Browse Forums Old Home Restoration / Renovation 1 Apr 23, 2012 12:02 am My husband and I just bought our first home. It is a 1950s weatherboard and tile house with lots of interior art deco features. Some of these are nice and others are not so nice. We have never renovated anything before and have basically no skills and it seems as if the art deco features will make this more difficult than your average reno! We don't want to spend too much up front so we thought we'd start on something easy like stripping the hideous wallpaper and repainting the bedrooms. Unfortunately one of the bedrooms requiring painting has a strange wooden cabinet that seems to be built into the plaster wall - does anyone know how we would go about removing this without making the wall fall in??? It also has a fluoro light built into the cabinet and the whole thing is quite solid - it extends all the way to the ceiling to meet the cornice The cornices are another problem - they are curved in the corners which makes the whole room feel smaller - how easy is it to turn this into square cornices?? If possible we'd like to retain the pattern but just take out the curving at each corner. In the lounge/entry hall and tiny dining area all the ceilings (which are adjoining) are all different heights and patterns - how easy is it to make the ceiling all the same height and pattern when we make a big open plan living area?? Re: 1950s house reno - don't know where to start!! 2Apr 23, 2012 10:55 am Hi Liss + Mick, We have just gutted and renovated a 1950's house as well. Ours was extremely extensive ie. all windows, plaster etc. Ours wasnt so much art deco... just plain old! Could you post some pics to give us an idea of what you wanted to change? Paint and floor coverings go a LONG way in changing the look of a room. Re: 1950s house reno - don't know where to start!! 4Apr 23, 2012 11:25 am For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! Re: 1950s house reno - don't know where to start!! 6Apr 23, 2012 12:08 pm Ok.. woops didn't seem to work... I'll try just posting the links. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/94/dsc00944qv.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/71 ... 945ju.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/841/dsc00947c.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/84 ... 948xr.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/20/dsc00949y.jpg/ Re: 1950s house reno - don't know where to start!! 7Apr 23, 2012 12:10 pm It didn't work ... When you've uploaded your photos in photobucket or similar click on the last box which says IMG code and "copied" will appear - then you paste that into your post ... I'm hoping this one won't work as I want to show you what it should look like (I've added spaces between so it doesn't work) [img]......%20http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff440/Nicholl72/doubledelight.jpg%20.........[/img] For info on our build: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=43093 Built the McLaren by Dechellis - slab down 22 Feb - handover 30 Aug 2011 - and gardens finished 9 Dec 2012!! The only thing to add to these comments is that where possible it's always good to try and work with people than just say "no" because you can. Having someone… 4 18044 your new kitchen and living area looks great and we need accurate dimensions to be specific but with the thickness of the brick column you may be able to line the inside… 1 2081 Bought in Nov 21 at the height of the market (classic). Good area, atrocious floor plan. BUT has land out to the left-hand side that we can extend out on (see second… 0 9142 |