.

For days, I worked during naptime and after my son went to bed to scrape wallpaper. Most of the wall had two layers of paper, but in some areas, I found four different papers laid on top of each other. It was grueling. I used a handheld steamer and a wallpaper scraper and would work in tiny six inch square sections. It took a long time, and my arms arched.

As I scraped the wallpaper, I found that some of the drywall had been damaged, and had simply been disguised by the paper. That meant we had to do some patch work on the walls. I had to sand it all down to get the gunky wallpaper paste completely gone. All of this was before I ever started painting!

I originally planned on only using products that I had on hand to do this bathroom, but I ended up purchasing the wall color because I didn’t have as much paint in the garage as I thought I did. The color is Behr French Colony, and I think it’s a lovely blue-grey.

A shower curtain over the shower stall helps disguise that whole lotta ugly.

I also painted the plywood subfloor using some paint I had on hand. The floor is painted with Behr Tanglewood.

As you can see, I didn’t change any of the fixtures, the only thing I changed was paint. Isn’t that crazy?! Paint is so powerful!

Because this room is directly next to our bedroom that’s painted such a bold color, I was really concerned about how these two colors would look when coming up the stairs and they were both visible. I think they go complement each other nicely. (Bedroom is Behr Thermal.)

The 1920’s light fixtures stayed, and I think they look so much more elegant now without the dated wallpaper.

All of this to say this: just don’t wait. I would have loathed this bathroom another two to three years until it finally was time to gut it. Instead, I can enjoy the space, and it doesn’t give me the heebee-jeebees every time I go in there! I think there is power in a can of paint, and so much power in doing a “Phase One” project, something that is just enough to tide you over while you’re waiting for the big project.

Before we go, here’s one more before and after from the same angle. I can’t even believe the only difference is paint.

Alright guys, that’s all for today. Have a fabulous day!

January 5, 2020 by