If you are into drinking games, I dare you to try to count how many times I say “character” or “charm” in this post – maybe just water in those shot glasses?? Someone recently asked what pieces are original to house and while there isn’t a ton, it was actually far more than I originally thought. So I thought I’d round them all up, and add a few pieces of furniture that we converted. A huge thanks to ARCIFORM who spearheaded this endeavor. They have a ton of experience restoring everything, so I felt in very good hands. I bought most of them at Aurora Mills, and then ARCIFORM found a few at an auction, but all local and for the most part super affordable for how charming they are. While we really gutted the house these pieces helped build back the character that we love about old houses. Here you go:
The Pocket (And Mudroom) Doors
I found these two matching school doors and loved the glass in them. I feel pretty strongly about adding pieces with a lot of architectural integrity and Anne (from ARCIFORM) really empowered me to go for it with the doors without needing them to all match. I don’t remember how much these were (I think a couple hundred each) and then they had to be patched, cleaned up, and painted (which honestly is the most expensive part of the process so if you don’t DIY be prepared to spend a few thousand on someone else’s time and expertise).
I love them so much. We ended up removing the brass kickplate and shove plate thing (I think they had to remove to dip them) and honestly they were so beaten up that once painted we knew it would be distracting. Now vintage doors (especially these) are super heavy so if you attempt this make sure to get the right pocket hardware that can hold them. The mudroom door isn’t pocket by the way, just the family room door by the dining nook.
While we loved the idea of keeping the original patina it wasn’t a very pretty color. I think in a different house mismatched shabby doors like this could work, but not in this one 🙂
I think the panels and the glass give it so much character and it’s clear they are vintage without having all the age on them.
We painted the inside of this one the same color as the family room (and split the door jam, 1/2 and 1/2 blue and white). Just couldn’t love them more (although at times I wondered if I should have painted some of the doors a fun color).
The Upstairs Laundry Doors
While the laundry closet certainly didn’t need to have glass in it, I just felt like these would be so charming once I found them at Aurora Mills.
And they are! Although it pains me that apparently, we haven’t shot a still photo of these closed since we finished the bathroom and the laundry closet. Here you can see them open 🙂
Upstairs Room Doors (Closets And Bathroom)
The rest of the bedroom closet doors were all salvaged, too. Shout out to Marty (from ARCIFORM) who found these all at an auction for I think $50 each or so.
I mostly just trusted that they would work since I wasn’t going to be the one installing them.
I was definitely at times nervous about how skinny that door was, but it’s so freaking cute (and allows for a bit more wall space inside the bathroom).
That’s the inside of the bathroom as you know – I don’t think I’ve ever shot the door fully closed (probably because there is the world’s biggest TV on the wall next to it in the guest room LOL).
Charlie’s Closet Doors
No, we don’t use that as a stuffy closet – I think we just styled it this way for the shoot? I don’t remember. But yes, all his closet doors are also salvaged.
I didn’t notice that these were shorter when I approved them so when I saw them installed I certainly was nervous that it was a mistake.
But once they were in (and now that we’ve lived here for a while) I actually think the oddness is so sweet. It was such a great reminder that old houses have weird things about them and if you make them all perfect they might not have the same character. So even putting these odd things into the house really amped up the charm (IMHO).
Original Interior Windows
We LOVED the original double Dutch diamond windows, but we wanted to open up that wall to the backyard. So we actually kept them all and used them in three other places in the house.
We took the two that matched and installed them vertically as windows into the pantry. Could not love these more, honestly.
The glass is old and shaky (and surely does look dirty in here, LOL). But I love them.
From the inside, I love looking out into the kitchen, too. We also found an additional vintage window that had some of the same diamond motifs and installed it into the pantry to add some natural light in there (it’s non-operable).
The Pantry Door
Oh one more door 🙂 Y’all we used a lot of salvaged doors in this house! I love them A LOT.
The Kitchen Island
Probably my favorite salvage was and is the kitchen island. I found it at Aurora Mills for around $3k. It has a ton of function (those drawers, while heavy totally work) and ARCIFORM added to the top seamlessly, I should add, to give it the overhang that we wanted so we could eat at it (which we do, a ton).
Prettiest island I ever did see. And the redder tones in it are so pretty – I was so worried it would clash in a bad way but it really just adds a lot of warmth and character.
Two Converted Vanities
We didn’t stop there and actually converted a dresser and a table into vanities for two of our bathrooms.
The kid’s bath was an old pine dresser that was in our house in LA (and the mountain house) and while it was a bit shallow for the sink, it worked fine since we had a wall-mount faucet. I wrote a whole post about how we converted it here.
For the powder bath, I really struggled with this one until our kitchen makeover client (Hi Julie!) literally gave me this farmhouse table. So nice. So then Dave took off the back legs and secured it to the wall around the wall-hung sink.
If you have an old house and are renovating but want to make sure it remains charming this is such a great strategy. Sure, it takes more time to find and likely more money than just buying 10 matching doors, but boy does it add so much character and charm to any home. 🙂
*Unless Otherwise Noted Photos by Kaitlin Green
