This reveal has been a LONG time coming. I’ve already shared our new front door (which we’re obsessed with), but the entire front hallway has been transformed. From the start I knew that our hallway had potential, but we left the space to the very end, as hallways tend to get banged up the most with constant renovations. Let’s jump into it with a before and after…
Way back in May I wrote the last blog post about our main floor bathroom reno. Like all things in 2020, this project took far longer than we anticipated, but, good things are worth waiting for, right?? So, let’s talk through the project and get into those satisfying after photos.
To bring you up to speed, when we first moved into our house, over four years ago, we gave the bathroom on our main floor a cosmetic overhaul. We painted the walls and ceiling black, the vanity a glossy black, upgraded the lighting, and installed a brass faucet found on Craigslist. A few weekends worth of work and less than $1K in spend turned this into a bathroom we loved. We never used the shower (ever) and weren’t thrilled with the tile, but it didn’t make sense to do much more here when we had so many other projects to complete. We always talked about this being the bathroom that was at the very end of the project list, so if we ran out of spaces to renovate, we’d then tackle this one. Welp… during our kitchen reno, we received a call from our contractor saying that they needed to rip out the wall between the bathroom and kitchen and tear out the floors of the bathroom in order to make it structurally sound. So, we lived for a year and half with the below unusable bathroom, which forced our hand into a complete renovation of the space.
Here’s the satisfying before, refresh, and final after comparison photos:
This is the third bathroom we’ve gut renovated in four years and we have learned so much and have leveled up our skills with each project (bathroom one, bathroom two). So, I knew that we had the capacity to take on even more with this bathroom than we had in the past, and I’m so thrilled with the end result.
I dream about having high ceilings one day, but in the meantime, like many of you, I’m living in a home with standard 8-foot ceilings. As we’ve been sharing the renovations and design of our home, I hear the same question over and over “wait, are your ceilings really 8-feet? I didn’t know I could do that…”, so I figured the topic was worthy of a blog post. Here is my best advice for how to make your 8-foot ceilings work for you, not against you.
1. You can install crown moulding
One of the most common misconceptions around 8-foot ceilings is that you can’t install crown moulding without making the walls look squat. I don’t agree with this at all. When it comes to crown moulding, I would keep two things in mind when working with 8-foot ceilings:
If you’re new around here, three years ago my husband and I purchased our first house: a 1940’s Colonial located in a very cute coastal Connecticut town. We’ve been tackling remodeling the house room by room, where we’re always looking for ways to add equal parts function and character into our house.
So here we are, one week out from the reveal and I’d be disingenuous if I didn’t say I’m pretty stressed about getting everything in place in time. But, I’m letting go of the things I can’t control, yet, am going to do everything I can to get this space done in time. However, if there’s anything that’s missing next week, know that it is because renovations don’t always work on strict 5-week timelines, and it’s normal for delays to happen. Just trying to keep it real!
Regardless, I know we’re going to be so happy with where our
kitchen ends up in our reveal next week!
So let’s jump in to what we’ve accomplished this past week, it was a big one.
Original art can completely make a space feel unique, interesting, and cohesive, but sourcing art has always felt overwhelming and inaccessible. Until, I started discovering artists on Instagram, who I could connect with more directly, without needing to work with an intimidating gallery. Here are some of my favourite artists who are doing something special in the art world that I discovered on Instagram.
Angela Chrusciaki Blehm
I can almost guarantee that you’ve seen Angela’s modern take on pop art on Instagram. Her work is so unique and fresh, and the colour palettes are interesting, and I’ve seen her art shine in both modern spaces and traditional ones alike.
I recently captured two of her prints in this bold foyer by Diane Rath.
When my friend Sarah at Room For Tuesday asked me to take part in a holiday themed, Blog Hop Cookie Swap with some of my all-time fave bloggers, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out Dorie Greenspan’s Gingersnap cookie recipe (from her book, Dorie’s Cookies) that I’ve had bookmarked for months…err… maybe years. With holiday parties around the corner (we have two on Saturday alone), cookies are the easiest dessert to bring that are so conducive to sharing and universally beloved.
If you’re new around here, two years ago my husband and I purchased our first house: a 1940’s Colonial located in a very cute coastal Connecticut town. We’ve been tackling remodeling the house room by room, where we’re always looking for ways to add equal parts function and character into our house. Make sure to catch up on our One Room Challenge™ progress from past weeks (week one).
The first week is down in the books and we’ve made a decent amount of progress. This past week focused on the closet and getting the base IKEA Pax system in place. Make sure to read all the way through the post for the design plans at the bottom.
Installing the IKEA Pax
After a lot of research, we opted for the IKEA Pax system since it’s relatively budget friendly and includes a lot of options for drawers and accessories. If you’ve ever lived in a smaller home before, then you know how critical thoughtful and intentional storage can be, hence my obsession with making the most of every inch. While our home isn’t super small (2,100 sq. ft.), we still need to max out our storage potential. Before purchasing any units, we spent a lot of time in the planning phase. The overall dimensions of the walk in closet are 14″6 feet wide x 6″5 feet deep. Below was our initial plan, where we intended to each take one wall of the closet and then share the dressing area by the window. I mocked all the dimensions up on the IKEA site using the Pax planning tool and then again in renderings. Looking at the plan, it looks a tiny bit tight but workable, and we were assured by the staff at IKEA that the 32″ walkway was doable.
However, once we got the first two Pax units in place, we immediately felt claustrophobic and knew it was going to feel like a tunnel and not like the grown-up closet we imagined.
You can see how narrow the walkway looks when Cory was standing in it (for reference, he’s not a small guy, but it still felt a bit claustrophobic for me).
So, we went back to the drawing board and to IKEA for two shallower depth units (13″ instead of 23″), resulting in the below plan.
Once we got the new, shallower units in we couldn’t believe how much more spacious the closet felt. There was no longer a concern over our ability to open drawers and even whether we could see into the back of the closet, since light floods into the space from the window. Even though we gave up some hanging space, I can already tell that the revised layout is going to function so much better for the space.
We live in an old house so our floor are… quirky and not super level, so getting the units totally level to one another required a lot of shimming. We’re still waiting on a few missing pieces that are due back in-stock at our IKEA this week, as well as needing to finish up some electrical work.
Once we have the missing pieces, we’ll be moving forward on installing trimwork all over the closet system, followed by paint and hardware, so hopefully you’ll never even know there’s an IKEA system underneath. Given that our home is from the 1940’s, we’re always conscientious about ensuring any features we build in blend in seamlessly and the lines on the Pax read very modern without any modifications. Stay tuned from a massive IKEA hack!
In addition to installing the wardrobe units, we also mostly finalized the design plan. There are a few pieces that I haven’t quite nailed down, but I’m hoping to do so within the week.
The Bedroom Design
As with the other rooms we’ve completely remodeled in our house, were leaning hard into the New Traditionalist aesthetic for a sophisticated but modern and fun retreat. Starting with the walls, we’re adding lots of Metrie trim: baseboards, crown moulding, casing around the windows and doors, a chair rail and panel moulding on the lowers of the wall. All that trim is going to be painted a medium blue. Yes, blue.
Then, I’m going even further outside my comfort zone with a patterned blue and white wallpaper from Fabricut’s Trend collection, a brand new design from the Vern Vip collection (aka one of my fave TV designers of all time and possibly one of the reasons I’m obsessed with design in the first place).
The Ace light fixture from Troy Lighting is bringing all the modern edge to the room, where it’s mix of brass, black and white globes is everything I look for in a light fixture. Plus, with our standard height (read: not tall) ceilings I wanted a dramatic light fixture that was adjustable in height.
For the bed, we want an upholstered bed that slides right under the window, meaning we’re likely going to DIY another bed frame, since the dimensions are pretty atypical and low. I picked up vintage Ming nightstands for free off Facebook Marketplaces that I’m planning on refinishing, where I haven’t quite decided on the color. At the foot of the bed will be this great leather Article bench that has a super slender, modern base that I absolutely adore.
For a rug, we’re adding a jute herringbone rug, with a zebra printed cowhide from Hayneedle. I love adding a graphic cowhide layered over a natural rug for that extra visual interest.
Since we no longer need a dresser in the bedroom, we’re going to be adding a seating area in the corner, with the aspiration of curling up in the corner with a good book (a girl can dream). The Article Matrix chair is going to be the perfect chair for the job and the luxe velvet adds some more texture to the space.
Bedding is still TBD, but I knew this room needed some more edge, so I’m working with SWD Studios on a long lumbar for the bed in one of my favourite fabrics, Kelly Wearstler’s Graffito.
I also worked with Emtek to source door hardware that matches the aesthetic of the vintage knobs we have throughout the house. We’ve slowly been replacing the builder grade brass knobs with character-rich door hardware, and I’m excited for the same look, but with the modern features like a privacy button… it’s the little things, my friends!
I’m still finalizing the art selection with Minted and haven’t yet decided on window shades, but I love the natural bamboo shades (with blackout lining!) that Select Blinds offers, I just need to narrow it down.
Since this was already such a novel of a post, I’m going to leave you in suspense for one more week until I share the design plan for the closet.
What’s Next?
Come back next week for the closet design plan, and (hopefully) lots of progress. To follow along in real time, there will be lots of stories on my Instagram Stories. The plan for this week is to start tackling building out the window bench.
Check out progress from my fellow One Room Challenge™ featured designers below!
When I spotted the below image in Paloma Contreras’s new book, I knew I had a brand new obsession: lacquered walls. I can’t get these luxe, glossy walls out of my head. The light blue has the perfect amount of grey to keep this room feeling elevated and sophisticated. The lacquer adds this incredible luminosity to the space.
Now, I’m imagining all the rooms I could lacquer in my house to get this chic look in my own home. Which sent me down a design rabbit hole in search of fabulously lacquered rooms.
Like many of you, when looking to buy a house, hardwood floors were at the top of our list, knowing that refinishing them eventually would lead to a big boost in both the aesthetics and the value of the house. Well, now that we’ve been in our home for nearly two years (but really, how did that happen?!), “eventually” is finally here and I couldn’t be more excited.
Here’s the lowdown: we have pretty basic 3” wide Red Oak hardwood floors. Red Oak is among the most common domestic hardwoods, so they aren’t exactly the most special. One distinguishing feature of Red Oak is that it has very strong red undertones that will often lead to them looking very pink or orange if left a light or natural tone. One upside to Red Oak is that, unlike some softer woods like Pine, it takes a stain very uniformly, and can hold up to a good deal of abuse.
While our house was built in 1940, there was an addition to the home in the early 1980s, which is I believe, in part, when the hardwood floors were installed. We wish the species of our floors had more character or at least were more unique, but alas, you make the most of what you’ve got, and these floors are going to be gorgeous once we’re done with them.
As you may know by now, we’re obsessed with researching projects for months in advance of starting them, so we’re as educated as possible when executing on a project. I have been researching refinishing hardwood floors for at least a year now, so I feel very confident in the direction we’ve decided upon. Let’s dig in.
As we’ve gone through the process of remodeling our house one room at a time, we’ve become huge believers in the impact trimwork can have on elevating a space. We added panel moulding in our guest bedroom, highlighted the beadboard moulding in our main floor bathroom with a high contrast black and white palette, added crown moulding and baseboard moulding to our sunroom and even added crown moulding in our guest bathroom. It’s the finishing touch that takes a room to the next level.
For our recent remodel for the One Room Challenge, we paired with Metrie to bring trimwork to a space that is often forgotten: the bathroom. Our bathroom layout is long and narrow, with all the fixtures on one length of the room, meaning there’s a lot of exposed walls. This expanse of unused walls was begging for a special treatment to make them shine. I knew immediately that trimwork would be the way we could bring some detail to the walls.
Recessed wainscoting was the solution for this space for a handful of reasons:
It’s so elegant and classic. There’s no fear of becoming tired of it, since it’s such a historical treatment that has withstood the passage of time.
Raising the trimwork on the walls to match the depth of the tile in the shower allowed for a flat surface to run crown moulding across, tying the two areas together
The trimwork would mirror the pencil tile we were planning on adding in the shower.
The moulding could frame out a giant mirror over the vanity, making the space feel even more custom,
So, once we had decided wainscoting was the way to go, here are the steps we took:
1. Select your style of moulding.
Metrie offers five gorgeous collections that suit different aesthetics and styles of homes. We gravitated toward the Fashion Forward collection since it mirrored the classic lines throughout the rest of our home, but is also so chic and sophisticated.
2. Determine the types of moulding your space will require.
For wainscoting you need (and links to the ones we used):
Baseboards – they should be flat on the top edge so the stiles slide right over them
Stiles – the flat boards that are raised off the wall
Casing for windows and doors – it needs to have a greater depth on the outside edges than your stiles so the casing stands out
Fingerjoint Applied Moulding – this is the trimwork on the inside of the stiles that make up the decorative boxes
The best aspect of the Metrie collections is that all the pieces work together and you don’t have to worry about the depths of the pieces not working perfectly in unison.
I’ve indicated below each of the pieces:
3. Make a detailed plan.
Of all the types of trim we’ve installed to date, this wainscoting required the most planning in advance. Since the stiles create a fixed border on everything, you have to put a lot of thought into placement. There are different widths of stiles, baseboards, crown moulding, etc. so planning can help you to understand what will work within your space.
We ended up creating a to-scale mock-up in Photoshop and played around with the different sized pieces until we got to a plan that worked for us. We were also cognizant of scale, since our ceilings are standard height and the room isn’t huge, it made sense for us to go with mostly the smallest sized trimwork (though it was still very chunky and substantial – perfectly proportioned to our space).
Below, you can see how we mapped out the trim.
We used the window as the anchor for the trim layout. First, we planned the casing around the window, then we used the bottom edge to set the horizontal middle stile. From there, we ran a stile along the top, added baseboards and the stile above. We added the vertical stiles on each side of the window and framed out the right-hand opening. We then mirrored the dimensions for the boxes in the shower. Since the space above the window wasn’t large enough for an opening, we filled it in with a stile.
This is the window wall, where we used the stiles to fill in the space above the doorway, since it wasn’t large enough for an opening. When we installed, we actually didn’t add the fingerjoint behind the vanity so it would sit flush against the wall.
The short wall was the simplest, with just a frame along the outside edges and one middle stile.
4. Install the trimwork
Once you’re armed with a plan, actually installing is fairly straightforward. The tools we used at this point were:
Levels in an assortment of sizes – we used a 6-foot level on the longest sections, a 4-foot level where necessary, and a 2-foot level on the shortest runs. The goal is to use the level that’s closest in size where possible to keep your trim as straight as possible. We also used this laser level to set a guide for the entire width of the wall.
A nail gun with finish nails, we use a compressor with ours, but I’ve heard excellent things about this electric nail gun
A nail punch, to use with a hammer when nails don’t go as deep as you intended.
A compound miter saw – we started out with this one and recently upgraded to this larger one (both are great, we just needed a larger blade for a few recent projects)
Caulk plus this little tool that I loved using to smooth the caulk along the long seams
Wood putty (though we later switched over the drywall spackle, which we discovered works better on MDF).
Since we had a lot of moving pieces happening at once, we didn’t install the trimwork in the order I’d recommend, which would be:
Casings on windows and doors
Baseboards around the room
Horizontal stiles that run above the baseboards
Horizontal stile that runs the middle length of the room
Measure the distance down from the crown moulding and install the stile at the bottom edge of where the crown moulding will land
Install the vertical stiles throughout
Install crown moulding
This was our progression:
Drywall primed and ready to go.
Then we installed the casing, you can see how big a difference it makes.
Then first round of stiles up, set off the bottom edge of the window.
Then baseboards and bottom stiles.
5. Caulk the seams, edges and nailholes. Use wood putty and spackle to even out planes.
This is where you underestimate how much caulking needs to happen.
Here you can see we caulked and filled in between adding the applied fingerjoint moulding (as seen on the bottom box).
Then all the fingerjoint moulding went up.
6. Sand
Make sure everything is perfectly flat. Run your hand over all the seams and ensure you don’t feel any variance in the surface. You will see any imperfections after you paint.
7. Paint prep and paint!
Then we prepped for paint, by priming over the areas we had sanded. This was our first time painting a room with a spray gun and we learned a few things:
It’s all about the prep. This part takes the longest by far, but once it’s done painting with a spray gun is so quick and easy.
You use a LOT less paint. We bought two gallons of paint for this room and only ending up using about a half a gallon. Wow.
Maintain the same distance from the wall across your entire stroke, even if it means flexing your wrist at the ends.
8. Hang your crown moulding*
Ideally you do this before you paint, but since we were hanging it over tile, we painted it in the garage and installed it painted. Then we caulked and touched up with a high density foam roller.
9. Admire your finished space
And that’s it! We’re obsessed with the final result and couldn’t be happier with our experience of working with the Metrie trimwork (and team!).
Thank you to Metrie for sponsoring this project – while the product was provided, all opinions are my own.
