I had visions of being completely done with the hallway by now! Unfortunately life and a pissy thyroid ate up a lot the time I had planned for this so I’ve very much not done yet. I thought I’d share my progress anyway though.
If you need a refresher on what I started with, check out this post.
The Staircase
One of the first projects I had planned was replacing all the busted newel caps on our staircase. I had a good start on it but petered out. So right now I have replaced…. one. Yes. One. But that one looks good!
The chunky post at the base of the stairs in all original, but the second post has a brand-spankin-new newel cap. Is a it a perfect match? No. But is pretty darn good? I think so!
Even in old houses I think it makes sense to weigh every investment. Is it 100% historically accurate? No. Is the cost of a 100% historically accurate reproduction worth it for this particular house? Sorry, but no. It’s a pretty basic, standard old house for St Paul (heck, there’s even a near-perfect doppelganger house a couple blocks away!). It’s sort of like trying to make an average 1950’s ranch a high-end MCM masterpiece. We’re also not restoring this house, we’re renovating it. We’re just renovating it while still trying to be mindful of it’s origins.
Ahem.
Anyways… one newel cap down, 5 more to go!
The Doors
Oh the doors! I had such high hopes that they would have been done weeks ago! Unfortunately barely being able to get off the couch for nearly a month set me back a bit. We’re 1/2 way there though!
I posted about my love of black doors a while back, but Matt was adamantly against it. He also didn’t want to paint them white (so picky!) so we compromised with a darkdark stain. It’s a shit-ton of work, but I think it looks pretty fab. Please ignore the orange-y railing, I’m working on it. Slowly.
I also ordered glass knobs to replace the black ceramic ones. Yeah, the ceramic ones were probably original, but they just disappeared into the dark stain (the brass back-plates are more noticeable in real life, but I’m still thinking of cleaning them up a bit). Half the upstairs door knobs were already glass anyway and I wanted continuity. I ordered these beauties from House of Antique Hardware. It might be my new favorite place on the internet. I could make a shopping list a mile long from this place if I had the budget for it, but alas. I still may get the dust corners at some point because they’re super cute and cat fur clogging up the stairs is a legit problem in this household.
The Cat Tree
Why is pet furniture so often really ugly? I mean, where are the homes where the standard fleshy-beige cat upholstery fits in? My best guess is that it’s designed to hide most fur colors. These are the sorts of things I tell myself to make sense of this crazy world.*
Regardless of the reason, the fleshy-beige had to go! The scratching posts sections had also gotten pretty beat up over the few years we’ve had it. It’s seen a lot of love from the cats and needed a makeover.
I dissembled the whole thing, wrapped the flat pieces with a faux sherpa fabric, and wrapped the polls top-to-bottom with jute. I did a bit of reconfiguration of the pieces too to make it visually lighter and provides the cats with a taller section they so they stretch out and scratch. They usually only hang out on the top section anyway, so it really didn’t need the extra bulk. I still am not sure what to do about the top basket yet (helloooo weird blank space and lonely screw), but I’m working on it.
Still Working on:
- Newel caps
- Staining the railing
- Refinishing the doors
- Planning a gallery wall
- Lighting
- Building a new cabinet for the entryway
So that’s the current State of House address. I’m planning on doing a check-in with the kitchen too to let you know how my temporary fixes are holding up. I just need to clean it first…
*At least I’m not alone in my “Why does pet furniture have to be ugly” thoughts. There is a shop in St Paul called–I shit you not–Custom Cat Purrinture. Yes, Purr-niture. Believe it or not Matt and I haven’t checked it out yet.