The Parlor Transformation

  Hello Friends,

You might have noticed that I am trying some different things on my blog.  Trying to organize posts here on blogger and trying to increase my visual presence online through Instagram:  The Vintage Dandy Instagram Page , Facebook: The Vintage Dandy Facebook Page , Pinterest: The Vintage Dandy Pinterest Page  hopefully at some point some other spots.  I love what I do so much that I want to share it with everyone who has interest and maybe even turn it into a little more of a passion project than it already is.  Today I thought I would do a retrospective of the parlor to show what I've done with it over the years.

Before: 

When I moved in this is how the parlor fireplace looked.  Still original but surrounded by not shining like it should be.  I would say it was the most intact of the rooms in the house, but that does not mean it was devoid of work.  It had a blue carpet covering the hardwood floors, a little wallpaper border and a popcorn ceiling.  It had much of its original woodwork and luckily the fireplace was in great shape, but it was missing its stained glass windows, pocket doors and to the left of the fireplace, where you can partially see a wall, was a closed in opening to the library, which I had no idea was there.  The parlor wasn't first on my list, but it was high.  I think the first thing I did to this room was to tear out the carpet and wallpaper and paint the room to make it comfortable.  You can see some more photos of the room and the house when I bought it here: The Parlor Before

One of the first things I did to the room to restore the character was to put back in some of the stained glass.  Since it was missing, I had no idea what it would have first looked like, but I hired the best stained glass company in the cities to recreate mine based off a neighbors windows.  I love how it turned out and this was a very expensive project at the time! You can see a little more about the stained glass for the parlor here:  Parlor Stained Glass

When I was ready to get into bigger projects in the room, it was BIG.  Firstly I found some pocket doors that matched the original missing pocket doors and put those in.  This required opening the doorway up to it's original size which meant some plaster removal (since drywall was glued over plaster) and opening up the opening between the parlor and library.  In the process I discovered a very early wallpaper pattern which was in the room. 

Here you can see where I opened up the pocket door opening back to it's original size and the doors are in the pockets.  This was  BIG job but really opened up the room to its correct portions.  You can read more about this 1st big project I did in the room here: Start of the Parlor.

Here you can see to the left the pocket doors back in looking from the foyer towards the front door.  Very annoyingly however, when I put the pocket doors back in, a radiator was blocking the full opening.  That was a project for another day:

As this continued I don't believe I used the parlor for some time.  I skim coated the walls, removed the popcorn ceiling and decided to hang some crown molding the in the room and then began the process of cleaning all the woodwork in the room.  The wood was in OK condition, so I really just needed to clean it and then I did put one light coat of stain on it and shellacked it all so that it was all the same tone color.

The room slowly coming together.  This was one of the only rooms that still had its original windows.  Sadly the rollers for the weights in the windows had been cut out so I had the windows modified so they could be tilt out, weathertight then put new wood storm windows on them. Another pecky replacement radiator you can see that while it functioned well, it was off center and clunky in the piping. That was another discussion much later.   You can see more about the parlor work here: Putting The Parlor Back Together

The next thing I did in the room to get it ready was to put in some Lincrusta above the picture molding.  You can see a bit more about that here: Parlor Lincrusta

I got the Lincrusta in which was NOT easy and pained a gold color.  I, at the time, decided this parlor would be a bit over the top and period inspired.  If I had to do the parlor today, I might not have chosen the same designs of Lincrusta and wallpaper, but it still works well and I still love it today.  You can see more about the hanging of this indestructible wall covering here: Hanging Lincrusta

After hanging the Lincrusta, I put up the picture railing, wallpaper, ceiling medallion and chandelier.  It REALLY brought the room together.  I also scraped up enough money to have the big stained glass window put back in too.  Once all this was completed, I was able to move back into this room and it served as my bedroom for many years.

You can see more of me hanging the wallpaper and see the final stained glass window in this room installed here: Parlor Nearing Complete

I began decorating the room with antiques.  One piece I was very lucky to find was this amazing 5 foot + tall mirror.  It fit well and while it wasn't exactly what I had in mind for the room it added so much drama and light!  You can see more about me furnishing the room here: Parlor Victorian Touches

Eventually I got to the point where I could no longer look at a non functional fireplace.  It was one of the huge selling features of the house and to no have it alive again killed me.  Unfortunately, getting it back to working nearly killed me financially.  The fireplaces in the house were build as coal fireplaces, too shallow for wood and I considered a long time what I could do.  I eventually decided on a gas insert which would fit the shallow opening.  The unfortunately meant work on the chimney that had not been used in 60+ years.  

I ended up having to have the chimney rebuilt from the roof up and the flues were blocked with so much debris and bricks that they almost weren't able to clear them.  It also meant putting liners in the flues.  You can read more about this process here:  Start of the Chimney Fireplaces

After however I got the fireplace working and the room really was 90% there in my vision:

Perfect for chilly days, this insert really kicks off a lot of heat.  You can see some more photos of the chimney and fireplace here:  Parlor Fireplace Finished

The original parlor windows looking from the porch inside.  As you can see the stained glass is all protected with wood storm windows and the others storms on the main windows keep it very well insulated. 

Now the room was really 95% there I felt.  Mind you this whole process has taken maybe 15 years at least?  I forget about how much time goes into making these rooms how I want them to be.  I still have 2 more projects in my opinion to get the room to 100%.  One of those is that the floors needs refinishing on the ground floor.  This will be a very big job obviously requiring me to clear out the main floor for a period of time, which is no small task.  That one will have to wait a bit longer, but one last BIG thing I could do on the parlor was the radiator.    Remeber the mismatched radiator in this room? I was a later replacement, perhaps when they duplexed the house in 1916, and while it heated well, it was off centered and didn't match the rest of the radiators in the house design wise. 

Here is maybe the best shot I have of the radiator.  This is when I moved in and the radiator remained there for a long time while I renovated around it.  However the day came when I found the perfect radiator for the room.

Radiator gone and a new/antique one came it.  It was in a fancy design to match the other radiators in the house and was much wider to sit on.  It also opened up the room slightly.

You can read about the whole process here:  New Parlor Radiator

I am fairly happy with the room.  My furniture placement and flow needs work, along with the art, but overall I am very comfortable to say my Victorian Parlor is alive again. 

Until next time my friends!