Renovation Staycation
Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 01:46PM A few months ago my mother and I had decided to take a weekend trip together to celebrate Mother's Day. We discussed going to the California wine country, Vegas, to the Northeast, and a few other places. Then I planned a pricey 10-day European vacation in November and also bought a house - one that needs some TLC. So we decided we would take a staycation together for four days and tackle a few of the many projects that need to be done.
The priority project has been my bedroom. Since I bought the house, I've had the idea of making it feel like a bright, happy Scandinavian room, and in order to accomplish this, I came up with the idea to put wood planks on the wall and paint them white. We used 5.5" x 6 ft cedar fencing slats and cut them into a pattern. I wanted it to feel "old" and not too perfect, so we left the boards unsanded and used 1-3/4" galvanized roofing nails to get the effect we desired.
We started by using my mom's stud finder, and marked the spots on the wall. Then, just like when you lay floors, you have to set your initial level line, meaning, your first row of boards are the most crucial and will completely jack up your entire project if they're off. Make sure to nail into the studs or your boards will fall off the wall, or end up tearing your sheet rock apart. Overall, it took us about 3 hours to complete an 8ft x 11 ft wall. Not bad.
While I loved the way the original cedar looked, it didn't work with my furniture. It would have looked bad with the color of my bed - almost like wearing 2 shades of black together, if you know what I'm sayin'. I ended up watering down some flat white paint and using a sponge to give it a whitewash effect. And this is where I currently am on the project; it's looking good thus far. I was hoping it wouldn't be too "shabby chic" (blegh), but I think it works with my modern furniture.
I've also been painting the room a medium gray which is looking awesome. Alright, I will zip it for now and let you take a look at the pictures:
Reader Comments (2)
I *luh* this. I also luh the dark wall. After meeting you, I'm thinking of doing similar beautification projects at my place, but the one thing I lack is the momentum to actually do it. I would luh to see a post or hear your thoughts on how you muster up enough mustard to see your projects through to completion. Is there a magic potion that you take? I want that.
Thank you dahling. If you want to run some ideas by me, I can help you figure out how to do them with the least amount of materials, effort, and money. To be honest, I had to take time off work to get this done. And my mom helped. That might be the magic potion :)