Door Renovations…

It’s been sooo long since I last blogged, it’s turned into winter! As ever, there’s been a lot going on, I don’t really know where to start with the update. The newly dipped doors are a good a place as any I guess… We had the doors stripped for around £30 each, which seemed much more sensible than spending a similar amount on Nitromors and wire wool do do it ourselves. We had them waxed but they still seem quite thirsty so I’m giving them a goat of Danish oil now and again. 

Lounge door, we replaced the handle with a beehive style modern version. The stripping revealed the ghost of an old finger plate, so we sourced a beautiful replacement from eBay.

  

Guest bedroom, these door handles had been painted, I thought it would be worth stripping them to see if they had potential before replacing them. They came out really well, revealing tortoise shell Bakelite. 

   

 

Master bedroom, this door was also stripped, I need to source an original brass door knob that will fit through the lock. All of our original bedroom doors have hefty locks on them, those Victorians must have been rather worried about nocturnal assailants. 

 

None of the door furniture will match, it would be pretty much impossible unless we went for full repro which we don’t really want to do, so we’re just picking up stuff we like as we see it. I have these two push plates to find a home for… 

 

So far I’m not sure where we’ll put them, but here they are in their previous home.  

An old theatre somewhere in Yorkshire, I wonder where all it’s other treasures will end up? 

 

More updates to come soon..Promise. 

The Door and Fireplace are Home!

The fireplace and front door have been away from site for a couple of weeks having the last century of paint stripped from them.

The fireplace was nearly chucked out at one point, but after a little investigation we decided it was most likely original to the house and was therefore, a keeper.

Here is the fireplace late last year, not long after we’d arrived…

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And now…

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It has some beautiful hand carved details…

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These rosettes are carved from the core of the wood, so are a darker shade than the rest of the fireplace. I can’t wait to get some wax on it!

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We also had the original front door’s broken panes replaced and the wood stripped, I think it’s been pretty much every colour throughout it’s history, but it’s finally back to it’s natural state, once it has a few coats of wax it will bring a bit of warmth to the hallway.

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Here is the outside view, I love it! Is it acceptable to put the Christmas wreath up yet?

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It still has the original letterbox…

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And handle…though it’s located for people several feet shorter than Ronnie and I.

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Thanks to Dave at Regency Antiques for his work on both of these, love them.

In other (totally unrelated) news, I picked up this Indonesian side table at an antiques fair today for a bargain price of £18, it will fit in perfectly with the vaguely colonial lounge design that is floating around my little head.

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We also bought an antique caster’s ladle…no idea what we’ll do with it, but had to be mine.

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