Hi Friends and so happy to see you here today! I have been working to organize the blog a bit better and tidy it up so that you can see the progress in simpler locations to see the whole process. For those of you who haven't followed along for awhile, WELCOME! I'm Matt and have been restoring my 1889 Victorian since 2005. It's a slow process and since I do 99% of the work myself and I am so specific about my details it has taken me 20 years to get to this point. It's a labor of love and insanity frankly, but it's my happy place and I love it.
The Before:
This is the start of the dining room. I think I took this photo of my dad the first day I moved in. There was carpet on a diagonal strip in the middle of the room and a shoddy tile ceiling the lowered the height of the room. Here we were pulling all the tiles down from the ceiling. As you can see the room was pretty void of any character aside from a hutch that was put in probably during the 1918 conversation of the home into a duplex. The ceiling was lowered probably to not only keep in heat, but the original tall windows had long since been removed and shortened so the replacement windows fit into where the drop ceiling was. You can see some photos of the room and the house in some photos when I first moved in here: The Before of the Dining Room
After the ceiling and carpet was torn out the room was pretty much left as is for a long time. I painted it and made it into a dining room for a short time while I worked on other projects and well, that's how it sat for a number of years. One project that I knew would need to be done in this room however was to put the original hutch back in the room. The hutch in the photo was lovely, but I later found it, when it was placed there, it created many problems. I wouldn't know that until later however, but I was extremely lucky to have the original built in hutch still in the house. It had been moved upstairs at some point and put into a closet opening and what was originally a bedroom on the 2nd floor had been turned into a 2nd dining room for the upstairs unit. I knew it was original because it matched the same wood and same moldings and wood profiles as the pocket doors in the lower level. So with the typical tenacity I have, I knew it would have to go back home one day. To prepare for that "one day", I would have to strip the hutch of it's decades of paint.
It took me a LONG time to strip this beauty. You can read about me stripping the hutch here: Stripping the Hutch
A few years later I got an exciting tip from one of my neighbors. All the original stained glass from my house was gone, but one of my neighbors said she knew who had the one from the dining room. I about DIED! I tracked down the person and wrote her asking if she would sell it back to me. At the time she declined but would allow me to come have a look. I was happy to know what it would look like, but it was bittersweet to be so close to it yet not be able to bring it home. Finally after about 5 years, she agreed to give it back to me so that it could be home!!!
You can read about its homing coming here: Stained Glass Comes Home
The dining room again stayed in the background with so many other projects that would happen around the house. A few years later I found an amazing piece of fretwork that I decided to put in between the foyer and the dining room. Originally the room had a door that went from the foyer to the dining room, but that had long vanished and been opened into a large opening. I didn't like the large opening and while a door might have been more practical for heating reasons it would also keep the foyer rather dark. With no remains of the old doorway, I decided to make it just a large opening and put a beautiful piece of fretwork in between the two rooms. I got the piece of fretwork for a good deal, but it needed restoration.
This was a project I could not do, because I am not a woodworker, so I found someone to do it and you can see how it looked before and after its restoration: Fretwork Restoration
The fretwork restored it sat for some time until I was able to get it installed and put up. After I got it put in a trimmed out with trim that I had milled to match the original, it fit in quite nicely.
You can see it installed here: Fretwork Installed
Slowly the room got character back. One thing that I was very excited to put back in the room was the swinging door from the kitchen to the dining room. It was up in the attic and was HEAVY! I was so lucky this was here, because who doesn't love a swinging door. The doorway had been lowered when the room had been drywalled, so I had to open the frame back up but the original oak jamb was still there and I could see where the screw holes were. It was a joy to put it back in.
You can see more about me putting the swinging door back in here: Installing Swinging door
See that panel in the middle that was a different color? That panel had been broken in half. Luckily it had been kept with the door, but the color was wrong. It also had many years of old shellac on it. I knew the downstairs had originally been finished in a light white oak stain so I needed to strip the old shellac from the door to eventually match it up with all the new wood I would put in the room.
Eventually I got anxious and I decided I needed the old hutch back in the dining room to keep going. I thought this would be an easy process of taking the old one out and putting the older one back in it's place. Boy was I wrong!
Once I began removing the old one, all the old drywall and plaster fell off the wall. It was HUGE mess, but as you know with an old home, you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs. At this point there was no turning back and I knew I had to do the dining room. This meant taking the room back down to the studs sadly. Drywall had been put over all the plaster and removing that took all the plaster with it. This meant the whole room needed to start again and as anyone with an old house knows, taking out plaster while living around it is AWFUL! I did however get the room insulated and put bath together. You can see that whole process here: Dining Room Start
With the room now a blank slate I could begin putting it all back together. Trim I had milled to match the original profiles was put back in and the room began to feel old again! I put some decoration on the ceiling to make it a little fancier and it began to go back in time!
I was getting so excited to see this all feel old again! You can read more about this whole process of trimming the room and putting it back together here: Trim in Dining Room
With the room getting closer I was excited to think about the jewels for the room, the lighting. The first thing I found were some exquisite sconces to go on either side of the picture window. These were early gas electric fixtures that I knew would fit perfectly.
You can read more about the sconces and what they entailed here: Dining Sconces
Then it came time to stain all the woodwork. Oh what a project that was. The staining to match with the old woodwork of the pocket doors and the color of the hutch which I had done years before. Then shellac and sanding, repeat 3 times to get it just right. Then to select wallpaper and get it 90% done.
The room was really coming alive to feel like HOME! I still however needed to get the chandelier hung and put in the room to really finish the jewelry. I had bought this chandelier YEARS ago and it had been sitting patiently in the basement waiting for this day. 10 years I think I had it before it came back to life.
Here is the before photo of the chandelier when I bought it but wait until you see it hung and what I did with it! You can read all about the finished chandelier here: Dining Room Chandelier
With the room now let's say 95% done I still had a few small projects to do. One was to put the servant bell button in the floor. I had found an old floor button years ago and so needed to put the plate in the floor. Here is how it looks in the floor:
You can read more about the foot button here: Servant Floor Button
Most people at this point would call the room DONE, but I am too specific. This room more than likely had a long low radiator under the picture window rather than the radiator at one side. It also messed with my symmetry because I wanted to chairs next to the window and the radiator in the middle of the room. I have a problem I know but I just couldn't get over it.
I HAD to find a radiator that would go under the window and I HAD to find a radiator that would match the one for the parlor and match the others in the house. See how crazy I am? I found one and after a ton of work I got it put under the window. You can read about that whole process here: Dining Room Radiator
Now this room I would say is 98% done. What on earth could I have left to do you ask? Well, unfortunately all the floors on the 1st floor need to be redone. This will be a future project and one say I am hopeful to get there, but for now I love this room and I am so happy it's a dining room again after so many decades of being without it's beauty.
No comments:
Post a Comment