There was very little remaining of this Victorian Era Living Room when we began.  The walls had been covered in sheetrock over the plaster and lathe.  The opening to the original slate fireplace had been chiseled to accommodate a wood burning stove.

The ceiling had circa 1977 brass high hat lights

This single door had once been a pair of doors.

All of the woodwork had 5 or 6 layers of paint on them,  Previous owners had very large dogs that left deep gouges in the wood

We began with the fireplace.  Unfortunately the original slate fireplace was beyond saving so we removed it entirely

The brick was badly damaged from the wood burning stove, so we replaced the firebox and stained the new brick black to make it look old

Next our Fireplace Specialist created a perfectly flat cement face to mount tile to.

While the tile was being laid, we began finishing the new Mahogany mantle back in the shop

We imported Victorian style tiles from England.  The look came out great! The photo was staged a bit as the mantle was not officially attached.  That will take place after the walls have been replaced.

Next step was total demolition, down to the studs

This picture shows the doorway at the rear of the Living Room that we had suspected had originally been a double doorway.  This rectangle of newer lathe proved our theory correct.  We removed it.

After a few hours, the room was clear.  Having open walls opens a world of possibilities not on for the room you are in, but often times for rooms above or below.  During this phase we re-wired the room for cable, surround sound, internet, switched outlets, etc.  In addition, we moved the heating pipes that were exposed to inside the walls.

This picture shows where we took total advantage of the open walls.  Directly above this section of the Living Room is a over sized Linen Closet.  We ran hot and cold waterlines, drainage, gas, as well as an electrical service line to the third floor for possible future use.

This shows where gas lines were run inside the walls with ports that come out of the wall in the hallway.  This was for the addition or working Victorian gas lights.

The house had sagged quite a bit over the years.  Structural Engineers were brought in a few years earlier and the house was restructured with new joists in the cellar and a reinforced foundation.  The house still had a sag in the middle that could not be realistically straightened without destroying the interior on all three floors.  This room actually had a four inch difference from the center of the room to the ends.

The solution is to construct a sub-frame for the ceiling.  This is done by utilizing a spinning laser and mounting a level frame to the wall.

Next, new beams are bolted to the existing joists, using individually cut shim blocks to maintain a perfectly level line from edge to edge. (sound insulation was also added to the ceiling while still open)

In this case, the plan is to install a tin ceiling later on.  With this in mind we sheathed the ceiling with 3/4 inch plywood.

We then completed a thorough air seal, insulation and vapor barrier install, prior to closing up the walls.

The windows were meticulously stripped with an Infrared stripper and finished with a heat gun and finish sander.  There windows were originally faux finished back in the 1870's so they had imperfections that disqualified them as a good candidate for stain and finish.  But is is necessary to remove all the old paint to replicate the original look - so the work was not in vain

All of the sashes were also removed.  All paint was removed.  The sashes were refinished separately then re-fitted to the windows with all new (replicated) window moldings to ensure a tight fit while maintaining smooth flawless functionality (so they don't stick)

New brass chains were attached to the window weights and new brass pulley installed.

Custom leaded glass windows were installed - the colors were chosen as a match to the wallpaper, yet to be installed

The tin ceiling parts arrive in bare metal.  The pictures above show where we set up the paint bay and carefully sprayed the whole lot.

The placement of tin panels is a rather complicated business for a few reasons.  19th century homes are just not built square.  The picture above shows the red line which is drawn after taking countless measurements of the room from end to end.  This line is what everything is based on.  The pattern of the panels is then drawn on the ceiling.  The final challenge is the order in which you place the panels.  It is essential that all sources of light (both natural and from chandeliers) always shine into a seam and not across it.  If the latter happens it will cause a tiny shadow that appears as a dark line on the ceiling.

The panels are individually nailed in place.  When the main body of the ceiling is complete the tiny seam between panels is filled.

Finally, the ceiling is spray painted to conceal all the seams

The boarder fill panels are the installed.  These are hand cut and fit individually.

The last Tin Ceiling step is to deal with the seams.  in this case we used a combination of wood and tin moldings.  The wood moldings cover the seam between the ceiling and the wall (Crowne Moldings) and the tin moldings cover the seam between the main body of the ceiling and the border fill panels.  This picture shows the wood moldings undergoing a gold antiquing process to better define the fine details of the moldings

The Tin Cornice Moldings went through a very similar process. Gold edging with antiquing to bring out the small details

All the moldings installed make for a dramatic presentation

We then turned our attention to restoring the doorway back to a double doorway.

The new doorframe was made piece by piece to match it's sister on the other end of the room.

The original door was in the attic.  It was good to see the twins reunited after almost a century apart.

After finishing all the woodwork in the room it was time to apply the wallpaper.  This room used hand made silk screened wallpaper from Bradbury and Bradbury.  The paper comes on large uncut rolls.  All the border and detail elements have to be very carefully cut out by hand.

This picture shows the installation of one of the wallpaper elements into the Crowne Moulding.  This gives a great transition of color from the walls to the ceiling.

An example of all the elements coming together.

Restoration Complete