Sunroom Progress

Picking up where we last left off, work on our sunroom is now underway. Over the weekend, we painted the ceiling, trim and walls Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White – the ceiling went flat, the walls matte and the trim semi-gloss. Previously the walls were beige with white trim, and given that the room has so much going on with the wall of windows, trim and recessions between wood panels, I wanted to minimize the contrast to trick everyone visually that our ceilings aren’t as low as they actually are in here. Shh, just forget I said that when you look at the photos 😉

On move-in day:

Before painting (we drop-clothed the Milo Baughman etagere because it takes up so much space, but it’s now disassembled in our dining room):

Painting wasn’t as simple as I had expected, we had to pull out the caulk and dried paint between all the wood panels, re-caulk them and strip the paint and caulk from the windows, since it was in awful shape. Then, even though the wood had been primed and painted previously, I found that the paint was seeping into the wood a bit, so we needed two coats, more than our standard one with Benjamin Moore Regal paint.

We also ripped out the institutional-looking radiator cover that reminds me of elementary school, in a bad way. Of course the radiator was inserted into the wall, so we’re going to have to cover up that hole in the wall with wood. A built in window bench will go in front of most of that gaping hole.

Then, we ripped up the carpeting, pulled up all the staples in the carpeting membrane and then discovered some of the ugliest tiles we’ve ever laid eyes on. They provided a pretty good base though, for our peel and stick vinyl tiles. This is where the biggest debate happened – what pattern to lay the tiles in. Originally, inspired by Brady Tolbert’s kitchen I’d planned on the diamond pattern, then, I thought it might look busy, so I opted for a stripe, but once we had them layed out on the floor, a few things made the decision for us. These tiles are super cheap (which is what makes them a great temporary solution, until we do the hardwoods throughout the house), but that also means they don’t line up perfectly and the colour and texture varied a lot. I was worried that the stripes wouldn’t be perfect enough for me, where the diamond pattern is more foregiving. Also, once they were laid out, the diamonds just looked more dynamic.

I know they look bold, and they are, but once we have some textured neutral rugs in here and a hanging rattan chair and lots of natural, organic fabrics, they won’t be nearly as aggressive.

The diamonds were hard to photograph on a sunny day, since this room is crazy bright and their finish is high gloss, but rest assured we love them in the space.

There’s still a lot left to do in this space, but we’re really rushing to get it to a place where we can move furniture back in here and then slowly work through the rest of the projects.

The project list:

• Finish installing the edge tiles (two of the boxes of black tiles that we received had bent corners, so they need to be exchanged)
• Install baseboards
• Paint the radiator covers
• Finish painting the windows
• Order and install new flushmount ceiling fixtures
• Swap out the outlet covers
• Build a radiator window seat and sew a matching cushion (more details forthcoming on this)
• And then it’s decor: source a rattan hanging chair, two rugs, hang some art
• Eventually we want to replace the sliding door, with a much more attractive French Door, but that won’t be until the spring

Wish us luck!