Tag Archives: 18th Century Colonial Renovation

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Move In Day!

31 Friday Dec 2010

Posted by in Bath, Before & After, Flooring, House Tours, Kitchen

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, Bath, Benjamin Moore, , flooring, Kitchen, tile

I can’t think of a better way to end the year than with being able to answer the most commonly asked question of the year, “Have Meg & Kurt moved into their new house yet?” with a resounding “YES!”. The movers came on Wednesdsay and while there is still a lot of unpacking and a few final items to take care of, they are very happily in their new house after over 14 months of renovations. Before we go too far, you might want to take a peak at the beginning of this 18th Century Colonial Renovation to refresh your memory on what it looked like in the “before” pictures.

The most dramatic changes on the front were the removal of the front porch and the addition of a double sided staircase as well as new Hardiplank clapboard.

The sides and back of the house have been re-shingled and the trim has been painted to coordinate with the front of the house.

In addition to the new shingles, the back of the house got a new 8′ sliding door and mahogany decking at both entrances.

Here is glimpse up the very narrow back staircase by the kitchen which received a fresh coat of paint on the walls and stairs. I always love a second staircase in a house. I don’t know why they don’t do that more often in new homes.

Before I go too far, I need to mention that I went in to take pictures the day before they moved in so there were still a few work related things laying around like a dry vac and garbage can in the middle of the kitchen. The kitchen was the one room that received new flooring. The cabinets are Abstrakt by Ikea.

All new appliances went into the kitchen and there are some nice little features like the pot filler over the stove. The one thing that still needs to be decided on here is a backsplash.

There used to be a chimney in this space, but as it wasn’t necessary, they removed it and were able to add this custom built in bar and entertainment unit between the kitchen and den.

This room was considered the dining room, but they will be using it as a den as it is open to the kitchen. The new slider is the biggest addition to this room. You can see in the corner of the room and on the ceilings that there are exposed beams. The one in the corner was partially damaged and needed repair, but they were able to cover up that area with a nice box molding that doesn’t look out of place.

The living room/dining area has a new wood stove and under that furniture cover is a wonderful gate-leg table that fits nicely along the wall when not in use and can be pulled out to the center of the room when entertaining more formally. While you can’t see it in these pictures, the upper part of the walls are covered in beautiful grasscloth wallpaper by Elitis.

The rooms are filled with natural light which makes them so open and bright.

The front entry and stairwell were painted as well as the floors and staircase. Unfortunately, the old floors here were in too much disrepair to refinish, but I love the look of painted floors.

The stairwell from upstairs.

The master bedroom is enormous and very bright.

A new master bath was added off of the master bedroom. The upstairs had only 1 half bath before the renovation, but now has two full baths as well as a full bath downstairs.

The master bath shower. This proved to be the most challenging of their DIY projects, particularly in getting the tile floor level with the drain, but it came out really nice. The glass enclosure has not been installed yet, but will be soon.

The long hallway was once part of each of the bedrooms so that one had to pass through one room to get to the next one. The color is one of my favorites-it’s in my own living room too-Ocean Air by Benjamin Moore, although it looks quite different in this space because there is only one window in the hallway.

The guest/kids bathroom is spacious and soothing. Again, the floors were painted in this space.

An antique vanity adds some more character to the space.

This is the third bedroom. I actually didn’t get pictures of the second bedroom because the final coat of paint was being added later on the day I was there. This room fits a twin bed, and I love the melon color.

While this room is on the smaller side, it is cozy and quiet and a spot one might retreat to for some down time.

On the third floor, the original beams and closet remain with their dark wood, but the floors and walls have all been painted Super White by Benjamin Moore.

I LOVE this! I have always wanted an all white room. This will be an office space and is the one room in the house with clear views to Newport harbor. I also love how they had built in drawers added into the walls to maximize storage space.

So there is the grand tour! I’m sure we will have many more projects from this house to share as finishing touches are made on the decor and things get unpacked. I know this is making for a very happy New Year for this family.

I am so excited about what’s to come in 2011. Just a few of things I’ll be bringing you include a fabulous wedding I’m planning in June, several projects around my own house, a Chateau & Bungalow product line and perhaps the revival of another fabulous product line as well as all the other great things I come across in my travels.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year too and thank you for following me!

~Sarah

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Part VII

04 Thursday Nov 2010

Posted by in Before & After, House Tours, Inspiration

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, Kitchen

Perhaps the question I get asked more than any other lately is “Has your sister moved into her new house yet?” Unfortunately, the answer is no, but the good news is that there has been massive progress in the past few weeks. Above you can see the new built in bar and soon to be built in bookcases. The paint has been purchased for almost every room and much of the trim has been painted. The tile has been mostly installed in the two upstairs bathrooms, and since these pictures were taken the floors have also been re-done and the rooms are starting to look bright and spacious.

The lower and a few of the upper kitchen cabinets have been installed, and the appliances have arrived! It’s actually starting to look a bit like a house that someone might be living in somewhat soon. And that would, indeed, be the goal. There are grand hopes that they will be moved in for Christmas. I think we’re getting to the point where it will be more fun to reveal rooms as they are completed. These pictures aren’t the most exciting, but I wanted to give you an update since it’s been such a popular question.

Check out the progress of this renovation, here.

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Part VI

09 Thursday Sep 2010

Posted by in Bath, Before & After, Kitchen

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, Bath, Kitchen, paint

I can hardly believe that it’s been over two months since my last update on the 18th Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following! The good news is that progress has not stopped. The bad news is that it is moving a lot slower than expected, and that is largely due to the fact that this is the hard part, picking paint and tile. But since we’ve last checked in, all of the baseboard molding has been put in, light fixtures have been installed in several rooms, the kitchen cabinets have been assembled, but not installed, and the kitchen floor has been laid.

But, back to picking paint colors. We found some amazing grass cloth wallpaper (above) in cream for the living room and blue for a yet to be determined place at LooLoo Design for an equally amazing price. The cream will go above a chair rail in the living room and we’ve found a few shades of creamy white for the trim throughout the house that we think will work great with it. In the dining room (top) the color choices are in the colonial blue range which look really lovely with the grass cloth in the living room.

The 2nd bath which will be for a little boy and guests is going to be a soft, but rich blue. At the moment, we’re leaning towards the one on the far left top.

The master bedroom is proving to be the most difficult at the moment. The goal is a gray with a hint of lavender, but at the moment everything is looking a little too lavender. Unfortunately, this picture doesn’t quite do the colors justice.

And for the little boy’s room, a fireman theme it is. There will be a chair rail in this room so that the entire room is not bright red. The debate is how red is too red and will it be over-stimulating. I say if you go red, go all the way and am pushing for the bottom one, a nice deep, rich red.

A few things that have worked well here for helping pick colors. Always write the name of the color in pencil on the wall next to its swatch. We found that the paint samples we put on the wall really dried to exactly the same color as the paint chip from the store so if you don’t feel like you need to see it in a larger swatch, save the money and don’t buy the sample paint.

Another thing that my sister has done is gone around and taken pictures of the items in her current house and started storyboards for each room so that she can look at the items with the paint chips. It doesn’t have to be fancy. She just printed them out on copy paper and cut and pasted them onto another sheet of copy paper, but she has a sense of how all the primary pieces in the room are going to look tonally together and with the paint colors.

Once these paint colors are finalized, things should start moving a bit faster.

Scalamandre Fabric and More for Less!

24 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by in Accessories, Bath, lighting, Shops We Love, textiles

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, LooLoo Design, LouLou's Decor, Scalamandre fabric, textiles,

For a few years now, I’ve been driving by this tiny shingled storefront called LooLoo Design in Portsmouth, RI and have always been intrigued by it. For one reason or another, I’ve never had the time to stop in, that is until this past Saturday. I had seen in their ads that they had discounted Scalamandre fabric, and while that sounded wonderful, I assumed that discounted Scalamandre fabric would still easily be in the $50-75 range per yard.

Well, I was wrong! Sometimes I love it when I’m wrong. LooLoo Design goes directly to the Scalamandre warehouse to select the fabrics they sell. While some of them are only sold by the bolt, the prices are still fabulous. I believe I saw some bolts of maybe 7-10 yards for around $140, which is closer to what the price of Scalamandre fabric retails for 1 yard.

They also have fabric squares that sell for about $7-10. Fabulous for a small project.

And there are plenty of trims to go along with it all.

I loved this large square of crewel (which I adore) fabric. It was $50. I was trying to figure out if you could cut it to make pillows and still see enough of the design, but then I decided that the best thing to do with it would be to make an oversized square ottoman and upholster the top with it. That would be amazing!

Here are some of the bolts and bolts of fabric that you can purchase by the yard, mostly in the range of $18-30/yard.

More bolts.

This Turquoise Linen was just about the most beautiful thing I’ve seen. I bet this would make great curtains for my bedroom with that new headboard I just finished.

Red vases on black would make a great wingback chair or drapes or I would even be tempted to upholster a wall in this.

This strawberry fabric has just the right touch of vintage in it.

LooLoo Design also has drapery panels that once hung in the Scalamandre showrooms. Because they were sample panels, most of them are singles, but there were a few in there that had multiples. For $35 a piece, sometimes you can make anything work. If you only have one window in a room, a single panel pulled back with a great tieback is all you need. I actually almost bought one for my daughter’s room, but decided the colors weren’t quite right.

It’s hard to believe, but LooLoo Design actually considers their main business to be vintage bath fixtures. In fact if you go to their web site, that is pretty much all you’ll find. Despite the fact that most of the walls are lined with fabrics and wallpaper (I found amazing wallpaper for the 18th Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following), they do have some fabulous fixtures as well, like this swan neck faucet.

They also have some great antique frames and artwork. The above frame would be great to frame out some chalkboard paint if you didn’t have a piece that needed framing.

More bath fixtures.

Brackets for shelving, including some really unique shapes.

They also have lots of vintage lighting fixtures ranging from modern to very traditional.

I loved these knobs.

These are vintage birthday candle holders. How cute are they! I think these would be an amazing christening or baby gift.

Vintage hand held vanity mirrors

Large spools of thread from the Scalamandre warehouse.In case you couldn’t tell, I was pretty psyched that I found this place. I have many more pictures beyond this. The owner, Jill, told me that a lot of designers try to keep it to themselves so that other designers won’t find out about it. And I have to admit that the thought crossed my mind, but my feeling is that it’s important to promote businesses that provide great products and services, especially in this economy. I want them to be around for a long time and so I want to encourage people to go there to make sure that they stay in business and keep offering these goods for both the benefit of myself and others so I’m letting the cat out of the bag and hopefully those other designers will inderstand why.

18 Century Colonial Renovation: Part V

29 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in Before & After, House Tours

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, Flagg-Palmer Precast

I am very excited to announce that the 18th Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following finally has walls! It has been a long haul since this project was started last October and I think there is quite a bit of relief in knowing that they are finally are in the home stretch. Back in October the goal for a move in date was by July 4th, and while it’s clear that won’t be the case, it’s actually pretty impressive that these two people who work well over 40 hours a week, have a 3 year old and decided to tackle such a large project, doing so much of the work themselves, are not that far off track.

So a quick tour of the house so that we can now get a little bit better of an idea how the space is coming together. The kitchen (above) is a fabulous open space and the exposed beams add so much character and are so visually appealing. While it’s typical for colonial paint colors to be a bit on the darker side, having a lighter color will make the beams really stand out. I am madly in love with the diagonal exposed beam in the dining room/library (top). It just looks fabulous and was the perfect divider for the ceiling which is higher in the dining room/library than it is in the pass through to the kitchen which allows for recessed lighting above the wet bar.As you may recall, there was not a drop of insulation in this house prior to renovation so in order to add it, the windows (which had already been replaced prior to this) are now recessed a bit more than you would normally see, but I think once the molding is in, it will actually be a nice architectural element.

The master bedroom is a great size and features a walk in closet (on the left) and an attached bath (on the right).

This is bedroom number two.

The 2nd full bath is quite large and there is a fabulous antique vanity going in here.

The third bedroom is definitely on the smaller side, but it is still plenty big for a twin bed or futon.

This is the upstairs hallway outside the 2nd bathroom door facing towards the front of the house. I thought this space might be very dark, but it’s actually plenty bright with the window at the end of the hallway, and you can see that there will be recessed lighting as well. Because the doors to the bedrooms and bathrooms are at either end of the hallway, these great big walls actually make the space seem much larger.

The attic space has also been transformed into great usable space with a long window seat from which you can see Newport Harbor as well as extra built in storage (the drawers on the left). Whenever you have empty space behind the walls, it’s a great idea to add built ins for extra storage.

In other big news, the front steps have also been installed. It is traditional for colonial homes to have this double sided staircase at their entry, and many of them are brick with stone treads. Unfortunately, they also tend to be very expensive. To reduce costs, the decided to go with a cast concrete set of steps with a brick and stone facade which were installed by Flagg-Palmer Precast, and I have to say that you can barely tell the difference.

Now for the fun part, selecting colors and finishes!!!

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Part IV

21 Friday May 2010

Posted by in Before & After, Eco-friendly, House Tours, Kitchen

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, Abstrakt, HardiePlank, LEED certification

The 18th Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following has made quite a bit of progress in the past month and we can now see a bit more of what the end product is going to look like…at least on the outside. This week the clapboard was installed on the front of the house (the sides are going to be shingled). The material they selected for the clapboard is call HardiePlank lap siding. It is a fiber cement product that is resistant to moisture and rot and only has to be painted every 15 years. It is also considered to be an eco-friendly product that earns points toward LEED certification (if you are going for that). In case you don’t remember what the front of the house looked like originally, here is a reminder. The front porch has obviously been removed and a new set of double stairs will be installed soon.
As for the interiors, it still looks like this, BUT, really this isn’t all that bad because all of the electrical, heating and plumbing have been installed and the inspections are are being done so we should be seeing sheetrock very soon. Above is the future kitchen. You can see the stack of 8″ wide plank flooring that is going to be installed in the kitchen-the only room besides the master bath where new flooring needs to be installed. The kitchen cabinets have also been selected and they are going with Ikea’s Abstrakt cabinets in high gloss white and the counters will be butcher block. This room will truly marry the colonial look with a modern one, but I think it’s going to be very cool in the end. Things are really starting to come together and I expect we’ll be seeing some finished rooms in the next month!

Roseberry Winn Tile

04 Tuesday May 2010

Posted by in Bath, Before & After, D.I.Y., Kitchen

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, box radial tile, cross radial tile, Roseberry Winn Pottery, tile, Tiverton Four Corners, waves tiles

This past Saturday, my sister, mother, daughter (with her 13 months of design expertise) and I made a trip to Tiverton Four Corners to check out the Roseberry Winn Pottery Seconds Sale in search of some tile for the 18th Century Colonial Renovation my sister and her husband are working on. Finally, we’re starting to get to the really fun stuff on this project! Roseberry Winn Pottery is the masterful collaborative work of Michael Roseberry and Bruce Winn who go through many phases of design before they develop a mold to cast their beautiful designs which are then hand finished. Besides tiles of varying sizes, they create vases, pitchers, mugs, bowls and much more, but we were there to focus on tile.
It is clear that Roseberry Winn tile will add a truly unique and custom look to any room. These are just a few of the sample boards they display in their store to give you some inspiration.
Above is a large selection of the top quality tile designs they offer.
And here are some of the “seconds” that we were choosing from. These were considered lower quality because of inconsistencies in the glazing, air pockets, cracks, etc. however most were perfectly fine and there were enough of them to get a stack of like colors.
We were looking for tiles that would work in the master bath, kitchen, and the two fireplace surrounds in the living room and master bedroom. So since my sister wants to go with sea blue and greens for her master bath, we chose the cross radial tile in an aqua color which will either be used in the shower or as a sink backsplash. The white box radial tile will either be used in conjunction with the cross radial tile in the master bath or possibly in the living room in each corner of the fireplace surround.
In the master bedroom she is thinking of going with a lavender gray color. This has not yet been run by my brother-in-law, but we bought the waves tile in a soft lavender glaze (this photo doesn’t do it justice) so it looks like he might not have much of a choice, and it’s actually quite nice. We didn’t have any luck in our search for kitchen tiles, but we were quite pleased with what we did find (and since then I’ve found a great idea for kitchen tiling that I’ll share soon). These tiles are normally $12 per tile so $108 per square foot-not cheap-but by buying just enough of them at the $5 per tile sale price to create accents and mix them with more reasonably priced tiles, she is still going to achieve a custom look. Of course, if your budgets permits, go all out and you’re sure to be pleased with the results as well.

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Part III

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by in Before & After, House Tours

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The past two months or so of the 18 Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following has focused on the bones of the house. The electrical, plumbing and ductwork are almost done and the drywall will be going up in 2-3 weeks. The north, south, and west sides of the house have all been reshingled and the new glass back entry door has been installed and is making a huge difference in the amount of light coming into the laundry/mud room and kitchen.
The new window moldings are almost completely installed and are quite lovely compared to the old ones. The plan is for the shingles to remain their natural color and the trim to be painted blue. Stay tuned, and hopefully our next update will have some spaces starting to look a little more like rooms.

18th Century Colonial Renovation: Part II

08 Monday Mar 2010

Posted by in Before & After, Eco-friendly, House Tours

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Progress is being made at the 18th Century Colonial Renovation we’ve been following (click here if you need a refresher on the before, or shall I say the in the beginning pics since we’re not quite to the after pics yet). As you can see above, the south side has been reshingled and is looking great.

It’s never great to see a main post rotted at the base, but it was easily fixable and now the house is nice and sturdy with a replacement piece.

These are the bricks from the center chimney that was taken down. They will be re-used for a yet to be determined project-probably a walkway, patio, or garden border. It’s always better for your budget and the environment if you can find a new use for this sort of thing in your project or find someone else who can instead of just trashing them since they are still perfectly useful.

The upstairs hallway is framed out so now noone will have to pass through anyone else’s bedroom to get to another room in the house. It looks a little dark in this picture but will actually be plenty bright as there are windows on either end of the space.The 8′ sliding door has been installed in the dining room and makes a huge difference to the amount of light in the space and really connects the indoor and outdoor living space now.There are still many decisions to be made in the kitchen. The layout of the cabinets and appliances has been decided, but what they will look like has not. Also, the doorway into the kitchen has been shifted from the right side over to the left side so that it is in alignment with the door from the laundry room to the yard. Both of these doors will be glass so as to maximize the amount of light into the kitchen.

The pellet stove vent isn’t exactly the loveliest picture, but I included it because it’s an area where a design decision needs to be made. It is right behind where the wet bar will be installed, and takes up a bit more space than anyone was really envisioning so now there is a question as to how to maximize the shelving above the bar and not have it look awkward at the same time.

There are so many small decisions that to make in a project like this, but everyone of them needs to be carefully thought through or else what seems like the littlest thing become your biggest daily annoyance. More to come soon!

Dreams of a Bigger Kitchen

23 Tuesday Feb 2010

Posted by in Kitchen

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, Architectural Digest, Coastal Living, House Beautiful, kitchens

Two and a half years ago when we were house hunting we were thrilled after looking at 50 houses (literally!) to finally find one in our budget with a great big living room, formal dining room, and a newer kitchen with a good size island. I thought it was going to be just perfect (with a few cosmetic changes). But the thing is, that no matter how big your house is, everyone hangs out in the kitchen and I feel like an awful host since that means only two people get to sit. So I’m now thinking that all houses should be 75% kitchen and 25% living space, and the thought keeps being reinforced over and over again every time we have people over whether it’s just another couple for dinner or the whole gang. It’s not in the cards right now, but I can’t wait to be able to blow out our kitchen and I always love looking for inspiration. Here are some great kitchens, and hopefully some day mine will fall into this category too.
I love the double island in this kitchen. A great way to have space to layout your food on one of them for people to gather around and still have a workspace on the other.

This double wide island also helps keep guests out of your workspace while still be able to socialize with them, and I love having an actual kitchen table in addition to seating at the island.

I love this rustic dining table placed as though it were an island. It adds a sense of intimacy for your guests, but still provides a prep space for you. We’ll be seeing this look in the final decor of the 18th Century Colonial renovation we’ve been following.

All I see when I look at this kitchen is space….there is ample space for people to sit or to stand and I imagine that the table could be pushed off to the side pretty easily to really create an open area when entertaining.The L shaped seating on this island makes it much easier for conversations and again, I love the eat in table in the same space. And as an added bonus this island is nice and long.

The curvature of this kitchen really makes it appear much larger and all the windows make it brilliantly bright. Some day I’ll be able to incorporate these features, but in the meantime I think I’ll just move all the alcohol to the living room. That always gets my guests moving!

Photos from: House Beautiful, Coastal Living , and Architectural Digest