Vintage Screen Redo

I'm not sure if I ever mentioned this, but the screens (and windows) at the cottage are original.  That's right, 75 years old - and to be honest with you, I think they have 75 layers of paint on them, but that's another story.  The biggest problem was the fact that the screens had holes in them - not very effective at keeping out the bugs!
Let's not overlook the paint that was all over the edges:
The first order of business was removing the thin moldings around the screen - no rubber spline here, folks, this is VINTAGE!  The goal was to remove it without cracking, splitting, or breaking it, soooo, I started by scoring through the 75 layers of paint...
...and gently lifting the moldings:

SUCCESS!
A few of the finishing nails stayed put, so they had to be pulled out
Along with the staples - there must have been 100!
The frame and moldings were scraped, painted and left to dry:
It was finally time to rescreen!  The new screening was layed across the frame, stapled, stretched, and stapled again.
The screen was trimmed and the freshly painted moldings were reattached:


The screen was finished!

DISCLAIMER:  I can not take full credit.  I have a wonderful husband who also worked on this project.  He helped remove all of the staples, did the scraping/painting, stapled, while I stretched the screen, and tapped in those tiny nails that reattached the moldings.  He is the BEST!!

People ask us why we don't get new windows and our answer is, these are just too cool!  To be honest, with a little love and attention, these are just as effective as new ones.  We are inspired by Nicole Curtis - she always tries to keep things original.

That being said, thank you for stopping by the Cottage.  I hope you'll stop by again soon!

Have a great week!


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Comments

  1. Wow, you did a wonderful job! I applaud your hard work, I get so frustrated with our backdoor screen and I am so tempted to just buy a new one, but maybe after seeing yours I might use my brain and think of ways I can fix and update it.

    Thanks for the inspiration!! I will definitely be sharing this post on my R & R facebook page too, this deserves to be seen.

    XO,
    Christine
    www.rustic-refined.com

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    1. I'm happy to inspire, Christine. Thank you so much for stopping by - and sharing on fb!

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  2. Nice job... there is certainly something to be said for the older things... much more character and interest. :)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much - we have LOTS of character around here! LOL

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  3. You guys are wonderful to preserve the original!! Like Joy said, character!!

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    1. Thank you, Karren. We are working on lots of preservation!

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  4. Very cool. You don't have to throw out perfectly good screens that can be fixed and actually suit the style and age of the house because they're original. It drives me crazy watching some of the redo/remodel shows on TV that destroy perfectly good wood floors, for instance, just because they need to be refinished and they're not "wide plank" - or ripping out old woodwork/trim because they may need to be sanded, have some dents and dings filled with wood filled and sanded, and then repainted, or stripped and stained. Sure, there's a lot of work involved in restoring rather than ripping out and starting over with often inferior products and results IMO, but it's worth it, especially when you live in a classic style or vintage home. Good for you, and thank you for keeping renewable and reusable items out of the landfill!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jan. I am a huge fan of 'restoring the old' and I feel that the dents and dings are the story behind them. I'm so glad you stopped by, I hope you'll come back again soon!

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