Vintage Victorian Library Renovation

See what this vintage Victorian library renovation looks like now including the restoration of the original 1920s chandelier!

If you missed the before tour of our Vintage Victorian fixer-upper, then check out the Before Tour Part 1 and Before Tour Part 2.

This is the room with the turret to the left of the front door when looking at the front of the house.

Check out this lovely vintage chandelier.

There were two original chandeliers in this house. The other one was in the family room.

The restoration technician told us that this particular chandelier was covered in smoke residue. It is likely that this room was once the smoking parlor, typical of older Victorian homes, where men would retire in the evening to enjoy their cigars.

I love the way vintage pieces can tell a story.

The chandelier was restored by the mom of one of our good friends, and she did an amazing job.

Check out this incredible, original chandelier that was estimated to be from the early 1900s.

Ahhh. Look at that gorgeous design.

I love the details in older homes – the craftsmanship and the charm. It is something I am acutely aware of as I design our French Country Home.

I am always looking at the plans and thinking of ways to incorporate details that could make one think, hmm, is this a new house or has it been restored?

After painting the ceiling and refinishing all the hardwood floors the next step in this room was to determine what I wanted to do on the walls.

The warm, dark tones of the wood, the old radiator under the turret of windows, the 9-foot ceilings – this room was begging to be an old-world library.

And for me, an old-world Victorian library should have wallpaper.

This wall paper was HARD to find.

I didn’t want it to be too busy, but I still wanted the warmth and cozy feeling of a slightly darker tone to match the original wood trim.

It was between the paper above and the paper I ended up going with. The one above was too busy and ultimately, too light.

This photo is blurry and dark (this house was renovated 6 years ago now!), but this was the wallpaper I went with.

The overall tone in this room was just charming, and it easily became our favorite room.

Zach and I agreed that when we build we must have an old-world library.

Picture gabled roof, a wall of windows, a loft of bookshelves with spiral iron staircase, exposed beams, and a large wood-burning fireplace with an antique mantel . . .ok, I’m drooling now.

Back to the Victorian.

Along the back wall of this room, I wanted to have built-in bookshelves.

I hired my grandfather to build bookshelves, and we designed them in sections so that they could be transported as needed since we knew this was only a temporary home.