Old House Charm-It's All In The Details

Snow day!  I'm sharing a quick post highlighting some of the details that I love about our old home. I am an old door knob, key, and architectural salvage nut and what won me over about this house were lots of original details. The decor was dated but underneath the charm remained.

The knobs on EVERY interior door are original.  I mean how does that happen? You hardly ever see a 95 year old home that has all its original hardware. Also I was smitten by all the cast iron vents and returns and the discoloration and patina they had gotten over time. 

Here's a few photos I snapped today.

All of the door knobs on the bedrooms, closets, and two sets of French doors are original to the house, built between 1924-25. I've always loved the glass knobs and have several in my collections. 

The opposite side handle. Love the little keyholes! Old tarnished brass is beautiful, wouldn't you agree?

Even the little locks inside the closet are still intact.

It's like a step back in time, and you wonder why people ever took these off and put up cheap brass ones. Here you can also see the wallpaper we put up this past fall. It's a 1920's style paper and we feel it is perfect for this home. 

In addition to adding character with wallpaper, we added historic charm by painting the "antique copper" tiles in our music office. This is just a sneak peak of our music office reveal...

This ceiling! I'm still loving it every day.  Finding the right paint was the hard part. Actually it wasn't easy to paint either, but more about that in the upcoming post. This job and the wallpaper in the dining room were both pains, but more than worth the end result for the historic character they revived in the home. 

It's simply gorgeous looking up at night.

Looking down you can find more original beauty.

I absolutely love this. If I saw one of these thingys at a yard sale I would have bought it to use in some junky chic vignette or as a display piece in my booth. For it's primary purpose it's soooo warm to stand above! Old cast iron? I couldn't resist! Quick! Let's write an offer!!! I knew the outdated paint and carpet would be an easy fix but you can't always find these kinds of original details, a must have on my home wish list. And that's the hardwood floor that was under that carpet and we haven't done a thing to it.

These are the wall vents in every room. 

They are just the warmest and they really add charm to the rooms. 

You might be wondering about heat costs but somehow we almost tripled our square footage when we moved and our bill is less!

Love the butler door which swings from the kitchen to dining room. Here you can see the woodwork which isn't a perfect match but to be almost a century old and never painted, I'll take it! 

We loved the unpainted doors as well. Even when we were going to paint the trim we were going to leave the doors original. It took some getting used to, as I wanted to paint white everywhere originally. After we started moving in we realized the wood was just too pretty to paint, and since I had been doing the white thing for so long I was ready for a change, and we just couldn't destroy the integrity of the home. Don't get me wrong. I can definitely see this house all white and it might be "prettier" but it just seems wrong to do it.

Original French doors to dining room. I won't lie about keeping them clean, it's a chore. There are 60 panes of wonderful, wavy old glass between the two sets of doors, so it takes a day or two to get them sparkly but I do love them.

And this baby sealed the deal...

Look at the gorgeous woodwork and details on this mantel! Never painted, hardly a scratch. Alas, no white, but no regrets.

Original tilework

Yes, I do dream by the fire, of all the upcoming home decor projects on my wish list, traveling, spring gardening, and even right now I'm dreaming of the snow we are about to get. I love at least one big, magical snow each winter. Then give me tulips!

It wasn't hard to blend vintage, shabby chic style in this house after all. I came up with a motto for mixing decorating styles here: "Unified simply by being old and beautiful."  This lamp is a great example. It used to look perfect in a predominantly white room at our old cottage, but here it's even better. The details of the lamp seem to perfectly mirror the home details I've shown today.  

I love the soft light it casts in the evening. Perfect for a night like tonight as we keep

cozy while awaiting the predicted snowpocalypse that's supposed to hit between late tonight and tomorrow.

Stay warm and cozy dear friends!

Amber

parties:

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/?m=1

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2016/01/share-your-cup-thursday-181.html?m=1

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2016/01/feathered-nest-friday_21.html?m=1

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/2016/01/home-and-garden-thursday-132.html

http://lifewithlorelai.com/2016/01/21/home-matters-linky-party-70/