Friday, March 18, 2011

The Beach Guest Room Day #3!

A short recap, at this point I have removed all the wallpaper in the room. Next? I sanded and spackled a few nail spots, as well as washed down all the trim and windows. After that I sanded, spackled and sanded again where curtain rod holes were on the window frames.

The next step? Paint the trim and windows! All of same would be getting 2 coats of Behr Ultra Paint in Ultra Pure White with a semi-gloss finish.
Tapping off windows and trim is probably my least favorite thing. I would rather remove a full room of wallpaper. Seriously, I would. It’s so tedious and time consuming and really just kills my motivation to move on. But, I pushed through, tapped off the three windows and the large amount of trim and door.

I did all of this in more than just a day, but for blogging purposes I’ll lump it into one day. Overall the whole room from wallpaper removal to final paint layer took about 2 weeks, which is pretty good considering that I did it alone AND I work full time.

Fabulous Husband did help out with changing out the two outlets and the one light switch in the room. As did our wonderfully crazy foster dog Ris, who we are encouraging to pay attention and learn some tricks of the renovation trade. She’s only excelling at taking cute pictures at this time.






After two coats on ALLLLL the trim, I then started to cut in with the beautiful wall paint….

More to come…

PS. For those who may wonder, yes, I did (accidentally) paint the windows shut. I’m going to try to remedy that this weekend.




Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Beach Guest Room Day #2!

On the first night of my boredom, I removed the first layer of the wallpaper, simply by peeling it off. I pushed all the furniture into the middle of the room and emptied out what I could. What was left on the walls was the paper wallpaper backing, which ironically looked better than the wallpaper itself.




The next day I grabbed my 5 gallon bucket, rubber gloves, gallon of vinegar, plastic floor covering, and scrapper. Using a 50/50 mixture of warm water and vinegar I sponged the walls down with it, let it sit for 10-15 minutes and began removing the sheets of the paper backing. As luck would have it, they came off with ease and the job didn’t take nearly as long as I anticipated.

But I smelled like vinegar. Yum.

At this point in the renovation, I have removed enough wallpaper that I think I can call myself a pro. And oddly I find it almost cathartic. There is one full wall of wallpaper in the office left and then 2 bathrooms with some wallpaper. I’m almost sad that I will most likely have no wallpaper left to remove by the time we have been in the house a year.


I may have to offer my services to some friends down the road just to enjoy what has become a favorite past time of mine. NOT.






Monday, March 14, 2011

The Beach Guest Room Day #1

Last weekend I was bored and decided that the wallpaper in this room just HAD to go. It is the only remaining room with four full walls of wallpaper and while not completely obnoxious, I was over it. Plus I have a really great plan for this room.

The wallpaper was a wonderful fabric damask in an ivory (read: dirt) color. The pictures do not do it justice, or maybe they do. I will leave you to decide that. The floors in this room are some of the nicest in the house with a nice deep, dark stain that is in really good condition save a few spots. My plan was to do something that would highlight the wonderful floors and use the fact that there are three windows (2 north facing and one west facing) that get great afternoon sun.
I tried two different paint samples from Behr. I already had the color picked out in my mind and on a paint chip, but figured I would try another color as well. Well my original paint color won. The room will be painted “Ozone” by Behr (color on the right) and this will be the “Beach” Guest Room.


In case you didn’t know, I am a beachaholic. I lived at or near a beach for most of my life. Having acquired a collection of beach theme décor, I figure this is a great place to put it to use.

So, join me in my boredom as I show you how I redid this room from start to finish!

Oh and just for fun, check out the current light fixture. I kid you not, this is exactly as it was when we arrived. No comment.