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Home Decorating

More process pics; stairs and sink base

14 years ago

Hi Folks-

Here are a few pics of our latest tricks; installation of new/old stairs and the sink base cab and countertop. The cherry stair railing and newel posts were from Shingle style homes in Syracuse, NY, purchased at an architectural salvage place, refinished and installed by a local craftsman who only does stairs. He made the treads and risers from local cherry. They replaced the temporary construction stairs we've been living with for two years, so suffice it to say we are thrilled with them on many levels!

The kitchen counters are southern yellow pine bowling alley salvaged from an alley in the Southern Tier of NY, trimmed with local black walnut. Stained (by YT) with Sutherland Welles Light Heart Pine stain, then finished with seven coats of Epifanes Wood Finish Gloss, then three coats of Rubbed Effect Varnish. The sink is a HD special (Pegasus I think) and the base cab was built by our contractor using cab fronts that arrived damaged in a previous kitchen remodel. He patched and glued, and I'm going to paint them when the rest of the kitchen is done (maybe this month!).

Looking at the stairwell, love my BM Navajo Red window:

The upstairs railing is also recycled, it's an old communion rail from a church (and we're atheists, go figure):

Detail of the upstairs railing (they're different):

As much of the whole thing I could get:

Newel post (with the brass switchplate, I bought 20 of them at our local dollar store, go ahead and shudder, I like brass):

Sink:

Countertop:

Next projects are finishing the kitchen and tiling the upstairs "tubroom" bathroom. Hoping it doesn't kill me.

sandyponder

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Comments (12)

justgotabme
14 years ago
Wowza Sandy! I'm in love with your stairway. And how unique to have a bowling alley as a kitchen counter. Being a bowler I knew it right away as I strolled through your photos before reading. I'm think we need to head to the salvage place before we do our stairs. We've been living with construction grade stairs for well over five years! I would love to have such a wonderful balustrade as either of yours. And I think they look wonderful together! Funny I dreamed this morning of finishing our stairs and come here and get inspired to do so with salvage!
barb5
14 years ago
I just love looking at your pictures- they are always creative and individualistic. I love how you reusue materials that come with a story, and with a beautiful result. Your stairs, railings, and newels are very handsome. And your counter came out beautifully.

P.S. I love your red windows and I also am a fan of brass.
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Hi All! Thanks for the great comments! Brooke - LOL! - Don't you just love it when they get that first burst of defiance? I think that makes you a SWMBO (She who must be obeyed)! Your boys are adorable! My son won't pose for anything lately without making a face -must be an 8 year old (I'm almost 9, Mom!)thing! Or, it's the fact that he is sick of remodeling :-)! And your puppy! One of my best friends named her son Genki - japanese for samurai warrior? I did order samples of a couple pulls, but not sure how they'll look. DH doesn't like cup pulls and not sure about cupboard latches either. Here's the link to the simple pulls I ordered - 2 diff. sizes in old silver finish: http://www.knobs4less.com/Liberty-Kitchen-Cabinet-Hardware/libp10210osc.html Truthfully, I'm not in love with them, but they don't have the drawbacks and foo-fooey details most others do. I also really like the imperfect quality of the finish, look aged. However, I think I'd like to have solid brass with some sort of nickel/silver finish - and, for the price, I'm thinking these are not brass. I did like the look of the marine ice box latch on the other thread.... hmmmm..... I think our problem is we think we can find something different if we keep looking. Truthfully, I found some very expensive ones I really liked, but we need so many, I can't justify the cost to myself. Same problem with lighting! I can't seem to find pendants I like! DH wants something simple. But I sure love your Dining chandelier! I think we just need to get out there and look more, there are certainly options. Problem is, we could go so many different directions. Oh, you will love this! My friend who is the fabricator, sent me an e-mail last week after the slabs arrived at their shop: "I'm going to steal your slabs from the shop and run away....... x K" - she loves the Calacatta too! cpang74 & rhome410 - Thanks - don't hold your breath on Monday, it might take me a few days to get the pics up! pbrisjar - Thanks to you too, I've often read your postings and followed your progress as well! Cute puppies there, for sure! Only 4 more days..... Thanks again all, you have been great support during this fun project!
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Hi, everyone. This is my first time posting to this site... I'm several weeks in to a total gutting of the kitchen in my "new" (200-year-old) mill house. I'm going with a white fireclay farm sink undermounted in a slightly off-white cabinet base, with soapstone counters. EGAD! I ordered a 24" single bowl sink, and now am thinking it will look icky with all the filler needed to fit in the 30" sink base. But I got a great deal on it ($360 with free shipping) and to go the next size up (28") is like $700 plus the $50 restocking fee to send back the one I have now. The sales consultant doesn't advise going to a 30" sink in a 30" base b/c he says they'd have to "cut away at the base, ruining the integrity of the cabinet." Am I going to hate the smaller sink??? It's a tiny kitchen, so I am not so worried with the size of the sink and it's function, but more the look. Any advice/photos are appreciated. I've looked at a lot of shots and it looks like I should have gone with a smaller sink base, or a larger sink. Sheesh... live and learn! Thanks! Kirsten
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lesmis
14 years ago
Beautiful and such creative uses for salvaged parts. I wish I could have found more salvaged items for our remodel, but maybe as we go along with future renovations.

If you live on the water, and heck even if you don't, brass is very appropriate!

Kat :)
nanny2a
14 years ago
What beautiful and inventive renovations! Especially love the bowling counter....how clever is that! The stairs are unique and just as lovely, too! Great reuse of materials!!
User
14 years ago
WOW !! You get the GOLD STAR for the coolest salvage yet. I was looking for stairs 7 yrs ago and didn't even know about salvage at that time. I LOVE that countertop in the kitchen and that red window...well that is just perfect. What a wonderfully unique and fabulous home you are creating. Everything will have a story...will take hours to show folks through.

I can always see my visitors getting glassy eyed as I wax poetic about the salvage LOL. c
palimpsest
14 years ago
I love it, it looks like it belongs there.
TxMarti
14 years ago
Gorgeous, just gorgeous!
kitchendetective
14 years ago
Sooooo wonderful! Your work and creativity are fabulous. Funny coincidence: DH was just telling me how happy he is with some Epifanes varnish he had the guys use on his boat restoration. Your counter top looks nautical--like a yacht galley--to me. How did you find working with their products?
2ajsmama
14 years ago
I love your staircase - all of really works well together! Wish I could have found some cool salvage but it's just too far to drive to go looking for stuff like that (local GW doesn't carry architectural pieces). I had to settle for mail-order Victorian repro brackets to make my stairs unique.

Fine Woodworking just rated Epifanes very highly for exterior use, your countertop should hold up nicely. The stuff's expensive, though! I was thinking of buying some to use on porch rocker but with the price I don't know - and 7-10 coats, well, that could end up costing more than the rocker if it takes 2 quarts (over the years). How often does DH have to refinish his boat? How was it to work with indoors - or did you have to do countertop outdoors before installing? What do you plan for maintenance?
User
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks to all of you for the lovely compliments, mr. sandyponder and I are absolutely beaming! We've had both the bowling alley and the stairs for a few years, waiting till we have the money and time to get them in properly. I highly encourage using old house parts, they add instant patina (for those of us who dig patina) and seem to imbue the house with presence (for lack of a more precise word). The only caution I will offer is to have your contractor on board (or DIY the work, we've done a mix), some of them want to go to the Depot and just buy everything, so hunt for someone who can appreciate your vision and vintage parts.

WRT the Epifanes, I read that same article in FW, that's why we tried it, and yuppers, it's expensive, but all good paint/stain products are expensive, and using wood around the sink, well, let's just say the cautious member of the sandyponder household (not YT) wanted to be sure we were using the right stuff. It went on like a dream, and dried in 12-14 hours, but we waited the full 24 between coats. Leaving the wood finish gloss alone made for a very, very shiny countertop, so we added the rubbed effect varnish and it dulled it down nicely (shiny = dirt magnet IMO and we're not really into cleaning, so...).

Thank you again to everyone, I'm off to glaze the hutch-cum-flat screen TV holder in the den.

sandyponder
mitchdesj
14 years ago
It's absolutely stunning, you have great vision !!
now we want to see all your other projects, lol.....
2ajsmama
14 years ago
How was the Epifanes for fumes/smell? I was thinking Waterlox for my stairs, but heard that the smell is really bad (and I'm not sure about drying time - I might have to do fat-drying poly now that we're living in the house, or wait til we're all packed and ready to go on vacation, have all the bags in the car so no last-minute trips upstairs).

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