Weekend Recap: Den Makeover Part 1

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!  We were pretty busy this weekend with two main projects: tackling the insane amount of leaves that have accumulated in both our front and back yards, AND making a plan for the den!

After spending roughly 6 hours on Saturday, we got the front yard 80% cleared of leaves but unfortunately didn't even touch the back.  This was due largely in part to a LONG trip to Home Depot where we purchased (hopefully) our final batch of crown molding and baseboards.  With this purchase, we've officially purchased/installed crown and base throughout the entire house except in the kitchen (which we hope to completely gut and possibly expand in the next 18 months) the 4th bedroom (which is just small and honestly mostly finished so we don't want to mess with it) and the basement (who cares!).

This is such a milestone for us and a big step towards feeling "finished" with some of the projects we started 6 months ago now.  Next weekend my amazing brother in law (who installed all our baseboards as seen here) will install the final crown and base in the upstairs hall, D's office (missing the base), den hall and den!

In preparation for the den work we finally took the plunge and painted. Originally the den looked like this, a dark tan.

closing day pic!

I don't mind it too much and honestly it's very close to the color we had in our old house's living room/dining room.  The problem was that despite three large windows and a huge sliding glass door, this room is pretty dark naturally.  The two windows that flank the fireplace have a lot of brush outside them causing a shady tree house effect and the dark fireplace doesn't help matters.

So enter the plan to brighten this space up!  Last week we checked out several paint colors and settled on Glidden's White Lagoon.  We wanted something that was "white with a hint of light-grey-blue-ish-ness"  I think this meets the mark but I'll admit that it was rather alarming seeing it all go up.

before

before with test samples on the wall

 

left side is up! sleeping dog

 

after!

 

after - way brighter, except for that fireplace...

 

yay new paint color, BOO dark fireplace!

 

So as you can see, we still have some work ahead of us painting that fireplace but from what I read, it shouldn't be too hard.  Next weekend the crown goes up - which explains that lack of cutting in on the ceiling, we followed the painting process as last time we installed crown.

 

So this Monday leaves me anxious for next Saturday when we begin the end of the crown/base project!  I leave you with some awesome uses of White Lagoon - I can only hope our finished product looks this good!

 

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xoxo,

KC

 

 

Putting a Face on the House: Before and Afters

If paint is the makeup, then crown molding and floors are the jewelry and handbag that made these rooms a star!

Thankfully, my father-in-law, who shall be hence forth known as contractor/painter/gardener/handyman (although he actually sells industrial heaters and is not in fact in the business of any of the previously mentioned professions) had the great idea to paint before we started working on the floors.  I bring you, grey and peacock walls with yellowy oaky floors. 

My favorite part about painting? Knowing that we're putting in crown molding and baseboards and not having to edge the ceiling or floors.  Isn't that THE WORST EVER?

color testing in the living room

camp cornwell in the living room, post painting and pre crown and floors

I should also note here that in preparation for new floors, and subsequently new baseboards, D and I took off the old baseboards.  We ultimately replaced the measly 1 inch baseboards that came with the house with big chunky 3.5 inch base, buy needed to get off the old guys in order to make the floor refinishing that much easier.  Taking the old off was literally our first Saturday morning project in our house (all the way back in early May!)  We got a pair of these guys and went to town. 

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I have to say, it was pretty satisfying and made me wish we were going to pull down some walls or do some other fun demo.  An hour after all the base was down in the house, I quickly recanted this notion as anxiety set in about how ugly everything would look until the new stuff was installed.  I'm a vision girl, not a execution person.

The father-in-law also recommended that we install the crown before the floors come, seeing as this was a new to us project and would surely involve dust, dings and other unhappy things.  We were lucky enough to have my father-in-law's neighbor, a general contractor, come over to show us the ropes and aid in the process.  After about 8 hours of work and TONS of dust, we have new, chunky, 4 inch crown in the living room, dining room, halls and all upstairs bedrooms.  The den, upstairs hall and 4th bedroom will be secondary. 

Crown up in living room, pre floor refinishing, we don't live in a cave, my father-in-law is just part cave man at 6'6"

All in all the crown was an expensive detail but we saved a TON by doing it ourselves and it made a huge impact on the rooms.  I wish I could tell you how to do this step by step but my involvement in this particular project included going to Home Depot, picking out crown, gawking at how much said crown molding costs, paying for ridiculous expensive crown molding, monitoring the loading of crown molding into the pick up, driving behind the pick up to make sure that if expensive crown fell off pick up, it only hit MY car, and then making the boys burgers for lunch and providing approving "yes, this is nice!" when prompted. 

If you want to know more detail, I have a feeling we'll be recreating this day at my father in law's somewhat soon so I'll be sure to take better notes.

I digress.

Once we painted and crowned the place we decided to resand/restain the hardwood floors a darker color to make the whole space look a little more modern.  Lucky for us, the floors were in great condition (not too thin) and were able to accept a dark stain.  After looking into the costs of sanding and staining, we decided that for a mere $500-$750 more, we could have it done professionally.  Sold!

We used Blake Floors in STL after hearing great things about them from friends and our realtor.  They offer the unique ability to "pop" the grain of wood with water which allows the wood to accept a greater amount of stain, yielding a darker color.  Hooray! 

The whole process took 5 days from staining, drying and two layers of poly.  I bring you new floors!

Here's where we tell you that as the floors were being restained we happened to jet off to a prior commitment... out of the country... for 6 days...more on that and the great surprise we came home to tomorrow!

xoxo,

KC