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What Are the First Steps for Giving Your "new" Old House a Face Lift?

We bought an old house- beautiful wide wood floors in every room- beautiful details. Ugly small bathroom, a family of 4 and only 1 can fit in here at a time. unfinished walls, just paper with the nails showing through- unfinished floors upstairs( fir). We need a gas stove in here. What to do what to do first. My idea was to clean then paint the walls in bright saturated colors-I can’t paint the wood work it is so beautiful. Then ?????

  1. Fate543
    May 23rd, 2011 at 19:23 | #1
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    Check this site out and you’ll get some good ideas to paint your walls – maybe even put some tile in your bathroom to brighten it up and make your small space big and vibrant!!!

    check it out its a wonderful tool and its fun!:
    http://www.findanyfloor.com/VirtualRoomDesigner.xhtml

  2. darcymc
    May 23rd, 2011 at 19:23 | #2
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    new light fixtures
    ceiling lights
    wall lights
    chandeliers
    you get alot of bang in beauty and making a difference in the room for the buck
    edited to add
    poster below
    ahahahahahahahahahahahhahaahh
    whew thanks i needed that

  3. dilbertina
    May 23rd, 2011 at 19:23 | #3
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    First, congratulations on your new old house! Before you start buying and doing, take time to establish a budget, how much can you afford to spend at one time or each month to invest in this?
    Depending on this, maybe start with paint and I suggest starting with a light tone throughout the house in a warm pale gold with white trim, or a very soft grey green, these will set off your floors and look good with your artwork and furniture. Save the bright saturated colors for your accessories and artwork.

  4. Ruthie
    May 23rd, 2011 at 19:23 | #4
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    Congratulations! I have owned several old homes (each approx. 100 years old) and have gut-rehabilitated all of them, you’re in for a lot of work but you will be sooooo glad you did it when you’re done!

    Wood trim – Thank you for not painting it! Anyone who suggests painting beautiful wood trim (especially old/historic) is crazy! If you need to refresh the finish, use a very fine grit sandpaper, clean and re-polyurethane.

    Colors – Benjamin Moore has a great historic color section in their paint wheel and I chose most of my home colors from here. Beautiful, deep saturated colors that will fit with older home designs, but not too bright. My personal favorite color is "Old Salem Gray" which actually has a lot of green tone to it and looks great in virtually any room.

    I agree with the other poster about establishing a very detailed budget, always add 10-20% more than what you think you will spend in money and time. Excel spreadsheets are great for this.

    A great lighting resource is http://www.bellacor.com – usually free shipping and a HUGE selection. They also have plumbing fixtures and some furniture. Use as many online sources (businesses as well as craigs list, ebay) as possible and find coupons, I saved tons of money doing this rather than retailing.

    Most older homes only had one bathroom. We did a very small addition on our house to add a master bath and used an old pantry space for a powder room – you’d be amazed at how many spaces in old homes are unusable now for today’s lifestyles and can be converted to bathrooms.

    You should hire a professional to run a new gas line to your kitchen and stove hook-up — this you do not want to get wrong! You will have to rip up some walls and possibly some flooring to do this.

    Lastly, decide what your biggest priorities are and start from there. It sounds like the bathroom is the first place to start (I’d suggest a complete gut-rehab), then possibly the kitchen then the outlying social spaces.

    Best wishes!

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