Nearly two years ago, my husband and I purchased a very old farmhouse for our family home. She was possibly built in 1836, and we fell in love with her tall ceilings, Greek Revival trim, and beautiful central staircase.
We are dreaming LARGE for her interior renovation, and trying to do most of it ourselves.
She had been left vacant for 2 years, and needed all of her plumbing replaced, and a more economic solution to her previous heating and cooling systems.
The renovation is going slowly, as my husband works long days in the city, helping to plumb new construction. I work long, joyful hours at home, teaching our two children.
But, finally, cosmetic progress is being made, room-by-room, beginning with the upstairs master bedroom.
We began with a great space, but the blue carpet was stained, and the plaster walls covered in slightly damaged blue wall paper. Four bright Cam lights sprinkled the ceiling around a central ceiling fan. The closet had no door, and only one horizontal rod. The window trim was gouged from a variety of curtain rod treatments hung over the years.
Initially, we tore up the carpeting and cleaned up the floor as well as we could. John took the opportunity to repair much of the upstairs electrical work.
The floors were not in very good shape, and the wood was dry and soft. But we were not looking for "perfect" anyway.
Next we had a re-finisher come and sand, stain and varnish the old poplar wood floors. He did a great job.
John had also found an old chandelier in the property's barn. It was black with dirt and age, and the details were difficult to make out. We weren't sure if it was tarnished, or if the finish was completely worn off. But I worked long and hard with steel wool and Barkeeper's Friend, and voila, a gorgeous brass chandelier. John re-wired it, and we added glass shades, and decided to hang it in the master bedroom.
I began removing the old wall paper, and John came after patching cracks and irregularities in the plaster. I also began the arduous task of sanding and patching the trim work. Once again, I had to be satisfied with "good" rather than "perfect," which worked out fine in the end.
The kids spent some time upstairs with me, creating wonderful drawings on the red paper I'd put down to protect the floors.
Next came the primer, then two coats of Behr on the trim, and Behr on the walls. Later, John removed the four Cam lights, added the antique chandelier and a new fan, and patched up the holes. I ended up painting the ceiling as well. John did a fantastic job - you can't tell where the lights used to be.
We also began buying furniture for the master bedroom. We are avid Craigslist shoppers, and we were able to find a Bombay solid four poster, an antique high boy, an Eastlake chair, an Eastlake settee, an antique table and an old trunk from a variety of local sellers. I was able to buy two very reasonable wool rugs from Overstock.com. Everything was stored in another room, while we finished the master bedroom renovation.
After the walls were painted, I sponged the feature wall, then added a Damask stencil print (from Cutting Edge Stencils). I DO NOT like wall paper, yet I wanted to keep an antique feel to the bedroom. This was the perfect solution.
The final (undecorated) room turned out as we had hoped.
The closet posed several challenges for John. The entrance to the closet was huge (we had found the extra tall, SOLID wood doors out in the barn), and the hinges had opened into the small space. So John added a transom, and narrowed the doorway, so that a bi fold could fit instead. He also added two ClosetMaid cubicle shelves to the wall for clothes storage, and installed a ClosetMaid track system. This gave us so much more room to hang all of our clothes.
We have been comfortably sleeping in the room for months. My final project for this space is to upholster the Eastlake pieces of furniture. I will post photos of the final decorated room later.
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