Innehållsförteckning för September/October 2022 från Old House Journal

MIXING METALS in a room looks looks good and makes sense, as long as there’s logic behind it. Here, the copper hood is a unique feature; lighting and hardware are brass; cool nickel faucets marry with stainless appliances. PERIOD LIGHTING Perhaps the most common type is Colonial Revival—what many would call traditional: the electrified fixtures and lamps with designs based on candle lighting, including chandeliers and sconces, and on early oil-burning lights. Schoolhouse pendants are another example of a look that blends with many styles. Ornate gaslight-era lighting needs the right setting. Arts & Crafts lighting runs from leaded glass to mica shades, wood or pottery bases, iron and copper. Historical Revival lighting of the 1920s can appear storybook or medieval, fitting into Tudor and Mediterranean houses. Art Deco and Atomic-era…

Unless you’re a museum curator, being authentic isn’t high on the list when it comes to putting modern bathrooms into an old house. One approach: keep it simple and traditional. Stylish and ever-popular fixtures including plain pedestal and console sinks, porcelain towel bars, and retro-style tubs are readily available. In many old houses built before indoor plumbing, a “new” indoor bathroom was placed in a former bedroom or hall. White tile may be too clinical, and beadboard too back-of-house, so take cues from woodwork and finishes in rooms nearby. Consider trim profiles, built-ins, lighting, finishes, and paint colors. In one powder room (below), grasscloth wallcovering is carried over from the adjacent wide hall in the 1830 house. Bedroom-worthy candle sconces join framed art on the walls. A mirror with a…

“Still shaking my head at an odd discrepancy on the otherwise balanced house. Gotta be a story behind it.” We’re halfway through a reroofing job on a Cape Codstyle house. I’m cutting flashing for the second dormer, and something isn’t adding up. Looking hard at the two dormers, I realize that, although windows are the same size, one dormer is wider. What? I’d never noticed the difference until we were on the roof. Now, though, when I’m on the ground looking up, “I can’t un-see it.” Thetwindormersdon’tmatch!—W. T. Lockeman THE FIX No easy fix for this one, but there may be a lesson in it. How did it happen that two dormers built at the same time on a previously symmetrical house ended up being different sizes? It’s possible that…

New screws stand out as way too clean and shiny on salvaged hardware. To darken them, I start with non-stainless screws, and dip the heads into a bottle of Brownell’s Oxpho-Blue, a bluing solution that oxidizes the surface in seconds, turning it slightly black. If air bubbles form in the slots, knock them off and dip the screw back into the solution. The new screws will look as good as old.…

Most roofing contractors work with asphalt or composite roofing. If they install metal, slate, or tile roofs, their ads and websites will stipulate those specialties. For extensive work or replacement of a wood-shingle roof or any of these long-lived roofing materials, hire a company with the right experience. A few old-fashioned repairs for minor problems are DIY-friendly, provided you are comfortable working on the roof and you follow all safety procedures. WOOD SHINGLES These may curl and split or become thin through long weathering. If the problem is just a random shingle here and there, replacement is a simple job. If the number of shingles needing replacement approaches 10 or 15%, though, think about replacing the entire roof. To replace a wood shingle, remove the damaged unit by splitting it…

LIKE GOING HOME Readers are familiar with our scout and story producer Brian Coleman. You may not know that he’s also Dr. Coleman, a practicing psychiatrist, or that, in his spare time, he has written 27 gorgeous books on design. (I’m proud to say that all started when he wrote to tell me about his Victorian house, back in 1991. His relationship with OHJ blossomed.) Scheduling a lecture at Browers bookstore in Olympia, Wash., Brian told the current owner that he grew up in that city and worked at the Anna Blom Bookshop as a kid. “Anna Blom was an elderly Russian lady. She served me tea and paid me in Wizard of Oz books; sometimes she’d give me a quarter and I’d go to the hotel across the street…

Almost all decisions about hardware and lighting start with functionality: will it do the job? As practical as that is, fixtures, lamps, and exposed hardware become the jewelry of the house. Lighting and hardware define a style by way of their period precedent, the material, and the finish. Swapping out lighting fixtures and even hardware is a way to fix past remuddling of the interior. The right pieces enhance the original architecture or make an addition blend in. Because lighting and hardware designs evolved with changes in technology and manufacturing, there’s no “purity” of style over time. For example, reproductions of lighting fixtures that would have been lit with candles, oil, kerosene, or gas were adapted for electricity. That led to freer designs not tied to the management of piped…

As co-owner of two historic houses undergoing prolonged restoration, I’ve been stockpiling antique hardware for years. I’m very specific in my approach: I look for hardware from the same era, scale, and style as the house. For just a single door installation, the list can be long: two matching hinges, a rim lock, doorknobs and spindle, lock catch, escutcheon, rosette, and maybe even an old-timey skeleton key. When my wife, Wendy, and I moved into our 1880s row house nearly 20 years ago, the original door hardware was long gone, replaced with flimsy and odd-looking 1980s brass hardware. (Right decade, wrong century.) By carefully looking at lock catch notches left in door casings, hole patterns, wear marks, and outlines on the doors, we were able to figure out what was…

Liz Gordon’s love affair with hardware started when she was 21 and living in Chicago. For $3,500, she bought a warehouse full of thousands of pieces of vintage hardware and got straight to sorting and organizing, and she hasn’t stopped. She learned as much as she could about all kinds of hardware and what went where, when. When she moved to California, she shipped 50 fifty-gallon drums of hardware. For several years she set up at the Rose Bowl, at flea markets, and in her driveway. She opened her now-famous shop, Liz’s Antique Hardware, in 1992. Liz stocks everything from doorknobs and drawer pulls, hooks and handles to vintage bath fixtures and lighting. Today she has over a million pieces for houses of every style, from about 1860 until the…

WRONG WAY USING A MODERN SCREW Yes, a screw can be used to re-secure the hinge. But the diameter will have to be large enough to hold securely in the hole left by the old nail. It cannot be longer than the thickness of the door or jamb. You’ll need to enlarge the original hole punched into the iron hinge leaves. In the end, a round or oval screw head will not be visually consistent with the original fasteners. RIGHT WAY PLUG, THEN USE CUT NAILS Enlarge the original nail hole in the wood, using a drill. Glue in a wooden plug, which holds better than a dowel. Bore a small pilot hole into the middle of the plug. To complete this authentic repair, place a small square of thin…

A sprawling metropolis with an emphasis on the new, Los Angeles retains charming old neighborhoods, 35 of them protected as Historic Preservation Overlay Zones. Find Victorians plus California Bungalows, Arts & Crafts houses, Mission and Spanish Colonial architecture, and period revivals from Colonial and Tudor to French Norman, along with early modernist-design houses. Here are just a few neighborhoods: • ANGELINO HEIGHTS Established in 1983, this was LA’s first historic overlay zone. Stately Queen Anne and Eastlakestyle homes line Carroll Avenue in the steep hills between Chinatown and Echo Park; this area has the largest concentration of 19th-century houses in LA. Lots of filming goes on here, from the movie “Chinatown” to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” • GREGORY AIN MAR VISTA TRACT Architect Ain developed this tract of “Modernique” homes in…

Lehman’s is both a store in Kidron, Ohio, and an online retailer of agricultural and nonelectric goods, from canning jars and propane stoves to chicken coops. Founded in 1955 to serve the local Amish community, the company purchased the lamp division of Aladdin in 2016 and has since created the Aladdin Museum of Light. (Aladdin’s history goes back to 1908.) • “An Aladdin is the lamp to have in an emergency,” says proprietor Galen Lehman. “It’s the only kerosene wick lamp that burns with a bright white light safe to read by. It uses less fuel, is totally silent, and requires no complicated pumping.” Their Genie III is a shelf/table lamp that also fits into most Aladdin wall brackets and ceiling hangers. With a brass or nickel burner, it costs…

Grasp a Rasp The 8" half-round rasp quickly removes wood or filler and can tackle tasks like rough-shaping epoxy repairs or beveling corners. Made of machine-cut steel, the rasp has a lightly varnished 4" beech handle:$11.50. Bundle with flat and round rasps: $28.60. Garrett Wade, (800) 221-2942, garrettwade.com Crisp Profiles These double-ended contour sanding blocks are ideal for sanding concave and convex shapes on moulding, edging, fluting, and more without distorting or diminishing the crispness of the profile. In six sizes, they’re made of flexible rubber that’s easy on the hands; $14.99. Rockler, (800) 279-4441, rockler.com Stripper Soybeans By now a classic product, Blue Bear Soy Gel paint and urethane stripper makes short work of removing heavily caked-on paints and other stubborn coatings from wood, masonry, metal, etc. Made from…

In Minneapolis, the 1907 Joyce United Methodist Church was to be converted into uptown apartments. White-stucco archways in the Mission Revival building framed a trio of massive, 20-foot-tall, geometric oak screens for the builtin pipe organ of wood and metal. The folks at Minneapolis Architectural Salvage were intrigued. Ultimately, the organ was dismantled and saved by a local organrepair company. But they left behind the screens. Using the intricate ladder system built for the organ when it was installed, the salvage crew climbed up behind to carefully pry out each oak screen section individually, using crowbars. creating screens Made of red oak (more common than white-oak lumber in the early 1900s), the screens were solidly constructed, and square even after removal. The oilbased varnish just needed a light cleaning with…

LUSCIOUS BITS OF THE PAST The spelter statue “America” originally was a gas lamp by New York manufacturer Mitchell Vance & Co. The dining-room chandelier, by Bradley & Hubbard or Standard Lamp. Co., dates to ca. 1910–20; it was found in Oregon. Argand lamps sit on the mantel. “My love of the 19th-century decorative arts knows no bounds,” says Geoff Howell. “For my entire adult life, I have been a photo stylist, a store-window decorator, and an events designer. Certain ways of doing things have become ingrained—whether I like it or not!” he explains, discussing his approach to life in an 1866 Italianate house. • A talent for the art of display is evident in this former farmhouse filled to the brim with possessions and collections. All of it was…

UTTER SUCCESS CONTRACTOR Hammer Time Carpentry, Bellingham: (360) 255-1049 EXT. IRON HANDRAIL Lynden Sheet Metal, Lynden, WA: lyndensheetmetal.com ROUND WINDOWS Tuscany series Milgard Windows & Doors milgard.com NEW WINDOWS traditional double hung, pine interior, stone-white Ultrex exterior Marvin Integrity marvin.com MAILBOX Victoria vertical in copper Comfort House comforthouse.com EXT. PAINT Cloverdale Cover Coat satin finish in Brandy, Madrona, Peat, Cameo Rodda Paint Co. roddapaint.com MILLWORK Price & Visser Millwork Inc., Bellingham: priceandvisser.com WOOD BRACKETS Olympic Traditional Smooth brackets in Douglas fir Ekena Millwork ekenamillwork.com FIREPLACE INSERT gas with Vintage Iron cast surround Valor Gas Fireplaces valorfireplaces.com CORNER POSTS Vintage Wood-works vintagewoodworks.com BACKSPLASH TILE Highland Park Artisan Arabesque in Taupe, through showrooms & online sellers KIT. CABINETS Yorktowne yorktownecabinetry.com SWITCH PLATES Egg and Dart antique brass Nostalgic Warehouse nostalgic warehouse.com BATH FLOOR…