Good Interior Design Has A History

Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater!

Our firm renovates bathrooms often.  Restoring a vintage bath, with good interior design, is an honor.

Wednesday “Wow”!

Vintage Interior Design

Once again, we are happy to have had the opportunity to partner with Eric Seltz, of Sotheby’s International Realty, as he prepared this exceptional, circa 1854, property for market. 

First Impressions Are Everything

We see so many homes in our industry that it takes something special to stop us in our tracks.  Architectural details, seldom seen today, lead the way to a restoration instead of a renovation.

Look at the detail of the vented tile work on this marble top radiator.  No need to worry about limited counter space when we have all this space just a twist away from the sink or tub!

 Restored Tile Grout

Next look at a close up of the detail in the tile installation.  The pattern is carried throughout the entire bath.  It was unclear the exact color of the original grout so we did “cheat” a bit on the restoration and lightened up the grout color.  This really let’s us appreciate all the shading in the lavender tile.

Tub or Shower?

At first look, we were attracted to the arch of this tub alcove.  Such detail and perhaps a way to keep a soak a little warmer longer?

Then we move on to the best built shower door we have ever seen.  This door is nearly an inch thick.  No way we wanted to replace this with a door of today, or incur the cost of replating the chrome finish.  Jump back up to the after photo and see what a great job the local electrostatic painters did giving this door a crisp white finish.

Working With Previous Updates

We are unsure when this mirrored medicine cabinet was installed.  However, the doors to cover the mirror hit the sconces when open and no longer closed easily.  The electrical box was installed on the outside of the recessed opening.  Again, in an effort to preserve, yet update, we removed the doors and retrofitted the receptacle to be flush in the opening.

Restoration Check List

Here’s a quick list of what we did to get this bath ready for the next 100 plus years.  The average cost range of a complete new bathroom renovation this size would have been between $35-50K.  Cost aside, we hope this bath gets to stay as it is…it certainly is a charmer!

• painted the ceiling, walls, wood casings all in the same color as the existing vintage pedestal sink and commode
• painted all wall grout in same color as above items, with the exception of a dark grout paint on the bronze base tile
• electrostatic paint for the shower door
• slight renovation to the medicine cabinet
• removed some worn fabric shades on the sconces and when we did we all liked the sconces without new ones
• cleaned the tile, shower and window glass

Tile With A History

The tile in this bathroom is Rookwood, from the historic pottery company.  Likewise, the property’s “sunroom” also boasts some of this amazing tile.  Previously, this room was painted a minty green.  While we can imagine the room was most certainly inviting with the owner’s furnishings, unfurnished we all agreed the tile needed to be the star of this bright space.

This beautiful restoration could not have been possible without the professonialism of Dean Tatum-Johns of Certa Pro Painters,  and his talented crew.  No matter what we ask of them….they perform and always with smiles on their faces!

Interested in owning this vintage home for your own?

Contact Eric Seltz