It’s sad, but it’s true. Not all old things are worth keeping.
I’m generally in favor of salvaging architectural or decorative elements. If it’s in good shape, if it works with the current owners’ style, and, most important, if it’s original to the house, why not try to work with it? My contractors will tell you that I’ve been known to make resignation-worthy exclamations such as, “I bet there’s a nice wooden floor under that vinyl tile!” and “If we’re careful, maybe we could re-hang that wallpaper in a closet!”
Just so you know where I’m coming from.
Sometimes, though, it’s kindest to the house and the workpeople to bid a fond farewell to that half-broken stained glass window, the door frame that’s battered beyond recognition, or cracked, no-longer-waterproof tile.
The vestibule tile in this gorgeous Victorian townhouse was, to use a technical term, shot.
It doesn’t even look that bad here, but trust me: the walls were cracked, pieces of the floor were missing, and it had been repaired many times – poorly – since its installation in the 1890s. And I’ll tell you what I wouldn’t say to a roomful of purists: the primary field tile was a pukey color. Add it all up, and the clients – lovely people to match their lovely house – wanted it redone.
Being the respectful house-lovers they are, though, they had a request: salvage as much of the original tile as you can, and we’ll augment it with new stuff. Here’s how it ended up:
We blended the original tan and pinkish tiles with custom-made 1″ x 2″ tiles in cream and dark purplish brown to enliven the palette. We framed the “new” field tile with two strips of blue tile and put new but old-looking cream 3″ x 6″ tiles above and below it. We integrated the salvaged purplish decorative tiles into the top row of 3″ x 6″s and capped it all off with new chair rail moulding.
The floor was unsalvageable, but we stuck close to the original design with a floor from a company called Original Style. As the name suggests, they use Victorian methods and materials to reproduce designs from that era.
The result is an homage rather than an imitation. I like to think that the house appreciates the effort.
Thanks, Park Manor and Gardens blog for that great picture of the unfinished floor.
