Burgman Building: New project: Our Library/study

I admit I have been putting off starting this project, there were more pressing agenda items but it's time to start the Library/study. So we open the door on our next project.

Right of the Garland Parlor lies a bland white box that will soon be our new Library study

This room was used as the Children's bedroom back in the day. In the Victorian era bedroom were simply to sleep so they tended to be rather utilitarian....and they were small. This room is a scant 8' 6 x 11' 8" and its off the garland parlor so it's use as bedroom right off the parlor is just not good.

It looks like the trim was painted directly over the shellac as its heavily cracked

The room was originally painted tan, followed by a  green, followed by SEVERAL coats of white paint and the trim inside, is painted the most horrid pea green, which must be stripped.

To add further insult to injury, the ceiling has been dry walled AND textured. Hopefully the texture comes off easily and we can re-skim The only major issue is with the exterior wall near the old chimney (now gone and capped) resulted in a wet exterior wall at some point in its history (might have been a leak too, before the new roof) so I have some plastering to do.

So given the layout and small size of this room one might be tempted to take out the wall entirely and make the garland parlor larger. HOWEVER the garland parlor has its original frescoed and stenciled ceiling and frieze (currently under restoration), so that is NOT an option.

The layout as it is awkward with a door to one side like it is and with only one small window it is claustrophobic.

So the plan is  eliminate the current door and replace it with a  wider 5 foot wide door which will have fretwork at the top centered to the room. This accomplishes two things , one it lets the Garland Parlor and the new Library/Study act as one space, and two, we do not damage any original stenciling.

In terms of room flow this will be a great improvement. The new Library will have its East wall turned into a period designed bookcase and the west wall will get a new decorative fireplace that will have a register from the new gas fireplace going in the Persian Parlor which will help distribute heat more evenly.

In terms of interior décor all I can say is it will be "over the top", likely done as a Victorian Moroccan/Turkish themed space with lots of decorative stenciling and ceiling work. more to come.

Solarium Redux: Staging a small space for resale.

One of the challenges when you decide to sell a house is to "let go" of your own personal style. Your own like and dislike may not translate to the demographic you are trying to sell to and often that requires restyle and restaging of a space.

This enclosed porch/solarium provides an outdoor feel indoors.

One of the great things in smaller houses is found space. Such is the case with the solarium. This space is only 7x13 feet but three sides are windows making it appear visually larger than it is. This space was originally planned to be a small study and we selected darker richer colors, however we re-envision this space as being overflow for the living room, perhaps a small office space.



Fabric is a quick and easy addition and it provides some sound deadening from street noise.

Our first decision was to go with a lighter color on the walls and trim, This creates an architectural paneled effect. We also determined that the "focus wall" which is seen from the street above the architectural paneled space needed something special, we found a fabric with a French theme. This material is a bleached linen and if sun fading were to happen would simple "patina' the fabric. Note: we covered the switch plate to make it recede visually with the wall

The other decision was to take advantage of the floor which was done in a simple wood parquet. We chose a tile with a nice scale which would visually expand the space and relates well to the new exterior color on the house. There is also a side benefit that this will warm up in the evening and provide some thermal storage which is beneficial on cooler days.

The classic tile floor creates European feel to the space

We decided to use a French style area carpet continuing with the theme and paired that with an old mahogany buffet, which allows for lots of extra storage.

The sideboard and a couple of chairs are more than adequate for this space.

Because the space was small we used smaller scaled side chairs with lighter wood. The fabric matched our paint color too. Total cost of this restage was inexpensive about 100.00 for the tile plus about 50.00 for the fabric and paint. We kept the simple reed blinds which control light. We will throw in a couple of house plans and a fern or two to give it that solarium feel and feel like your outdoors on a cooler day.