Old House Links

What we are reading this week about decorating and renovating old houses:

Most people don’t realize how colorful and pattern-filled early American houses were. Kitchen and hall walls were covered in painted dots and dashes; paneled mantels were decorated with scenes adapted from engraved prints and the painter’s imagination. Here Design*Sponge gives us a look at one couple’s late 18th and early 19th century house in Rocks Village, Mass., whose staircase and other rooms still have their elegant painted murals from the 1830s. But that’s just the start: The owners have decorated beautifully and appropriately, from the kitchen with its homemade print valance and wood counter to the kids’ room with its chalkboard paint on the boarded-up part of a fireplace. (That’s a new-old salvage mantel they installed.) We love every room. What do you think of it?
Sneak Peek: Kirsten Marchand [Design*Sponge]
Photo by Malcolm Brown Photography

Yes, we’re still obsessing over wallpaper. This week we’ve revisited the collection at Historic New England, viewable online, just so we can torture ourselves by finding perfect prints that are no longer available. (It is possible to have historic papers reproduced, but we’ll probably opt for a simpler and less expensive route.) The online collection shows more than 4,200 examples of wallpaper for sale or in use in New England from the 1750s to the 1950s. Above, a French paper dating from 1875 to 1885 depicts flower bouquets in 18 colors on a polished and striped grey ground.
Wallpaper at Historic New England [Historic New England]
Photo by Historic New England

We’re inspired by old Katy Elliott posts about crafting and decorating for the holidays. Look how beautiful she makes this room and her kitchen, even though the whole house is really a construction site. The transformation is achieved with lots of pretty lights, greenery and fabric thrown over tables. This is a lesson we can definitely apply to our own construction site nightmare this year. (By the way, for those who follow the blog, Katy and Greg had their baby girl. Congratulations!)
Spots of Holiday [KatyElliott]
Photo by Katy Elliott