Sunday, June 4, 2017

Pieces Parts for the Porch

While my husband and I were in Richmond yesterday, we made an impulse stop at this wonderful place ...



Governor's Antiques is a HUGE architectural salvage yard.  We went there to see if we could find some inspiration for the renovation of our front porch.

Those of you who have been with me for any time at all may remember that our porch is structurally sound (after being rebuilt in 2005) but completely without any sort of pretty stuff.  Designing the details, with no evidence of what may have been there when our house was built in 1848, has been challenging.  I have planned and plotted, and reworked the design many times, and nothing has seemed to be exactly right.



We went to Governor's specifically to find a corbel or porch bracket that we can use as a pattern.  As luck would have it, the staff there had just finished moving the whole stock of corbels to an inside area, perfectly organized.



All of these are fabulous, but almost every one is WAY too large for our porch.  We weighed our options and came up with two possibilities:

I like the simple curve of this one, and the size is perfect.


This one is also nearly perfect.


We plan to make our own corbels, incorporating elements from our home's original trim, which is long gone.  

The gingerbread trim, on the eaves and above the porch and bay windows, is the original.  The porch columns and railings are not.  There is no evidence of what the original porch may have looked like.


The bat-wing-looking motif is very common in Gothic Revival decoration.  The second bracket from Governor's could easily be modified to have a cut-out that looks something like this one:

photo from Pinterest.


Our visit to Governor's helped us clarify our design for the porch brackets, but it seriously muddied the plan for the porch posts.  I have been working with the idea of square columns, with chamfered corners, boxed on the bottom, with stacked moldings at the top.  One of the posts in this pile, I'm not telling you which one, has the potential to destroy all of that planning ... in a VERY good way.

I saw three of them, and we need four.  I will let you know if the young lady at Governor's succeeds in her search for another one.


We bought the brackets that I showed you.  Either design will be great inspiration for whatever there is to come with the porch.  Seems like this is a never-ending process, with SO many choices.  Our goal is to be finished with it by the end of summer.  Wish us luck.

10 comments:

  1. Best wishes in your porch completion plans.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! Your best wishes are much appreciated.

      Delete
  2. That shop is amazing! Look forward to seeing what you do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely difficult to stay on task in a place with so much wonderful stuff! That's how I ended up looking at porch posts ... while we're here ... famous last words ... and then the whole trip goes off the rails. :)

      Delete
  3. Can't wait to see what you all do with your porch, Connie!

    Happy Summer!
    Shirley

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I can't wait to see what we do, too! I'm always a lot more decisive with things, but the porch has taught me patience. Everything we do with it brings up a list of prerequisites ... have to decide on (A) before we can even think about (B) or, heaven forbid, (C) and beyond.

      Delete
  4. Enjoyed this post. Love projects.Love architectural salvage. Love reading about your research and learning something new. Thanks for sharing the process. Will look forward to updates on this rewarding project!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Architectural salvage places are acres and acres (or tens of thousands of square feet) of someone else's history that can, for a price, become OUR history. We mostly see this stuff in situ as we walk or drive past historic buildings. Seeing it individually, and putting hands on the materials and chippy finishes, adds a whole different dimension to the experience.

      Delete
  5. Porch posts. I am liking the one that has the most white paint left in it. Some woodworker with a lathe ought to be able to make a fourth one, I would think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're a genius!! Something so simple and obvious. Thank you!!

      Delete

Thanks for stopping by and reading what I share. Comments are welcome and very much appreciated. Spam and trolls are not!

Related Posts with Thumbnails