The built-ins are lovely; she had excellent taste in wall coverings. The Chinoiserie paper in the dining room staged with the Chippendale faux bamboo chairs look "fresh" and "up to date" with today. We occasionally get similar time capsules in my neighborhood (built in the late 1920s to 1940s, mostly), halfway across the country. However, it is getting more and more rare to find a time capsule -- or its one of a mid 1970s update.

Hi Tara -- lots of great advice upthread about how to transform the feel of the rooms while doing very little to change the architecture (also on team remove shutters here...and preferably put nothing up...I've only ever seen accent windows like that left bare but...). April's nailed it re the before/after shots (perhaps a wide-angle lens, too?). You aren't that far away from your own after in that space, though it may not feel that way. Whether you end up with paler or deeper wall shades the key is complementing the wood, so Google This Old House tips for cleaning it so you're working from the best starting point. As someone who's lived in vintage fixers and been involved with fixers I also just wanted to offer encouragement. There's a real mental health toll to living in disarray with no end date, spending spare time fixing, not having enough budget to fix or decorate immediately, perhaps navigating different priorities for what gets fixed when, etc. If any of those apply it's draining...not sure of your story, but if they all apply it can cause even more issues. If you have space to call one room or closet or whatever the crap room, do it and clear as much as possible out of these rooms. If you can DIY the scrubbing and painting do that asap...i think you'll feel a real lift when you walk through the door. If you need to furnish on a tight budget, post separately for ideas you may not have thought of. While I love love love older homes they can carry so many styles of design -- see examples others' posted plus homes of Europeans, who laugh at our idea of "old." I Rx zero heavier dark wood pieces since you're already struggling...hopefully your husband will be on board!

Thank you! I hated to have to get rid of any of the original elements of the house, and tried to salvage what we could. The cabinet hinges and hardware were not original though and were probably added sometime in the early 70s when the house was moved to its present location. The wood ceiling did not extend to the breakfast nook and unfortunately when we removed the wall between the nook and kitchen, we found that the ceilings did not line up properly and had to do some work to correct that. There have been a lot of changes to the house that predated us. When we took down the walls in the breakfast nook we found that there originally had been 5 windows- at some point previous owners decided to board them up and drywall over the top!

I'm guessing your existing bath is about 15' long. That's not "slightly bigger" than 11' long, that's 36% bigger. 4' makes a world of difference in bathroom design, as it gives you room for a tub at the end. I guess I can see one (crowded) solution: put the toilet where the vanity is now, put the vanity in the alcove, tear down the wall between tub and toilet, put a tiny 3x3 shower in the corner (you might be able to eke out 3'x4' if you're lucky), and a tub next to it. This will work if you hate tub/shower combos more than you hate tiny showers. I wouldn't do it, because I like me some elbow room. But we all have different preferences, so that might work for you.