Vintage Life: Our 1920s Bungalow Archives

In my previous Kitchen Krazy blog post, I explained our design inspirations and some of our furniture ideas for the kitchen in our 1920s vintage bungalow. Let's see how it worked out!

Greg sanded down the kitchen cabinet door frames that we had repurposed from the spare doors on an antique cabinet we bought to use as a bedroom bookcase.

(You can see the finished bookcase here.) I cut new glass panels using seeded glass that looks like old glass.

We knew those would be the upper cabinet doors on either side of the sink. From there, John Hopfensperger of Cayce Custom Cabinetry designed the kitchen cabinets.

John's designs included all of our wish list items such as a rack for plates, shelves next to the window for growing herbs, a lazy Susan corner cabinet for pots and pans, a slide-out garbage can, and a spot for the microwave off the counter. The vintage light fixtures were hung first.

In addition to kitchen cabinets, I also wanted to use an antique buffet in the kitchen to add even more character to the space. We found an 1920s Arts & Crafts antique buffet in France several years ago and knew it was the perfect piece! It was even painted on the inside with the same blue-green color that I wanted for the cabinets and it has wonderful antique glass doors. Although the top would normally sit on the bottom cabinet, we wanted to hang the top on the wall in order to create more counter space.

I held my breath while Greg and the cabinet installers hung it!

The hardware on this cabinet also inspired the choice of hardware for the rest of the kitchen.

I haven’t completely moved everything in yet nor finished decorating my wonderful kitchen, but here are some early “after” photos.

Of course, I am also not planning to have plywood counter tops. I want copper counters, but that is still a project we haven’t finished yet. We also have work to do for a backsplash. Don’t worry – you’ll see finished photos eventually!

Although the house is far from finished, with the installation of the kitchen, we were finally ready to move in – after three years of hard work!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 8 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

Before we started the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow, Greg and I talked about which things were most important to each of us. Greg (the music lover) wanted the whole house to be wired for media so that he could listen to his favorite tunes in surround sound, no matter which room he was in.

As for me, I wanted a gorgeous and unique kitchen – unlike anything you would see in most homes. Although I know it is very trendy, I really didn't see myself in a kitchen with dark wood cabinets and granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. I wanted colorful, painted cabinets that looked vintage and had a great deal of character.

Stock kitchen cabinets were out of the question so we hired a local craftsman, John Hopfensperger of Cayce Custom Cabinetry. I fell in love with his ability to create custom paint finishes with as much distressing as I’d like. I wanted the aqua green-blue color that you see on vintage 1957 Chevrolets because it matched my hand-painted Italian Deruta dishes that we bought in San Gimignano when we lived in Europe. I know the vibrant colors are not for everyone, but I love it!

The style of the kitchen cabinets were influenced by this antique kitchen cabinet that we found at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville. We actually bought that cabinet to be a built-in bookcase in our bedroom so I can use it to display my favorite books and family photos. (It's not full yet in this photo... I'm still working on it!) The three upper areas have glass doors and the three lower areas have solid wood doors.

There were four extra glass doors that came with this bookcase, and we decided those would make great kitchen cabinet doors.

You might remember that I blogged about an awesome vintage double sink (it still has the original Sears catalogue sticker from 1952 inside) that we found at a ReStore when we were antiques shopping in Asheville. We had it completely restored and here it is mostly installed.

That's the background story, I'll show you in my next post how it all turned out!

If you've been following our 1920s vintage bungalow renovation, you'll know that transforming the yard from a jungle to a beautiful garden has been a major task! It's been worth every minute though so I thought I'd give an update on our 2016 garden so far.

Last year a friend of ours let Greg and I come pick some of her tomatoes and they were the BEST-tasting tomatoes I've ever had! They were bright orangey-yellow and were very meaty with hardly any juice. I saved the seeds and planted them, along with some peppers, in early March, lovingly raising them under grow lights in our bathroom until they were ready to be planted outside in early May.

Minkey and Rudy helped inspect my progress after I finished planting everything - a whole box just of tomatoes, another bed of mostly peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini, a third bed with mostly cucumbers and collards. The fourth bed is our strawberry patch that is already putting out sweet red fruit. Our peach trees are full of baby peaches and our fig trees are just starting to set baby figs.

My rose bed I built around the mailbox is currently in full bloom! Those are vintage bricks around the rose bed... of course!

I also put azealas in the front bed. They bloomed beautifully this spring!

Squiggy enjoys hanging out on the steps to bask among the flowers and keep an eye on the planters... just in case they try to misbehave!

Here's another shot of the front yard showing our hanging baskets. Our Flamepoint Siamese cat Roxy is peering out from the cat patio too, but you might not see her in the photo.

And good news - our blueberry patch seems finally be growing! It is hard to spot, but we have a few blackberry plants under the tree that are starting to form a bramble.

That's the tour of our garden this month! If you want to see how far we have come, check out this post about how the "garden" looked when we first moved in: Vintage LIfe: Good Fences. We were told that nobody had done any yard work for at least 10 years, and it was easy to believe. Poison ivy covered the yard and Greg and I hauled about 4.5 tons of leaves and vines away, in addition to old tree limbs. You wouldn't believe it's the same property!

Or check out my recent post on Great ways to decorate the garden with flower pots for more inspiration on making your outdoor space a place you love. Tell us what you are doing in your garden in the comment box - we love to hear your stories!

The renovation of our 1920s bungalow has truly been a labor of love. You’ve seen the tile floors go down and penny tiles in the bathroom. We replaced the roof too as well as building a cat porch. Now we’re excited to put down laminate flooring.

We had originally thought that we’d refinish the original hardwood floors, but most of the boards were dry-rotted and had to be completely removed.

We chose a dark walnut laminate rather than true hardwood floors because of the durability against scratches from the dogs’ nails.

We liked this particular laminate because it had staggered sizes of boards and it has a textural wood grain feel. It also has a vintage or distressed look to it, and it has a very thick attached padding to the underside.

Greg worked with our handyman, Frank, to put down the laminate, which we had never done before. They started in the front living room.
It really went pretty fast! Greg and Frank were able to lay the laminate in the front living room and dining room in one day.

In this shot of the dining room, you’re getting an early peep at the kitchen. I’ll show you how the kitchen came together in the next Vintage Life blog. Next came the master bedroom:

And then the closet:

Do you like my vintage Capodimonte light fixture in the closet? I love it!

Now that the floors were down, we could build the closets that we purchased from Ikea. Ikea does know how to provide a great amount of storage space in a small area. Our master closet is now in the same footprint as the only original bathroom in the house.

Now that we actually had flooring throughout the entire house, we could start bringing in furniture, which made us feel like we were really making progress!

We started with the vintage green leather English sofa and chair set that we had purchased in Asheville.

Next we brought over our bed...

...and our antique dining room table and chairs.
Stay tuned! The kitchen is the last piece that is truly needed before we can move in and that will be the next Vintage Life blog post!

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

In the continuing story of As the Bungalow Renovation Turns – a.k.a. the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow – now that we had the walls up and painted and had laid most of the ceramic tile floors, unfortunately we found that the roof had started to leak in the sun room.

When we purchased the house, we thought we had about 5 years left in the existing roof, but it turns out it was only about 3 years. And so we needed to replace the roof.

Although Greg is extremely handy, and I am a delightful assistant, we decided not to attempt a roofing job ourselves as Greg does not like heights. We hired a crew and they set to work removing all of the old roofing shingles. as you can see in the photo above.
There were quite a few areas where the wood underneath the shingles needed to be replaced too.
Since we had a crew up on the roof, we decided to go ahead and punch three large skylights in the roof for more light in the upstairs converted attic space. We’re glad we did – it turned out great! Here you can see the skylights being opened up...
Here are the finished skylights. They are perfect to bring in the light and give us a glimpse of sky.

After just two days, the new roof was completed and looked good.This is the view from the back of the house:

We choose a reddish-colored roof shingle that matched the reddish-paint on the brick foundation around the bottom of the house. It's a very patriotic combination with the blue paint and white trim! We are delighted that it looks so great. We could have done without an extra roofing job but it all turned out for the best! We were so lucky that our little vintage bungalow stayed nice and dry when Hurricane Joachim blew through.

Aimee owns EuroLuxHome.com with her husband and best friend, Greg. Aimee sources amazing antique furniture, vintage lighting, & high-quality reproduction furniture to help her customers decorate their homes in a unique way. She loves her 9 (you read that right) fuzzy children and is renovating a 1920s bungalow in South Carolina. Find us on Facebook or connect with EuroLux on Google+. Or you can sign up here to receive this blog in your inbox.

We didn't intend to have eight fuzzy babies, it just worked out that way. We know we have a cat overpopulation situation, so as we worked on the renovation of our 1920s vintage bungalow, we made sure we created a special space for the cats too. This is how we ended up building a "cat paradise" screened porch for everyone to enjoy.

Here are four of the cats. I keep them supplied with a pot of cat grass so they can happily graze all day!

This shows our porch after we hung new exterior siding, but before we screened it in.
We thought it would really make the porch look nice to tile it...

...and of course we needed a great vintage screened door, which we found at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville, NC, where we also have a booth.

Then we added a very interesting oyster chandelier. We have oyster chandeliers for sale in case you like it as much as we do and are interested in buying one!

There are two cat doors on either side of our front door leading out to the screened front porch so that everyone can come and go as they please - which they do all day and night. We constantly hear "flap, flap, flap" from the cats going in and out.

We built steps up to corner platforms on each side of the porch and then more steps up to walkways along the top of the porch and over the screened door, so that there are plenty of spots for all six cats to enjoy the porch at the same time. We also built a fireman's pole out of sisal rope so that they could climb up and down it like a tree and use it for a scratch post.

Minkey and Fozzy take their perches to enjoy the view at sunset.
Fozzy knows we can't reach him up there.

Lenny, Fozzy and Minkey checking out the neighborhood after the sun has set. Everyone really enjoys "cat paradise" on the patio - even Greg and I like to kick back on the porch with a couple beers after a long day.

Have you "spoiled" your fuzzy babies with something built especially for them them? Tell us about it in the comments or show us with a photo on our Facebook page.

Greg and I love to putter in the garden - we find it so relaxing to be outside, digging in the dirt. I like to call it yard yoga. As soon as spring starts, we can't resist working on the landscaping for our vintage 1920s bungalow, even though we still have so much to do inside! When the weather turns so hot we can't stand to be outside, we'll turn back to our inside projects. We've come a long way over the past few years.

Here are some photos from when we first cleaned up the front yard...

...then created beds, planted baby plants, and put down grass seed in the Spring of 2012.

The following spring in May 2013, the roses were in bloom, the grass was starting to fill in...
...and the jasmine and climbing roses were taking over the trellis.

Last spring, we worked in the back yard. We hadn't done much since 2012 when we cleared it, put up a fence, and planted baby trees:

In the Spring of 2014, we tore down the old dilapidated shed
and built a pretty, new shed for garden tools:

This is the finished shed - it matches our vintage 1920s bungalow!
We also built two raised garden boxes and planted peach trees and fig trees:

We've been busy this year planting more flowers in the front yard...
...and in the side yard:
We added four planters on the steps - two of which belonged to Greg's great grandmother - family heirlooms for blooms! We also added hanging baskets, bird feeders and a couple bird baths, and I built a rose bed around the mailbox out of vintage bricks.
In the backyard, we built two more raised garden boxes.
We have strawberries in one bed; corn, beans, peas, and cucumbers in another; watermelon, cantalope, and zucchini in a third, and tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers in the fourth.

I think we're going to have a bumper crop of tomatoes this year!

Do you love to garden? Tell us about it in the comments!

Greg and I knew from the start of our 1920s bungalow renovation that we wanted to place penny tiles in the bathrooms to keep the vintage look of our home.

We started with the smallest room first: the half bath located off the living room/dining room. We chose all white tiles with a dark grey grout to emphasize the shape of the tiles.

The beadboard trim was created with original beadboard from the ceilings and it is painted a bright white while the walls are a rosy lavender – I love it! I just can’t get a good photo because the room is so small, but I’ve added a beautiful Italian vintage Capodimonte chandelier complete with pink drop roses.

Next came the upstairs guest bathroom and small side closest, where we also chose all white penny tiles.

I'm concentrating hard, here! This was our first experience with penny tiles and we have to say that they are a little more difficult to lay than large tiles. Penny tiles come on square sheets, but the sheets stretch, which makes it a bit difficult to get the spacing exactly even.

Our floors aren’t perfect, but I think they show vintage charm! This is the finished upstairs bathroom. We carried the beadboard trim motif upstairs too but we had to use new beadboard sheets as we had run out of the original old beadboard. The trim is painted a bright white while the walls are a pretty green tea. It isn’t installed yet, but this is where my restored pink claw foot tub will go! What do you think?

For the master bath, we chose marble penny tiles featuring varying shades of grey and white with hints of blue and yellow. We set it off with a dark grey grout.

We used the last of the original beadboard, painted bright white, in the alcove where my restored yellow claw foot tub will go.

We also added a bling-y vintage Rococo chandelier with sparkling crystals. Ta-da!

Although it is not installed yet as we haven’t finished tiling the large walk-in shower and the adjoining wall, we have converted an antique Louis XV sideboard into a double vanity by removing the top and replacing it with Alabama white marble with grey veining to complement the tile floor.

We’re considering placing a pair of the new Ambella Home Star Mirrors over the vanity. Here's a photo of the mirror – let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

If you just can't get enough tales from the tile side, our last Vintage Life: Time To Tile! blog post talked about our adventures with the pretty Mexican tile in the kitchen, sun room and utility room. Grout on!

In the continuing story of our 1920s vintage bungalow renovation project, now that the walls were up and painted, we needed floors! Greg and I have completed several tiling projects together so we knew we could tackle this project too. Besides, Greg really likes to use his fancy tile saw.

We started with the largest area first – the kitchen, sun room and utility room – which would all have a pretty Mexican tile that complements the warm Creamsicle color on the walls.

This is the kitchen and sun room before the tiles are down. First we lay out all of the tiles and I mark where the cuts need to be made,
while Greg cuts the tiles.

Greg then puts down the mastic in sections....

...and spreads it evenly.
Yep, we've got to be extra careful to keep all our cats and dogs out of the room at this point!

Finally, I lay the re-lay tiles on the mastic, press down firmly and get them aligned with spacers. It isn’t difficult work but it does take time to get it right. We spend so much of our time in front of the computer on a daily basis that it is actually fun to work on a project with your hands that requires your total concentration.

It took three full days to put down all the tiles in the kitchen, sunroom, and utility room, which we did over a long holiday weekend. The next step is to fill all the spaces between the tiles with grout, which makes a great big mess. I actually think cleaning up the grout at the end is the worst part of tiling!

But it's all worth it in the end. Above is the finished sunroom floor.
And below is the "before" photo of the utility room…

And now here's the "after"…

Quite a difference, huh? After the tile was finished in the kitchen, sunroom and utility room, we hung two vintage chandeliers...

One has a brass finish and the other is a Flemish chandelier with a copper finish – to give an interesting mixed metals effect. I recently wrote a blog post about the trend for mixed metals in home decor so it seem we are all the rage!

Next up is tiling in the master bathroom, guest baths and the front porch. I'll tell you about that next month. If you love vintage penny tiles then stay tuned...

It is amazing how a coat of paint can change a space. Or in our case, quite a few coats of paint can really start to make our three-year long 1920s vintage bungalow renovation project look like a home! But before you can appreciate the painted surfaces, I want to show you a
creative touch Greg thought up.
After the drywall went up, we decided to add a bit more character to the walls in the front living room as well as the master bathroom. We created wainscoting from beaded board that was original to the house. You might remember that some of the ceilings had water damage and those areas had to be replaced with new beaded board. We cut out the bad spots from the original beaded board, planed it down to remove the paint, and then dovetailed it in place with the shoe molding and the chair rail trim.
Here is a shot of the original beaded board ceiling after it was sanded down, caulked between every board, and then painted a fresh coat of bright white! It was very labor intensive, but we think the result is fabulous! We have 10-foot beaded board ceilings throughout the whole house and most of it is original.

You'll notice we've chosen 1950s pastel colors throughout the house to keep with our vintage motif. The front living room is a pretty mint green that has a nice calming effect and it really sets off the beaded board wainscoting after it was sanded, caulked between each board and painted bright white. My living room is pretty close to Guilford Green, one of the paint colors of the year that I blogged about last week, but it is definitely more minty than silvery.

We also painted the original fireplace that had been painted dark maroon with orange walls and changed out the ugly front door with vintage Craftsman style door.

For the kitchen and sun room at the back of the house, we chose a cheery, warm yellowish-peach color that seems to change throughout the day as the light changes.

The master bedroom is a soft greyish-blue that feels very relaxed. We found a great 1920s vintage kitchen cabinet at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville and built it into the bedroom wall. We'll use it as a bookcase and as a place to display framed family photos and personal mementos. Here it is:

I have still have to replace the glass in the cabinet doors with seeded glass and paint the doors - it is on my very long to-do list!

I'll show you the paint colors in other rooms as we add vintage light fixtures throughout the whole house and start on the flooring. Till then, thanks for reading about our vintage bungalow adventures. What do you think of our decor so far?