The Bedroom

The Bedroom Re-Do

This is one in a number of posts that I plan to do in the chronicling of our home remodeling projects.  And be fore-warned-there lots of photos in this post.

It kind of started with this…a transom window above the door to the attic.

There are drop ceiling in every room of this house, which we knew we would eventually be removing, at least most of them.  (I love high ceiling!)  One day while coming down the attic stairs,  I glanced up and saw this window above the door-it was hidden away and could not be seen from the bedroom side as it was covered up by the dropped ceiling tiles.  I just had to get this vintage window uncovered and visible.  Well….this is not the only reason we started on the bedroom first….

We were sleeping in the dining room.  (Which we did for 3 months!)

Rather awkward when having guests over.

The first job was to remove what we didn’t want.  There was a closet the full width on one side of the room-this would become the bed alcove and with it removed it would make the room less awkward and easier to navigate around.

Getting ready!  Demolition time….

(This is always a scary time-is this what I really want? Will I like what I thought I would?  Once it is done, it is done! )

 

Crow bars, hammers and dust.

And some brute force!

This only bedroom is one of the two original rooms in this house.  There was only a ‘front’ room and a ‘back’ room. I have wondered where the original kitchen was-maybe a separate cook house? The foundation below this section of the house is massive cut stones, some of the floor joists are raw tree trunks, the walls are old lath and plaster.  They built houses to last years ago, and it was quite the job to remove the lath and plaster walls.

This is the finished product.  The inner walls and ceiling of the bed alcove were covered in tongue and grove paneling, then we painted and trimmed it in. The paint color is ‘Creamy’ from Sherman Williams.  I was extremely happy with this paint.

The carpet was pulled up, and we were happy to find beautiful original hard wood floors underneath.  We just cleaned and polished them and they were good.

The drop ceiling was then removed.

Tongue and groove wood strips were put up over the old original plaster ceiling.  It covered a number of flaws.

 

We stained the ceiling wood “Golden Pecan”, also from Sherman Williams.  I wondered if I would like the wood ceiling-I love it!  Love waking up and looking up at the beautiful wood.

The work area, outside on the patio.  After watching the fellas cut for awhile, I felt confident to do some cutting myself.

Some pictures of the lath and plaster walls with layers of old wall paper.

There are deep baseboards in this section of the house. I love them.

Some of the walls were more of a challenge than others-there were places, on the outside walls, that had previous water damage, and while scraping and removing the old wall paper, large areas of plaster came off too.

Here you can see a large hole in the plaster, and also where the drop ceiling came to-older wallpaper above, and newer below.

There was lots of patching to do.

 

 

The hole, all patched and sanded.  When the new wallpaper was put up, you could not tell there was a large hole there.

This section of wall, above the door to the hall that leads to the bathroom and closet, was too badly damaged.  This was originally an outside wall also, but in a previous remodel, a door way was opened up in it.  It was so bad that we just put up more tongue and groove wood and painted it to match the trim.  I think that it looks just fine.

There was lots of wallpaper scraping to do.

I did have quite an achievement in working in this room.  I am very afraid of heights, and was afraid to work up so high, but by the time we were done, I was able to climb right up on the scaffolding and work away!  I was determined to get this room done, and was rather proud of myself in conquering my fear of heights.  (At least a little way up!)

I papered the walls in a light sage green fleur-de-lis pattern, also from Sherman Williams.  I am loving the Sherman Williams products, and how convenient the stores are, located in small towns.  There is one in nearby Clarion, so convenient to run to, to spend hours looking through their books.  I also was able to ‘check-out’ 5 wallpaper books to take home and agonize over.  To me, this is one of the hardest parts of remodeling-deciding on what to do!

Me, painting the crown molding.

We debated in whether to keep the old original light fixture, but were somewhat afraid of the old wiring, so went with a new fixture with a vintage look.

The ceiling, the new light, the wallpaper, the crown molding and part of the bed alcove.

Our queen size bed fits nicely in the alcove.

Looking the other direction in the room.  There was another great achievement in moving into this bedroom-we went from a very large bedroom with 2 closets,  from 2 chest of drawers and 1 long, low dresser to just 1 chest of drawers.  Quite a downsize for us!

I have lace curtains for the windows.

This is the view looking into the living room.

The view looking into the connecting hall to the closet.  There is a step up landing with the door to stairs up to the attic on the left.

The radiator is on the right on this landing.  Did I tell you that I love, love love our radiator heat?  Yes, I do!

The large walk-in closet.  It has no window, and I wanted to paint it white to brighten it up some, but hubby nixed my idea.  I love it, and it is serving us well.  Still working on downsizing all the clothes.  I am using a trick that I read about-turn all the clothes on hangers the wrong direction, every time you wear something, turn the hanger around the correct direction, at the end of the year, whatever is on a hanger still turned the wrong direction get rid of! It has already helped me get rid of stuff.

 

This is taken from the bathroom, looking into the little hallway between the bedroom, on the right and closet, on the left.  It will be painted ‘Creamy’ also, the carpet will stay.  I am thinking a small chest of drawers, or something like it, for linen storage, as there is no linen closet in this house.

The end result is that I am very happy with this bedroom remodel.  I am very thankful for strong, able husband and sons that are willing to work and help out.

Remodeling is slow going, at least for us do-it-yourselfers.  When ever I get discouraged at how slow things are changing around here, I just go in and admire my lovely bedroom.

Thanks for reading.

Seek the Lord and his Strength,

seek his face continually.

1 Chronicles 16:11