Restore A Small Bedroom Back To Its Original Glory

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Here’s what it takes to restore a small bedroom back to its original glory in our historic fixer-upper. After removing multiple layers of carpet and linoleum and lead-painted trim, and installing a pocket closet door among other things, I can proudly say this room is 100% done.

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During Renovations, “For Now Is Forever”

“For now is for-ever” is an iron clad law of human psychology.

I’m trying my best not to let the last 5-10% of finish work go unfinished on my own house. I know if I don’t put the trim up, I’ll live with it for decades. Eventually, I won’t even notice that it isn’t there.  

One day the plastic containment doors went up to tear into the second floor of our house. I knew I needed to finish everything I could before we took them down.

There was one bedroom upstairs that was actually possible for me to check 100% off the remodeling task list.

Bedrooms Aren’t As Small As They Used To Be!

Upon moving in, this was the central bedroom of the upstairs, and it’s quite small. There’s just enough room for a bed, dresser and a couple bedside tables, with a minimal amount of walking room.

Rooms this size come from a time when people simply didn’t have as much stuff to put in them. Oh, and they weren’t as tall either. I appreciate how the size forces me to stay humble and minimal.

The First Step In Restoring This Small Bedroom

I had to get that awful shag carpet out of there. The whole house had the faint smell of various pet odors and cigarette smoke. There isn’t a piece of fabric in the house that didn’t get thrown out after we moved in.

Every once in awhile a guy gets lucky

I had not only one layer of shag carpet, but two!  And to top it off, I got a complimentary layer of old vinyl to go with it. 

I threw it all out the window into a big dumpster.

“Stripping This Painted Woodwork Is Going To Be A Huge Pain, But What Else Can I Do?!”

Upstairs, the original doors and trim had lots of thick layers of paint slathered all over them. It didn’t look good. Since I don’t love stripping paint, and especially avoid lead paint if I can, I took an unorthodox route. 

While I appreciate the dedication and time some people have for stripping every nook and cranny of their beautiful old woodwork, I wasn’t interested in that job. So I carefully removed all of the trim and doors from the room and threw them in the dumpster. If the woodwork had been nicer, or made of oak or something, I would have considered putting in the time to strip it.

So what did I replace all the woodwork with? More on that later…

Old Houses Are Made Of Neurotoxins And Lung Cancer

I was excited to see that the pine floor underneath was in pretty good shape. There were a few rough spots, which didn’t bother me one bit. I call it “character.” The old finish was beautiful, but it also tested positive for lead, so it had to go. 

The two primary concerns in working on an old house are lead and asbestos. It’s shocking, but pretty much anything on a house built before 1980 can have high levels of either of these compounds in it. So doing demo well is of upmost importance.

“If you don’t disturb it, it won’t disturb you.”

The best way to avoid the danger of working with these compounds is to cover it up. In the remediation world this is known as “encapsulation.”

If You Have To Disturb/Remove Lead Paint, The Key Rules Are:

1. contain the space and your body (put up a plastic containment barrier and wear a suit)
2. filtrate and ventilate the space and your air (wear a HEPA mask and get a HEPA ventilation filter)
3. avoid anything that makes dust (don’t dry sand or scrape)
4. cleanup well until there’s no dust on the worksite (mop 3x with lead specific detergent)
5. change your clothes and wash up (keep your work suit clothes in the containment area)

There are several free “lead safe” tutorials online. Watch them all. If you don’t break any of these rules, you’ll greatly reduce the odds of exposing you or your family to these nasty compounds.

The very efficient design of the Paint Shaver Pro did a phenomenal job stripping off a thick layer of finish while making almost no dust. Between that and the top tier dust extraction from a Festool 36 HEPA collector, there was almost no dust or debris on the job site. 

What Do I Do About Gaps In Tongue And Groove Floor Boards?

There were some sizable gaps between the tongue and grove floor boards in this room in particular.

There are a lot of options for filling floor gaps, but I wanted to try something I hadn’t seen anyone do before with really large gaps.

I filled them with clear marine epoxy. They sanded out beautifully and are still holding stable with no movement or buckling three years later.

For clarity, I did not fill ALL the gaps with epoxy, because that would almost certainly lead to floor buckling. I mostly used the epoxy for gaps over 1/4″, which only amounted to about 5% of the floor.

I’ve also found Big Stretch caulk from Sashco to hold up fairly well with the seasonal ebb and flow of old floors.

While You’re At It, Update Outlets, Skim Coat The Walls, And Add A Pocket Door

There was only one original outlet in the room. While all the woodwork is off and before I skim coat the walls I had my electrician branch a few more outlets to bring the room up to code.

After getting the old finish off the floor, I cut out plaster along the baseboard so my electrician could extend the branch circuit. That way we could add more standard outlets.

Then, I patched, skim coated, and painted the walls with a 50% formula of “dover white” from Sherwin Williams. The combination of warm woodwork and a light warmth to the walls is a timeless “can’t go wrong” combination in many old houses, and God knows I wasn’t going to paint it grey.

There had been a hinged closet door that would be so awkward to use in the small room. There was room in the non-load bearing wall, so I opted to trade that out for a pocket door. You might be wondering, “What door did you use for the closet since you threw all the other ones away?”  I’ll explain…

One Man’s Trash Really Is Another Man’s Treasure: Sourcing Salvaged Materials

Facebook marketplace has been my most important resource for finding salvaged materials. You’ll find great deals on anything and everything you could need. 

I found a really nice young guy “renovating” a house an hour away from me. He was doing what most people do, which was to gut the place and replace everything in it with “nice” new stuff. He was selling all the original doors and woodwork from his place, and the buyer had to do the removing. I paid $50 each for 6 or 7 beautiful unpainted pine 5 panel doors, including the jambs and hardware. 

What I was really excited about was the couple hundred feet of sound 10” mop board/base cap for $1/foot. That’s a screaming good deal for a days worth of elbow grease for taking it out. 

Refinishing Salvaged Woodwork

All the salvaged woodwork and doors made their way into my house, this room in particular.

I stripped the old shellack off with alcohol. Then, I sprayed on several layers of new amber shellac slightly tinted with brown mahogany. I successfully matched the tone and patina of the old shellacs and varnishes on the woodwork. 

This picture illustrates what’s possible with some sanding in between coats and a final buffing with super fine steel wool. I’m not a fan of “glossy” finish on wood in general, and shellac really lends itself to a matte polish if you’re willing to work for it.

The refinished woodwork turned out beautifully. And with much less effort than stripping and cleaning off multiple layers of old paint. 

Having the patience to look for this opportunity really paid off in time and money.

The Little Things Matter To Me

It’s the small elements of a room that tie everything together and give it a certain feel.

I’m a sucker for old hardware of any kind. Door handles, locks, window hardware, and even electrical plates, to name a few. 

There’s something particularly beautiful about patina on old brass and steel. 

I also scrounged up some old push button light switches and antique brass electrical plates off of eBay, my other favorite source for old house stuff. 

I kept the accent theme of a dark brass/steel patina going with antique heating vents as well. 

The Rest Of The Story

Now the room looks like it should, and I’m pretty proud of it. I won’t stop working to bring back the beauty of this old house until the job is done.

Have you tried anything like this? What did you discover?

Be sure to check out Historic Home Transformation: Our Story and read all about how we found this house and knew it was worth our time.

Check Out More Restoration Posts

• How We Found the Worst House in the Best Neighborhood
• Before & After: House Remodels And Restorations We Love
• Historic Home Transformation: Our Story

Shop This Post

• Paint Shaver Pro
• Festool 36 HEPA collector
• clear marine epoxy
• Big Stretch caulk from Sashco
• amber shellac
• brown mahogany tint

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