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OLD HOUSE JOURNAL
The best advice on fixing, building, designing and restoring old homes

12/11/2025

Study nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture, design, and the arts at one of the Victorian Society in America’s internationally acclaimed Summer Schools! Join graduate students, academics, architects and fellow enthusiasts in exploring early Modernism in Chicago, Gilded Age Newport, or 19th-century Britain.
Partial and full scholarships available!
Applications due March 2nd
Sponsored by Victorian Society in America

04/11/2025

Sympathetic design and fine craftsmanship are evident in this rear addition to a 1760s Cape.

Architect Anne Whitney and kitchen designer Jeff Peavey worked with the owners to create a fit-ting room with old beams, wood floors, and brush-painted wood cabinets.

📸 Stephen Fazio

31/10/2025

Is your old home haunted… or just hiding a good story? That grand oak staircase has seen brides float down in silk and lace. That carved mantle has watched generations celebrate, mourn, and move on.

With a little detective work, you can chase down the clues hiding in old documents and uncover the real history behind your home.

👻 Check out 5 simple research resources to get you started: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2025/04/03/how-to-research-your-homes-past

Happy Halloween!
📸 Howard Levine and Charity Vogel

27/10/2025

Howard Products offers a specialized line of restoration and care products for wood, leather, metal, and surfaces in the kitchen and home.Our signature approach is “Restore It — Don’t Strip It!” — for example, our Restor-A-Finish works by penetrating into existing wood finishes (rather than stripping them away), blending out scratches, heat rings, sun fade and other blemishes, and revitalizing color and grain in a wipe-on, wipe-off step. We also make complementary products such as waxes, polishes, cleaners, and food-safe oils (for butcher blocks, cutting boards, etc.) to nourish and protect restored surfaces.More info can be found at www.HowardProducts.com

24/10/2025

Restoring this 1896 Queen Anne included bringing back the beauty of its second-story bath. Take a look at these details. Period fittings now include timeless 19th-century pieces like a clawfoot tub and high-tank toilets. Walls are painted with a beautiful custom dusty rose.

✨ There’s plenty more to see of this stunning home: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2025/10/01/a-farmhouse-called-hanford-castle

23/10/2025

The Alameda Shade Shop, LLC produces handmade Roller Shades. Everything we do here is custom, from the size of the shade to its decorations. Our styles compliment Victorian, Craftsman, Italianate, Colonial, modern and anything in between. Follow the link to learn more! shadeshop.com

Sponsored by Alameda Shade Shop, LLC

20/10/2025

Before air conditioning, sleeping porches offered a cool, breezy retreat on warm nights and were once a common feature of Colonial Revival homes.

In this 1912 renovation, architect Frank Shirley brought back the home’s original balance by reopening enclosed sleeping porches. Floor-to-ceiling windows now flood the interior with light, transforming the first-floor porch into a conservatory and the upstairs porch into part of the primary suite.

What was once closed off is now a defining feature again, reconnecting the house to its historic charm and enhancing the flow of light and space. ✨

Architect: Frank Shirley
Contractor: F.H. Perry

15/10/2025

In this 1925 Dutch Colonial’s kitchen, woodwork and windows are original. The rest had become a hodge-podge, with no permanent cabinetry and a 1970s fridge parked in front of a window.

The DIY owner went on multiple searches for salvaged materials and old appliances. Here are some details to what he found.

The Murphy’s Cabranette 1939 sink unit has integrated refrigeration on the bottom left. The 1943 Western Holly double-oven stove came out of a house in Amityville, N.Y. Cabinets over the stove, too, were salvaged from another house of similar vintage to this one.

✨ See more: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2025/10/02/character-with-modesty

📸 Gridley + Graves

01/10/2025

Mossy green walls, a gentle green-grey wood and stone fireplace surround, and warm beige ceilings show how muted hues layer together for a calm, inviting space. Each color is softened, letting the palette soothe rather than shout.

There are no rules when it comes to choosing colors, but a bit of color theory and some expert tips will make your decisions easier 🎨

Read here: https://www.finehomebuilding.com/project-guides/painting/how-to-choose-colors

Photo by Beth Forman; color design by Amy Krane Color

25/09/2025

Stickley’s 125th Anniversary Fireside Bench boasts a remarkable inlay design, an elongated floral motif using decorative veneers of maple, anigre, walnut, and walnut burl. Careful sand-burning is used to bring dimension and fine detail to its petals and leaves. This remarkable statement piece is an exciting way to own an important bit of Stickley history!
https://www.stickley.com/products/125th-anniversary-fireside-bench

Sponsored by Stickley

23/09/2025

Built in the 1870s as a brick foursquare, this Victorian Gothic home was expanded in the 1880s—and now spans 8,000 sq. ft. of stunning space.

The home represents the optimistic, over-the-top character the homeowners love. Its vertical orientation is expressed with porches, turrets, and towers, arched windows, a steeply pitched roof with multicolored slate tiles, metal cresting atop main and porch roofs, and lacy ironwork.

The interior features 20 rooms (not counting baths) with 12-foot-high ceilings, 19th-century fireplaces, and a wealth of stained glass in transoms and windows.

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