Is this interior design possible to replicate with today’s materials?
This is a beautiful 1920s dutch colonial revival house that is still standing today. The house was renovated sometime in the 1990s, 2010, and again in 2016. It has gorgeous interior features that I would someday like to replicate myself, however, I am worried if that’s possible given the weaknesses of today’s materials. For example, old growth lumber is not able to be found nowadays. Second, today’s drywall may not hold up as well as old-fashioned lath and plaster, which is significantly stronger. I should also note that some of the moldings and trim are original to the house. I would appreciate any tips on how I should go about replicating the interior of this house when I start building my own house soon. The picture are too big to upload to the forum, so I have provided the links below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q1fo8wmvEw5K6EaLHkV4T90X-f3bU9AC/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cnfOnYrq2nYjjYPslrs51UXzzOayUD8Z/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FJXC85HthXYMMsJAa-c9Vj6sQdMYbhbj/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EUzV6PG-AuP1ZhMGfXobUbCrBerawqYP/view
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c52PrxsFxdFPxI-UD_FRAHW-4vR_kQ3W/view
Replies
The only thing you'll need is a very large checkbook. Millions I'd guess and then of course since you can't put an expensive house on a cheap lot you'll need more millions for that.
Yeah, no. The size and square footage of the house are irrelevant in this case, I would just like to know if it is at all possible to replicate the finishing at all on any size house. That may be the case if I decide to build a bigger home with the same finishing, which will take a lot of materials. The home I showed you above costs $590,000.
That house that you pictured would be in the $500.00 + square foot price range if you wanted to build it today. The finishes are all high-end and well-executed. If you wanted to duplicate those finishes in a 2,000 sf house you be at a million minimum. The cost of that house today has no bearing on what it cost to build back in 1935 or whenever. My point in my first answer to you was that you can duplicate anything with enough money.
Engineered lumber (lsl and lvl) are stronger and straighter than old growth lumber ever was. Thin veneer plaster combines the look and feel of plaster with the advantages of drywall.
You haven't been in very many old buildings if you haven't seen crumbling, cracking plaster. Lath and plaster has a much harder surface, but it has many disadvantages compared to drywall.
Trim, moulding, plaster details... are only limited by your budget. You can have any trim profile you can imagine cut. When I worked at a high $$ cabinet shop we had custom shaper bits cut to match old trim profiles regularly.
If your budget allows you can have a house built that looks any way you want. Just be aware that these details quickly add to the bottom line.
When you say " when I start building my own house soon." does that mean you are going to build it personally, or are you having someone else build it to your specifications?
I can easily construct the frame personally with a few buddies to lift the walls in place, but the finish carpentry is gonna require some contracting and professional skill, especially the cabinetry.
To get the results you want, all the trim details need to be completely defined in the finish schedules. A lot of those trim profiles are built up from standard shapes, so you will need some detail and section views to show how those pieces fit together, and the size and shape of the mouldings. If a particualr purchased molding is used, that needs to be specified. Custom profiles need to be fully dimensioned.
Start by documenting the trim details you are trying to duplicate, and how they are assembled. See if those can be replicated with commonly available mouldings, or if custom is required.
For the stairs, document the details of the rails and posts. Talk to your stair builder on how those stairs can be constructed, and what structural support is required. Get the required structure documented in the construction drawings.
There is nothing particularly special about the interior of that home. It's certainly not inexpensive tract housing but a good small builder would offer those finishes as standard in their 10 or 20 lot development.
The railing is pretty nice but again, stair cases, banisters, newel posts and spindles are made offsite by companies specializing in that. The fireplace and built-ins? Any custom cabinet shop could make them, although the rounded top on the china cabinet would be a bit of an added expense. Everything is simply paint-grade.
Custom mouldings are not "high end". A decent lumber yard to the trades should be able to do it for you. Bro had custom base and trim made to profiles of his choice. Although his home was custom, it was only 2500 sq ft and not what anyone would describe as "high end". Even a home of that modest size made it a reasonable cost. (It was a small custom builder with 15 or 20 small suburban lots.)
FWIW, I'm not sure of the reason for the aura surrounding plaster or even skim coated walls. Modern latex paints, even with added drying modifiers, still dry to an orange peel ($hit) texture. Now alkyd paints on plaster walls? That's a different story. Our family home growing up (in the 70s) was custom, with plaster walls on rock gypsum lathe (not wood). The paint finish was like no other. Engineered lumber will give you a nice straight wall, like plaster, when the lighting is raked. There are also other ways to get a very quiet house with going the plaster route.
If you want to see some high end stuff, go to the Houzz website.
Well, that's a big relief. I agree, but what I'm especially worried about is the lifespan and durability of the wood trim. In terms of noise management, I will install polyico foam board on the outside of my home and use rockwool insulation. Noise isn't a big concern in my application.
By "quiet house", I was referring to the interior transmission of noise.--noise from one room carrying to another, footsteps, the noise of the furnace, air moving through ducts, water going down drains, etc. Old homes were built with heavy old growth wood, even hardwood and all the wood was rough sawn and "full size". Plaster walls are thick. All that weight doesn't easily vibrate and transmit noise.
I'm not worried about noise since the materials used to build my house already do a good job of suppressing noise. As long as the subfloor is glued and screwed, noise won't be a big issue from loose fasteners. I'm going to install hardwood on top of the thickest subfloor brand on all my floors, so any noise from the mechanical systems lodged in the floor frame should have a hard time passing through. As for interior walls, I'm not really sure how I can suppress the noise if they have any drain lines and/or supply pipes running through them.
for drain lines, cast iron will give you the least noise, but I don't know if anyone uses it any more (cost and skill to install) - plan b would be to insulate the drain lines or at least the chase where they're installed. Same with supply lines, insulate them or the chase
good luck
If you’re located in a fairly cold region of the country I would research the performance of polyiso insulation on the exterior. There has been research showing that unlike other insulation options the actual R value diminishes greatly the colder it is. Just something to consider.
Why do you think that poplar trim, or even pine, won't last? Any house can be abused. Dogs can destroy houses with their teeth or the floors with their nails. Depends how well-behaved the kids are. I've seen kids allowed to roller skate in a house. Stones become easily lodged in rubber soles of modern footwear. Not so with leather soles of an earlier time.
You're absolutely right, but today's materials have a big disadvantage, especially softwoods. The question isn't about how long the finishing can maintain it's glamour with the presence of kids and dogs, but how long it can stay perfect without twisting, warping, and cupping all by itself. I have considered using wood that doesn't twist as much as pine, which is commonly used in my area, but that may or may not be available to use from a supplier in my area. I really don't like the idea of lumber twisting and warping out of position to equalize itself with it's environment.
If wood movement is a concern, don't use wood.
PVC for items subject to impact ( baseboard, doorways, chair rails)
Plaster for decorative items.
I'm with Suburbanguy - while the details shown are nice, they're fairly common in my area. I'm guessing the stair details are not original as the spacing is too wide for a 1920 stairs (and probably wouldn't meet code for new construction)
Having dealt with horsehair plaster on lath, modern blue board with veneer plaster is much better. Early to mid century plaster is usually either a 3 coat plaster or 2 ft wide drywall with a cement based coat (usually known as Sturculite) and then veneer plaster
Yeah, that certainly makes me feel a lot better and relieved lol. I'm definitely going to use blueboard and plaster on my build.
if you do want to duplicate the details, what looks like funky crown molding in the dining room (and the other rooms that have it) is most likely picture molding - decorative molding that's installed about a 1/4 " to 3/8" down from the ceiling and has a rounded top to hold hooks that the pictures hang from - horse hair plaster on lath typically won't hold a nail or a hanger so the picture molding is used. I've had to both remount the molding to get the right look and clean out caulk after the painters "helped me" with "caulked that big gap between the wall and ceiling for you"
One of the local yards here can get pretty much any historical trim needed and there's a shop fairly close by with a large selection of knives if you want "custom" molding done.
As the saying goes, they don't build them like that any more, however, most of my projects involve houses that are over 100 years old and thankfully they don't build like that any more
reading your responses - if you're painting the interior trim, poplar should be fine, stain grade you might want to find some fir, or go for oak or maple - you probably could use a synthetic material like celluar PVC or Boral
good luck
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The house is gorgeous, but I would certainly renovate it. Just look at this old-style: the sofa, armchairs, coffee table, and all the interior decor items are old-fashioned. In my opinion, it needs a minimalistic style, in grey, white, and maybe navy colors. And everything should match according to the style, even radiators, so you need to look for Stylish Grey Radiators. I hope you'll make it.