Lions And Doorknobs and Hardware, Oh My!

Okay so there are no actual lions in this post.  As we are trickling down to the end of the renovation, we find ourselves focusing on all the maddening little details like doorknobs and hardware.  We've added some new doors in the renovation, and because we're all about the old-stuff-looking-old here, we're doing our best to find doorknobs that match what we've already got, or at least fit with the style of our house.

So the top row of the above picture is some antique pocket door hardware that we picked up at a local antique store.  I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's Victorian era (I'm thinking 1870's to 1890's), so it may not be completely appropriate for my 1910 house.  It's pretty and it's close enough as far as I'm concerned. 

On the bottom row, far left we have a c. 1935 crystal knob and Art Deco backplate that I salvaged from my Grandmother's house.  Warning!  Sad back story ahead:  My Grandmother was a life long renter, and when the good friend that owned her rental house died, she left the house to a local church.  They decided they didn't want to deal with my Grandmother and her drafty old house any more, so they opted to tear down her house and build a larger parking lot that they didn't really need.  So my poor Grandmother, after having lived in her rental house for 50 years, was summarily kicked out at the age of 83, and now lives in a retirement apartment.  At least the heartless bastards nice God-fearing church folk let us salvage what we could from the old place, which in this case lead to me being the owner of dozens of Art Deco crystal knobs.  Sadly, these knobs are a bit small in scale compared to the rest of my door hardware (the knob in the center in the bottom row is an original one from our house), and aren't really going to be practical to use.  All is not lost though- we plan to take a few of the knobs and use them as hooks for towels and such in the master bath, kind of like this inspiration photo I found on pinterest:

Sorry it's a bit fuzzy, but you get the idea.

Oh and I guess I should mention that the far right doorknob in the first picture is an antique set that we found at a local antique store.  It was the closest match we could make to what we have in the house. It's pretty darn close and I'm happy with it.

 You know you like staring at my knobs.

So the above photo is the actual door knobs that are original to our house.  We have crystal and two types of metal.  We took the photo for reference when we were prowling antique stores to look for matches.  I'm including it here because I thought you guys might be curious and because it allowed me to make a dirty knob joke.

On top of trying to match up doorknobs and doorknob hardware, we've also had to figure out hardware for the rest of the house.  You know, all the little stuff you use every day but don't think about much, like drawer pulls, cabinet knobs, and latches.  It's very important for us to try to make our house look as historically accurate as possible, so we can't exactly just waltz down to Home Depot and pick something out.  Fortunately, we have the magics of the internet to help us, and I think we found some great "new old" stuff.

So let's start off in the kitchen.  These are going to be the crystal knobs for the kitchen cabinetry.  We have one in our rental house, and I know it dates from about 1920.

 

This is a pic of the actual glass knob in our rental house, so you get an idea of what the knob will look like in situ.

 

 

 We decided to go with something a little bit different for the bin pulls on the island.  The shape is historically accurate, but having it made mostly out of glass is a modern touch.  I think it looks kinda like a mason jar.

 We found a pair of these antique handles at the same antique store where we found our doorknobs.  These will be used as handles for our refrigerator.  The fridge is faced with cabinet panels so that it will look like an antique cabinet itself.  Pretty clever, no?

 

This is a modern handle that we found to match the antique set we are using on the fridge.  We'll be using these on the dishwasher and appliance garage.

We have a built in cabinet in the back of the hall that will match the cabinetry in our kitchen.  To distinguish it a little bit, we've decided to go for latches instead of knobs as the hardware.  This one is modeled after latches found on old Hoosier cabinets.

 

 The hubby picked out these hinges to match the latches.  I think they look pretty cool.

 

 This will be the drawer pull we use for the hall cabinet.  I think it looks good with the latches and hinges we've chosen.

 

For the cabinetry in the office, we've decided to go with a simple aged knob.  We didn't want it to detract from the lovely leaded glass in the cabinets themselves.

 

 And finally, we've decided to go with simple milk glass knobs for the built-ins in the master bedroom and master bath.  It's the same style as the crystal knobs in the kitchen.

 

So that's it folks, more than you probably ever wanted to know about the hardware in my house.  I'll leave you with this video.  It's what I always think of when I think of hardware.

But basketball's a peaceful planet!

Tune in next time for a fascinating post about something else.

Semi-Floor-A-Palooza

Okay I know I promised you folks a floor-a-palooza post, but the floors aren't completely done.  I decided to wait until they were done to post anything...and then time passed, we all got a little older, and I figured I should post something else.  But then I noticed in a lot of my shots of something else there were shots of the floors partially done, and I didn't want to spoil the floor surprise. So then I figured it's better to give you some of the floors than nothing, so here we are with a semi-floor-a-palooza.  Remember this picture?

 What could we have been up to?

Well that was a photo of some stain samples for the AWESOMESAUCE CHECKERBOARD FLOOR IN THE ADDITION!  Check it out:

Pretty cool, eh?

I love how the woodgrain still shows through.

But wait, there's more!

 It looks like we're up to something in the back hallway.

What could this be?

Curiouser and curiouser...

Why, it's more TOTALLY AWESOMESAUCE stained floors!

As you can see, we opted for some more floor design in the hallway.  The chevrons here are meant to beckon you down the hall towards our addition.  It kind of reminds me of the airport a bit, you know, where the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only? 

 And I mean that in the best possible way.

 

These floors are all designed and executed by the fabulous Byron Blake.  He's a local Atlanta artist and interior designer.  We were very lucky to find someone who was willing to spend hours and hours working on his hands and knees (keep your mind out of the gutter!) just to make the floors look this cool.  He's not finished yet though cause we're planning on putting a stained/painted rug in the front hall.  I'll post pics of that when it's finished.

In the meantime, we've got some tile work done in the house too.  Here's the hallway bath floor:

We decided to keep it simple with classic hexagonal subway tiles.

 A little close up of the border for you, and also the hubby's boot.

We're planning on doing something similar in the laundry room, but to jazz it up a little, we'll add random little black flowers.

 An indication of things to come in the laundry room.

Well that's it folks.  I'll add more floor shots as they become available, and don't forget to tune in next time for something else!

Works In Progress

Well it seems I took another unintentionally long blog break.  My plan was to wait until all of our floors had been completed, then make a massive floor-o-rama post.  But I thought, rather than make you guys wait for a finished product, why not show you some things that are in progress?  First up is our kitchen island.  We had it delivered to our house and placed in our master bedroom so that our wonderful refinsher Shea could put her magic touches on it.

 It kinda just looks like a huge, weird box here doesn't it?

 This is the  first coat of paint, a cool green color.  Sorry for the quality of the photo.  They were refinishing our hardwood floors that day and we couldn't come in the house.  The hubby had to hang on the outside of the house and look through the window to get this shot.

 This is coat number two, a brownish purple.  I believe it actually matches the brownish purple on our guest bedroom walls.

 Shea has to go through and paint each little bit and bob on our island doors.  It's painstaking detail work.

 Coat number three is a serene blue that matches the blue in our hall bath.

 So many little details...

 Transitioning from purple to blue.

 And this is what the final distressed finished island will look like.  You can see all the different colors peaking through.  This is a cell phone pic by the way, it looks much more vibrant in real life.

Shea is also working on our master bedroom mantle.  This is one of those I'm-so-glad-I-have-a-designer moments.  I would've never in a million years have thought to make our mantle gold, but I love the way it really pops against the purple on the walls.

This is the same gold color that's in our hall.

 All distressed and ready to be installed.

Other projects are moving forward in the house.  Our designer Karen happened to catch this fabulous one day sale at a local rock yard, and we scored a couple of awesome slabs.

This marble called Calcutta Gold because it has warm vein running through it.  It's hard to see in this photo, but it's really gorgeous!

 

 Here it is all marked up and templated.  Out of this one slab we will get a tub surround, bathroom countertop, shower seat, hearth slab and threshold.

This lovely piece of granite will become the desktop in our office.

  This is our murder room.  It's where we go to sacrifice people to the old Gods.  Just kidding, it's really our shower area.  I have no idea why the walls are red like that, but I imagine it has something to do with waterproofing.

And finally I thought I'd leave you with a little proof that some projects are actually getting finished around here.  The exterior trim work is done!

It took a surprising amount of coats of paint and detail work to get the trim that crisp.  I'm glad I didn't have to do it.

That's it for this week folks.  Tune in next time for floor-o-rama...or maybe something else.  You never can tell around here.

Coming Together

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted.  We've had some personal stuff going on that I don't need to go into here, and also it's mostly painting that's being done at the reno right now.  Painting is great, paint is exciting, so why haven't I posted?  Because we can't seem to get a halfway decent picture of the paint colors.  They always look too blue or too green or too weird, but I SWEAR they look great in real life.  Also other little things are starting to come together.  The floors are being sanded, stained, and prepped for the artist who will come in and do...lots of neat stuff you'll get to see later.  We figured out how to tone down the stain in the addition ceiling and it's looking fabulous.  The house is really starting to shape up.

This is the exterior of the house.  As you can see, they've got our trim up (we were going for a slightly more Victorian feel).  Now, I know what you're thinking, you're thinking, "Why is the house blue when they said they were going to paint it purple?".  Well it IS purple, I swear.  Every photo we took of it makes it look blue.  But I assure you, it's this really cool shade of purple that changes tones throughout the day.

 It looks even more blue here, doesn't it?  I promise in real life it's purple.

 This is the paint plan for the trim on the front porch.  We wanted a little paint to make the details pop, but not too much (this is not a Painted Lady in San Francisco, after all).

Here you can see they're starting to suss out the trim.  It's a work in progress.

Here's our stain plan for the entire house.  Why the sudden shift from dark to light stain?  You shall see my friends, you shall see.

A little hint of things to come.

The front hall has paint and stain on the floors and ceilings.  I know, I know, the color on the walls looks like a weird brown/green puke color.  I assure you in real life it's this awesome antique gold.  Check out the ghostly footprints.  Creepy.

Here's a close up of the ceiling in the hall.  A lot of folks thought we were crazy when we said we were putting up beadboard ceilings throughout the house.  Now I hope they can see why we wanted to do it.  Gosh, it looks even more beautiful than I ever hoped it would.

Here's the office.  It accidentally got painted before we had finalized the wall color.  We're actually going to be going with a richer blue than what you see here.  The ceiling sure does look nice though, doesn't it?

The office floor with it's stain.  I really love the look of a dark hardwood floor in an old house.

This is the best pic I have of the master bedroom at the moment (the rest of them were too dark or cluttered).  This picture really doesn't do it justice (the colors are much richer and more vibrant in real life).  Note that the ceiling here is not stained (not all of them will be).  I really like the lovely gray-green color (I find it soothing).

 This is our walk-in closet off the master.  Why blue?  Why not?

Here's the master bath with it's bright, vibrant blues (keep in mind there will be a lot of white tile in there to tone it down).  It's hard to get a good photo of this bathroom because it's become a catch-all while they are doing the hardwood floors in the rest of the house.

A very dark picture of the hall bath.  We have no lighting at the house right now, and this room has no exterior window, so it's almost impossible to shoot.  In reality, the wainscoting is a nice bright white and the wall is a beautiful blue.

And speaking of windows, remember these?  They were hanging up for privacy in what was then my master bath (now it's a walk-in closet).  Well they have been repurposed.

Now they are being used in the hall bath in the wall between it and the laundry room.  The laundry room has an exterior window, so it brings in a little bit of light to the hall bath.  Admittedly, it's not much light because it's a north facing window, but you work with what you've got.

They've lightened up the super dark stain on the addition ceiling using deck stain remover.  It looks beautiful now!

A shot of the addition (standing in the kitchen facing the living room).  I really love how the ceiling, wall color, and floor stain are all working so well together.  This is definitely going to be one of my favorite areas of the house.

Well that's it for this week folks.  Tune in next time when you see cool stuff being done to our hardwood floors, and maybe even some installed cabinetry.