One Architect + One Product Designer = Home Renovation
The Project : :
Living Room
Details : :
* Paint the ceiling, beams, and walls
* Replace the front door
* Furnish and add some design flare
The living room had great potential, but was in need of a vision. The walls were an unappealing “flesh” tone. The exposed vaulted ceiling became the selling point for us in purchasing this home. Because of this, we knew that it needed special attention. Had the wooden beams been left natural, with a stain, we would have kept them as is. Instead they had several coats of paint on them, the latest being an unusual, brown finish with a hint of purple. We knew this had to go.
You can see that the “flesh” tone walls continue into the upper level of the home. The dirty, stained carpeting on the stairs was certainly NOT a great selling point to the house. Luckily for us, beautiful wood floors lay underneath.
It’s amazing what a good scrubbing will do. I don’t think these window sills had been cleaned in 10 years. (Note: this was right before we switched to all “green” cleaners. That particular bottle will not be found in our house again)
We decided to paint both the ceiling and beams a bright white to add height, draw light into the room, and accentuate the vaulted ceiling. Unfortunately, this meant a lot of time spent on a ladder. B spent several days up on a ladder applying four coats of paint to cover the beams!
The walls were to become a beige color. We wanted to separate the ceiling from the walls and allow the bright white trim work to pop from the walls. Going with a neutral beige allowed us to do this. What we didn’t realize was how difficult it would be to select a beige color. In my opinion, it would prove to be the most difficult color selection of our entire house. What we ended up with was a large pile of test cans in our basement. Thank goodness for those small paint tester cans! I would highly recommend this for anyone. The paper paint strips just do not show true to the actual colors. The above image shows a rejected beige. That one was too green. We had others that were too pink.
The ceiling is complete and primer is going on the walls. This image shows off the front door that would be replaced with one that was more visually appealing.
Finally, the perfect beige was selected!
This wall was designed to become the “feature wall”. It was the wall that visually tied together the entire house. It’s the first wall you see when you enter the front door, it extends to the ridge of the roof, and it slices through the entire house. Because of this, we chose to play up the wall by finishing it in a bold orange. The orange could not be too red or too yellow, it had to be just right.
B beginning the finish on the feature wall.
We carried the orange finish up the stairs to the bathroom cove, joining the main level to the upper level.
Finally to the most exciting stage! Adding the artwork! Artwork is a huge part of our lives. Our walls are plastered in it. Having the neutral tone walls for a majority of the Living Room allowed the color to come from the art as opposed to the walls.
We found a few new pieces of furniture to tie the room together and blend our mid century modern style. This danish-esque chair was found at a local thrift store. We never found any labels on it, but we’d love to know where it came from. I ended up re-upholstering the cushion and adding a back pillow.
This foot stool was found at a local antique store for a whopping $10! With its tapered wooden legs, the style fit perfectly.
Ready to see the finished product! The big reveal will be published soon!
