Before and After – Front Door, Hall & Stairway

   Originally the house had a center hall staircase with three surrounding fireplaces, the rear being the “keeping room”.  If you are facing the stairs, which are immediately inside the front door, to the right was the dining room and the left was a study.  About 50 years ago the owner of This Old House ripped out the stairs and installed a micro-mini bathroom in it’s place.   There was a narrow stairway up to the second floor dividing the kitchen cooking area from the rest of the keeping room. We took that out and put the kitchen island there instead.  Jeff and Mike came up with a plan to restore the old staircase design in the front hall and re-open the keeping room area.

Before – I loved this door, but sadly the wood was too rotted and not salvageable.

After… I love bullseye glass and it used to be very popular , fitting the time period of the house. They are a treasured antique now, but were once considered scrap.

  ” Until modern techniques were developed, one way of making window glass was to spin a blob of molten glass at the end of a tool called a pontil. Centrifugal force flattened the glass into a sheet, and when the tool was pulled away it left a characteristic bull’s eye mark.  The relatively flat glass on the perimeter of this glass pancake was carefully cut into pieces and sold to the high-brows who could actually afford windows.  What was left, the stuff with the bull’s eyes, went into lesser locations, like barns and sheds. “

Once inside the door… before the re-do, it looked like this…
 In this picture you can see the hallway to the left with the mirrored bathroom door open.
(Now the refurbished staircase)
Now that the frame has been put back up and center chimney installed, Mike, Dominic (electrician) and Jeff (old home restoration expert) discuss logistics for refurbishing original style staircase…
That’s my office to the left..notice Ben’s “baby gate”.
Upstairs hall..kid’s door entryways on either side…
looking down…
We used old hardware when possible, this on the cellar door just beneath the stairs…my favorite. How many hands gripped the handle, thumbs in the imprint there to open that door over the past 200 years..
These are my $5. fleamarket pillows, a small red and white check.

14 thoughts on “Before and After – Front Door, Hall & Stairway”

  2. I enjoy seeing how you've incorporated as much original period materials into your beautiful home! The stairs are perfect! I also like Ben's gate. Do you mind if I do a version of that for my house?

  3. Love that you have kept things fairly simple and just let the walls, floors and staircase railing do the speaking. It's all beautiful, Karen!

    Have always said that our second floor would be a dog free zone, but now that Missy is gone, Handsome cries when he is left downstairs alone and it breaks my heart. He's lying next to me here in my second floor office right now. *sigh* Poor boy.

  10. I have those latches in my house, almost every door……I am so glad that they didn't get replaced somewhere over the years.

  13. It's lovely to see the befores and afters of your house. Shows how much work you've done and that everything is very much in keeping with how it used to be. Big smile to you.

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