Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum are lovers of steampunk design, which blends elements of the steam-powered Victorian age and science fiction. Envision an early-1900s lathe machine built to make plasma lighting artwork. Or a ray gun made from Victorian-era bits. Or a computerwork station was converted into by a pump organ. All of these things, by the way, exist at the Rosenbaums’ remodeled 1901 three-story Victorian home.
The few added conventional elements to the home, also, after they bought it and began trimming in 2000. A new roof, chimney, gutters, siding and baths updated the area. But thy also now have a more “period-correct kitchen to suit our Victorian/Craftsman design,” Bruce says. The distinctive decorative includes red velvet fabric, cast iron pieces, antique wood accents and brass-laden gadgets befitting a bygone area.
In Bruce’s words, their home embodies the steampunk ethos of infusing “modern technologies, science and appliances in to period items, antiques and architectural salvage.” The experience of the reform motivated them to begin a design company, ModVic, that attempts to help homeowners and designers create a similar fashion with a modern spin.
in a Glance
Who lives here: Bruce and Melanie Rosenbaum
Location: Sharon, Massachusetts
Size: 3,600 square feet; 6 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths
That’s intriguing: The home has an original 1930s elevator, nevertheless functional.
Theresa Fine
The library has been painted a warm cream color to highlight the house’s original woodwork.
Paint: Sundown 124, C2 Paint
Theresa Fine
The room is dominated by elaborate cast iron machinery. Bruce explains this contraption within an early 1900s steampunk portrait camera workstation. To the best of it is a 1930s British Thomson Houston film projector, among the first to replicate audio with film.
Theresa Fine
If you pay a visit to the Rosenbaum home at night, you will witness a stunning light show. An early 1900s lathe machine has been repurposed to power plasma light artwork.
Theresa Fine
With a tufted sofa reminiscent of the Chesterfield style, green walls are paired in the family room. Large stained glass windows flank the window to get an Arts and Crafts feel. “We utilized C2 Paint since I had been operating with a paint color store that declared the colours would literally jump off the walls. We travelled with earth-color tones; rich, deep yellows; and Craftsman green,” Bruce says.
Wall paint Sage 182; trim paint Architectural White 016, both by C2 Paint
Theresa Fine
An early 1900s barber’s seat, upholstered in red velvet, and a ray weapon made out of repurposed Victorian bits underline the design approach.
“The weirdest thing about our home is that most everything in it’s a shape and function. If the walls could speak, they would say, ‘What you do to me is weird and wonderful at precisely the identical time,'” says Bruce.
Theresa Fine
One of the cleverest features of the home is the home theatre in the family room. Bruce altered the original mantel to maintain a television. The entire unit swings open to show the entertainment components.
Theresa Fine
The house felt like their home “after we did the kitchen together with all the romantic idea of what a Victorian kitchen would have been like if it had modern technologies,” Bruce says. “The kitchen has become the heart and brain of our property.”
Toaster, microwave: Elmira Stove Works; lighting: Quoizel; cabinets: Kitchen Tune-Up
Theresa Fine
He switched an early-1900s printer’s desk into a kitchen island, creating a large central workspace which feels true to the age of the home.
Wall paint: Frittata 123, C2 Paint; ceiling paint: Architectural White 016, C2 Paint; printer desk/island: Nor’ East Architectural Salvage
Theresa Fine
1940s cast iron stools had been converted into bar stools.
Theresa Fine
This cast iron cooking range from the 1800s is Bruce’s ultimate prized possession. The Mott’s Defiance Stove was modernized with a Miele glass cooktop and two new ovens by Erickson’s Antique Stoves.
Theresa Fine
A late-19th-century knife sharpener became a knife holder, whereas beside it a 1930s Toast-O-Lator” was steampunked using brass and repurposed objects.
Toaster: RH Mardigan Enterprises
Theresa Fine
A late-1800s Buck heating stove can also be in the kitchen. Above you’re Victorian stained glass bits repurposed with mild boxes. “With steampunk design you are constantly attempting to utilize your creative brain to marry the past with the present, form with function, artwork with science,” says Bruce.
Theresa Fine
This steampunk-style astronomical clock at the formal dining room was custom built by ModVic; it had been inspired by the astronomical clock at the Strasbourg Cathedral in France.
Paint: Pappadum 378, C2 Paint
Theresa Fine
Bruce’s favourite designer is 19th-century British architect Charles Eastlake. A late-1800s walnut side table designed by Eastlake sits under a collage of framed older photographs.
Paint: Pappadum 378, C2 Paint
Theresa Fine
A staircase in the foyer divides the living room, on the left, along with the library.
Ceiling paint: Final Straw 380; wall paint Gold Digger 374, equally by C2 Paint
Theresa Fine
A Victorian Eastlake portfolio cupboard and Eastlake Pier mirror decorate a foyer corner. Arts and Crafts–fashion furniture is notable in the home, staying true to the couple’s love of the Victorian aesthetic.
Bruce’s favourite places to look for their home are architectural salvage companies, Brimfield Antique Market and eBay.
Theresa Fine
The couple’s design company is situated on the third floor, with this hallway waiting area.
As well as his love of industrial bits, Bruce has a respectable collection of postal salvage. Shown here is an early-20th-century post office teller window along with a brass postal letterbox.
Theresa Fine
The top floor’s office is undoubtedly the very steampunked room. The doors and light switches are all metal. Puffins, such as the one seen flying above the 1890s boat binnacle here, are just one of Bruce’s passions.
He says his office is his favourite room, since he feels as though he is in French writer Jules Verne’s submarine, Nautilus.
Paint: Delicata 120, C2 Paint; lighting: Rejuvenation
Theresa Fine
A Victorian pump penis became Bruce’s modern computer workstation.
“Steampunk layout inspires my personal style — the act of Janusian thinking and the mixing and synthesizing of opposites,” he says.
Theresa Fine
The door to the office, found in the left, is actually an early-1900s bronze door from a bank. To the right is a cupboard door that has been given a porthole and a working valve wheel to open and shut the door. Between them is a 1930s copper.
Theresa Fine
Bruce, shown here, advises other homeowners to “go on a treasure hunt and repurpose objects for your home. Make it personal, connect with the past and future, and put the fun to operational.”
Theresa Fine
The home, built in the early 20th century, contains real, original fieldstone — a timeless feature of New England architecture. Beneath the eaves are original beadboard and the house’s original doorbell.
Once the couple bought the home, vinyl siding covered the original wood shingles, which have been badly damaged. Bruce and Melanie covered the shingles with timber siding instead of removing them. They then added elements such as sunburst patterns and corbels to give it a Queen Anne look.
All outside paint by C2 Paint: Morris Green 178; Rite of Spring 216, Spell Check 127, Mulberry 007