Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2026 från Old House Journal

OHJ COMES TO YOU FROM PEOPLE who are active participants in restoration work and the building arts. Others are design historians and accomplished architectural photographers. Many have been writing or taking photos for us for years; their names are familiar. Some pop in and out for a special story. Here are a few you’ll see in this issue of OHJ. BRIAN D. COLEMAN, MD / Seattle, Wash. / bricoleman@aol.com A practicing psychiatrist, Brian is also a design enthusiast; his love of restoration and interiors grew into an active second career. It all started when he put a stylized turret on his Victorian house and wanted to share the project, penning an article for OHJ in 1996. The rest is history. Long-time editor Patricia Poore says, “Brian is our West Coast…

1. THOUGHTFUL FUNCTION The kitchen has a relaxed functionality familiar to a Victorian workspace and welcome today. An open rack holds dishware. Painted beadboard on walls along with sturdy soapstone and Danby marble counters recall the past. The 1891 Victorian Queen Anne house in Massachusetts is a lively example of the style. Its layout, however, retained a few features incongruous with contemporary living: An unused service wing was one, as was a primary bedroom lacking a closet and proper bathroom. Frank Shirley Architects was asked to reimagine a kitchen and mudroom as well as the bed suite. The client is the principal of renovation specialists ReModern Builders; he and Shirley agreed that new work should be done in the spirit of the original house. The service ell now holds a…

As far as work in the trades is concerned, I’m a lucky guy. For the past 12 years, I’ve spent my days as a finish foreman with a company that remodels and restores historic mansions and builds new homes in Newport, R.I. Our carpenters install custom-milled trim, cabinetry, doors, and windows. Then my crew and I go in and finish them. Given all that—and the ocean views—it’s a sweet deal. There’s no doubt that the craftsmanship that precedes us sets the stage for us to do our best work. But delivering flawless finishes is no easy task. Staining and clear-coating the mahogany mantelpiece featured here—and the paneled library that it’s in—took three of us two weeks to complete. Yes, we were methodical and took great care when applying the stain…

The traditional first-anniversary gift is paper, “so we gave each other the deed to our house,” say Michael Assetto and Joe McFetridge. The house is in Ardmore, a Main Line suburb of Philadelphia. “The ninth-anniversary gift is ceramics. We celebrated that one with redesigned bathrooms full of tile.” Built in 1926, the house retains many original elements, including mouldings, window casings, and arched door openings. The old 1940s bathrooms, however, were tired; one had cracked tiles and the other a layout complicated by three doors. “We wanted to create spaces that looked as though they might have been the original Twenties bathrooms,” says Assetto. “We did research into the décor of the Art Deco period when the house was built.” To execute their ideas, they hired a friend. Sean Lewis…

LAMP SPECS • Sizes from 10 ¼" to 17 ¾" tall • Base footprint: 6 ½" to 9 ¼" wide • Charging cord included • $1,431 and up MONARCHS FOREVER Created by Old California for an Arts & Crafts resort in southern California, the Pine Cone and Monarch pedestal lamp is now available in three sizes. The battery-powered lamp features warmly glowing Monarch butterflies and native pinecone details overlaid on art glass. The pedestal lamp incorporates Japanese design influences in its silhouette and accentuated, riveted joints. It’s shown in the New Verde finish, one of seven choices, with gold iridescent glass. Also available in mica and four other art glasses. Lamped for a LED bulb; the battery lasts about 12 hours per charge. oldcalifornia.com Patterns in Amber Conor Dooley…

? WHITE DUST ON BRICK ? For the past year or so, the brick surround of my fireplace (below the opening, underneath a stone hearth) has been producing a white-ish dust. The fireplace is over a crawlspace; both the crawlspace and one foot of the first floor flooded during Hurricane Sandy, in 2012. We had the entire first floor torn up and refinished and did the necessary remediation in the crawlspace. It appears that the white substance is “growing” on the mortar. What is causing the white dust, and what, if anything, can I do about it? —Sharon Streger, Fairfield, Conn. ✓ JOHN CARROLL, a North Carolina ✓ mason and author of The Complete Visual Guide to Building a House, responds: The white stains on your brick hearth were, and may…

Fink & Son Historic Restoration You might need to replace a section of moulding that was removed or that decayed. Or you may want to tie an addition to the look of the existing house. If you’ve been there, then you know how disappointing it can be to walk the aisles of the home center or lumberyard trying to find new stock with the same profile as the moulding to be matched. If you do find a suitable match, it may not be the right species or it may not have the right grain appearance. If you need more than a short run, or if you work on old houses for a living and often run up against this situation, then you'll invest in a William & Hussey moulding machine…

Parisian Influence In an exclusive collaboration with Ajiri Aki, the founder of Parisian brand Madame de la Maison, the Modern Matter x Ajiri Aki collection includes this Marie Lever vertical handle set. The collection draws heavily from French design, particularly the “modern” elegance of mid-19th-century Haussmann-era apartments in Paris, as well as the decorative flourishes of the Second Empire and Louis XVI periods. Each piece of hardware subtly incorporates iconic architectural motifs such as pinecones, swans, and lion heads. Crafted from solid brass and finished in unlacquered brass, all pieces are designed to age gracefully and develop a rich patina over time. modern-matter.com • 9⅝" tall x 5" wide with a 2 ½" projection • $499 per set For Your Gate Forged-iron gate hardware from Acorn begins as milled steel…

At Hutker Architects, we create memorable spaces that our clients yearn to occupy to achieve our mission of creating heirloom homes worthy of preservation. We have found that most of the rooms we design are conceived initially as collective areas for family living. Dining rooms, kitchens, family or living rooms, and even studies and libraries are planned for multiple users. Naturally, the scale of these rooms is large, and when only one person uses such a space, it may not be comfortable. One way to make a large space more comfortable for an individual is to create a smaller space in it. We often activate the edges of large rooms with built-in living spaces smaller in scale and near a window. The success of these interstitial spaces is their relationship…

Realistic Flames The PE2 all-electric fireplace from Valor suits interiors Victorian to Mid-century Modern. Shown with the Richmond cast front, it’s offered with a choice of two fuel-bed options: flaming birch logs or glowing coals, each with crackling sound effects. Fuel beds are generated by a realistic LCD panel with nine ambient light settings and several flame options. Fire up the eco-friendly heater with onboard engine controls, the dedicated remote, or a Charlton & Jenrick smart app. The fireplace can be installed as a zero-clearance or insert. Dimensions: 25" high x 20" wide. As shown: about $4,400. valor.com Ageless Fire Aid Leather bellows have been used for centuries to increase oxygen flow to stoke fires. Crafted of genuine suede leather riveted to smoothly finished pine, these durable and traditionally shaped…

Sarah Brew discovered the house when she attended an estate sale there. “It was a time capsule, I fell in love with it,” she says. She is only its second owner, though the chain of residency is more complicated. The house was built by Hal Paris, a son of the family who owned the Paris Candy Company in Minneapolis. He, his wife, Mary, and his young son, Lee, moved in in 1914. In 1928, young Ida arrived from Mora, Minnesota, to serve as their latest live-in maid. • Mary died of “apoplexy” (likely a stroke) in 1936. Ida stayed on . . . but when Lee left to serve in World War II, the neighbors began to talk. So Hal and Ida got married. Hal died around 1956. “I bought the…