What a beautiful home! You must be very brave to undertake such a project - but I'm sure it will turn out beautiful. May I ask what the purpose of the first room is? Will you be using it as a sitting room or dining room? When I saw your photos I was instantly reminded of the show Sarah's house on HGTV. She renovated an old farmhouse and had a similar room in the entry. She wound up making it into a mudroom with a powder room. You can find photos at hgtv.com. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and you can click a link titled "A Look Inside Sarah's Farmhouse." I tried posting the link here but am experiencing difficulties.

Thank you for your kind words
I enjoy doing this type of thing, wood, masonry and metal working are all hobbies and passions, much of that comes together in this, and I will try anything at least once!

Seriously the little work we have done so far has made huge differences, It is going to be a pretty home when done, If I do not do something stupid in colors/patterns!

The first room is really going to be foyer/sitting room I suppose. To the left of this room (walking in the front door) is a room, we are converting to a down stairs bathroom. this is the entryway I am in taking this pic

The first room you asked about was once a waiting room reception area. the room we are converting to a bathroom was a dentist office, many years ago, it still has the sinks in the room from that time period.

Another neat tid bit, all of the upstairs wall papers were shot, wore out from exposure, bleached and faded from years of light, How ever each closet also has the rooms wall coverings in it. The wall papers in the closets are very much in good shape, so we are not disturbing the old original papers in the closets, keeping them for history, a connection to the past

Another neat thing, every room down stairs except the future bathroom has an exterior door leading to the outside wrap around porch.....What years ago would have been the main entrance (to what is now considered the family room) still has the old mechanical door ringer, you twist the handle and it rings, a sound much like the old bicycle ringers of old, I think that is really kind of neat!

a couple more pictures

Here's a photo stream from Country Living magazine -- might be some ideas there!

You have done an amazing job -- and brought this house back to life! Well done!

I am not keen on the wallpaper for the hallway -- I would prefer to see simple painted walls in creams or pale golds that would work with your style of home.

Check out Benjamin Moore's line of Historical Colors -- there are many shades that would look amazing in your home.

As for carpet -- perhaps start with a runner for the stairs -- and an area rug or carpet for the foyer.

You should make a point of checking out your local "Craigs List" for anyone selling furniture that might work in your home too! It can be a marvellous resource for furniture and lots of other items for your home and garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hope this shows up! Link to Country Living photos

You are talking about a lot of carpet. Is there any reason you can't refinish those hardwood floors?

I don't know if carpet is such a great idea for the first room you come into. People will be entering the house through there, and if it's a rainy day they'll be getting your carpet all wet and dirty. I would put some sort of hard flooring - wood or tile. If you want the room to do double duty as a sitting area then maybe you can put down a pretty rug to warm up the space. What a fun house!

Beautiful house! You have accomplished so much already! You are at the fun part now!

I think tile would be your best choice in the entry room. I am not a big fan of the wallpaper- I would pick a great paint color. The Ben Moore Historical colors mentioned above are really nice.

Not sure what condition your wood floors/stairs are in, but I think they would be gorgeous refinished, and a much better investment than carpet.

For your bedroom, do what makes you happiest! If one of the wallpapers you have is your favorite, then use it, or pick a paint color that you love.

Have fun,
Jen
Please post pictures as you get things done!

Wow, what a beautiful home. That woodwork is wonderful. I would also reconsider carpet in the entryway and on the stairs. We replaced all of our carpet with wood downstairs, but still have it on the stairs and upstairs. That carpet on the stairs gets so dirty! Good luck with your projects.

I would not carpet any of the rooms. Refinish or paint the floor and use area rugs. This gives you a lot of options for the future and is more in keeping with the era of the house.

For now I would just concentrate on painting all of the rooms and live with it for a while before committing to wallpaper or sponge painting. IMHO the one pattern you show with the barns will clash with the type of home it is. Once you move in you will get a feel for how the rooms are used and how the sun comes in. Over time your tastes may even change as you live in the home.

In the meantime, while living there, research historical homes to see what will work and what you like. Then slowly work each room with furnishing and wallpaper if you choose to.

I'm curious about the kitchen. Is is historical and pristine or is it going to have to be a gut job?

I guess most of you are not fans of carpet!
I actually love hardqwood in our last home took out all the carpet installed all my own flooring from raw tounge and groove flooring, installed, sanded, filled, sanded, pretreated and stained and finished, I am no stranger to these efforts. Lots of work But they came out well

Hers is a pic of one of the floors I did (not in the new home and not the best pic)

Back to the new house
The entry way is a old flooring vinyl/linoleum good probability of asbestos involved, which I can work with but it is a nuisance add to that the work to get this stripped down to bare to put down a new wooden floor is just going to throw our time schedule in the trash, this floor is really glued down. I could pull all the base board trim, build a sub floor over the floor, and then re floor But not only would this kill our time line, I would also have to break the radiator plumbing open to lift them and I really do not wish to get into that, the heating system has been newly updated, it is all vented/purged perfectly, More than I want to deal with at this time.

The stairs are decent but the finish on treads and risers is shot, stripping and refinishing the stairs proper the way I would want to do it is just to time consuming right now with all I need to tackle otherwise.

The stairs and main entry are something we feel we need to get floored and a wall treatment prior to our moving in here.

With all the monies spent getting this place back to the point it is, I can not pay this house payment, pay the rental payment and still do any other work, I have to get what I can accomplished and move in then the rest we have to finish out while living here.

walls and floors done in the entry, stairs, our bedroom and hopefully the dinning room prior to our moving in. Would have liked to have done more but there has been only so many hours in a day, I have been at this almost two months
(I have also done a lot of pruning in the yard,hauled out many loads of brush, hauled in over about 9 pick up loads of field stone for a wall on the back edge of the property I will not talk of how much weed spray and poison Ivy spray I have done or the amount of time weed eating)

If we do carpet these areas, we would still have wood floors in the family room, the dinning room, the down stairs bathroom, 3 bedrooms and the fourth and largest bedroom which is being converted into a sewing room/den that has back up overflow sleeping possibilities either a day bed or sofa bed so even if we use some of the carpet, there is still much wood through out. At this time we are not going to refinish the flooring, the patina these floors have is from 100 years plus of aging, they are mostly in decent shape and the few week spots are going to be covered by area rugs. I am not being lazy but I genuinely like the aged look the floors have, I could not possibly duplicate it.

Ok I admit, I am possibly going to reseal but not refinish the new downstairs bathroom flooring. This room is going to have a toilet and a shower as well as the existing sink. A little fresh protection from water will not hurt in this room!

I would like wood or tile for the entry way but this is our one compromise for now (With carpet I can rip it out later when other things are done and do something different If I wish) As far as cleanliness, it is mostly the two of us with part time kid visits, We plan for ourselves to use the rear kitchen door as our primary entrance...our feet would be clean prior to the carpet...The previous owners had multiple mats prior to entering, one on the outside prior to stepping on the porch, one outside of the actual door.
This would help as well for guests.

I do very much appreciate your kind words, I have tried to address many of your coments in this reply!

Please any other ideas, colors worth mentioning any of it, I am open ears and again perhaps you will give me a better idea!

I do have to say I agree the barn paper does not really fit, but I do for some reason like the paper, But my sense it does not fit just tells me NO!

The kitchen is not all that but it is functional for the moment (Barely)

these double closets are part of the kitchen as well

The kitchen is a planned next years project.
This will allow time to decide what we wish to do (And to save more money!) A very possible idea in my mind is to eliminate the back "servants" staircase, this will open up the kitchen making it about 4 feet wide still running the width of the house. I would lose one of the "storage" closets but the space gained would almost double the kitchen in size, further It would give me a large utility closet at the top of what would have been this stair case, more closet storage space is always a plus as well!

Wow...what a gorgeous home...you are doing a great job!!! I am NOT qualified to offer suggestions on the historical aspect of your home, so only providing a wallpaper link...expensive but wonderful.

Your woodwork is fabulous...looking forward to seeing your progress. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Bradbury & Bradbury

Your explanation of the carpeting makes perfect sense under the circumstances. I like wallpaper, but I'm not crazy about the barn pattern. Painting would be easier and less expensive, and it would give you the option to paper the walls down the road.

Yellows are so tricky. I usually recommend a buttercream as a safe choice. But for some reason in older homes, a slightly stronger yellow seems better. I have such a yellow in my house from previous owner; I'm trying to figure out what it is because it is spot-on perfect.

Kudos on all the hard work!

Lovely old home!! We too have an old (1780) colonial in New England with lots of wood and lots of wallpaper. Sometimes it seems daunting!

http://colourmehappyblog.blogspot.com/

Check out this link on colors. Yellow is a very difficult color to work with even though I love it. I painted a room yellow once and it made the woodwork look awful. It brought out all the yellow undertones in an otherwise nice colored wood. I think that might happen with your color woodwork too.

Anyhow that website is an eye opener about color. I found it the other day and spent a lot of time reading all her blogs. She has a lot of interesting things to say and they all make a lot of sense.

Good Luck!

How about a patterned rug with painted walls? Perhaps a green in the rug pattern with a cream background, such as a trellis type pattern?

A round table in the middle of the foyer with, of course, a vase of fresh flowers from the garden on it and a tray to throw your keys and incidentals on and some books, a coat tree, an umbrella stand, a big mirror on one of the walls?

I second spending time on the colourmehappy blog site. It is fabulous.

Also, just want to say that you are amazing! You have given me the impetus to get off my butt after posting this and get going on my projects!!

I would put a good coat of a very pale cream/yellow or palest blue/grey on all the walls for now - when you repaint, it's a decent primer coat. Clean the heck out of the place and live in it for a few months.

Figure out your traffic flow and how you are living there, and then get serious about decorating.

Carpeting in the entry will get trashed very quickly, as will the carpet on the stairs. What's under those tacky tiles? Wood with area rugs is more period, and more flexible.

WOW, I had a good day!

I experimented with the ugly flooring
It was interesting, tried to lift it and it was really fastened down with the hard black goopy adhesive, I thought I am not fooling with this, carpet it is........

I started to vacuum the floor with a shop vac and it lifted, it lifted clean as a whistle! It seems there were 3 layers of this flooring installed one on top of another over the years, the top layer they put down with adhesive, the lower layers were just sitting on top of the original floor

Here was when I started this morning

Oh I did pick up the BM color books today, not only did I get the historic catalog, I got the whole fanfold set with all their colors to look at as well!

Still hoping more of you suggest some actual colors, I know many here are not too shy!

While I am it hope every one of you has a safe and happy holiday weekend!

It's looking great! I can visualize a wallpaper background like the one in Prof. Higgins' study in My Fair Lady:

I am thinking perhaps BM Saybrook Sage in our bedroom
So if I run this sage in our master BR, how would you do a bed spread,color wise?
What about curtains/drapes?

With dark wood flooring, suggestions for a area rug for the same room The room is all chestnut base board and trim

Lovely house. I hope you will reconsider getting rid of the back staircase! My grandparents had one and it was really so much fun for us as kids. Amazingly useful, too. It fits with the house and makes it even more charming, I think.

Thank goodness you found the original foyer flooring in serviceable shape! Now if you only hadn't ruined the original windows!
OMG You have some rooms (maybe not all) in _chestnut_ woodwork, the like of which will never be seen again, so try to find some reason to cherish it. Don't replace it with vinyl.
I hate it when a window salesman pulls this kind of garbage on otherwise well-meaning homeowners.
Happy fourth, everybody!
Casey

Casey
the original windows were mostly beyond reasonable restoration, I actually retained 3 original windows, replaced 27 I still have them and the hardware in case I find someone that wants to mess with them.

I have learned sort of a neat story about all the wood in this house, it all was grown and milled from a local farm.
There are original 2 x 4s in the attic that actually have tree bark showing it is really neat to see, I should post a pic sometime

If you can, store those original windows somewhere and keep them. If and when you ever sell, restoring them can be a project for the next owner.

Wow - what an improvement getting rid of that linoleum made! You must be smiling! Another vote for using area rugs and carpet runners -- wall to wall just doesn't fit the home. As for colors, our local paint store has a decorator that will help you choose colors for a very nominal fee -- perhaps that would be a timesaving move for you. Benjamin Moore's Windham Cream comes to mind when I see your foyer.

You have one beautiful home! I was so disappointed at your post "carpet it is" only to read down further than you were able to keep the original wood floor. I hate the look of carpet and I ripped every bit of ours out as soon as I could afford to do so. I would never again install carpeting. How lucky you were to uncover yours.

As for the wallpaper, I think I too would go with painting and put the paper on hold until you find papers that you absolutely drool over. I caution using yellows for the same reasons posted by others. How about the golds?

Nice, very nice.

What an incredible house! Do you know any of its history? We just came back from Colonial Williamsburg and it was so inspiring.

I am not a big fan of wallpaper, but you mentioned the wallpaper in the closets being in good condition. Can you recreate these patterns by cutting a stencil and matching the colors? Also, I think I saw sponge painting mentioned somewhere here...please don't sponge paint. A paint technique more appropriate to the era would be a rag rolling.
As for the stairs, you can certainly paint the risers and there are other paint techniques for the treads, since replacing them can be costly. They may just need a good sanding, some filling, stain and varnish.
Have you ever seen the show Ghost Whisperer? Her stairway, similar to yours, has a wide stripe of olive green and gold. Looks really cool.
Anyway, love your house and good luck with it!

We are still working on the history of the home doing a whole lot of study and research!

We do keep learning more each day. Yesterday a car pulled up and a gentleman and his wife got out, asking for the original owner. I had to explain she is in a nursing home and not so well. We ended up in conversation and they came in to see what we are doing with the home. The couple and their friends were all in their upper 80's spent many hours in the home over the years and they spoke and shared much in bits and pieces, it was enjoyable and a good source of more info as well!

I have been studying, since I uncovered the wood floor, and it is cleaning up very well. I am starting to consider a different treatment to the stairway. I am starting to consider a tapestry carpet runner going up the stairs, leaving part of the wood exposed on each side. Not absolute but it is on the list as a possible option we are considering, I do think this would fit better in the home.

Had not seen the Ghost Whisperer house, will have to try and check it out.

I am so glad you took off the tile floor. We had the same in our home, and at first it didn't want to come up, but after the initial section it all came off., fairly easily. Makes one wonder why on earth anyone would cover the wood floors.
Your home is gorgeous, it reminds me of the home I grew up in. It will be a real labor of love, but when it is finished it will be worth it in the end.
I think the idea for a tapestry runner for your stairs is a great one. It will fit perfect there. Our stairs were not in the best condition either when we took off the shag rugs. They still are unfinished, but plan on doing the same.

Isn't it amazing what you can learn from random people that stop by?? We bought our fixer upper from an estate, the PO's lived here 50 years. One Christmas when we were putting up lights outside, the adult children who grew up here were driving past and we invited them in. They could not believe how we brought the old house back to life! They told us all sorts of stories about the old house.

As for colors, in my mom's old house we used a color from Behr called "Bagel" it was a neutral yellow type color that looked fabulous with the wood trim. We had the same wood moldings in that house. I wish I had some pics, but she sold the house before I had a digital camera.

Can't wait to see your finished pics :)

I have the same trim in our home and a yellow that I tried and loved was BM Bar Harbor Yellow. I thought I had a pic of it but I can't find it. I used several of the yellows off this strip and was very pleased w/ every one!

Your home is wonderful!