Garnethurst Home Tour

Welcome to Garnethurst! I’m late but as promised, I’m back to share the news of our new-to-us house in Colorado! If you follow me on Instagram I’m sure you’ve already heard and seen it all. But if you haven’t, we purchased an historic Queen Anne Victorian home built in 1896 by Pioneer Lawyer, Alfred Rufus King. In 1915, after the attorney Alfred Rufus King moved away, the house was used a the town’s first hospital, which consisted of 6 rooms. One of the bedrooms still has a hospital sink in it! Because of the homes significance in the history of the town, it is on the National, State & City Historic Registry. You can read more historical background in the image below!

Our home is located on Garnet Mesa, hence the name Garnet….Hurst (meaning hill or grove). We get a lot of questions about whether being on the historic registry restricts the renovations of our home and the answer is sort of NO, sort of YES. In short, we can do whatever we want but some things may jeopardize our listing on the registry. Joel and I certainly don’t want to do that so we will be working with the historic preservation board to make sure we stay in our lane 😉  We’d love to honor the history of our home as much as possible without being a slave to the past.

Our two biggest projects at Garnethurst will be the kitchen and the floors throughout the entire house, which is nearly 3,000 square feet. That’s almost twice the size of our last house! We have 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths, both have clawfoot tubs that are seriously DREAMY.

Our kitchen will need to be completely remodeled at some point and the floors, which have been painted, need to be leveled and replaced. The bathrooms will probably get new fixtures and tile, plus the addition of showers over the clawfoot tubs. At some point a stand up shower was installed on the main floor bathroom and to do that they built into the kitchen, taking valuable space! We can’t wait to demo that!!

There’s a good bit of work to be done here at Garnethurst but most of the house is in pretty good shape. The entry, staircase, library, living and dining room all have original stained woodwork that is absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately at some point in the 1970’s drop ceiling and styrofoam ceiling tiles were added in the main floor rooms. Those have to go ASAP!

Here’s a video tour of the inside of our home. I didn’t take any pictures for this post but as we work on rooms I will definitely take photos.

A few of my favorite things in the Garnethurst House

2 sets of original pocket doors that lead to what would have been the parlor. This will be our library! Dreaming of built in shelves, a ladder, and velvet wingbacks!

2 clawfoot tubs that are in fantastic shape. Literally take a bath every. single. night. now….I mean, wouldn’t you?!

Bay window in the dining room. It has a radiator in front of the center window but I’m still dreaming of a big window seat here. We’ll see what the future holds in that regard.

Screened in “sleeping porch” off the Master Bedroom – it would have been big enough for a small bed in 1896, but our beds (along with our cars) have become significantly larger! Not sure what we’ll do with this space yet!

Walk-in Closet in the master – Ummmm I’ve NEVER had a walk-in closet and I am definitely a minimalist when it comes to my wardrobe but this space has so much potential!!

Service stairs and back entrance – this would have been where any household staff entered the home and used these stairs to access the 2nd story. I’d like to paint the stair treads and add a bold wallpaper to the risers.

Those are just a few things I’m swooning over and planning for in this house. So much to come! If you have been a long time reader, you know I love neutral high contrast style and I still love those things but can feel my style being stretched and I’m certain it will evolve pretty drastically. I’m looking forward to the challenge and the things to come! I hope you’ll join me on this big adventure both here on the blog and on Instagram. Do you live in a really old home? Embrace the quirks and oddities?

See our previous house in Charleston, WV