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From table lamps to finials, the centuries-old pineapple design motif is enjoying renewed popularity.
Interpreting historically accurate home design can be confusing, but a new series of free pattern books should help h...
While its heritage is centuries old, the graceful acanthus leaf remains a fashionable design motif for all time.
After a three-year overhaul, the American Museum of Natural History welcomes the public to its newly restored Theodor...
If you didn’t know the Greek key motif before, you’re now sure to recognize this geometric pattern in a wealth of home design applications.
If you’re working on a remodeling project that calls for removing old woodwork, here are some tricks from the pros to...
Before the advent of modern heating and cooling systems, home builders would design temperature control directly into...
The best remodeling work on old houses almost invariably involves preserving some original elements, restoring others, and identifying how the new work can augmen...
Hemingway & Gelhorn, which previewed on HBO last night offered an extraordinary look at the literary careers, pas...
My February trip to Havana with the Finca Vigía technical team was a short, three-day visit focused on paper conserva...
Cut nails provide the look of early American construction to wood floors, doors, cabinetry, or fencing.
I am a casual collector of vintage paper goods and assorted ephemera. My stash includes vintage dictionaries and ency...
One of America’s first free-black communities reemerges in a twenty-first century neighborhood.
Adding custom moldings? You can match existing woodwork in your home or create your own entirely new designs.
Period details are not a thing of the past with today's stylish reproductions.
Five years ago, friends of mine finished building a gracious family retreat on a beautiful, remote site in the Adiron...
In 1939, after selling the film rights to his novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway purchased Finca Vigía, ...
For many, living in a historic home—perhaps like the Lightfoot House (pictured above) in Colonial Williamsburg, VA—wo...
Thanks to the determination of six enterprising coeds at Dartmouth College, a landmark cabin razed by fire was rebuil...
With the advances in marine navigation systems—radio, satellite, and radar—the need for lighthouses to guide mariners...
The second half of Bob Vila’s Home Again Season 15 features two very different approaches to building a home as Bob revitalizes a 1890s brownstone on New York Cit...
The pros, cons, and everything you need to know about buying a registered, historic home.
In the master bath, Bob reviews the appropriate design choices made by homeowner and contractor Nick Beasley for this period home. A new low-flush toilet is insta...
The unusually shaped room with original beadboard that sits under the roof’s eaves will be adapted from its prior use as a home office to be a child’s bathroom wi...
A peaceful nursery and childproofed home await the baby, and an elegant new master bath and powder room greet family and guests.
In the dining room, carpenter Bob Ryley installs a chair rail and works with carpenter Danny Ruffini on the glass doors that will be added to the corner cupboard—...
Architectural conservator Brian Powell helps Bob do some detective work to discover the original exterior paint color scheme. They then look at historically appro...
Bob takes us to Stockbridge, MA, to tour Naumkeag, a wonderful example of the grand Shingle Style by architect Stanford White.
Bob meets with architectural restoration specialist Jack Beyer who reviews some of the challenges posed by developing a landmark building. It's revealed that this...
Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), gives Bob a peek at the restoration of the main building.
Bob gets an update on the status of the brick façade restoration. Replacement bricks have been aged and roughed up with a grinder, lending them an antique appeara...
Bob gets a final status update on the restoration of the façade, as the ground-floor commercial storefront undergoes construction and the bluestone steps are laid...
Bob introduces an 1890s Brownstone on New York City's Upper West Side.
Bob walks with the owner and architect through different rooms on the first floor of the Victorian. Looking over the floor plans, they discuss the changes that w...
Bob goes up to the attic of the Victorian project house, where an ODL tubular skylight is being installed. Also, Bob looks back at the installation of windows on ...
Bob and Roxane Gilmore, the erstwhile first lady of Virginia, tour the governor's mansion, and meet preservationist Fred Ecker, who is removing a mantel for resto...
Bob meets with preservationist Fred Ecker to go over the process of making repairs to the floors.
Bob checks progress in the basement and attic of the governor's mansion, then visits the guest cottage to see how the restoration is progressing.
Carpenter Bob Ryley works alongside preservationist Fred Ecker to restore an old window sash.
Architect John Paul Hanbury brings Bob up to date on the progress that's been made on the restoration of the Virginia governor's mansion.
Carpenter Bob Ryley and general contractor Sam Daniel issue a progress report on the construction of the north addition to the Viriginia governor's mansion.
In the Virginia governor's mansion, Bob and Bob Ryley look at baseboard replicas and inspect how the space behind the baseboard is used.
Carpenters Bob Ryley and Mike Smith hang double doors at the entrance to the private family living quarters of the Virginia governor's mansion.
Executive Chef Mark Herndon shows Bob around the newly remodeled basement kitchen of the Virginia governor's mansion.
Carpenter Bob Ryley and Greg Cowan (from Tidewater Restoration) discuss the process of restoring the antique mantelpiece.
Bob returns to the Virginia governor's mansion to see the restored mantelpiece reinstalled in the ballroom.
Bob tours the interior restoration of the Virginia governor's mansion.
Bob tours the finished restoration of the historic sections of the Virginia governor's mansion.
Bob takes a walking tour of some of Boston's best-preserved antique commercial buildings in the Leather District with architectural historian Brian Pfeiffer.
Bob offers some history of Providence, RI, particularly of the city's Elmwood neighborhood.
Bob recaps the entire Elmwood project. It was a community effort involving an array of houses, though great pains were made to adhere to the historic look of the ...
Bob meets Gavin and Michelle Langley, owners of a vintage Sears kit house, who plan to preserve both the historic and sentimental values of the house. Bob review ...
Bob and homeowner Gavin repair and refinish a 75-year-old oak floor. Because the new patch floor panels have a different thickness from the original, a belt sande...
Restoration contractor Richard Marks shows Bob around the elegant, though quite run-down, Federal-style project house.
Bob visits a Federal-style home undergoing reconstruction, and having an addition put on, in Charleston, SC. Restoration contractor Richard Marks guides Bob throu...
Bob surveys the plaster cornice in the project home. Water damage has ruined a large section and much of the remaining plaster needs repair. Bob and restoration c...
Alongside restoration specialist Richard Marks at the Federal-style home in Charleston, Bob watches painter David Snyder scrape and sand old wood siding.
Bob joins restoration contractor Richard Marks in the library of the Federal-Style home to review the restoration of the mantel.
Bob takes a grand tour of the elegantly restored Federal-style project house, focusing on the portico and back façade.
In search of design ideas, Bob tours a charming Colonial kitchen in a house on Nantucket Island.
For inspiration, Bob tours the John Quincy Adams House in Quincy, MA.
