Does This Arch Have a Name?

I have seen archways similar to this on the exteriors and interiors of a lot of bungalows in Portland. Does anyone know if there is a name for this particular style of archway? I want to put some in my basement and I'm trying to get more information on their correct proportions.

Making Good Progress

I managed to spend a few hours this weekend scraping 3 decades worth of old wallpaper off the dining room walls. You can clearly see where the original moulding used to be. The more I uncover, the more motivated I get to put new moulding back up.

Now I need to decide if I should paint the walls below the plate rail the same color (red) as will be on the upper part of the wall, or if I should put in paneling and paint it the same color as the trim (white). What do you think?

Happy Feet

I'm not the kind of guy who normally gets excited about textiles, but we just got our new bath mat from Restoration Hardware, and I've gotta say.... I LOVE IT! It's so nice having a mat that runs the whole length of the tub on those cold winter mornings. Not only is it big, but it's fabulously thick and soft. In case you're wondering, it's the 30"x50" Tonal rug in "Maize".

That's all for now. I have to go reaffirm my masculinity after a post like that. ;-) Where's that hammer....

Dining Room Light

I thought I'd do a little "retro-blogging" and post a picture of the dining room light we bought a couple years ago. It's made by Robert Abbey, and we got it on clearance from Restoration Hardware (or was it Pottery Barn??). I don't think they make it anymore, but I sure do love it. In fact, I think it's my favorite lighting fixture in the whole house.

Let's Play Wallpaper Detective

I've got a challenge for you all! Here's a picture of my dining room wall taken in the middle of the wallpaper scraping phase. I've studied it closely, and I think I can piece together all of the various incarnations it has taken on over the years. I'll list them out below, and I'll even throw in the first and last ones for you. Your job is to fill in the missing slots, using only this picture (click on it to see a bigger image).

Note: I went ahead and filled in the rest.

• 1. Walls: Rusty Red Paint; Trim: Dark Stain (not shown, but deduced from other trim in the room.)


• 2. Walls: Mint Green ; Trim: Dark Stain


• 3. Walls: Mystery Wallpaper* ; Trim: Off-white


• 4. Walls: Gold floral wallpaper ; Trim: Gone!


• 5. Walls: Blue Floral Stripe wallpaper ; Trim: N/A


• 6. Walls: 80's Floral Wallpaper (not shown in this picture); Trim: N/A


• 7. Walls: Devine Blush red; Trim: Devine Icing white (coming soon!)

* #3 was tricky. If you look around the edges of the bare plaster (where the trim used to be) you can see where someone had painted the trim an off-white color. They obviously didn't care about keeping a sharp edge as they painted. That was my clue that there must have been a "mystery wallpaper" that was put up around the trimwork. That layer had to be removed along with the trim before they could put up the gold layer. UPDATE: Read here for the mystery wallpaper Revealed!

Hasn't been a lot happening here

Right now I'm in between projects, more or less. I called Appliance City today and had them come pick up my vintage O'keefe & Merritt stove so they can give it a once-over and tell me what it needs. I started scraping wallpaper in the dining room, but haven't gotten too far on that yet. The most exciting thing I've done lately is attend a trimwork class at the Northwest Woodworking Studio.

Cottages & Bungalows Magazine Article

The spring 2008 issue of Cottages & Bungalows magazine has a blogging sidebar and they were gracious enough to include 1916 Portland Bungalow right there at the top! I hope this doesn't count towards my 15 minutes. ;-)



Due to my poor photo quality, you can't really see them, but M & C Build a House and Our Fixer-Upper also made the list.

Doorbell Finally Mounted

I bought this really cool art-deco doorbell at Rejuvenation's attic sale 2 or 3 years ago and I've been (im)patiently waiting to put it up in the finished kitchen. Well, I finally got around to it. Now it'll probably be another two years before I hook up the button.

Here's another shot of the finished cabinets, now with decorative fake plants for that finishing touch!