Restoration/ March 6, 2016September 2, 2017

From Bedroom to Library/Study

So much for updating this blog regularly! That’s what a busy schedule will do for you, I suppose.

It’s been a pretty busy past few months, so I am going to quickly try to bring everyone up to speed.

I began painting the second upstairs bedroom a lovely blue color that is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation collection for Valspar. According to where the particular color came from, it would have been available at the time the McCuiston House was built. I also selected a creamy antique white for the trimwork that is also a part of the Valspar National Trust for Historic Preservation colors. I don’t know what the room would have originally had (I assume wallpaper, as the descendants have told me the home always had wallpaper), but I believe the colors will be appropriate for the room until my budget allows for wallpaper at a later date. I will be turning this bedroom into my office/library.

From the stories told to me by the family, this was the room where the last family owner’s mother was born, and I reckon it’s likely the other folks born in this house were born in this room, too. The main bedroom is on the main floor of the house, but think about it–folks coming in and out, the kitchen is right next to the room and you’ve got to be using it to feed the folks there to help during the birth–I would imagine that second-floor bedroom would have been the place to have a baby.

Here it is as it was when my friend purchased it. Original floor patina, wallpaper dating to the late ’60s, I believe:

The wallpaper was removed and yellow paint was added after my friend purchased the house and some of his family lived here for a short time.

My parents helping me remove paint from the interior side of the door. The gray you see is the original color for the woodwork in this room.

I changed the color to a period-correct shade from the National Trust for Historic Preservation from Valspar. I hope to eventually add a period-correct wallpaper as this room would have originally had. The closet space on the left, shelves above the window, and little cubby below the window will be removed to return the room closer to its original layout. I have chosen to leave the closet space on the right to hide a filing cabinet and will use a tapestry for a doorway. Once I lower the front porch to the original single-story height, I plan to replace this window with a replica 5′ window, as was originally in this space. The ceiling tile will also be removed so I can restore the original tongue-and-groove ceiling behind it and paint it the same shade of white on the rest of the woodwork.

The woodwork in this room was originally a battleship-gray. Instead, I opted for a period shade of white. The door will remain off the hinges until I can move a set of circa 1840s bookshelves in.

I have to say that this paint was the hardest I have ever encountered to strip. We started off using a gel stripper, but we only got so far. It was taking too long. This is what turned my mind on buying a heat gun. As I have yet to buy a heat gun, it will be another post before I can show you the finished product in this room.

As I was told by the family that every single room in this house had originally been wallpapered (and frequently, too), I would love to be able to put a period-correct paper up here one day. But that will be after I finally get all the paint stripped off and the moldings repainted, the glued-on ceiling tiles removed, the built-ins removed, the front porch brought back down to one story, and the weird, tiny window replaced with a 5′ reproduction of what was originally in its spot.

Yep. It’s gonna be a while before this room is completely restored.