I think I would decide what kind of cabinetry you want in the kitchen and go from there. I too have a lake house with lots of paneling. We started with the kitchen which was kind of dark and small so I chose white cabinets to opened it up. From there it was a natural extension to paint all the paneling white to match the cabinets. I left the trim, doors and ceiling beams the original dark stained wood. I feel it has sort of a boat feel of teak and white. I took it one step at a time before making decisions about what to paint out and what to leave as is. I'm happy with my pure white walls. Maybe you could leave your railing stained and add a stained board across where the paneling breaks between the first and second floor. Your patio doors are dark. Maybe you could trim them out in stained wood to match the board above the doors and the railing. Congrats to you in your new abode!

I was glad to see this question. I am getting ready to move into a 1890 cross gable Folk Victorian (and I would consider it a farmhouse.) I live in a city in the very southwest of Calif. (almost to the border) In the late 1800s,, early 1900s, ten acre lots were sold to gentlemen farmers from the east and midwest to plant lemon groves. The agreement included that they had to live there and build a house that was worth at least $2,000, which was a lot in those days. Some have been destroyed, but the city is sprinkled with quite a few large, fancy, Queen Anne Victorians, many that are restored perfectly. They are called Orchard Houses, of course because they were built by the owners of the orchards . This house is an Orchard house, but not as big and fancy as others. I can get more info about it at our Historical Society Museum, but I have not gotten over there yet. Maybe they skimped on the $2,000 or maybe there was more to it before. Maybe it had a guest house, or horse stables. I know nothing about old houses but my family is all in Minnesota and this looks somewhat like the farmhouses and rural, in town houses that my aunts and uncles lived in. I had to search pictures and articles to determine that it is probably a Folk Victorian, but I think I am pretty close. I say "move in" because I will be renting it from my brother in law who has had it for 37 years, but it is a rental and he built 2 apartments behind it. He doesn't know much about it and hasn't had a lot of interest it it, other than to keep it rented, even though the Heritage Society has been out to see him a number of times. My brother in law spent his youth in rural Minnesota, so this is just a house to him. I have always liked the house. It is definitely "folk" and doesn't have any fancy Queen Anne style trim etc... It fact I thought it was a craftsman, until I found out when it was built. It is structurally very sound, but is sort of unkempt looking. I am a retired teacher, single and don't have experience in this, but he is happy that I want to make it look as close to how it was originally (but not for much money LOL!!) Just to have it clean and really well kept up will make him happy. The block has a couple more old houses, one Queen Anne Victorian that is not kept up at all. Otherwise it is a hodgepodge of 50s and 60s. This is the one very visible old home, so the neighbors are sort of hinting that they don't like it being such a mess. I especially want to get the bushes cut down in front of the enclosed porch so I can open the windows and use it for that. I saw the house 35 years ago, and now have only been able to do a quick walkthrough. The Craftsman question interested me because I have quite a bit of Craftsman style furniture that I already own, and I felt that it would match the farmhouse feel that this house has. Of course I am just talking about furniture, interior decorations, etc..., no permanent changes. Overall though, I don't think my brother haschanged much (except in the kitchen.) I believe he has maintained original moldings, possibly even lights and he hasn't done any dumb stuff like take out the built ins or put big modern closets. The bedrooms still have the tiny little closets (with the original doors) where you can hang a few things and I think tenants have made closet type spaces by putting rods and curtains at the corners of the gables, so that did not change anything structurally and can look cool with the right kind of material. He is a contractor and does most work himself, and if something can be fixed or maintained as is, that means he doesn't have to spend money, so the house is lucky in that respect. It has a basement with an inside door and an outside cellar door (so I will be prepared for tornadoes), and it has a mudroom, because in Southern California I need a place to put my parka and snow boots (we don't even have rain LOL) and those steep gables will keep the snow from collecting so my roof won't collapse. They built what they knew when they got here!! I think the combination Victorian Farmhouse/Craftsman will work because it has a farmhouse feel and we are only talking about furnishings, I do have one final question though, and I hope this picture comes through. It is odd looking because this house is flat in the front. It has an enclosed porch that is flush with the outside wall, a very small porch for the front door, otherwise, there is no other porch with posts and a covering like Victorian's (and usually farmhouses) seem to have. It looks like something is missing. Maybe something was removed over the years. Or is there a way that a larger porch could be added to make the front look more interesting, and to have a place to sit outside, but still in character with the style of the house? I might be able to talk my brother into it because he could build it himself. I am excited about the enclosed porch because those windows have hinges and open completely out but have not been opened in years. I suggested that it would be really nice if he could take down those dumb apartments, but he wouldn't go for that!! Lol!!

We own a 1917 Craftsman bungalow that we are currently restoring. We spent months (sporadically) stripping the fireplace mantle and built-in shelving on either side. There were at least 8 or 9 layers of paint, which seems to be typical. There was white, gray, brown, tan, mint green, peach, and another layer of white. Even the bricks of the fireplace were painted, often with the same shades. That paint was too tought to get off, and ended up tiling the fireplace. The result is gorgeous. Right now we are working on the woodwork in dining room. It has a big built-in buffet, and wainscotting around the room which was painted over. Stripping the buffet has been difficult because there seems to have been a layer of wallpaper coating it that was also painted over with multiple layers of paint. There was mint green, PINK, and other colors. At one point, the floors had been covered with wall to wall carpeting, but that was taken out before we moved in and the beautiful oak floors were refinished. Now, how true to the original does the owner of an old house need to stay? Well, you're the owner, but I would say you owe it to the house to at least consider it carefully. Do some research, check out some books on bungalows that show other restorations. See what you can find out about your house from asking older neighbors who have lived there a long time, or doing research in the local library, or after you've gotten to know some neighbors, see what their house looks like on the inside. I would say the RIGHT thing to do is to take historical accuracy into consideration and try to make some effort in that direction, but make sure the result is something you can live with. We stripped away the peach, pink and mint green paints on the woodwork, but we used a medium colored stain rather than the darker stains that were used originally. Some people are purists and are so obssessed with historical accuracy that their homes probably conform more to the Craftsman motif than they may have when they were originally built. Good for them. That's fine for them, but it doesn't mean you have to take it to that level.

You could get a low-profile fan with no light for the living room then use floor and table lamps for lighting since you get so much natural light in that room. You could get a ceiling-hugging chandelier for over the dining table. It would hang down a little, but not in the middle of your view. Definitely put in some under cabinet lighting in the kitchen. It's so helpful and can be done easily with led strips if you want to DIY. I prefer can lights in the kitchen, but track lighting is effective and much easier. Also, they typically have to lower the ceiling slightly for can lights, which wouldn't be optimal since the ceiling is already low.