After dreaming of it for over 2 years, we finally made the commitment to renovate our 1905 farmhouse.

We found an amazing architect who understood our vision and a renowned local builder who could bring that vision to life. We wanted to remove the existing back end of the house which was a combination of kitchen and sunroom additions from over the years, and then re-build an open kitchen and sitting area on the same footprint.

As the demolition day grew closer, we started wondering what the exterior brick back wall of the original house would look like; would there be a chance to restore it as a feature wall?

holeinwall — We broke through the drywall (pictured) in several areas, nothing to lose as the drywall had to come down.

It was 1905 brick that had been painted white back in the day – most likely a back porch area. We started to get excited about having a huge exposed brick wall in our new space!

We were impressed with the progress! The demolition was swift and smooth!

And framing was even swifter! Renovations started late September for this 3-month project.

We began to feel confident we could restore the original brick exterior wall as a feature! There was something gorgeous there!

We discovered an original back window that had been bricked in at some point!

We had a lot of brainstorms for this window over evening cocktails!

We chiselled out the bricks that had been filled into the window to see what we were working with.

Side note: the infill bricks were stamped “Domtar – Don’t Learn”. Quite intriguing! We have no idea what this was about – if you do, let us know!

The entire wall required a lot of repairs. This was not part of the original scope of work for the contractor so we took on that responsibility – that’s how much we wanted this wall! The possibilities for the discovered window were endless!

But we felt strongly that it had to be…

We always had a large chalkboard in the kitchen to welcome guests. It made sense that this would make the best use of this original architectural element!

After weeks of brick repairs, cleaning, three coats of primer and three coats of Benjamin Moore’s Simply White, we had our original 1905 original brick feature wall complete with chalkboard window.