I get it- it’s important to make a house functional for your family. Personally, I’d go the built-in route cause I’m a sucker for that look, but if you need access to the back via this wall 🤷‍♀️

The best thing we’ve done in approaching our renovation was to hire an architect who specializes in homes of our era. He had a ton of fantastic ideas about modernizing some aspects of the house respectfully while staying true to the original era... with the exception of the kitchen, which we’re taking from ‘space meant to be seen and used only by servants’ to more of a center-of-the-family space.

For something this big I would definitely enlist an expert to help you weigh options! Good luck!

I would keep the windows flanking the fireplace but remove the mirrors and add build in cabinets with glass doors. Orginally that is what was often under high windows.

Get rid of the nasty carpet and then you may start to see the beauty that others see in this house. Roarah is right, the mirrors need to go, was it a ballet studio maybe. Watch some episodes of Rehab Addict and see what she does to keep a house like this period appropriate. If you do too much to this house you will destroy any value it has, looks quite livable to me.

OP, some harsh comments here! I can't say I fully agree. No old house is a museum. Sometimes you have to make changes. Certainly the Victorians themselves were fond of revamping older structures--- read about Castle Haar for example. Change is a constant. I would only say that being respectful of the house's "bones" is important. No gut jobs on those gorgeous columns!

As for the fireplace, it looks like someone used this as a ballet studio? The mirrors would have to go. What room will this be for you? A parlor/lounge of some sort? A dining room? I would not move those windows but instead do some lovely built ins under them with leaded glass fronts. These are a very Craftsman feature.

I would probably paint the brick to align with whatever color scheme you are choosing and find an interesting mirror to hang above the whole thing -- the mirror would have to have a horizontal orientation and not fight with the windows to make sense. I might extend that mantle to the edges of the fireplace and have a craftsperson make me some interesting corbels to support the mantle and give the piece more visual interest. Perhaps there are some other elements in the room that can inform the design of a corbel.

I might also source some antique tiles for the area in front of the hearth. I would probably cover the brick with those for some additional color and period interest. Something William Morris-y would be quite nice.

It doesn't need to be said that elements such as the carpet and wallpaper would also be taken out. Homes of this era were colorful, so I would encourage you to do some research on popular paint colors of the day and try to incorporate those elements as much as you are comfortable with. Though this room would be starkly elegant in a pale grey and white with a home of this era, I always push my clients to think a little about what would have been popular when it was built as well as what tastes are now. Its like a stew-- you want to add elements that complement one another and improve the flavor overall.

I would watch some episodes of "Restored." The "rehabber" reminds me of Woody from Toy Story :)

Do you have any documentation from previous owners to show what changes were made over the years? We keep records of everything we did to our "plain Jane" 1973 ranch for future owners.

Perhaps consider replacing only one of the windows with a door, and add built-in cabinetry or shelves below the other window. I think it would look very odd to have two doors on that wall.

If you do chose to remove anything original, document and store it so the next owner can put it back. I'm still aggravated that a PO destroyed the nearly 200 year old shutters from my house. A neighbor told me he even tried to rescue them and was too late.

Personally, I wouldn't screw the fireplace up- I would leave it as is. I wouldn't wreck the windows either.

I would take out all the mirrors and ballet barres, remove the carpet and hopefully there is good wood floor under that can be restored.

Something I'm wondering about- though there are clearly heat vents, there's also an awful lot of floor heaters. Why are there so many floor heaters? Is it to keep the dancers warm while at the barre?

Im for restoration. This room had built in shelf and mantel removed thats why fireplace looks unadorned and doesn’t fit house. The other picture are ornate but these old homes had public room and family area. Also this could of been a update in the 20s and the room originally had a victorian ornate surround I love restoring as much of original as possible. But if that doesn’t fit your needs then make it work for your family. Store the old windows incase someone tries to do historical restore. I would at least use a antique fire surround to fit the home style and possibly use french doors with etch victorian style glass to keep the old vibe

Hey there to all the negative comments! We’re buying this house with the idea of being custodians. We love and appreciate the home as it is. We aren’t gutting it, we’re leaving original wallpaper in some rooms and repairing exterior molding to its original splendor. So chill. I think that change is inevitable and is rather do so tastefully and with respect to the period and home instead of having some flipper come in and destroy the house. I’m ok with replacing the fireplace and leaving the built ins and columns and all the other wonderful parts of the home. This fireplace isn’t noteworthy, unless like I said I’m missing something about it . So Joseph Corlett, back up. 🙄

The bars are in there bc the woman had jqzzercise type classes for other elderly ladies 😍. The mirrors I’ve come to understand we’re a design decision, and yes they may have removed built ins to put the mirrors but the sellers could never confirm that. There’s very few walls on the main level so it would be nice to have shelves under the windows. However, we’re working with an interior designer and a GC who specializes in old homes to make sure the house is restored well and will help us with any big changes, this would be the largest change we would make. But again, I challenge you to find an old home that hasn’t been changed. While it hurts my heart to see beautiful places and wonder what it looked like then, I’m thankful that servants stairs are no longer used and I’m ok with people repurposing then to modern life. It’s about balance and care.

Hey, despite my username here, I'm no longer in NYC. I moved into an apartment that is inside a 170-year old house. It's a historic house in an area of New England where many beautiful old houses have been divided into apartments because heating these big old homes is quite costly and hardly anyone has big families anymore. Some purists may think that's a terrible thing to do to a stately old home, but it is serving the people who live in them, and own them, better than it could if it stayed the same. I do love seeing old houses restored, but also accept the realities of modern life. It doesn't always make sense to keep things the way they always were. I doubt anyone into preservation would be happy to use an icebox and have coal delivered!

@thriftyboho excellent point.

We have a home near me that has been apartments, an inn, a clinic for depression, and an event space. It is now a center for eating disorders. If you read the history of the home, it was built by an early industrialist to show that he had arrived on the social scene. His only surviving daughter was a school teacher who did not marry and could ill afford the upkeep. The bank took over and it became all the things I listed.

Its a gorgeous place, a mansion in a neighborhood of large Victorian and Edwardian era homes, and careful attention has been paid to making it lovely and restoring many period details that had fallen into disrepair. Is it a time capsule? Heavens no! Its not even a single-family home. Should someone have torn it down, or it sat empty until a Victorian sized family with significant means could have taken it over as the appropriate custodian? No, I think not.

There are often very pointed opinions on this forum. I do also feel a little sick when a grand old lady of a house gets the "Property Brothers" treatment with walls coming down and slick transitional furnishings. Disparaging people who want to make these structures functional or even use them for some other purpose only belies a sour grapes attitude. Perhaps complaining that these homes were not vacuum sealed in time is just a defense of someone who wishes they had their own to restore. And if so, I doubt they would go without many modern conveniences for the sake of historical accuracy. After all, I don't think any of us ride in horse and buggy to our day jobs, do we?

@greata interiors, I love your take on this. Thank you for sharing your design sense along with your opinion (of which I agree with). I’ll definitely take your comment to our designers. We’ll come up with someone thing beautiful that honors the house, the time and a space for our family to grow.