guide for period renovations?

The recent thread on soap dishes got me thinking. Is there a good style guide out there for period renovations? I'm looking at renovating my bath which dates to 1914 but has been remuddled - where would I find out what are period-correct styles (walls, fixtures) for that period? -- H

Reply to
Heathcliff
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I don't have a particular book, but try searching Google and click on the More tab, then select Books. The click advanced search and select Full View (or something like that). That limits searches to only books that are complete online, and that means it limits it to books that are no longer under copyright. They're old. You'll find lots of construction books that are from the era that you are trying to replicate, and many that are much, much older.

A Public Service Announcment

R alt.home.repair Resident Historian and Barkeep

Reply to
RicodJour

Does your local library and/or any nearby college library have a historical photo section, and/or old magazines in hardcopy? Towns I grew up in had the bound or boxed old magazines (probably online or on CD these days, but it just ain't the same), and the ads were wonderfully educational about what was new and trendy in any particular year. Local library here has an online stack of old photographs, kind of sorted by topic, which includes lots of old interior shots from houses over the years.

I remember as a kid being fascinated by the old American Builder magazines my father had laying around, from 15-20 years before. What would be really slick would be an old Sweet's catalog from whatever year (not sure when they started)- the photos from the manufacturer catalog pages would be exactly what you are looking for. (I especially loved the sauna and jacuzzi catalog pages, when I was around 12 or so...)

(Yeah, I spent most of my time by myself as a kid. Why do you ask?)

Reply to
aemeijers

As Resident Historian, and considering your replied to my post and not the OP's, I will illustrate why you need not leave your desk (or bathroom if you have a laptop), while researching this topic:

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Long URL, cut and paste if you must. Your Sweet's catalog from 1913 is in the results.

Nifty, eh?

R
Reply to
RicodJour

There used to be a catalog company. They probably have a website now. Renovators supply or something along those lines.

Colbyt

Reply to
Colbyt

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Oh, thanks a big bunch- like I didn't have enough backed-up reading material making me feel guilty already.... :^/

Reply to
aemeijers

I know. I backed into that discovery when I ran across a Seller on eBay who was selling these old books that were just great. I highlighted some of the old-timey sounding titles, and up pops Google books with the full book. Unfortunately I'd already purchased a CD with the books on it. This is what a fair number of people seem to be doing. Downloading the free books without copyright problems, and sticking them on a disk and selling them. Pretty brilliant, really. Zero overhead and a million suckers...like me.

On the plus side I gave a girlfriend some old time knitting and crochet books and she loved them. I got a lot of mileage out of those downloads. ;)

R
Reply to
RicodJour

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