#restored victorian

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Nice restoration on this 1890 Italianate Victorian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It's white, but the restoration is very good, so it needs the new owners to put their own stamp on it. 4bds, 2.5ba, $525K.

The wood has been stripped, but they accented the posts in black and brightened the rest up with white.

I can't tell if they oiled the bare wood or put a satin finish on it, but I like it.

The sitting room has a wonderful original marble fireplace.

What were they thinking with that modern light fixture and modern furniture. Why do buyers feel that they have to make their beautiful historic Victorians look new?

Totally in love with the way they did this kitchen. No ugly new or 80s style cabinetry. How refreshing.

And, they left the ancient fireplace. Wish they didn't paint it white, so you could see the details of the old brick.

This is cool. They left the scullery untouched and didn't make it a home office or something.

And, there you see the original maids stairs going up to their quarters from the scullery.

Look at the sink in the guest powder room. What a beauty.

The primary bedroom is large and has another original marble fireplace, but unfortunately, they never put in a closet. I would have to get a carpenter to come in and design one against this back wall.

Small bath with modern tile, vintage tub & sink.

If this became a child's room that mantle would look adorable painted in pastel colors.

Look at the fireplace in this room. Beautiful.

This bedroom is huge and has an en-suite.

It was renovated with a modern shower, but the light and mirror look original.

The basement isn't finished, but they brightened it up with white paint. Look at the old foundation. And, there's a vintage sink.

It's not bad.

Looks like they watch TV and exercise down here.

They have a patio and fenced in yard in the back.

I wonder if that was an extension they build on the original home. I would buy this house, it's cool.

Looks like a nice neighborhood, but it's on a service road. That wouldn't bother me.

[beekeeperspicnic]

In which I give an old book a new cover!

When I'm not binding books I'm making a Sherlock Holmes game due out in 2025 which you can wishlist on steam!)

[marzipanandminutiae]

I see a Craigslist ad titled "apartment in grand Victorian house!"

I click through the interior photos

I see minimalist Landlord White bullshit where period details definitely could have been left while still dividing the house up

now I am no closer to finding a preferable place to rent but I'm filled with rage

[heaveninawildflower]

Victorian photograph/picture frame.

I bought this frame yesterday for restoration because it was so pretty with the silver brambles and bramble flowers. It has a tiny piece of silver broken from the top right hand corner but apart from that it is in reasonable condition. It was sold as being circa 1830's but I think that it's probably later than that as I think that it is a photograph frame and photography didn't become popular until 1860's onwards. This frame was probably designed to display a 'cabinet card' size photograph.

The first photograph shows the frame as it was bought with the velvet layer underneath the silver intact. It was photographed on some blue William Morris fabric because I wanted to see what it looked like with blue underneath (as in the 2nd photograph).

The second photograph shows just the silver frame on the blue fabric with no velvet and the third photograph shows the velvet layer attached to the wooden base. The exposed velvet has faded to a greyish white colour and left the areas which were underneath the silver, dark blue, so that it looks rather like stencil work. This will make a lovely frame in its own right without the silver.

The intention is to put a fresh layer of blue velvet and a new wooden base underneath the silver frame and use the faded velvet which was underneath as a second picture frame.

[bananna-threads]

Behold! The Victorian couch I'm reupholstering.

I got a pair of these off of Buy Nothing and they were beautiful, but not in the best shape--the backrest foam had totally disintegrated, it smelled of cat urine, and the wood stain was chipped and scraped all over. Although I was a complete novice in furniture...restoration(?) I decided to try my hand at it anyway. Follow the tag [#bananna reupholsters] for updates!

[oldfarmhouse]

🪻{the lavender ghost} on instagram — had a complete Victorian restoration.

[stimboardofatourneykid]

“T-Thy words of meaningless rubbish do little to alleviate the visions I am forced to endure..”

A stimboard of the Victorian Child for anon!

🖤-🖤-🖤

🕯️-x - 🕯️

🖤-🖤-🖤

[burningvelvet]

So anyway I've been reading about Restoration era writers & also learned that in Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester may have been partly inspired by the Restoration era poet John Wilmot Earl of Rochester, rambunctious sex legend & asshole extraordinaire. I totally support this theory & may include a reference to it in my Jane Eyre fic if I ever update it.

Interesting finds from John Wilmot and Mr. Rochester by Murray G. H. Pittock:

"Mr. Rochester is to an as yet unappreciated degree based upon the character and reputation of his namesake, John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester, whose career as it was popularly recorded is the model for the rakehell and penitent phases underlying the development of Mr. Rochester's character." (P 462)

"the Earl's mother 'was a daughter of Sir John St. John, an ancient family of Wiltshire.' The coincidence of the name with that of the alter hero of Jane Eyre is of course striking. This tract also contains an extended passage concerning Wilmot's propensity for disguise, a common feature of the religious Lives." (P 464)

"In both the real man and the fictional character, cynicism and misanthropy turn to faith. As early as Etherege, then, John Wilmot had become a literary archetype, the "devil-angel" of the wicked rake. But he was also, in the alternative tradition of the religious tracts, an archetype of the repentant sinner. Wilmot's pious end made him respectable, and he was in every sense an ideal figure on which to model his fictional namesake." (P 469)

"It is Mr. Rochester who characteristically uses Christian imagery to describe erotic feelings [..]" (P 462)

"Mr. Rochester associates himself with the devil. Quoting from Paradise Lost, he asks Jane 'not to attribute to me any such bad eminence' (p. 166)." (P 463)

i didn't know this but i mention paradise lost in my fic! even tho in her novel shirley, charlotte disses milton's depiction of eve (which i 100% agree with; my last semester i took an english renaissance class wherein i wrote about paradise lost & eve's oppression lol). heathcliff is also miltonian as i acknowledged in a prior post!!!

"Such talk of heaven and hell in the interests of passion are echoes in fact of Mr. Rochester's famous namesake." (P 463)

"The material that Bronte would use in creating the hero of Jane Eyre from his namesake was freely available at the time, and not only through the means of pious hearsay. Burnet's own account is based on interviews with the dying Earl, and because Wilmot's death was finally a pious one, the less risqué of his poems were often found in print. So thoroughly was Wilmot's profligate life associated in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with his deathbed conversion, that it comes as no surprise to find his poems published in 1821 alongside those of Dr. Spratt, the Bishop of Rochester, in a one-volume collection enticingly titled The Cabinet of Love? Moreover, Burnet's Life was long popular, as its several editions testify, even in the "best" literary circles. Both Horace Walpole and Samuel Johnson wrote critiques which were incorporated into the edition issued in 1820. Such widely disseminated tales of reformed rakes and deathbed conversions were an important part of the literary culture of Brontes youth, reinforced by the Methodism introduced into the family circle by Aunt Branwell. It was not at all unusual, then, that Bronte should turn to John Wilmot in creating her own Mr. Rochester." (P 464)

"Passion untamed by religion until the moment of crisis is a mark of Charlotte Brontes fiction, and to make that mark, who better than a famous rake and a famous convert, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester?" (P 469)

From John Wilmot, Mr Rochester and William Harrison Ainsworth by Robert Dingley:

"it is also possible that she drew hints from the Earl's depiction in William Harrison Ainsworth's bestselling novel Old St. Paul's (1841), where the Restoration rake displays a chameleon-like facility in disguise and twice attempts to entrap the woman by whom he is obsessed (and who in turn loves him) in spurious wedding ceremonies."

[countess--olenska]

Saigo Tsugumichi with foreign friends - Felice Beato seated in front with him

[vox-anglosphere]

The restoration of Burne-Jones stained glass in Salisbury Cathedral

[hunterxhansberry]

Victorian Restoration. Yorkshire, England. (2024)

IG // ourhouseonthecrescent

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Queen Anne Victorian lovers, this is a beauty. Built in 1887, it took the current owners 20 yrs. to restore it. Located in Little Rock, Arkansas, it has 4bd 3ba and is priced at $550K. But, here's the kicker- if you want all the furnishings you can buy them for a total of $665K. I am swooning!

Oh, I would have to buy it complete. This is filled with gorgeous antiques. My mother had an antique shop and the price is good for all of this.

OMG, look at the fireplace, but the art above it and the carved library table.

I wonder if you could pick & choose- like say I didn't want that pair of statues in the cabinet.

Nice library/den.

I like this vintage bath, but why would they buy a claw foot tub without the feet? It's balanced on a wooden box w/a piece of wood to stabilize it. They can take that and leave the sink & toilet.

Wowzer, look at the formal dining room.

Like the simple kitchen redo. I wonder if that's an original sink.

There's a lovely dinette area for everday dining.

Plus, there's a great pantry.

From the dining room, you can go to the stairs. Look at the bronze newel post lamp.

The bedrooms are all so beautiful, I can't tell which is the main one. You can just take your pick.

The beds have wonderful canopies.

This is an interesting bathroom. The antique sinks & toilets are fabulous.

Here's one of the smaller bedrooms.

Another great vintage marble sink.

Stairs going up to the attic. There's another bronze lamp. I've never seen them on several floors, usually just the main hall.

The finished attic- this is so nice.

This horse hitch out front looks like it could be original.

Beautiful porch in the backyard.

[jbry]

Trunk Redesign? Refurbishment? Refinish?

I bought a trunk from a neighbor and decided that it would be my prop box to store all the junk I make.

I don't think it's actually that old, I was hoping it was a proper wooden trunk, and I'm pretty sure it was originally dark blue. I ripped out the ugly paper lining and (poorly) replaced it with a vinyl wallpaper. The exterior was painted with acryllic hooker's green but I may repaint it a sage green. The interior shelf? Drawer? Insert? was lined with a cheap blue "velvet". There was some leather handles but they were rotted away so I ripped them off and couldn't decide on a replacement yet. I may also add some vintage looking casters to make it easier for me to move around.

[ravenz-den]

i drive past abandoned houses out in the country everyday on my route and i like to imagine the life i could have there.

[roachi-annie]

I made social media accounts for sharing my journey fixing up an old Victorian house I bought for $100

If anyone would like to help fund this restoration project or if you could share this and get it out there I’d appreciate it.

This house is about 170 years old give or take a decade, truthfully it’s estimated to have been built between the 1830’s-1850’s. I want to see her make it to see 200 and many more years to come.

Historical homes and architecture; the restoration and preservation of historical homes are some of my passions. Historic homes being a particular special interest. This is my lifelong dream.

All donations will go towards the restoration and preservation of this beautiful historic Victorian home. The roof and foundation need repaired and the electrical needs to be updated (it’s still on knob and tube!). Anything extra will go toward redoing the bathrooms and kitchen which were already gutted before I purchased this house, as well as rebuilding the collapsed back porch. The back porch hasn’t collapsed because of any structural or foundational issues (all foundation issues are in the front corner of the house exclusively), it’s just collapsed due to wood rot.

Here are the links for anyone interested in following this journey.

[bananna-threads]

I finally made a bit of progress on the couch today! The back is now tufted, but has yet to be stapled down. One thing I learned is that apparently, the pleats are always meant to face down so that dust doesn't get trapped in the creases. Clever!

The back: I used the foam that was cored out of the button-holes and bobbypins to tie down the buttons. My hope was that the bobbypins would distribute the weight across the foam and keep the buttons from tearing through the backing fabric.

I'm mostly happy with how it looks, but I do think I should have made the distance between the buttons on the fabric a bit shorter. Maybe that would have fixed the wrinkles and made it look more taught. Oh well--I think this is pretty good for my first go at diamond tufting :P

One thing I am pretty proud of is the seam that I had to make in order for the fabric to be wide enough to fit the back. I had it follow the line where the pleat would go so you can't even see it now! My pattern piece:

The seam puckered a bit because the fabric was so tricky to maneuver being so thick and all. Didn't end up mattering in the end, though, once it was all pleated up.