Audra Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I am making a corner shelving unit for some of my older style pieces that I have and some that were my grandma's. Building it came together better than I thought, but then when I tried to research kitchen flooring - I am already stumped. My Victorian Dollhouse book was not a big help. For the kitchen I have the Chyrsborn pieces. What I was thinking I wanted to do was use my egg carton and cut it into maybe 1' squares and have a terra cotta looking floor. Would that work for that era?? When I googled 1920's kitchen flooring, most of the images focused on the pieces of furniture instead of the flooring. Attached in the corner unit I built yesterday with scrap wood in our garage. I need to get a few pieces to make a peak for the roof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minibev Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 hi there have alook at this site..its got lots of flooring and papers from different eras.. http://www.dollhouseroomdesigns.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 hey audra, i can find you lots of pictures but i have to leave for work in a few minutes so ill post them tonight. linoleum was just starting to come out and was gettin big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Audra, check out Grazhina's blog, she has collected together so many pictures form all the different eras I'm sure she has pictures of kitchen floors from the era you're thinking of. The house we had that was built in 10-6 and had electricity and remodeling done in the 1920s had white ceramic hexagonal tile floors and the advertising pictures I remember from my grandfather's National Geographics showed ghastly linoleum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audra Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 I did see the pictures in her blog - they were great, but couldn't really make out the flooring. I saved that to use as a reference - saw some other great tips in there also. Ok - so maybe if I did the 1" eggcarton tiles (trying to use what I have) and painted them in various colors - think that would work? I am stepping outside of my comfort zone working in the era! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Don't use the egg carton flooring. totally wrong for this era. Linoleum was the preferred kitchen flooring, but some kitchens still had wooden floors. They would not be varnished, though. Sometimes they'd be painted in a dark shiny brown, or even left bare. For bare wooden floors I like to stain them a bit to add some age. Wooden floors, however, would be covered by a sort of linoleum area rug that would sometimes cover most of the floor, leaving an edge of wood showing, or they'd be under the table, where you were most likely to have things spill or drop on the floor. Women didn't prep food at a counter so much the way we do now, they still mostly prepped at the table. Most of the linoleum they show in pictures from that time are the checkerboard squares, but it looks like a darker solid color was also used a lot. I remember some old house I lived in when I was a girl had a very old dark red lino in the kitchen. I've got a book about old lino patterns. I remember something about patterns that looked like rugs. I'll go dig out the book, it's in the room over my garage. It's cold in there. I just came in from brushing the snow off my car. I brought it into the garage because we're supposed to get 3-8" of mixed snow, slush, rain which will form into lovely, lovely ice - yech & double yech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Got the book out. It's called Linoleum by Jane Powell (not the actress). Her website is defunct, but you can see pictures from the book online anyway. Google --- Jane Powell Linoleum. You'll find that Amazon has the book & that you can browse some pages. It's a cheap price on Amazon BTW. You can also browse pages on Google books, you'll see a link as a search result. There are some 1920's pics mixed in with pics from other eras. She covers lino flooring from @ 1900 onwards in the book, with some old oilcloth patterns thrown in too. Most of the lino patterns from the 1920's either looked like tile or floral carpets. I added a picture from the book to my 1920's kitchen albums on Picasa https://picasaweb.google.com/grazhe I chose it as the new cover, and it's the first picture in the album. The tile looking linos were often copies of encaustic tile floors like those used in the Victorian era. I think I saw that someone here had posted info about how she made some printed paper flooring look like shiny vinyl. I'm thinking you might be able to scan and print a dollhouse floral rug and turn it into an old lino "rug" . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 http://www.antiquehomestyle.com/inside/kit...allery-2011.htm This isn't the one I was talking about earlier but it's a good one too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caseymini Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Wow Jeff! That is a fantastic site all around! Floor plans, ads from the age and all around ideas! Thank you so much for posting that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 No problem! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audra Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 Wow! Thanks you guys for the help. I think I might be in the right direction. Lots more questions - so are the Chrysbon kits that I have from the 1920's era? I just didn't see any dry sinks in the photos that I looked at. so what about this paper for the floor in the kitchen http://dollhouse-miniature-wallpaper.com/s...roducts_id=2007 with the matching wallpaper: http://dollhouse-miniature-wallpaper.com/s...roducts_id=2006 and maybe this paper for the bathroom? http://dollhouse-miniature-wallpaper.com/s...roducts_id=1708 then hardwood for the rest... this is giving me a headache! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angie q Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I love the turquoise,I think it will look wonderful as long as everything else in the room is somewhat simple, since you have a lot of pattern and bold color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I grew up in a house that was originally built in the early 1920s. My daddy pulled up all the old linoleum and put new black asphalt floor tiles with a spatter design in the 1950s; our old linoleum was a cream color with a red border. He also got us a new stove and fridge, but we kept the old kitchen sink and it looked like this one from HBS: BTW, I notice they have it marked down, so maybe it's being discontinued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audra Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 I like that sink Holly - I was going to get that with the roper range. But I already have the chrysbon stove sink and icebox. (cheaper) Angie - your right - I can think and see if I cant break it up with white or cream beadboard or something Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 The Chrysnbon kitchen is late Victorian and farmhouses, expecially in the rural Southeast, would certainly have those type kitchen fixtures; don't forget to asseble the pump to go on your sink. Grazhe, when did the painted floorcloths enjoy their heyday? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Holly, floral linoleum had its heyday in the 20's & 30's. Also, that sink you showed, my daughter's first apartment had a sink just like that one. My mother owned the house, and one of the third floor bedrooms had been redone as a small kitchen for the previous owners' parents back sometime before 1950. That sink was really shallow, only a few inches deep. Audra, if you want your kitchen to look like it belonged in the 20's, do not use that wallpaper. The rug pattern is fine, though. Think about this, wallpaper in the 1920's was not washable. If anything spattered on the wall, if water splashed on the wall, the paper was damaged beyond repair. Walls were painted or tiled. There was the option of using oilcloth on the wall, but I've only seen a couple of photos showing any. The oilcloth was always a light color, with a simple design, like a dotted Swiss or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 http://www.flickr.com/photos/americanvinta...57606545868245/ heres the other pictures i promised this morning. you can choose any era and theres lots of inspiration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Our kitchen sink was about the depth of modern ones. I'm the one who washed the dishes; it would have been easier in a shallower sink! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audra Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 :lol: Man - you guys are great. Jeffrey - that site was helpful. I have it saved in my favorites. I will refer to that a lot if I can ever get passed this project and move onto my 60's redo. I am just not seeing the stoves and sinks like what I have. I wish I had not bought anything yet. Thought this would have been easier. I really don't think things will tie together very well. OK - so I did some more searching and came across this photo like my stove I have. They say late 1800's. So yes, I see my bright wallpaper should be out and I do like the floor, but I think it needs to be dirtied up a bit. Beadboard walls that are cream? And what about for the top half? Still cream?? Crap - I don't even want to think about the living room and bedroom. I should post pics of what I had planned to put in the house for you guys to tell me if the periods all match. Never felt this lost trying to put something together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I know you're not going to want to read this. Although there were people who were still using a stove like that in the 20's, they would have been folks who were just plain really frugal and not tossed anything out until it was totally broken, or just plain couldn't afford to buy anything new. Check the last picture in my 1921 album. https://picasaweb.google.com/grazhe/1921# Those pictures were taken off my TV screen. The movie was made in 1921 and the house and family were considered to be very outdated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 Audra, honey, check to see if your library can get you any books by Patricia King, particularly her stoves & fireplaces book. Also, remember that not all 1920 houses look exactly like the pictures you're referencing, since they were primarily advertising photos to serve the same purpose the ads in present-day magazines serve. I remember visiting my grandfather's relatives between WWII and Korea and they had the woodburning kitchen range, an electric refrigerator with the coils on top, wooden floors throughout their house and they had a lot more leftovers from the late Victorian era than even my grandparents. I remember priming the pump in the yard so one of the cousins could draw water for their momma to wash the dishes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I have to go with what Holly said. I'm thinking you're envisioning an up to date 1920's house. With a lot of "antiques" like that stove, you can still make it the 1920's in your mind, but you'd have to explain things to people who'd keep thinking it was a Victorian era house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starfire Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 My grandmother had that stove in the 40's and I learned to cook on it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audra Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 You guys are great! I just can't get a period/era feel pre-1950's. I do have the hardcover book called the Victorian dollhouse - but like Grazhina's last pic in the album said - not a lot of pictures of kitchens to reference. Maybe I should actually read the book instead of just looking at pictures? I have the Chrysbon kitchen and bath set. Plus some various pieces of furniture that I am pulling from my DC Madison (obviously not the tv and fish tank :lol: ) But the bedroom and couch - and maybe even the gun rack. Heck - I don't know. Holly - I know I won't make it to the library - unless I start pulling my hair out or more of it turns gray! I feel like a kid in math class again just saying 'I just can't get it' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 26, 2011 Share Posted February 26, 2011 I'm seeing vignettes, not that this'll be any help. It's the late 40's, dad came home from fighting WW2, and decided he wanted to go live in the great wilderness, like Montana, Colorado, etc. They now live in a rundown old house out in the Rockies. Mom is tending to the big old Victorian stove. It's a pain in the neck, but she can handle it. She used to build airplanes during the war, so dealing with an old stove and old plumbing is going to be a breeze. She usually wears dungarees around the house, with a scarf over her head and one of her husband's old shirts. This new life of hers can get pretty dirty. Junior is in the living room, lying on the floor, listening to the radio, one of those big console models. Dad is upstairs in the bathtub, having a good hot soak. He had been doing some hunting, rustling up dinner, and his wife said he stunk and no kisses till he was nice and clean and didn't smell like a skunk. Gun rack fits in good, see? Also old stove and bathroom, together with mix of old and not so old furniture. What's on the top floor? beat up old furniture and some suitcases. Is mom a wilderness gal, or is she going to one day say enough is enough? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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