Story time.  (Interspersed with the latest photos of our house.)

Back when the Hubs and I met, we lived 750 miles apart in two different states.  9 years and 48 weeks ago, we got married and lived in a third state.

Just 4 months after getting married, he was offered a job that seemed to good to be true, 950 miles away in another direction.  He was to start in 3 weeks.

So in 3 weeks, we packed up everything we owned and moved into a hotel in a place we had never even visited before.  It was awesome.  We found the cutest little duplex to rent in the quietest little town in a state that we still adore.  Even though we moved away from that state over 8 years ago, it still feels like home to us.

We loved the adventure of packing up and moving, and we did it three more times, to two more states.  Then when the Hubs’ job looked like it was going to be long-term, we decided to buy a house.  We really wanted something we could totally make over and make our own.

We fell in love with our little Victorian and even though we didn’t think it would need much making-over, we promptly began remodeling the whole thing.

We never thought it would be our forever home, and frankly, we never wanted it to be.  Nothing against the house, we just weren’t ready for our adventures to end.  A couple years ago, we started getting restless again and wanted to try a new state, make more new friends, see more new places, but the right opportunity never came up.

Until now.

The Hubs was offered a new job last week.  It is 850 miles away, back in the state he is from, and very close to where we got married.  And he’s starting in 3 weeks.  Our realtor said we should be prepared for it to take quite a while for our little home to sell since it’s a very unique house.  It isn’t even officially on the market yet, but we just had our first showing a few hours ago, and it’s actually looking quite promising.  They seemed to love the house just like we do.  We’ll see in the coming days!

Either way, on the day after our 10th anniversary, 4 weeks from now, we will be moving into our new house.  Yes, we already have the new one picked out, and we’re working out the details.  It’s not little, and it’s not a Victorian, but the blog will remain, and we’ll soon be sharing an all new makeover with you.

It will be hard, and I will cry, but we can’t wait for the next adventure.  Thank you for being here with us and our Little Victorian, hope you’ll be coming along with us to the big craftsman as well!

The post DIY Victorian Renovation appeared first on Little Victorian.

So generally in our house, it goes like this: I come up with a crazy renovation idea.  The Hubs sighs and/or thinks it’s awesome.  Then he, being an engineer, gets straight to the logic and maths and facts and all the other things that take up too much time and could be skipped that will make the ideas actually functional.

So, we sit down and brainstorm and sketch together, and then we get to work.  He leads in building the structures and foundations (like framing, drywalling, demo, electrical, plumbing, etc.) and I assist.  Then when he’s at work the next day (or over following months), I plan and carry out the finishes like trim, moulding, painting, etc.

This latest project was no different.

Behold, our DIY sliding-door butler’s pantry:

Yes, you’re right, it’s not a butler’s pantry at all, it just sound fancy, so that’s what I call it.  It’s just a closet/pantry/built-in china cabinet in the dining room.

So, if you remember, from once upon a time when I blogged: our dining room is huge in scale compared to the rest of the house.  In the 1890s when the house was built, it was the combo kitchen and dining room.

We didn’t need that much room and it was pretty out-of-balance for this small house.

One thing I love about the new pantry is that we made it level with the weird fridge box that’s in the middle of the kitchen.  So now the fridge box doesn’t look as strange!

If you remember, there was just a wall there before where we put our china cabinet and buffet:

So for the technicalities:

• We framed it out, just like you would do any wall. 
• The Hubs procured kits for installing sliding closet doors, along with 8 foot pieces of high-quality plywood to trim down to size for each door. 
• We hung a shelving system similar to this (affiliate link) and employed our old trick of using stair treads as shelves because they’re more substantial, and just prettier.

He cut the doors to fit, and then I trimmed them with cedar planks we had leftover from another project. I used wood glue and a brad nailer. Then caulked all the seams and primed and painted. 

The side panel was drywalled and mudded. Then everything was painted the same blue as the walls. 

And inside:

I’ve been taking updated photos of the house as we’re finishing up ALL of our unfinished projects.  (Literally, our list of work left for the house is officially down to 33 small items.)  So expect more updates in the coming weeks.

Save to home board on Pinterest!

Just hover over the image and click “Pin”

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I hadn’t realized how much the house had changed since the blog was last updated.  I took new photographs of several rooms a few weeks ago, before my family came to visit.  Like the last time they came, dad helped a lot with those little projects that usually take me forever.

Here is what our dining room looked like a few weeks ago:

Since then, dad installed all the baseboards, caps, shoe mouldings, and transition pieces for us.  There are still a lot of things I want to change in here.  (The curtains and lights weren’t supposed to be bright white, and we’re ready for a new light fixture, real crown moulding, etc…)

But last night, things changed a lot in the dining room, because we started a project I’ve been thinking about for a couple years.  It’s not really one we need, but it will be handy.  More importantly to us right now, it should help the resale value of the house when we ever get to sell it.

This wall is now a construction zone and looks nothing like this.  I’ll post an update soon, along with posts about what the rest of the house currently looks like.

See the update here (it’s pretty cool–one of our favorite DIYs yet).

The post Dining room update & a new project coming soon appeared first on Little Victorian.

We actually have a couple projects to share.  In the last couple months, we replaced the kitchen flooring and built a bench over the radiator.  Here is where we started over a year ago:

The lovely original hardwoods throughout the first floor had been covered in layer after layer of plywood and linoleum.  The orange “wood” laminate was the top layer.  When we pulled up all the layers in the dining room, the kitchen floor looked even uglier.  It was real, beautiful, cool-colored, old hardwood next to shiny orange fake stuff.

So we pulled up the kitchen floor too.  We couldn’t go all the way down to the original wood for several reasons, but we took it down to the lowest practical layer and then laid the new flooring.  Because of time and budget constraints, along with the fact that we’re not planning on staying in this home for much longer, we went with peel-and-stick tiles.  And we’re actually very happy with our decision.

The big tall radiator cover that was there was silly, since the radiator itself was only a matter of inches tall.  So I asked Hubs if we could build a bench over it and make better use of the space.  I drew my general idea, he did the hard part of designing it, and we built it.

And here it is today:

He did amazing work.  It’s really strong, it doesn’t block any of the heat, and I think it looks great.

We are also adding large baseboards, caps, and quarter-round to match what was in the house originally.

Still to do:

* Touch up the paint
* Add baseboard behind bench
* Install quarter-round and baseboard cap
* Paint baseboards
* Make cushions for the bench
* Bring the table back in
* Have a finished kitchen? Maybe?

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We are still alive.  I’ll update you with what’s going on here and intersperse it with some updated photos of our bedroom.

The Hubs does have a job again.  It’s local, but it’s a temporary one, and that’s fine with us.  We are still expecting to put the house up for sale when he finds a new job.  (Thank you all for your thoughts and nice notes!)

We’ve been working on lots of things.  From big things like replacing parts of the roof, to little things like caulking baseboards, and patching and repainting walls.  We’re currently working on replacing the kitchen and mud room flooring, but that’s taking a while because we have to stop and fix a partially rotten sub-floor.  None of it has been pretty enough to share, nor would it be particularly helpful information for you.

We’ve also been traveling and taking breaks for fun things lately too.

The major motivation for renovating the house for the last (nearly) 5 years was that afterwards, we would have a house we loved living in.  So staying motivated to get the work done is much harder now, knowing we won’t get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  And frankly, not even knowing if the next owners will.  They may walk in like we did and make a list of all the things they’d like to change and promptly undo all of our work.

We’re getting things done though…slowly but surely.  I’ll be back later in the week with more projects!

The post We’re alive! And a bedroom update. appeared first on Little Victorian.

The base cabinets in our kitchen looked horrible.  It wasn’t the cabinets themselves, it was the finish.  As with much of the house, their paint job was pretty terrible.  It was streaky and bumpy, which made lots of grooves for oils and dirt to collect, and they were badly stained all around the handles.  Which meant it always looked dirty, no matter how much I scrubbed.

I wanted something darker anyway.  The color they were painted was very similar to the wall color and it made the room look pretty flat and dull.

So I painted them Martha Stewart’s Zinc (which you can’t get color cards for anymore) but it’s a nice rich slate gray, in a semi-gloss finish.

Once again, I texted Dad, and asked the best way to paint over a badly painted cabinets in a semi-gloss finish.  I was quite surprised when he said to wet sand them.  But the results were amazing.  It smoothed all the bumps right out and left a nice, flat finish.

Of course, I removed all the hardware and took all the doors and drawers outside.  To sand, I took a sanding sponge, dunked it in water, squeezed out the excess, and lightly sanded everything.  The sanding block had to be rinsed out several times during the process.  (Very important note if you are going to try this: make sure that you put a drop cloth down, because the wet sanding re-activates the paint, and it will drip.)

There was a film left on the doors after sanding, but since mine were completely sealed with at least 4 coats of paint, I just rinsed them off with the hose and dried them with old towels.  The cabinets themselves took a little more work since I couldn’t just hose them down.  I didn’t get the sanding block quite as wet and then once they were sanded, I wiped them down twice with damp cloths.

To repaint, I brushed in all of the corners and then rolled on the rest with a 4-inch foam paint roller (similar to this).  Love the easy changes that make such a big difference!  There were a couple more changes I made, but forgot to photograph them.  I’ll tell you about then next week!

The post Re-painting the kitchen cabinets appeared first on Little Victorian.

Sometime around 2 years ago, I picked up two pretty little Moroccan lanterns for $15 each from Home Goods.  I had visions of them being real, hanging lights instead of just candle holders.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think I originally wanted them to be in the bathroom over the sinks.  (Since we’ll be moving, I’m glad we didn’t end up hardwiring them in there.)  I started waffling around a year ago and wanted them in the bedroom instead.  Regardless, that’s where they are now!

You might remember my post about how to turn a plug-in light into a hardwired one.  We used the $5 IKEA Hemma cord set as usual to turn these candle lanterns into actual pendants.  It was as simple as drilling a hole in the top of the lantern for the cord to fit through, and then snipping the plug end off so the cord can be threaded through the hole.

To hardwire the light, that’s all you’ll need to do, you have yourself a pretty Moroccan pendant for $20.  If we weren’t moving, I would have hardwired these lights into the bedroom ceiling, but because I want to take them with me (and I don’t know if they’ll be the next owner’s taste), we turned them back into plug-in lights by just putting the plugs back on.  We also added switches to the cords so we could turn them off without unplugging them.

I also picked up the chain at the home improvement store.  The shape of this chain was perfect, but it was BRIGHT brass-colored, so I did a couple very light coats of dark brown spray paint.  I didn’t want to cover the color, I just wanted to add spots of the brown to make it look old like the lanterns.  It worked pretty well!  The chain was under $1 a foot.

The shadows they cast on the walls and ceiling are really pretty.

I went to look for a similar lantern to link to, but there were SO MANY lanterns that would make gorgeous hanging lights that I put together several that would work well.  They are all under $20.  Now I want more of them.

(Affiliate links above)

PS: You may have noticed by the Instagram feed over there –> that we’re off at some beautiful place.  We are (or will be soon, as I’m writing this before we leave) on an amazing trip.  Ireland, Switzerland, and France more specifically.  (And please don’t worry about any lack of character on our part–this trip was saved for, planned and paid for in-full before the Hubs lost his job.)

One thing I (mostly) finished before we left was a simple change in the kitchen that made a huge difference.  Come back next Monday to check it out!

The post Turning Moroccan lanterns into hanging bedside lamps appeared first on Little Victorian.

Some of the few original details our Victorian still has are the doors and door hardware.  But the door knob plates (I’m sure there’s some proper term for them) in the mud room/hallway/weird spot looked pretty bad.  The doors had been painted several times and the painters didn’t bother trying to keep it off the plates.

When you’re renovating an old house, it’s super handy to have a dad who is a decorative painter and furniture restorer.  I texted him and asked how to get paint off of antique hardware.  I had tried the cook-it-in-a-crockpot method on other hardware, and that did not work.  At all.  Dad said soak it in vinegar overnight.  (Actually he said to test it first, because there are times when you shouldn’t–mine tested fine.)

After they soaked, the paint flaked right off.  It seemed to be spray paint too, which makes it even more impressive.

I was pretty excited about restoring them down to the original brass, even if it did look worn (I love that look).  But unfortunately, once the paint was off, it wasn’t so pretty.

I texted Dad that picture and he said “Eww.  Looks like all or most of the brass is gone, it’s down to the copperplate.  Replate or replace.”

They all 4 looked the same.  Replating, or even replacing isn’t in the budget right now, so since those were the only decent options, I didn’t feel bad spray painting them.  I actually liked the black look anyway–not as much as I would have liked the original brass–but the black looks good with the white porcelain knobs.

For some context of the area this is, the picture was taken from the kitchen.  The pantry is the door on the left and the powder room is on the right.

Next for this room is painting the walls.  Once I do that, I’ll share some tips (thanks again to Dad) on how to properly paint over a semi-gloss finish.

The post Removing paint from vintage hardware appeared first on Little Victorian.

We’ve had this little peel-and-stick chalkboard in the mud room/hallway/weird spot by the kitchen for years, and it was actually used all the time.  Every week, when I plan our meals, they get listed on the “Menu.”

But after 3 or 4 years, not only was I tired of the shape, the corners began constantly peeling up.  On Friday, I decided it was time for something different, so I stared at it and tried to think of what to replace it with.

I’m a slightly indecisive person.  Worse than just being indecisive though, is when I have trouble deciding on something, I’ll often just do nothing instead of making a decision.  (This is part of the reason for all the half-finished projects.)

As I looked at the curling-up chalkboard and couldn’t decide what to do, just the thought of having more indecisiveness and inaction hanging over my head was enough for me to copy our week’s menu to a piece of paper, rip the brittle chalkboard off the wall and paint the whole wall with chalkboard paint.  Right then.

Problem solved.  And as you can see, the house is kind of a disaster from all the projects we have going on right now.

I didn’t try to be too careful with the paint around the baseboard and upper wall since the baseboard is about to be replaced with taller stuff to match the rest of the house and the whole mud room area is also going to be repainted.

Side note: We actually had a pretty cool plan (I think it was pretty cool anyway) for this wall before we learned we’d probably be moving.  I think what I’ll do before we leave the little house is have a before-and-after post for each room and then share what our planned projects were for each space.

The post Chalkboard wall–My fix for a peeling chalkboard appeared first on Little Victorian.

In my last post about our situation, selling the house was a possibility.  Now it’s pretty much a sure thing.  I’ll talk more about it in the coming weeks.  But for now, I’m going to show you our bedroom decor progress.  It’s not at all what I wanted for the space…my taste is too specific and I’m decorating for the general public now.  Starting with a really easy DIY headboard.

I’ve been on the look-out for the perfect headboard for quite some time.  And I haven’t found a thing.  Right now, that’s okay with me though–it’s one less thing we’ll have to move.

This week, I came up with a temporary faux DIY headboard just to make the bedroom look finished and well-staged.  Of course, this could work as a permanent faux headboard too, if it’s the look you’re going for.

Technically, it’s actually no work at all: just buy it and set it behind your bed.

So, it only cost $36.  It’s a desktop from IKEA.  I didn’t even have to do any installation! It’s a cheap and easy DIY headboard. I would like it higher though, so we’ll see if there is some simple way I can raise it up without putting big holes in the wall.  (I’m thinking several of the velcro Command Strips?)

Queen size beds are 5 feet wide, which makes finding faux headboards pretty easy, just grab anything that’s 5′ across (which is the standard width of a desk).

The other update in the room are nightstands.  I had planned to do simple wall-shelves. But because of the fact that we built the open closet, we know prospective buyers are going to need to see some closed storage.  Apparently, we have simplified so much that we now have to buy furniture to try to sell the house. 

They are the IKEA Rast dressers.  It was SO HARD not to hack them, they are so simple and full of possibilities.  But I’m in a hurry to get the rooms finished, so I just stained them black and put different knobs on them.

Up next are bedside lamps that I made probably a year ago now, but had yet to set up, side-table styling and pillow covers.

Helpful? Yay! Pin it to come back.

Hover over the image –> and click the PIN button.

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