Parlor Bedroom Transformation

What is a Parlor Bedroom?

The parlor in an old house would have been the room where guests would be hosted and entertained. It would also be a bit fancier than other rooms as a result. In the Gervin house, there is a doorway to the left of the staircase going into the parlor and another doorway from the room leading to the back of the house where the kitchen is now.

When we bought the house, the parlor had a modern looking closet housing the washer and dryer. It had one replacement door and one open doorway. It looked like it had been used as an office. We decided since there’s already a larger living room, that this space would make more sense as a first floor bedroom. To honor its former life as the parlor, we call it the Parlor Bedroom.

Demo

It was also one of the rooms that we knew needed demo. We don’t take tearing walls apart lightly. In fact, Edward really dislikes demo. If we can fix what exists, we would prefer doing that, especially if it’s original to the house. The parlor though had crumbling plaster, poorly installed drywall patches, and sections of wall that were a cardboard material. The ceiling was also in terrible condition. It was textured, crumbling, and filthy.

Allie giving a tour of the parlor before demo.

The many layers of wallpaper!

It took a solid day to get the walls, ceiling and lath down. As with most old houses, there were layers of wallpaper. I saved a sample of each one and ended up with 12 different wallpaper pieces including one that was a very delicate cloth!

*These are the 12 different wallpapers found in the parlor. I gently cleaned them as much as I could and put them in a collage to keep with the house. Number 3 is cloth!*

Things Found in the Ceiling

Toward the end of the day, Edward was finishing up removing lath and furring when stuff fell out from corner of the ceiling. The items included a pig jaw, leather shoe, tin cup, and an oil cloth. Since the lath was intact and the above floor was original, we know that these items were placed in the ceiling cavity when the house was built in the 1800’s!

We reached out to the Saratoga County Historical Society about the items. They sent several resources and connected me to a local archeologist who has written an article about hidden objects found in houses in this region. It was common belief in Dutch culture that placing objects near entryways would keep evil spirits away. Here are the links to those articles:

Witch Houses of the Hudson Valley

The Curious Case of the Concealed Shoes

Hoosier Footprints Concealed Shoes in Indiana

After careful consideration on what to do with the items, we decided to pack them into archival paper and a box with a note and placed them back into the same corner ceiling closest to the front door.

After Demo

We decided to keep the beautiful beams exposed as they really are amazing. The original floor had been removed and vinyl flooring added. We replaced that with wide plank pine floors.

We couldn’t completely finish this room until we built the mudroom/laundry room so that the washer and dryer could be moved out. This room was partially finished for a long time as we used it as a swing space while working on other rooms. This renovation is a little like playing musical chairs with rooms!

Original Windows

During that time, each window was temporarily removed so that I could restore and reglaze each one. (More on window restoration soon!)

Last few projects

We finally got to the point where we could finish up the last few projects to complete this room. The original trim was stripped and repainted. The baseboard had fiberboard attached to the front of it. This was removed, old paint stripped and original baseboard restored.

Stripping the paint off with infrared heat

Custom Radiator Covers

We replaced the single hot water radiator between the windows with baseboard hot water radiators. I really dislike the look of stock metal radiator covers, so decided early on that we would build custom covers. Edward and I designed these together. Edward built them and I painted them. Aren’t they amazing!?!

Using Salvaged Old Doors and Hardware

Since the original doors had long been removed, we found salvaged old doors at the Historic Albany Parts Warehouse. Edward did some “door surgery” carefully taking them apart and modifying them to fit the parlor bedroom doorways. While he was working on that, I restored rim locks and door knobs that we’ve been collecting.

Building a New Closet

Since the washer and dryer moved to the new mudroom, the closet needed to be rebuilt for this bedroom. We did not want to have a modern closet, so we decided to build it with tongue and groove bead board and trim it out to look like an old armoire or cabinet. The inside was designed to be flexible with removable bottom hanging rods and built-in shelving in the center.