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Restoring an American Colonial Style Home

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Today I am excited to share a beautiful restoration of this American Colonial style home. Who doesn’t like to see an old home brought back to life?

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

My brother and his wife spent two years restoring every piece of this home and the transformation is jaw-dropping.

Restoring this 100 year old colonial style home | Building Bluebird #homerestoration #historichomes #colonial #preservation

Their goal was to uncover the original features of the home and highlight all of the wonderful details. The original hardwood has been restored and the old sconces have been repaired and rehung. All of the paint on the fireplace and baseboards was removed and the house looks as good as the day it was built!

Want to see more historic home transformations? Get the full before and after tour of the Historic Denver Bosler House with complete details on the exterior and interior restoration of the home.


1920’s American Colonial Style Home Restoration

Exterior Before

Jon and Shannon spent many weekends scraping this house and painting it white. They replaced the roof, the gutters, and waterproofed the exterior of the foundation.

Restoring this 100 year old colonial style home | Building Bluebird #homerestoration #historichomes #colonial #preservation

Exterior After

Isn’t this the most charming house you have ever seen?!

Restoring this 100 year old colonial style home | Building Bluebird #homerestoration #historichomes #colonial #preservation

Living Room Before

I love the transformation in this room.  Do you see all of that woodwork?! Now imagine taking a heat gun and scraper to every part of those doors baseboards & mantle…NUTS! This house has so much love (and sweat) put into it.

Restoration of colonial-style home built in the 1920's | Building Bluebird #oldhouselove #homerenovation #restoration #colonial #historichome
Living room before the renovation of the 100 year old home | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historichome

Jon methodically worked his way around the house restoring the original woodwork. He used a heat gun to remove most of the paint on the baseboards and fireplace mantle and it worked really well.

Uncovering the original wood trim in this 1920s American colonial style home | Building Bluebird

Living Room After

Restored 1920's American colonial home | Building Bluebird
1920's home with original woodwork restored | Building Bluebird

Dining Room Before

Before the dining room was dark and dirty. There was paint all over everything – woodwork, windows and the sconces. They restored the wood floors, removed the paint from all baseboards and windows and they even repaired and restored the sconces on the wall.

1920s original kitchen of colonial style home | Building Bluebird

Dining Room After

Dining room with restored wood floors and woodwork - Colonial home restoration

Hot water and a wire brush do wonders to remove old paint!

Restored 1920's sconces | Building Bluebird

Kitchen Before

The kitchen was a mess.  When they moved in, the kitchen needed a new ceiling, new floors, tiles from the backsplash were missing and paint was chipping everywhere.

1920s original kitchen of colonial style home | Building Bluebird
1920s original kitchen of colonial style home | Building Bluebird

Kitchen After

With a new ceiling and the wood floors restored, the kitchen already looks like a different space! They found replacement tiles for the backsplash and gave the entire room a fresh coat of paint. The updated kitchen has such a quaint and vintage feel.

1920s original kitchen of colonial style home | Building Bluebird
1920's original kitchen in the Colonial home

Half Bath Before

The half bathroom is super tiny and located right off of the kitchen. It is small but mighty and unique for this type of home to have a bathroom on the first floor.

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

Half Bath After

They made sure to make this little half-bath shine! They added a retro sink that gave the bathroom more space, painted the walls a moody green, and added a large mirror.

Half bathroom with vintage charm in the historic Colonial home | Building Bluebird

Check out more moody paint colors that go great in small bathrooms.

Guest Bedroom Before

This bedroom was covered in wallpaper that did NOT want to come off! They relied on a steamer to remove all of the wallpaper in the room.

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

Guest Bedroom After

Once this room was complete, it was a calming guest retreat for all of their friends. Adding neutral paint colors allowed the original features like the beautiful wood doors to pop!

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

Nursery Before

The nursery had a beautiful set of built-ins that they preserved.

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

Nursery After

Paint, new window treatments, and new furnishings transformed this sweet little room.

1920's colonial style home restoration  | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes
Original Built-in's of a 1920s colonial home | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #vintage #historichomes

Bathroom Before

The main bathroom still had most of the original features from the 1920s. This included the subway tile, basket weave floor tile, tub & medicine cabinet.

1920's original tile bathroom | Building Bluebird #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #vintage #historichomes

Bathroom After

They cleaned the tiles and added a dark gray to the walls to tie in nicely with the black band around the subway tiles.

1920's original tile bathroom | #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #vintage #historichomes

Big thanks to Jon and Shannon for sharing their stunning American colonial style home restoration with us! 🙂 I am a proud big sis and love that I get to show off all of their hard work. 

1920's colonial style home restoration #homerenovation #historicpreservation #restoration #oldhomes #historichomes

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Melissa Graham

Thursday 3rd of December 2020

The 1920’s Colonial restoration is absolutely magnificent. I purchased a 1910 American Colonial in the Germantown section of Philadelphia 9 years ago for my then 2 year old and I. I have been in search of ideas for restoration since then. Thank you for sharing.

lindseymahoney

Friday 4th of December 2020

Your home sounds fabulous! I am so glad you enjoyed the post, my brother and his wife are very talented.