Demetra Aposporos

Products of the Week

Crown Point Cabinetry offers custom cabinets for period style kitchens, baths, offices, laundry rooms, home bars and more. Styles include Shaker, Arts & Crafts, Early American, Victorian and Transitional.

HVAC & Retrofit Systems

A central heating and cooling system using "aspiration" technology to warm and cool homes evenly and quietly with flexible small ducts that weave through ceilings, walls, and even floors.

Kitchen Appliances

Cast-iron, nickel-trimmed Victorian cookstoves with the convenience of the 21st century.

Fountains were a popular application for art tile—especially in the West. A mural of vivid peacocks strutting amidst flora shows California-style art tiles at their bright, earthy best.

Decorative Tile

From authentic to transitional, art tile in early 20th century designs is easier to find than ever before. Some basic background can help narrow your search for the perfect tile.

Northeastern Historic Sites

To understand why the Palmer House is so special, you need only enter the lobby.

The restored bathroom in an 1894 house boasts a complex mosaic floor that resembles a richly detailed rug.

Bathroom Furnishings & Fixtures

Mosaic floor tile patterns, from simple to elaborate, can be a great fit for old-house bathrooms.

Pottery, Artwork & Glass

Figured glass added beauty, light, and privacy to houses by fusing form and function.

Lights flanking a mirror cut down on harsh shadows and offered optimum illumination for grooming. The shades here-called turtles because of their resemblance to the critter-could also be mounted facing the wall, and often sat on brackets made of porcelain that featured convenient, built-in electrical outlets. Photo Courtesy of Linda Svendsen

Interior Lighting

When it comes to lighting bathrooms of the 1930s and '40s, you can't go wrong with a little Modern design.

Mercer tiles above the main entrance display dates of architectural changes; 2008 blends in with tilework set in 1904—much as the current restoration proves a seamless fit.

Arts & Crafts Houses

Despite a failing roof and decades of damage, an Arts & Crafts home gets rescued and restored.

Digital

E-newsletters

This narrow antique table creates a simple island workspace with a vintage vibe.

Kitchen Furnishings & Appliances

Oversized islands may be everywhere these days, but they didn’t exist in early kitchens. Still, the concept of a separate workspace started showing up as early as the 18th century, which means it is possible to design an island for today's needs while hewing to historical examples.

Radiators painted in elaborate color schemes became popular around 1900. This example, featuring colors to match the wallpaper and hand-detailed vines, was features in an American Radiator Company souvenir book from 1905.

Interior Paints & Finishes

Two techniques, borrowed from the past, transform radiators into artwork.

The Zeiger family—Todd and Terri, with kids Jacob, Rachael, and Lindsey (left to right)—beside their 1949 Lustron at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

Mid-Century Modern Houses

Lustron houses are prefabricated enameled steel houses developed in the post-World War II era United States in response to the shortage of homes for returning GIs.

A vision in blooms awaits visitors, many of whom arrive by carriage.

Historic Hotels

A visit to this gracious beauty, The Grand Hotel, located on an island between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, is a rite of passage for Midwesterners.