Innehållsförteckning för March/April 2025 från Old House Journal

WHAT OLD-HOUSE PERSON ISN’T THRILLED to happen upon an old pantry in a museum house—or in the neighborhood? Old dishes crowd a painted turkey platter and china teacups dangle from little brass hooks; creaky wood drawers pull open to reveal silverware and hemstitched linens; on an upper shelf, someone’s long-forgotten seashells fill a gilt-edged champagne flute. Trouble is, the nostalgic room is most often attached to a dysfunctional or badly remodeled kitchen. Many homeowners rush to gut and renovate a tired kitchen. They spend lots of money to end up with a kitchen that doesn’t seem quite right—a new kitchen that nevertheless will look oddly dated within a decade. A better way: live in the house a while and let it speak to you. Even with modern appliances and layout,…

A COMPLETE MAKEOVER DESIGNER PAT GAYLOR MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY This job went way beyond cosmetic. With the room sinking and shifting, it was demolished down to lath and floor beams; a steel beam now shores up the floor. Reconfiguring the space allowed for a full-size tub. White tile, a wood wainscot, and Englishstyle wallpaper create a timeless room for an 1810 house built before indoor plumbing. PROUD DETAIL: Using plain tile (instead of marble) and wood allowed a splurge on polished nickel fittings. farmhouse SIMPLICITY DEBORAH & PATRICK McDONALD CENTRAL ALBERTA, CANADA Deborah and Patrick have lived in the same small town most of their lives and were fortunate to purchase one of its oldest homes. Their 1903 farmhouse is simple, with few fanciful architectural elements. The main bathroom had a…

Anthropologie’s vintageinspired ‘Eloise’ sconce with a milk-glass shade is more curvaceous than many Art Decoera fixtures. In green, blue, lavender, or white glass, it’s damp-rated and takes one 40-watt bulb; 12" high with a 9 ½" projection: $198. anthropologie.com A freestanding bathtub is a modern showstopper. This curvy beauty, a double-ended tub with 10 options for drain finish, is from the Brighton Collection. With a matte finish on stainresistant, non-porous acrylic, it’s 67" long x 31 ½" wide and starts at $2,150. vintagetub.com Along with the arched doorway, a revival cabinet in the Standard bath adds old-world charm. This 1920s Jacobean carvedwalnut china cabinet recently was listed at Chairish. Similar antiques start at about $350; browse your favorite antiques shops and vintage or resale websites. chairish.com For a period-friendly burst…

ASTRAGAL A vertical piece of door trim that completely seals the narrow space between the door edge and the door frame. In doubledoor configurations, an astragal seals the gap between the two doors or leaves. BRICK MOULDING A wood moulding that covers the gap between the door frame and the siding reveal into which the frame is set. (The term originated when brick was a common material for exteriors.) DOOR CASING The visible, finished frame or trim around the door. DOOR FRAME An assembly built into a wall consisting of two upright members (jambs) and one horizontal member over the doorway (head jamb). The assembly encloses the door opening and provides support for hanging the door. DOOR STOP A moulding against which the door shuts in its frame. HEAD JAMB A horizontal member forming the…

Old houses often conceal secrets, sometimes good ones. Laura and Michael Brosius were restoring their 1892 Queen Anne house when they uncovered a two-foot-square section of original linoleum under a later subfloor. The couple quickly realized the pattern could set the tone for the new periodcorrect kitchen they envisioned. But how to go about it? The design—a grid of gold squares on an earthy green ground with dark-green accents—was too complex to reproduce using inlays of modern materials. After a consultation with Gwen Jones of Ariel Grace Design, the couple ordered samples of a similar pattern in resilient flooring, but the color and quality were not quite right. Ultimately, they went with a third option: painting the old pattern on the existing floor. Mike and Laura had been working with…

CLEANING ART GLASS I have stained glass in a stairway window and in the dining room. It’s so dirty it’s blocking light but I’m terrified to clean it lest it be damaged. Still, it seems silly to call in a professional! Can you give me some guidelines? —Rosalie, St. Louis ONCE RESERVED for hand-painted 3 glass, today the term “stained glass” refers to any glass colored or stained (as by fusing metallic oxides into it) for decorative applications (as in windows); also glass that has been colored, enameled, painted, or stained, especially by having pigments baked onto its surface or by having various metallic oxides fused into it; also colored glass used to form pictorial designs, both by painting and by setting contrasting pieces in a lead framework. The most…

ROW-HOUSE SUCCESS ARCHITECT (co-owner) Office Mian Ye, NYC: officemianye.com CONTRACTOR A.J. Dederick, GreenCastle Building Solutions, Newburgh, NY: (845) 549-2301 ROOF TILE slate composite DaVinci Roofscapes davinciroofscapes.com WINDOWS 2/2 wood-frame divided light Pella pella.com STAIN linseed oil, Oja Blue Earth and Flax earthandflax.com Related Resources MORTAR SPECIALIST Limeworks US limeworks.us Lime mortars, binders, plasters, mineral paints; mortar analysis EXT. MILLWORK Architectural Components architecturalcomponentsinc.com Custom wood mouldings, millwork, paneling TimberBuild timberbuild.com Cedar building components, brackets, custom work SLATE ROOFING Sheldon Slate sheldonslate.com Slate roofing, counters, floor tile BATH TILE Clay Squared to Infinity claysquared.com Mosaic &art tile for kitchen, bath, fireplace, floors Heritage Tile heritagetile.com Mosaic & hex-tile floors, plus subway tile etc. DESIGN: BATHS p. 20 CONTRACTOR John Waddell, Allure Properties and Maintenance, Ledgewood, NJ: (973) 388-4888 WALLPAPER ‘Apothecary’s Garden’ by CFA Voysey, avail. from Trustworth Studios trustworth.com TILE floor tile ‘Eden’ white 1” hex polished porcelain…

UPCOMING EVENTS Three to consider putting on your calendar: March 25–26, St. Augustine, FL: Traditional Building Conference offers seminars, networking, and AIA credits for designers, contractors, craftspeople, and managers. traditionalbuildingshow.com April 25, Pasadena, CA: 35th Annual Bungalow Heaven Home Tour is a walking tour of the famous Arts & Crafts neighborhood, which gets you into eight private homes to see architectural details and period-appropriate renovations. bungalowheaven.org May 17, Oak Park, IL: Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk is a rare opportunity to visit private residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright & contemporaries. flwright.org…

This casual yet beautifully detailed kitchen is part of a modern farmhouse designed in 2007 by Treehouse Design of Rockport, Massachusetts. Meant to blend in, the new houses its amidst historic houses in a charming old village on Cape Ann. The house design is contextual, with nods to the vernacular. Lead designer Tim Thurman says that the clients wanted a friendly space for their family, which includes two grown children and two rambunctious dogs. The house offers an open floor plan that opens to active outdoor spaces both front and rear. Traditional inset cabinets, built by Jon (Sid) Sidlowski and team from Treehouse, set the tone. Topped with crown moulding, they create a seamless work space even as they satisfy the clients’ wish for a design that is “fun and…

step 1 Remove the doors and hinges, then fill the opening with a sheet of plywood with a temporary door cut in the center. step 2 Remove the hinges and soak them in water overnight in an old crockpot (not used for food) set on low. Most of the paint should pull a-way easily. Remove the rest with a scratch-free pad. step 3 Set the doors up on sawhorses indoors and strip them using an eco-friendly paint stripper such as Smart Strip or Peel Away. The chemical does the work: Simply apply the thick, poultice-like material, cover it with plastic, and leave for 24 hours. Remove the poultice and softened paint with a medium-width putty knife, taking care not to scrape or nick the wood. Repeat as needed, and then do the other…

The kitchen cabinets in my 1913 Adirondack-style cottage are an eclectic mix of builder-grade Homecrest cabinets in an odd tone of brown-burgundy, a couple of hand-built cabinets in oak and poplar—and extensive knotty-pine storage cubbies (along with an enormous soffit), crafted by a local carpenter in the late 1960s. The knotty pine was definitely showing its age. Using a tag-team approach with my handyman, sculptor Robert George, together we refreshed the vintage wood cabinets. He sanded, I stained. THE CABINET DOORS My knotty-pine cabinet doors are constructed from pine planks on the back, with mitered frames and a cross-X design on the front. Robert removed the hinge pins, leaving the hinges in place, and took the doors outside for sanding. In retrospect, one of us should have marked the positions of…

WHEN WE LOOK BACK at photos of the house as we purchased it in 2016, we wonder what we were thinking. A hideous box of aluminum siding, devoid of any century-home charm, it had no curb appeal. The interior, though, held some promise with its beautiful trim and mouldings and a comfortable floor plan. We weren’t swayed when the agent disclosed that the house was reportedly haunted; it had been a filming location for the television show “Rescue Mediums.” • Hoping for a better façade—maybe even brick—we were disappointed when our inspector told us there was no brick behind the siding. We’d later discover that where he’d inspected, between the original house and an addition, an old roofline left a gaping area under the siding. (No wonder previous owners had…

1. PAINTERLY PLATES The Delftware collection is inspired by this decoupage artist’s cache of 18thcentury Dutch and English Delft plates, in collaboration with Astier de Villatte. Many of the 12 designs encompass bud, leaf, and blossom motifs. Sizes vary. $122 to $290. John Derian, (212) 677-3917, johnderian.com 2. BUDDING COLLECTIBLE The Floral Tile Tray Table is part of a five-piece, limited-edition collection celebrating Stickley’s 125th year. The 30" high x 22 ½" wide x 16 ½" deep table includes a removable tray top and an interchangeable, handmade Motawi tile. $1,695. Stickley, (315) 682-5500, stickley.com 3. ODE TO SPRING The Bud and Leaf vessel is wheel-thrown by artist Jonathan White. At 8 ½" tall, the signed, watertight vase is sculpted to create the motif. The signature variegated green glaze results…

Jadeite is a common name for opaque milk glass in a shade of jade green. Made by several manufacturers, including Anchor Hocking (Fire-King), from the 1930s through 1976, jadeite dishware was once common; the color with its milky shine evokes that period from the Depression through mid-century. Vintage pieces easily are found on eBay and other sites. • Since 1971, however, the Mosser family, in Ohio, has been hand-crafting table wares using original cast-iron molds they found at auction and at companies going out of business. They’re producing many different pieces, including such favorites as the cake pedestal, the hobnail pitcher, and a tidbit tray with a Cindy-Lou Who flourish. Prices run from $15.95 for a six-inch dessert plate to $59.95 for the cake pedestal and $64.95 for a set…

We walk through door openings every day, rarely giving thought or even noticing the framework we pass through or the sill we step over. That was my experience until I noticed my front door needed a fresh coat of paint. Only then did I realize the sill was badly deteriorated and that the door frame itself had been inexpertly modified to accept a storm door. (My repairs are shown on p. 40.) At least my door closes firmly in its frame, shutting out the wind, snow, and rain. The hinges are properly set and securely attached to the jamb—the inner part of the door frame that takes the weight of the door. A tour of a neighboring building down the street told a different story, however. Built as a store…

1. CRACK RESISTANT Repair rotten wood on door sills, window frames, and more with the Wood Rot Repair Kit from Plastic Wood. The two-part latexbased formula includes a liquid wood hardener and sag-resistant epoxy filler that can be molded, cut, screwed, and painted. About $35. DAP Global, (888) 327-8477, dap.com 2. ADDED STABILITY Preferred by plumbers for more than 25 years, these American-made rigid or flexible tapered shims come in clear and black versions that stack, flex, and fix wobbles. Discreet and easy to trim, they’re available in several sizes. $8.99 and up. Wobble Wedge, (303) 442-0528, wobblewedge.com 3. STEEPLE HINGE The Eastlake-inspired Restorers steeple-pin door hinge measures a hefty 9 ½" tall with 6" high leaves. Shown in solid blackened brass, there are five holes per leaf, perfect…

WRONG WAY TRY NOT TO CHANGE THE SASH During your project, don’t replace glazing with, say, thicker security glass unless you plan to adjust the sash weights. Tempered, laminated, and patterned privacy glass also affect the weight of the sash. RIGHT WAY ADD OR REMOVE WEIGHT Don’t worry if the sashes’ weight has changed just a bit: usually there’s enough friction in this kind of window system to hold the sash in place, especially if you’ve installed weather stripping. With the restored window sash removed, weigh it on an ordinary bathroom scale. Now check the weight of the metal sash weight(s). Sometimes you can see the weight cast right into the iron. If the two weights are within a pound or two, reassemble. If it’s way off, buy larger or…

The Ontario homeowners were relatively lucky when they decided to remove the 1979 aluminum siding from their brick house. (See previous story.) The aluminum was attached to simple, vertical furring strips or strapping. The siding and ¾" foam insulation beneath came away easily. The ends of windowsills had been cut back but were easily replicated by homeowner David Leaist, a carpenter. Nail holes in the mortar were filled when the brick façade was repointed. Nails that had been fastened into brick remained but were cut back flush. (The original yellow bricks had been hand-dipped in red dye; removing the nails would have popped off the face of the bricks.) A major task was removing patches where original windows had been removed before installation of the siding; they put windows back.…