Finders Keepers: 6 Bygone Home Features Get New Life
See how creative home dwellers reuse and repurpose vintage details around the house
We recently asked you to share your bygone home features, and it turns out many of you have elements that hark back to another time: dates etched into stone, a coal chute in the basement, defunct ironing board cabinets and an intercom system from the 1980s. You also showed us your creative ways to make those bygone features work in modern-day homes. These six projects in particular caught our eye.
1. No more ironing. Houzz user deniseavard turned an ironing board cabinet into a place for tall decor. The light at the top makes the narrow niche look as though it had always been meant to showcase mementos in the kitchen.
2. Smart and simple solution. These Seattle homeowners chose to leave their dumbwaiter alone while updating their kitchen. If you look closely, you can see its square white door on the far right.
Although the owners don’t really use the dumbwaiter, leaving it in the wall was the easiest option during the remodel. The owners turned their attention instead to the large kitchen island and cabinets full of storage. And if they change their mind about using the dumbwaiter, it’s still there.
See more of this Craftsman kitchen
Although the owners don’t really use the dumbwaiter, leaving it in the wall was the easiest option during the remodel. The owners turned their attention instead to the large kitchen island and cabinets full of storage. And if they change their mind about using the dumbwaiter, it’s still there.
See more of this Craftsman kitchen
4. New look, same sound. Jill Beniak loves the original doorbell in her 1941 home. “It reminds us of the one my grandparents had in their house when I was little,” she says. “It was the first thing my sister and I noticed, and commented on, when we walked into this house the first time.”
You can see it tucked into the niche in the wall. But Beniak wanted to remodel the house, which meant removing the doorbell’s wall.
You can see it tucked into the niche in the wall. But Beniak wanted to remodel the house, which meant removing the doorbell’s wall.
Beniak came up with a plan. She had the contractor re-create the niche in a hallway and move the doorbell to its new spot.
“We knew that, no matter what we did to the house, the doorbell was staying,” she says. The niche makes the doorbell a special feature, she says, not just an object hanging on the wall.
“We knew that, no matter what we did to the house, the doorbell was staying,” she says. The niche makes the doorbell a special feature, she says, not just an object hanging on the wall.
5. Double-duty chute. Houzz user predpenny has a two-story laundry chute in her home, and inside, you’ll find the internet cable. She said the cable installer thought of running the line up through the chute, instead of outside the house.
The family still uses the chute for laundry, and has never had any issues with clothes and cables sharing the same space. A little door opens up to the hallway on the first and second floors, providing access to the cable and the ability to give clothes a shove in case they get stuck.
This chute has also brought the homeowner a few laughs over the years. When her son was young, he would say he was “throwing his clothes down the drain.”
The family still uses the chute for laundry, and has never had any issues with clothes and cables sharing the same space. A little door opens up to the hallway on the first and second floors, providing access to the cable and the ability to give clothes a shove in case they get stuck.
This chute has also brought the homeowner a few laughs over the years. When her son was young, he would say he was “throwing his clothes down the drain.”
6. Memories of fresh milk. Tammy Maloney kept the original milk cubby during her home’s kitchen remodel and had the beat-up door replaced. The glass pane offers a view of the small collection of vintage milk bottles inside. “We decided to keep it since it was a nod to the home’s history,” Maloney says, “and because I remember getting milk in the old-fashioned bottles as a child.”
Your turn: Share more of your bygone home features and how you repurposed them over on the original Houzz Call or in the Comments.
More
Vintage Vanities Bring Bygone Style to Baths
Hate Hauling Laundry? Give Dirty Clothes the Chute
A Dozen Ways to Bring Vintage Charm to Your Kitchen
Your turn: Share more of your bygone home features and how you repurposed them over on the original Houzz Call or in the Comments.
More
Vintage Vanities Bring Bygone Style to Baths
Hate Hauling Laundry? Give Dirty Clothes the Chute
A Dozen Ways to Bring Vintage Charm to Your Kitchen