After sharing photos of the dining room the other day, I thought I might as well go ahead and make it through some of the other rooms in the house. This space is where all the room flip-flopping began. Originally the formal living space (meaning rarely did anyone step foot in here), this room is now the main gathering space in our home. Although it's not grand in size, its soaring ceilings give it such a grand feeling to me. I attribute it to all the wonderful light that comes pouring through the windows.
This wasn't always the case for this room. When we moved into this house eleven years ago, it was dark, dated and a little depressing. The stained paneling had yellowed badly over time ~ and the dark fireplace was just plain creepy. I vacillated back and forth for awhile ~ "to paint or not to paint?" I'm sure the room was quite beautiful in its heyday ~ but time had taken its toll. Against numerous people's opinions, I finally decided to proceed forward. I did the unpardonable and whitewashed everything! And ya know what? I've never looked back ~ painting that dark and dingy room was like a breath of fresh air.
You might wonder why I opted to share this pic of the ceiling. Well, if you've ever spent hours on end scraping popcorn off ceilings, I bet you have great appreciation for this nice, smooth one. Scraping was an arduous task and undertaking but the benefits far outweigh the pains of taking it down. And just for clarification, I think cottage cheese and popcorn are nice to eat ~ I just don't like them on my ceilings. :) If you like, read more about the vintage bus roll sign that hangs above the mantle here.
After all the priming and painting (thanks to the hubby who is a meticulous painter) and sanding and scraping ~ the room was finally given a new lease on life. Oh, and I'm crazy about the old cafeteria cart turned TV stand ~ read more about its transformation here.
I think this space went from drab to fab ~ from rarely being occupied to a prime piece of real estate we gather in it most everyday.
I love that no matter where you decide to plop down, there's a comfy spot waiting for you. Read more about the revamped floor lamp here.
Just a thought, if you've been toying with the idea of painting that wood paneling in your home for awhile ~ I would encourage you to go ahead and take the plunge ~ I'm so glad we did. :)
Prior to lightening and brightening this room ~ and before we rethought the purpose of the space, this room went virtually unused. Once again, I think it's completely okay to flip-flop rooms in your house and just maybe some of that rethinking will give you space you never knew you had before. :) I hope your day is filled with good things. XO
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I had those stained framed walls at our old house. Hated them, but no one was painting them at that time. Love the little scooters on top of the shelves. Now about those coattage cheese ceilings. Do you have a DIY tutorial on those? I am covering some of mine up with tongue and groove pine planks. But the bedrooms will need to be scraped.
ReplyDeleteHi Lori ~ as for the ceilings, I don't have a tutorial but I can tell you what we did to perfect the process as we scraped from room to room. !. Remove all the contents from the room. 2. Cover the walls and floors with plastic (the cheap kind on the walls, and a heavier grade on the floors). We secured the plastic with heavy, wide masking tape. The blue painters tape comes undone easily. 3. Arm yourselves with filled water bottles with spray attachments, scrapers, ladders, snacks and drinks (like granola bars and water with a sealed lid). 4. Put your phone in a nice covered space and turn on some music. 5. Don some protective eye wear and a face mask. 6. Begin in a corner and spray the ceiling with the water sprayer ~ this loosens and softens the popcorn. 7. Scrape that yucky stuff off, being careful not to gauge the ceiling. The spraying also helps alleviate the dust that would otherwise occur. When you are finished, pull the plastic from around the top of the ceiling and fold into one big pile. This process helps eliminate the mess from going all over your house. We then hired a tape/bed/texture guy to spray a light texture on the ceilings. And finally we primed the ceilings and gave it two coats of paint. Good luck. :)
ReplyDeleteMe too Mary! It's so calming. XO
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