Tabla de contenidos para Renovation Lookbook 2025 en Old House Journal

IN THIS BOOK WE PRESENT hundreds of companies who, in the opinion of our magazine editors and readers, offer excellent products and good value. We herald the small company selling high-quality wares direct to the customer, or through distributors and online. We point to the appropriate specialty lines of major manufacturers. We tend to favor companies of high reputation, products with true authenticity, beautiful and timeless materials, and groundbreaking designers who allude to a period vocabulary. (Generally available materials, such as those easily found at lumber yards and home-improvement stores, are not listed.) After looking through these pages we think you’ll agree: Period-inspired design is not a limited notion. Rather, by looking to designs traditions going back centuries, the companies listed here offer wild, imaginative, extra-ordinary possibilities that go well…

HOW TO DESIGN a kitchen that will still look good and function well in 20 years? Rely on timeless materials. Keep the design simple or incorporate period conventions. For cabinets and millwork, take design cues from your dining room, or from a vintage pantry in the house or the neighborhood. A room with plenty of light, adequate storage, and contemporary appliances doesn’t have to look anachronistic in an otherwise historic house. Modeling a new bathroom on those of the early 20th century is just one approach for an old house that wouldn’t have had indoor plumbing until that time. kitchens revival baths ADDITIONAL LISTINGS KITCHENS AIRY KITCHENS airykitchens.com They provide kitchen remodeling designs in Philadelphia and the Mainline. Their interior designers know how to create contemporary layouts that respect the…

TILE IS, OF COURSE, found throughout the house, not just in the kitchen and bath. It’s a durable finishing material that approaches a true art form. Use it to add style or period sensibility to an entryway, a fireplace surround, a wet bar, a fountain inside or out, a conservatory, or a floor. Today find art tiile from small studios—carved relief tiles, subway tile and mosaics, glazes matte and iridescents—plus encaustics and California revivals. Even manufactured tile has gone far beyond the 4 x4 square, as you can choose from hexagons, octagons, oblongs, diamonds, and rhomboids, in many sizes. Mesh-mounted basketweave and herringbone-pattern tiles update traditional patterns. motawi.com…

ELECTRIC-ERA lighting comes in all styles, from traditional reproductions of antique fixtures to whimsical new forms and space-age interpretations. Fixtures and lamps are among the most cost-effective ways to add drama or period style to a room. More on our style categories: Colonial styles predate 1820 and include such forms as copper lanterns, chandeliers with faux “tapers,” onion lamps, and mirrored sconces. Victorian gaslight-era lighting, Rococo to Aesthetic, is usually electrified in reproduction. Arts & Crafts lighting (ca. 1890–1930) runs to art glass and mica, hammered copper, and simple “Mission” forms. Of course you can supplement any of these with discreet modern lighting. lighting hardware ADDITIONAL LISTINGS Metalwork—functional, but also the jewelry of the house—from mailboxes and curtain rods, to fireplace tools, and more. Here are more unique sources: COASTAL…

Not all the hardware in your house may be original, even if it looks old. Previous residents often changed out hardware that was dysfunctional or out of style. A mix of styles and periods is credible and may look just fine. No need to be matchy-matchy. • Similarly, the metals need not all be the same—even within one room. Nickel-plated faucets would mix well with light fixtures in a rubbed-bronze finish, or with unlaquered brass, for example, in a ca. 1900 period-inspired kitchen.…

ONLY A VERY SMALL NICHE of old-house owners will create true period rooms. Most of us take an eclectic approach, mixing handed-down furniture and comfortable pieces with classics and the occasional splurge. Matching period is a shortcut to a good fit: Hepplewhite furniture in a Federal house, furniture designed by C.F.A. Voysey for a Tudor. However, any furniture complements a room by virtue of its proportion, shape, material, and fabric pattern. Spare, midcentury chairs can play well in a room dripping with ornamental plaster.…

Pam and Kevin Johnson followed their passion when they bought this transitional 1901 house that has late-Victorian and Arts & Crafts elements, undertaking a substantial restoration of the exterior and rooms inside. The dining room retained its built-in china hutch and wainscoting. But the rest of the woodwork had been slathered in multiple coats of caked white enamel, so the oak woodwork was removed from walls to be stripped off site, then reinstalled. Wallpapers by Morris & Co., Trustworth Studios, and Bradbury & Bradbury bring color and pattern to generously sized rooms. The new siding was painted in Middlebury Brown, with trim in Welcome White and accents in Marblehead Gold (Benjamin Moore). Missing balusters were replaced; storm windows from Marvin protect the original stained-glass windows.…

Always artistically inclined, Polly Doolittle started working with ceramics while earning a science degree. After college, she built props for Pride floats and found that she enjoyed working as an artist’s assistant, helping to create bigger projects. A cross-country move to New York led her to artist Ben Lai, who specializes in high-end finishes. He saw that she had a background in ceramics and had a hunch she’d like working with plaster. She fell in love with it. Doolittle specializes in veneer plaster, a multilayer finishing system used to add color, texture, and dimension to a wall, fireplace, or—most popularly for Doolittle—range-hood cover. She also does veneer plaster on accent walls and in powder rooms on the residential side, where folks are looking for subtlety. Doolittle is passionate about her…

A HOUSE BUILT OF related components speaks eloquently. When you un-derstand the architectural style, whatever you add will look “as though it’s always been there.” Happily, many traditional building elements, from windows and mantels to carriage doors, are being made today. Find here, too, elements for landscape and garden, from trellises to urns, pavers to glass houses, all of which round out the beautiful impression. Mechanical systems don’t generally fall within the scope of a design book. Some innovations, though, offer practical or aesthetic advantages peculiar to old houses, so the editors describe them here: heating and cooling retrofits, efficient fireplace inserts, and so on. ADDITIONAL LISTINGS A RUSTIC GARDEN arusticgarden.com Woven roll-top wire fencing, familiar from yesteryear’s farmyards and suburban gardens, is offered along with wroughtiron fences and gates,…

Good materials and workman-ship cost more upfront. But they almost always save money over time. Renovation labor is expensive in any case, and the work is disruptive. Don’t create a repeat cycle. Choose longlived roofing, as labor is most of the cost. Judiciously select PVC or composite lumber for exterior elements that fail; the material is expensive but you won’t be replacing the eaves or lattice every five years. • Conversely, don’t fall for “upgrades” that won’t pay back for decades, such as new triple-glazed windows. Spend less instead on caulk and storm panels. • Avoid trends for big-ticket items. Timeless is easier to live with.…

Unlike a greenhouse, a conservatory is a glass house permanently attached to a building. Those we associate with English Victorian architecture trace back to the introduction of orange trees in western Europe during the Renaissance. Special glazed orangeries were built to overwinter the citrus plants. • In the late-18th and early-19th centuries, England’s gentry built ostentatious conservatories, also called solariums, for display of exotic species. By the 1850s, homeowners in the U.S. also were building them. Gothic or “cathedral” forms were considered very appropriate. A conservatory remains a prestigious respite from the barren darkness of winter. New materials and construction techniques allow many options in size and shape, insulated glazing, efficient HVAC, and motorized ventilation and shading. • Oak Leaf is a premier English designer and manufacturer of bespoke (custom)…

IT’S TOO EASY to gravitate toward shortlived trends, rather than considering timeless qualities that have staying power. This book gives you a head start on showroom alternatives, many adapted for today’s taste and use. From wide-plank floors to true linoleum, stencils to Arts & Crafts pendant friezes, big porcelain farm sinks to Sputnik chandeliers: you can find it. You may even discover a material or model that your roofer or hardware-store clerk insists “isn’t made anymore.” The best renovations toe the line between necessary updates and enough sensitivity to assure design integrity. There’s no need to erase original features in the search for comfort and personal preference … and you may find that period design provides inspiration. Honoring the old house doesn’t call for living in a museum. Preservation really…

The Victorian period, roughly 1860 to 1910, was truly the era of the pantry. In finer and urban homes, the butler’s pantry created a buffer between the busy, out-ofsight cook’s kitchen and the public dining room. Tall cabinets brimmed with china and stemware. Outfitted with a “soft” copper sink and drawers for silverware and linen, the butler’s pantry catered to dinner parties that were a regular part of even middle-class life. Victorian pantries are a good model for period-appropriate kitchen cabinets. New pantries often are about the arrangement of collections as much as efficient storage. The modern pantry, too, may function as a cocktail or coffee bar, a second prep kitchen, or a place for additional appliances.…

Lustrous and changing with any play of light, iridescent glazes on pottery and tile were a stunning innovation of the 20th-century Arts & Crafts movement. While several historic potteries including Grueby Faience and Fulper made exquisite iridescent glazes, Pewabic is the only one still producing them. As early as 1906, founder Mary Chase Perry Stratton successfully developed a ruby iridescent glaze on a vase in a copper reduction with “rainbow” lights. She was soon turning out luminous glazes in gold, rose, copper, yellow, purple, and green. All were built from her own frit formula, to which she added silver carbonate, zinc oxide, carbonate of copper, etc. Pewabic—now operating as a nonprofit and educational center—offers five iridescent glazes including these shimmering blues. Each piece is hand-glazed and fired a second time.…

TRADITIONALLY, window drapery was the most significant and costly use of fabric. But there’s no need to re-create such extravagance. You can get the desired softness, color and pattern, and light control using, say, panels hung from rings over a sheer curtain next to the sash. Keep in mind that Roman shades, slatted Venetian blinds, and lace curtains are old favorites that suit modern tastes. The homespun, damasks, and quilts of early America are unfussy, too, as are bungalow-era textiles.…

Few professional pursuits forge as strong a generational link as the building trades. You can sense the pride of those fortunate enough to claim themselves a second-, third-, or fourth-generation tradesperson. For those who are carrying on a family legacy, building is bone deep. Alex McKenzie is exemplary in this regard. While growing up, Alex was drawn to working with his hands and to building things. When he later learned details of his biological family’s history, he discovered where this aptitude may have come from. His great-grandfather was a timber framer who founded the Shelburne Craft School. His grandfather, Lynwood Smith, was a renowned craftsman who taught at the school for most of his life and had work displayed at the Shelburne Museum. Smith eventually met Alex and ended up…

WHATEVER THE PERIOD, once you have discovered the decorated wall—time-honored paint techniques and printed papers, embossed surfaces, ornamental plaster, carved wood—white walls may come to feel like the absence of finish. Even early interiors before 1840 used colors including brilliant yellow and Prussian blue as well as stenciling and murals. The tripartite treatment was fashionable in the Victorian era: walls divided into dado (or wainscot) below the chair rail, fill or field section, and frieze at the top of the wall. Ceilings, too, were decorated. Just a generation later, Colonial Revival rooms featured off-whites and grey. Driwood.com www.bradbury.com…

FLOORS ADD CHARACTER to a house and should be considered early on during design or renovation. Wood floors, the standard for formal rooms, suggest durability even as they convey understated beauty and depth. Many choices are available today, from reclaimed lumber to engineered and prefinished flooring, and many species of hardwood. For practicality and color in the kitchen, you can’t beat a resilient floor. True linoleum and commercial vinyl tile are stand-bys. Cork is perfect for a Mid-century Modern house. Stone—slate, limestone, granite, etc.—can be dramatic and practical in a foyer or bath. (Be sure to review tile options in an earlier chapter.) ADDITIONAL LISTINGS AMERICAN RESTORATION TILE restorationtile.com Family-owned business makes replicasofthe unglazed porcelain mosaic hex tiles popular during the pre-war era. Mosaics come in a range of colors,…

Tom Gensmer gets jazzed about fenestration. From inside his 700-sq.-ft. shop in Minnetonka, Minn., he repairs and restores windows, specifically those dating from the end of World War II through today. The number of homeowners in his market with windows made during this time frame led Tom to the niche services he offers. Tom’s career started nearly 25 years ago with a summer job doing carpentry work for a remodeling firm. Subsequent jobs with similar companies taught him various repair and restoration techniques. After 10 years as an employee, Tom set out on his own and founded Heritage Home Renewals to be a carpentry subcontractor managing small-scale projects. “I was kind of a micro-remodeler,” he jokes. His time was spent prepping framing lumber, building small cabinetry and furniture, and assembling…

In the summer of 1982, after his junior year of college, Garland Wood took a six-week job at renowned Colonial Williamsburg, the world’s largest living history museum. He was hired into the carpentry department, at the time a fledgling two-year-old program, and worked under carpenter Roy Underhill. Roy was the very first master carpenter at Colonial Williamsburg and the energizing force behind the institution’s approach to building traditional homes completely by hand while providing the public the opportunity to watch. His influence on Garland was immeasurable. Garland would spend another 38 years at Colonial Williamsburg, helping exponentially expand the historical trades program, constructing 50 of America’s most treasured buildings, and rising to the position of master carpenter himself—only the second person to be given the designation in the foundation’s history.…

WHEN JIM MILES WAS looking for a vintage house in St. Louis, in 1992, this transitional Victorian fit the bill. Built in 1897 in the historic Tower Grove East neighborhood, its location was perfect: five minutes from downtown shopping and the sports stadium, across the street from the Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park, which is a well-preserved Victorian walking park. Solidly built of red brick with a decorative course of lighter brickwork beneath the eaves, it has a handsome Romanesque arch over a generous front window. Best of all, the house had been in the same family for over 70 years and was never subdividedor“modernized”—a fate suffered by most larger homes in the neighborhood. A built-in bench and quarter-sawn oak paneling were intact in the entry hall, along…

Believe it or not, the enameled white kitchen was a standard from about 1910 through the 1940s—it’s not just a recent trend. White cabinets and white tile fit the sanitary obsession during that time as germ theory became widely accepted. “Enamel” (oilbased) paint was hard-wearing and easy to clean. In a 1915 bungalow, for example, where you’d find plenty of stained and shellacked woodwork in the main rooms, the kitchen cabinets were probably painted. • Historically, the white suggested for a kitchen was understood to be an off-white: cream, bisque, light coffee, or tinged with yellow, pink, or grey. Bright white was normally reserved for bathrooms.…

Don’t scrimp on clearances between fixtures and walls. Instead, use some of these tricks and specialty items. • in-wall storage Niches can be built into walls between studs, fitted with shelves, and left open or covered with a door or mirror. A narrow shelf may be used to cap the wainscot. • floating fixtures The room feels bigger if you can see the entire floor. With open bases, pedestal and console sinks take up less visual space. • corner sinks These free up floor space and bring a unique look. • mirrors An oversize mirror reflects the room and light, making the room feel bigger. • in-scale accessories Sconces and ceiling fixtures can be ordered with low-projection canopies or arms. Find smallerscale towel rods, etc., or consider buying accessories from a yacht…

When Nawal Motawi is designing tile at her computer, she puts a sign on the outside of her door that says “Cave.” It means she doesn’t want to be interrupted. “I can sit there for hours without realizing it, just refining and refining a drawing that’s going to become a tile,” she says. Nawal started Motawi Tileworks in 1992 straight out of art school, and says inspiration can come from anywhere, whether it’s a tissue box or a travel book. “When I find something that I connect with visually, viscerally, then I can see a tile in it, and I’ll try to make that happen. But I’m also a perfectionist,” she says, “so it can be tough.” What constitutes successful design in an art tile? “I’m looking for a strong…

Modern industry may have removed the necessity of the smith, but for Monica Coyne, the craft is black-as much alive and breathing as the fire fueled by the bellows. This California artisan’s thick apron—its light-brown leather stained black with coal dust, rust, and the oil that comes off of new steel—is decorated with lines and shapes that were burned into the leather as she used the apron to shield herself from hot metal, scale, and flying wire-brush fragments. For Coyne, there is incredible beauty in the brutality of this pursuit. Just as they did in the first century, blacksmiths in the 21st century move metal. At 2000°F, steel and iron become like clay. They go from rigid and lifeless to supple and malleable. But metal is never truly relaxed. The…

• FLOORCLOTH The 18th-century • AXMINSTER Thick, tufted, cut-pile rug imitating Turkish carpets, usually with ovals and cartouches. • BROADLOOM Literally, carpet woven on a wide loom (invented 1877). Generally it’s a tufted carpet that will be installed wall to wall. • BRUSSELS A looped (uncut-pile) carpet type loomed in 27-inch strips that are sewn together during installation. • DRUGGET A coarse, plain wool floorcovering used under the diningroom table or over an expensive carpet for protection. • FLAT-WEAVE (-WOVEN) A loomwoven carpet without tufts or pile, including ingrains and kilims. precursor to linoleum, a canvasbased, decoratively painted and varnished covering. • INGRAIN Aka Scotch or Kidderminster, a flat, reversible carpet, more affordable than pile carpets, generally loomed in 36-inch-wide strips. Geometric block designs were common in early rugs, but…

Paint is the ultimate cosmetic, and inexpensive if you do it yourself. Upgrade curb appeal by painting the front door or shutters. Inside, choosing historical colors gives a period-appropriate base to rooms. You can use paint colors instead of mouldings or wallpaper to divide walls (suggesting a dado or a frieze). Stenciling (painting a design through a cutout template) is less expensive than wallpapering. Do you have mismatched furniture in the dining room or on the porch? Paint everything the same color to create a cohesive set. Old furniture can be repurposed with new paint, whether in one color or decorated with striping, sponging, or freehand designs. When it comes time to paint the exterior, use paint colors and placement to highlight (or fix) proportions and make even a bland…

Robert S. MacNeille, AIA, is design principal and president of Carpenter & MacNeille Architects and Builders, of Essex, Massachusetts. He immediately recognized the treasure before him: a carriage house designed in the Victorian Shingle Style, by Peabody & Stearns. The structure was meant to house carriages, horses, then automobiles; the original, drivethrough building once had been twice as big. The redesign involved site work, an addition, and replication of original millwork. “Because no formal front entrance [for people] had ever existed, we designed a bump-out at the front door.” MacNeille studied archival photos as well as remaining millwork details. Craftsmanship throughout the project “is astonishing,” MacNeille says. The chimney built by Steven Parker Masonry is a made of waterstruck red brick with horizontal bands echoing the shingle pattern.…