Well, we have. We spent the last five years or so looking for the perfect sideboard for our dining room, but we had a case of sentimentality combined with utility that kept getting in our way. As a result, the hulking buffet/sideboard from the photo below remained in our dining room, in spite of its scale.

Shortly after we bought our row house in 2003, we discovered the amazing antique and salvage row of Cleveland's Lorain Ave. Nestled just a stone's throw from downtown Cleveland you could find yourself smack in the middle of shop after shop of affordable vintage finds. Whether you were looking for a little architectural salvage or a full room of vintage furniture, you were bound to find something your heart desired.

Today, as Cleveland has undergone an urban revival, many of these shops have shuttered. Victims of the rejuvenation of the trendy Ohio City area and the rising rents, their closure ultimately means progress for a city that had fallen on hard times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But at the same time, the amazing antique resource that was Lorain Avenue, is a dwindling memory from our newlywed and first home honeymoon days. 

During one of our visits to Cleveland in the early 2000s, after we'd owned our home for just a short time, we found ourselves a vintage dining room set for only about $1,100. A beautiful table, six chairs, china cabinet, and a large buffet. A matching set, they were all from the 1940s, built by a furniture maker in Youngstown, Ohio, and in pretty decent shape overall! The whole set's scale was large for our 15' wide row house, but it was a great price and has moved from room to room as we set up our dining room in a few different areas of the house.

In addition to antique shopping during those early days of old home ownership, we were also welcomed into our neighborhood by many of the wonderful neighbors we'd get to know. Whether attending gatherings in neighbor's homes, or enjoying their company around our Cleveland dining room table, getting to know our neighbors, many of whom have become lifelong friends, was the unexpected element of homeownership that we were fortunate enough to find ourselves amidst. 

Sometime during the last six or so years, we looked at our vintage dining room set and said, "You know what, as great as this set has been, it's not quite right for our house. I think we need to make a change. And that change needs to start with the buffet...It's always been way too big for our house, so what about getting something new?"

Yes, the large buffet has been the workhorse of our dining room for years. The amount of storage it offered allowed us to look beyond its clear and ever present flaws. Its gargantuan width somehow fit between the window and door casings with only millimeters to spare, as if it were divined to live in our dining room. It even doubled as a storage area during our dining room renovation.

Much like a beloved car with 200k miles, that smells a little off and is always a quart low on oil, but has always successfully shuttled you from point A to B with little fanfare, our buffet could only be replaced with a piece of furniture that's juuuuuuust right! It's not that there aren't better buffets, it's just that this buffet was "good enough" and we had developed a bond.

From antique store to auction house, every piece we'd ever found had some inherent flaw. Too fancy. Too big. Too delicate. Too small. Too modern. Too rustic. We knew we wanted something smaller that would fit well in the space, but we still needed storage. Beyond all of that, Wendy had it in her head that whatever we chose needed to have a white and gray marble top.

We'd literally searched for years, and were starting to give up hopes of finding the right piece. Our sentimental attachment to the oversized buffet, not to mention the plethora of utilitarian storage it offered, seemed to be  thwarting our efforts as much as our exacting desire to find that perfect piece. This may sound corny, but we had what seemed an unrealistic need for our eventual find to fill the storage and sentimentality void giving up our buffet would mean. A pretty impossible task when the search is more or less scrolling eBay, FirstDibs, or auction websites.

About a year and a half ago, one of those neighbors that we'd mentioned, whom made us feel so welcomed in our new home, and that we'd become lifelong friends with, passed away. He was elderly and in failing health, but it still felt sudden and unexpected. He was one of the first people who'd invited us to a party at his home after we'd moved into the neighborhood, and we'd always enjoyed chatting with him and catching up. 

After our friend's passing, we had the opportunity to get to know some of his wonderful family, including his nephew who was handling the estate. During this time, and after his family had selected the items they wanted to keep as mementos, our friend's nephew asked if there was anything from the estate that we'd like to purchase before it went to auction. 

Hoping to find something that would be meaningful and would remind us of our friend and neighbor, we looked over his remaining belongings, hoping to find something to remember him by. To our surprise, we found several wonderful items. He had owned a mid-sized antique marble topped cabinet that he kept in his dining room. It was really lovely, and we were very surprised nobody in his family had wanted it. After speaking with his family, measuring the piece, and deciding it seemed about right right, we realized we'd maybe found our unicorn. Wendy snapped this photo and we decided it might be perfect, but even if it wasn't, it would be perfect for us.

The piece not only looked great, had a marble top, and offered some needed open storage, but it also had the sentimental connection we'd hoped for. We'd always be able to think about our departed friend and neighbor when we looked at it nestled in our dining room.

In anticipation of the new piece we had to clean out the old buffet. With four large drawers, two cabinets, and two smaller drawers, all completely full, to say we were shocked at the amount it held is an understatement.

We had napkins, candles, tea lights, and placemats galore...

...Bags of table linens, runners, and pillow cases...

...And More liquor than we can ever reasonably drink. After removing and re-homing a majority of those items, and reserving the new cabinet as more of a napkin and liquor home, we moved the old buffet from its longstanding location and wished it well. The location for our new sideboard was ready, and looking quite empty.

After gingerly carrying it from its prior home into our home, we placed it to get a sense of scale. It was a shock, as we'd grown used to the monolithic monster completely covering the wall between the window and door, but this was a breath of fresh air. The size seemed to be ideal for the room.

We rejuvenated the dried and cracked finish a bit by using a little Howard's Feed-n-Wax, an placed the marble top. It really was perfect!

The cabinet is a solid antique with dovetail joinery, and what I believe is a mahogany or walnut veneer.

The finish isn't perfect, but the small chips and dings do nothing to detract from the piece.

At first it felt small, especially while we got used to the scale in comparison with the old piece. But before we knew it, it felt just right, ideal for the room.

If you're wondering what happened to the old buffet, don't worry, it's not gone and separated from its set for good. Wendy's parents needed a larger piece for their dining room, so they took it off of our hands. It's now right at home in their dining room. Like our Mustang that they bought off of us back in 2012, we get to visit it every time we're back visiting Cleveland.

We'd nearly given up, but stumbled into the right piece that not only met our needs in what we'd hoped to find, but also provided us with a tangible connection to a dear friend. 

We like to think that our friend, in lieu of his family taking the cabinet, would be happy to know that it's sitting in our home just a few yards from the home he lived in and loved for so many years. At the very least, we like knowing that we'll always have something in our home to remember him by.

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We have an experience with this very scenario that we've been waiting to share with you for some time. 

Almost two years ago Wendy and I went on a trip that we'd been waiting to take for decades. We'd long dreamt of going to Ireland together, and we finally took a true trip of a lifetime back in October 2015. We loved just about every second of the trip. It was truly enjoyable from start to finish, and we even have a brief recap if you'd like to check it out.

But that recap of our trip left out a little detail that really made this trip one to remember. 

Nearing the end of our whirlwind tour of the southern half of the greenest country I've ever seen, we were driving from the picturesque historic port town of Kinsale toward Dublin for one final night. 

Not in any hurry to rush our way through our last moments in the stunning Irish countryside, and wanting to take in as many sites as we could before we'd depart, we made a few stops along the way.

One of the stops was in the thousand year old city of Kikenny in the southeast of Ireland. The bustling and winding streets of shopping were the perfect bridge between the quiet towns we'd been visiting on our way back to vibrant and bustling Dublin. We had a wonderful time exploring, but one particular shop stands out in our minds. 

The front of this little antique store was nondescript, yet very inviting. The exterior was plain, with only a script "Antiques and Collectables" sign drawing us in. There was no elaborate display like so many of the other shops, but rather it was the water damage, chipped paint, off center windows, and a collection of trinkets with piles of dusty artwork in the window that spoke to us.

As soon as we walked in, we knew this was the place for us. We explored the crowded walls and floor of the narrow shop. An eclectic mix of antiques were haphazardly arranged along the walls and stacked in corners. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason why each piece was in the store, other than the fact that the owner had found each interesting in some way, acquired them all at some point, and was looking for someone to buy them from him. The store felt claustrophobic with just five patrons and the owner. In our experience, this is the hallmark of a wonderful antique store! 

No fewer than two to five minutes in the store and we'd both spotted what we were there for, we just didn't know yet.

I snapped the photo above to show Wendy the "Cool cast iron fishing sign" I thought she'd like. But as I approached to show her the photo she looked back at me and said, "Did you see the sign that says 'Fishing'? I think it's perfect!" It was antique picking serendipity or a plain old "meet cute" of the antiquing variety.

We asked the store's owner for a price and he responded "100 Euro." We were on our way out of town, only had 95 Euro in our wallet, and he didn't take credit. It was also a lot more than we usually spend on home decor items, but we knew it was truly a conversation piece and would make for an amazing and unique souvenir. We tried to bargain him down but he wasn't budging. Not wanting to let this get away we scrounged through our pockets and bag and were able to come up with three more Euro. After delivering our "best and final" offer, we were met by a lengthly pause, then he reluctantly accepted the 98 Euro. We quickly closed the sale and walked out of his store proud owners of an antique cast iron Galway road sign, complete with authentic Irish grime and dirt! These signs are nothing short of iconic in Ireland. If you do a quick search online you'll fine plenty of place where you can get reproductions of their classic look all over the place. But very few places have the real thing, and this is the only one I've ever seen that advertises "Fishing."

Example sign from an eBay auction

Though we'd made the purchase that was only half the battle. We had a flight to catch the next day and the sign was too large to fit in our luggage. When we arrived at the airport we checked in at the United desk and asked how we should handle this large sign. "Could we carry it on the plane?" The check in desk felt it could be construed as a weapon (the most awkward weapon ever perhaps) and indicated we may have it seized if we tried to take it through security, so they helped us check it as luggage. Working with the extremely helpful staff, we wrapped the sign in newspaper, plastic, and tape (basically whatever we could get our hands on at that point) to withstand the journey. 

We were nervous we'd arrive home only to have a shattered road sign greeting us on the luggage belt, but the tape marked "Fragile" did its job and the beautiful sign arrived back in the states in one piece! 

Once we had this wonderfully rustic Irish sign on American soil, we had to figure out just what we wanted to do with it. We knew it would work beautifully in our Foursquare in helping direct our guests to the water, but just where we'd place it was unknown. Should it go in the dining room? Perhaps the hallway? 

We knew the arrow would need to point in the correct direction, but that was about it.

After some significant deliberation, we had that classic DIY "Ah-Ha!" moment. When we constructed our hallway built in bench with salvaged beadboard below our main staircase, we'd presented ourselves with the perfect opportunity. The sign could be mounted on the open area and would be visible from not only the hallway, but also the kitchen.

When it came to mounting it I didn't want to simply hang it on a few nails and call it a day. This sign is big, heavy, chunky, and has a ton of texture with the raised lettering and border. I wanted to take advantage of these details and accentuate the fact this that large sign had lived the majority of its life as a utilitarian directional road sign.

In order to add depth to the mount I devised a little wood mounting frame.

And since the sign was originally bolted onto a sign pole, I wanted to stay true to the roots of the sign and affixed it to the wood frame with stainless bolts.

But for mounting this right to the wall, while adding as few holes to the beadboard as possible, I put a few small mounting keyholes in the wood frame. This would allow us to easily slide the frame on and off of the screws, making it easy to remove in the event I need access to the secret panel for the crawlspace.

All said and done this little addition to our built in bench and beadboard nook is a true favorite aspect of our home. We still have a lot to do in this little hallway. Lots of plaster, paint, and putting in a beautiful antique cast iron register cover over the black air intake opening. But until then, the builtin bench area is looking really great.

The story behind the sign and how it came into our lives is a memory we'll always cherish. It's a unique aspect to our home that you'd be hard pressed to find in another home. And best of all, it serves a purpose. If you're ever over our house and want to know where to find the fishing, just glance at our hallway sign and you'll be on our way. Best of all, it applies whether you read English or Gaelic!

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As the years have passed, I've learned to better appreciate the approach of curating a carefully selected mix of both new and old. Working in vintage finds, souvenirs and art from our travel adventures, and pieces passed down to us from family and friends along with new pieces creates a more layered, inviting, and less cookie cutter look. It's ultimately a formula that I've found results in the successful completion of a space that is comfortable, interesting to look at, and reflective of our personalities and who we are. 

Now that the majority of our focus is on renovating, decorating, and projects in our new home, my approach to its decor is to heavily use these lessons I've learned over the years. While many people's first reaction in a new space is to run out and buy as many news things to fill it as they can, we're taking a much more measured (and budget friendly) approach to our home's decor. We've been extremely fortunate to have many friends and family members gift furniture and accessories that they could no longer use. So last year when our neighbors offered us a pair of vintage garden chairs that didn't quite work in their home (and couldn't be returned), we jumped at the chance to become their new owners.

As you can see, this pair of vintage metal arm chairs have a beautiful patina and I loved the blend of several shades of green and turquoise. However, they were pretty rusty, so I knew I wanted to clean them up while still preserving much of the original paint. The goal was to both seal them to better protect them from outdoor weather while preserving their patina, and also preserving the pants of anyone that might choose to sit on these beauties. 

My friend, Sarah, and I tackled this project together, and I have to say not only did it go much faster with a second set of hands, but it was a lot more fun too. We set up the chairs and supplies outside, enjoyed the sunshine and each other's company, and got to work giving each chair a good once over with steel wool. You can see the dramatic difference in the photos above and below after just a good scrubbing with the steel wool pads.

We used both "0" and "00" steel wool to knock off any loose rust. The process was a little slow, but the transformation was incredible. I thought that the longer we scrubbed, the more paint we risked removing. But instead, as the top layer of rough rust was removed, much of the original paint became more visible and more vibrant.

Instead of mostly brown with a little aqua and turquoise, now we had mostly green and turquoise with a few brown areas. We were thrilled with the result. We scrubbed and scrubbed until we were satisfied with the color and our efforts to remove the bulk of the rust. We then wiped each chair thoroughly with a clean rag, and prepared to move onto the next step of the project. 

We opted to seal each of the chairs with Penetrol, a paint conditioner for oil based paint. It's a paint additive that allows oil based paint to dry more smoothly and without brush marks, and it's made for exterior oil based and alkyd paints. We had a commenter several years ago suggest using this on the cast iron grate in door of our home in Old Town, as it would seal the patina while still protesting the cast iron. This approach works well for an outdoor application since this product is formulated for outdoor use. One thing to note, it's really important to use Penetrol and not Flotrol, as Flotrol is water based and would actually rust the chairs (or any bare ferrous metals) when applied.

We applied a coat of the Penetrol with foam brushes, and the work was quick and easy.  I do have to say, the fumes are really strong so I would recommend working with this product outside or in a well ventilated area.

The difference in color after applying the Penetrol was amazing. The color of the original paint was further intensified, and we were now left with a rich, saturated matte to glossy finish. 

A big storm then started to roll in, so we moved the chairs indoors so they could continue to dry. 

For good measure, we left them inside for the next couple weeks (since we weren't going to be at the house anyway). I think we could have called them fully dry after about 24-36 hours. Our next trip back we moved them outdoors onto the front porch where they'll now live. 

I love how the chairs pick up the light aqua of the front door as well as the darker green hues of our home's roof. Here's a look (at an old photo) for reference.

With the arrival of spring, are you doing anything to spruce up your home's curb appeal? Do you have any ideas for making our porch area more welcoming? If so, I'd love to hear about it the comments.

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At this point I believe we have about one or two more weekends of work left until we reach the finish line, and I'm absolutely thrilled with the progress. If you ask us, the true challenge when it comes to "quick" makeovers is actually twofold. First, you need to resign yourself to the fact that you're going to sink time and money into a project that may not be permanent. But for me, the bigger difficulty comes from a seemingly simple question, "Where do you stop?"

The closet door in this room was one of those discussion items for us, specifically when it came to the hardware. Alex and I both like to do things the "right" way. We don't like cutting corners and we love original details. But at the same time, it's a slippery slope when it comes to small architectural details that need restoration. Before you know it you're spending more time than you want on a "quick" project while leaving your "not-so-quick" projects abandoned just a room or two away.

In our office, we believe the the closet door and its hardware are original to the home dating back to 1908. Previous work to the room resulted in layer upon layer of paint being applied right over those beautiful cast iron strap hinges, leaving us with cracked, bumpy, chipped, and generally worse for the wear hardware on this door.

Alex and I discussed whether or not we wanted to go the faster and easier route of just applying another coat of paint to the hardware to match our new trim color (Benjamin Moore's White Dove). But almost as soon as we started weighing the pros and cons of the work, we quickly realized that while we're trying to keep this makeover simple, taking a shortcut on this feature wasn't something we could live with. After all, we buy old houses because we love and appreciate the old and original details, and we wanted to bring these little details back into the decor, even if it took an extra few hours to get it looking right rather than spending even more time staring at paint covered hinges for years to come.

With our decision made, after a few minutes of removing the door and hardware, we laid them out on our makeshift workbench and I got to work stripping them. For this project I used a product called SmartStrip. We've gone in many directions over the years when it comes to stripping period moulding and hardware, and we've liked this product since we used it on some window casings several years ago. It's non-caustic (safe if you get it on your hands), Earth friendly, doesn't have a strong odor, and really does a great job. This is pretty amazing when comparing it to the harsh chemical strippers we once had to rely on.

I will say, if we had an extra crock pot that could have fit these hinges, we almost certainly would have used it instead. You really can't beat a simmer soak in soapy hot water to make the layers of paint almost fall off.

After putting on a pair of disposable latex gloves, I applied a coat of the product to each of the pieces of hardware using a small disposable foam brush.

Once fully covered in the stripper, I then wrapped the hardware in waxed paper creating a protective layer that allows the product to stay wet and work its magic overnight. As long as it doesn't dry out, it's still actively stripping paint and the waxed paper takes over the role of Peel Away paper in keeping the stripper wet. The color bleed in the next photo showed me that the stripper was already starting to loosen the many layers of paint.

The next morning I resumed painting work in the office while Alex stepped in to take over the stripping work. After giving the hardware a thorough scraping to remove the sludgy paint and a wipe down with several clean rags, the hardware already looked 90% better! You could see that it was likely originally painted black.

While it may have originally been black, we want to go with the raw cast iron look. We've always liked the look of the raw cast iron on hardware in our Alexandria row house, so we'll stick with what we like. In this case, the final step to restoring the finish was to remove any rust and leftover paint by giving it a once over with a wire wheel or a whole lot of steel wool. Since we own a wire wheel, that's the route we went. 

It took Alex roughly 30 minutes to clean up the two hinges and two components of the slide lock. While he worked, I supervised. And by that, I mean I took photos and enjoyed a cup of tea while appreciating the view.

Here's a look at the difference between the stripped hardware before and after cleaning it with the wire wheel.

Reinstalling the door was pretty straight forward since we were using the old screws and holes, but it was only easy because we had two people working on it. Initially we had no idea just how heavy that door was, but when we removed the hinges it turned out to be between 50 and 60 pounds. It's made of very dense and heavy old growth pine, so it was really helpful that Alex could hold it in place while I tightened one screw on each of the hinges to stabilize it. From there, he put the remaining screws back in.

While it's easy for "quick" makeovers to become a slippery slope of add ons, thus dragging out timelines, in this case going the few extra steps to bring this hardware back to life is something I'm really glad we decided to do. 

The original closet door and hardware are one of the most interesting elements of the room, and now they really shine (in a non-shiny cast iron way). The dark metal hinges and slide bolt on the white trim paint really looks great. 

While our quick fix is moving right along, we still have a few more items to knock out before we can call this project "done." And in pretty typical form, we're still debating whether we want to keep the ceiling fan in the room after painting it white, or to add some light and interest to the room by installing a light fixture. I can tell you one thing for sure, this room is quickly becoming my favorite in the whole house, one little detail at a time.

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That's right, I've searched high and low for these buggers and can't come up with a viable source thus far. "What am I looking for?" You might ask. Antique brass nail backed numbers for hotel room doors, of course! Let me fill you in.

One of the most important aspects in the restoration of an old home is the unending search for *just* the right components. You know the saying "God is in the detail" or "anything worth doing is worth doing right"? Well, I live by these sayings...often to a fault!

Whether we're spending seven years collecting nine very specific and matching antique salvaged rim locks to give our house a period look...

...or six years searching for five antique doors that match the profile and panels of our home's original doors perfectly so we might be able to add an appropriate looking wall of closets to our master bedroom...

...the search is as much of a part of DIY renovation as is the installation of the components.

We've spent so many years ensuring many aspects of our home in Old Town Alexandria are historically appropriate, the items work with our home's aesthetics, and they add a certain level of ambiance to our home, that the end result gives me so much pride of accomplishment it almost makes me forget the long hunt. Wait, who am I kidding? I also love the hunt.

When we bought our second home, one of the primary details that drew us to the house was its history. Built in 1908, and retaining many period original details like molding, floors, plaster walls, and doors, the home's interior and exterior begins to tell its story.

But the biggest and most important part of our home's history can really only be seen in three small and easily overlooked decorative elements spread throughout the house.

You see, our house was originally built as a hotel. Obviously a "hotel" by today's standards is very different, but back in its day our house, with its picturesque water views, was a roughly seven room hotel used as a summer getaway and overnight spot for ferry passengers landing nearby. The hotel's original owners lived in the back portion of the house, and they were the proprietors of the hotel, which is one of the few and earliest known African American owned and operated businesses in the county. From the research we've done, it looks like our home actually ran as a hotel as late as the 1960s, and it appears to have stayed in that original family until the 1970s.

After pretty extensive alterations in the early 1990s to make this a single family home rather than a small hotel, evidence of its life as a hotel doesn't exist in many places in the house. But a few original doors in our home are still adorned with little brass room numbers, caked under many layers of paint. Some of the other original doors clearly have holes or outlines in paint where numbers used to be.

After looking through the whole house, three doors have retained their original room numbers. We have a #1, #2, and #5. The #5 was on the downstairs bathroom door that we recently painted, which indicates that door may have been moved at some point, so I decided to remove the number in order to clean it up a bit and learn a little more.

I carefully scored the paint around the number in order free the edges without scratching it. I wasn't sure what material the numbers were, so I didn't want to do anything that could damage the detail. I also chipped off a little of the surface paint with the five-in-one tool to reveal the aged metal.

After sufficiently freeing the number's edge I could see some gold peeking out from under the many layers of paint, including a very bright red that once covered the entire door. I worked the pry bar under the edge of the number and was able to slowly and carefully convince it to come free.

I wasn't sure if there were a few nails holding each number on the door or how it was affixed. Once I removed the number I could see that the number had two tacks integrated right in with the number. These two tacks were then driven into the door where it could securely tell the visitor which room was theirs.

Once I saw that the numbers were brass and covered with many layers of paint, I knew I'd be able to clean them up on the wire wheel without any issue. A few minutes later we had ourselves a paint free and shiny #5. The face may have been polished brass at some point, but I could see just how scuffed it was under the paint, so I felt okay making it a satin brass style finish.

Now that I've removed the paint from our #5, I'll be doing the same for #1 and #2. But at this point, I don't feel like we have enough numbers in our collection. We'd love to restore a few aspects of our home that give a nod to its original role as a hotel, and it seems adding room numbers to the sleeping room doors would be the perfect way to do just this. But no matter what I search for, I can't seem to find an identical match to these numbers.

They're just about one inch tall, each has two tacks sticking out of the back, and are solid brass. If you know where we might be able to find a collection of a few of these little pieces, we'd love to hear. We're looking for a few numbers to fill in, probably just a #3 and #4, but if we were to find a few additional numbers, we'd certainly pick them up.

So if you've seen any of these floating around in antique stores, salvage yards, or on websites, we'd love to hear where. And until we can find the few we're looking for, the hunt will carry on. I'll tell you one thing for sure, I certainly won't stop searching until we find what we're looking for.

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