FINALLY got the chance to get my hands on the last apartment in this 6-unit. So many original details to be salvaged, renewed and repurposed!
Scope of work included widening a few door ways to improve the flow, utilizing dead-space to create a bigger bathroom, laying new flooring, painting ALL surfaces and new finishes/fixtures.
Hidden behind all that bead-board is about 7 layers of 50+ year old wallpaper… At some point you have to cut your losses (and save your fingernails) by covering instead of removing.
This vanity is an original center-bead base cabinet that I removed from the original kitchen and repurposed in the bathroom.
Topping with butcher block is a inexpensive countertop option and using a vessel sink allows you to use any sort of base you want without worrying about making room for the sink basin fitting inside.
Dead-space was also utilized to increase the size of the bathroom… we even found the servant’s stair-case under the bathtub!
The apartment had an an awkward layout since it housed the original scullery kitchen so I moved the kitchen into the adjacent room to accommodate modern appliances and allow us to keep all the original built-ins in place.
Bead-board in the kitchen is easy to clean for unit turnovers and matches the original built-ins I kept in place.
The painted white walls were also covered in wallpaper but I took the skim-coating approach to finishing those.
If you’re curious about skim coating over wallpaper or how to epoxy butcher block, stay tuned for my next blog post.
You CAN do it yourself, it’s really not THAT scary.