Circa 1884 McCuiston House

[SouthernLady]

Do you remember the Carol Bernett spoof about Scarlet and the dress made from the curtains.

I LOVE that episode! I wish we still had stuff of that quality on TV nowadays. That woman is a genius of comedy.

[Don M]

Loved your front door restoration, looks great!

[SouthernLady]

Hey, folks!

It's been over a year since my last update on the house. My "second mom" passed away in May after a 12-year battle with dementia and 4-year battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This last year has been extremely hectic as her needs were dire for that entire time. Now that she's passed away, I find myself with a lot of time on my hands to catch up on projects. I've kept busy, and I am glad I have this house to help me adjust to this "new normal".

The first floor bedroom is now completely restored--except for taking down the drywall ceiling that's covering the tongue and groove ceiling. I plan to do this next year and knock out the ceiling in the parlor at the same time so I don't have to rent a rollback twice. I originally planned to wallpaper this room with a paper as close as I could find to the original remnants that were discovered, but decided to use wall stencils instead so that later I could cover the gap that will be made when the newer ceiling is removed.


Here is the bedroom as it was when I first laid eyes on it.


The house had been empty for quite a time, and the dampness and smell were awful. The plaster walls had long ago been removed and replaced with a press-board paneling from the 1970s. That bright blue bathroom had once been part of the wrap-around porch but was enclosed and turned into a bathroom in the 1940s, when pluming was first added to the house.


Because the paneling had to go, it was the perfect time to reposition the outlets to make more sense and insulate the walls.


A fragment of the original wallpaper was discovered above the door that leads to the kitchen. Sadly, it was too fragile to save.


Also, sadly, the construction guys who removed the old walls and put up the drywall destroyed the original trimwork, although they were specifically told to save it.


Here is the bedroom as it was on move-in day. I didn't do anything to this room for 3-4 years while I worked on other projects.


Here is the restored bedroom. (Just don't look at the ceiling...)


I finally finished the last of it a few weeks ago. The original door hardware was replaced during the 1940s remodel by the builder's daughter, but thankfully there were ghost marks behind the newer hardware that told me what used to be there. House of Antique Hardware had the exact period replicas I needed. Because I knew that the original radiators in the house were gilt and had a very decorative Art Nouveau look to them, according to the fourth generation to own the house (who also had the radiators removed and scrapped), I decided to select door hardware with that style.


The woodwork is painted the original shade of green, which I discovered and color matched during the restoration. This color was put down first, and some time later a faux graining was applied on all of the woodwork throughout the entire house, including the kitchen. It appears that the house originally had a color scheme of four shades of this green. One little tiny luggage closet on the second story still retains the original paint colors, and the four colors on the ceiling pattern are the exact four colors and pattern on the original parlor ceiling as well as the original kitchen stoop.


Joy approves.

[SouthernLady]

I forgot to mention--notice that tiny brown spot on the door on the right on that last picture? That's a portion of the faux graining that once covered all of the woodwork in this publically-seen areas of this house. I suspect that Mr. McCuiston told his wife he would hire the faux graining artist when he came through, but until then she could have the house painted in the shades of green that were popular at the time. It appears the graining remained until the 1940s when their daughter remodeled the house when it became hers.

I decided to leave this little spot, as well as a small spot on a window casing, to show what was once in the house, and also in case I should ever decide to try to faux grain the doors myself. I can use those two little patches as samples for the right colors.

I do like the green, though, so I will most likely keep it this way.

[Manalto]

It looks really nice. The greens are soothing.

[GinaC]

I am so sorry for your loss.

I agree with James, that is a very nice, soothing green. I really love that piece of furniture with the oval mirror, I've never seen anything like it!

[Gothichome]

Southernlady, good see you stop by. You have done a great job in bringing that room back to life, well done. Sorry to hear though of the loss. And I see once again your photo bombing bog got into at least one of the pictures. What is your next project?

[phil]

what a cute dog !
I have a table very similar but without the round things near the shelf edges. yours also have the fancy edging. Yours is nicer but the one I have is very similar. I had the thing for a while , veneer was peeling. I put it outside when I was renovating and it lost more veneer. I never got to it and sort of felt sorry for the thing. It begged for attention and didn't' get it. I'm normally quite protective of them..

and then I went in Valu village, There stood the exact same one! perfect shape, 30 bucks. I snapped it up and thought wow that was the easiest restoration ever
what would you call it . a hall table or? it seems suited to plants but try not to put them on lacquered antiques unless they have some sort of protection. I've seen many radios damaged that way. I think some tables of that style have claw feet, mine is just spindles but the original finish is still nice. I figure mine is 1930ish, production furniture, but it's nice.

[Manalto]

Lamp table?

[SouthernLady]

It's a solid oak 1880s-1890s lamp table.