Coleman VictorianRestore America : Episode RAM-306 -- More Projects »
Seattle, Washington Seattle psychiatrist Brian Coleman discovered and bought a rather plain 1906 wooden home in Seattle's Knob Hill neighborhood in 1986. At the time of purchase, the interior of the home still had all its original hardware, molding and woodwork intact, and had never been painted over. The outside, however, had been covered in white vinyl siding with black trim, and none of the original detailing remained.
Coleman tackled the home's interior over the next decade. Working one room at a time, he restored or replaced original woodwork and adorned the walls and ceilings with period treatments, including custom-colored Victorian wallpapers and hand-stenciled friezes.
In the bathroom, which required substantial renovation, Coleman added an antique sitz bath, a rare antique toilet called an "elephant trunk," an antique sink and medicine cabinet, and an unusual rib-cage shower.
Coleman eventually turned his energy to the exterior, beginning with the roof. He decided to incorporate a decorative pattern in the shingles, highlighted on a turret. After researching turret designs, Coleman hired builder Jim Docherty, who specialized in hand-crafted woodwork. Docherty and others built the turrett off-site in three sections before bringing it to the site and using lifts to put it in place atop the home.
Docherty also created an ornate hand-carved finial on top, and carved a Latin quote into the turrett: "The more the better."
From his observation of Victorians around the country, Coleman aded more decoration to the house. He enhanced the front gables with carved sunflowers, patterned after carvings on a Boston mansion, which Docherty copied and then hand-carved out of Honduran mahogany.
Similarly, the ornate window box for the front of the house was based on a design from Cardiff Castle in Wales. The two men also designed a horseshoe-shaped entry on the porch, which Jim embellished with hand-crafted ball-and-stick spindles, and recreated a sea serpent on the south side of the house.
Although the major restoration is complete, Coleman plans to eventually move the kitchen into the basement, a design that was popular in England during the Victorian period. (Homeowner Brian Coleman and builder Jim Docherty have requested that their contact information remain private.) ResourcesSeattle Chamber of Commerce Seattle Chamber of Commerce 1301 Fifth Ave. Suite 2400 Seattle, WA 98101-2603 Phone: 206-389-7200 Website: www.seattlechamber.com Seattle Office of Cultural Affairs Seattle Office of Cultural Affairs Website Website: www.culturaldevelopment.org Seattle-King County Convention and Visitors Bureau Website: www.visitseattle.org Also in this Episode
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)