The Big Reveal, Part 1

It seems like it’s taken forever but I finally have one area of the house completed. There are many more areas yet to be done, but this feels pretty darn good.

I finished the front of the fireplace today meaning the living area is complete. The before and after photos are here.

The new features include the wooden blinds, day bed, fireplace, shelving to the right of the fireplace, and a new sectional couch.

There were no window treatments in the house when I bought it last July, so I to do something. My old couch just didn’t match this house and it was 15 years old and past its prime.

Installing the fireplace drove the rest of the changes. In the before photo you can see the box/shelf that was once in this room. The fireplace replaced that but changed the dimensions of that wall.

To fill the space on the right I put up glass shelving, using glass I saved from an old shelving unit that went to the dump. The day bed fills the space on the left including space for the television devices as well as storage in the back for dvd’s and vhs tapes.

The front of the fireplace is made from the same material used for peg boards without, obviously, the holes. I had originally hoped to use plexiglass but I discovered that, once painted, the plexi became a mirror. I’m not so egotistical that I wanted to sit on the couch in front of the fireplace, watching tv, and seeing my reflection the entire time.

I did not want the grain look that would come with using traditional wood and after doing some searching discovered this material. It has a smooth surface and no grain so it fits the bill well.

I painted the boards a glossy black and then used purple and blue spray paint for the finished look. The blue in the front matches both the rocks in the fireplace base and the blue tiles on the kitchen counters. (This is the sales photo of the fireplace.)

The boards are suspended about an inch from the fireplace wall using French cleats. I wanted the pieces to be suspended to allow depth and shadows. In addition, if I decide I want a different look at some point in the future the boards can be easily lifted off and repainted.

Now it’s onto the next project… this one will be a bit more challenging. Stay tuned.

A Place for Everything

When I first toured this house a little more than a year ago it was quite apparent that storage would be an issue.

There aren’t enough cabinets in the kitchen, the walk-in closet in the master bedroom is ok but not large by any means, and the two guest room closets are average at best. Other than that there is a small storage room where the furnace is located, another area above the small guest bathroom and a very small coat closet in the main room.

That’s it.

Having moved from a five bedroom house with an additional storage/work room that is the size of two bedrooms combined, the storage here seems especially minuscule.

Since moving in here one of my top priorities has been to increase that storage space. I added shelving in all of the closets and one of the kitchen cabinets, built storage into the daybed I wrote about in my previous post, and now I have just finished a large cabinet in the unfinished bathroom in the basement.

The bathroom is four feet wide and a little over 10 feet deep. The plumbing is in place for a bathroom but has yet to be added, one of my future projects.

With showers in both the master and guest bathrooms, I decided I needed storage space much more than I needed a third shower, so I closed in the area where the shower would have been located in the basement bathroom.

At four feet wide and just less than two feet deep, the cabinet provides a lot of additional storage space.

I stained it the color of the lighter shade I used on the basement flooring. I continue to learn how much difference there can be in the color of stain depending on what kind of wood is used. The interior of the cabinet is made of finished plywood and the stain is much darker than the trim on the outside and doors. And the trim is slightly darker than the basement floor.

The glass in the doors is made from plexiglass painted with spray paint. The streaking effect was done simply by spraying the glass in long strokes. It gives it texture and provides a translucent appearance.

I do have to finish that bathroom yet and the cabinet will look more finished once the room is finished as well. But first, I have other projects that must be tackled… like even more storage.

I have four projects left before I’ll have completed the initial list of projects I made when I bought the house. Those four projects are two additional storage cabinets in the basement, finishing the front of the fireplace and the adding railing around my office loft.

Next up is that fireplace.

Daybed is nap ready

I’m happy. The daybed is complete and I’m happy with the way it came out.

As I’ve worked on the many different projects around this house, I’ve continued to learn more and more about building things. The daybed isn’t perfect. I would do a couple of things differently if I were to do it over again. None-the-less, I am very happy with the way it turned out.

When we installed the new fireplace last November it left an odd nook in the front corner of the house. If I were to put a chair or couch in there it would have simply gotten lost behind the side wall of the fireplace.

After a bit of consideration (honestly, it was only a bit), the solution was to build a daybed. Because storage is an issue in this house I wanted to include space in it for dvd’s and videotapes.

The end result is what you see here. The bed is four feet deep and just over six feet wide. It’s plenty big enough to lay on for a nap or to read a book and also provides additional seating when I have guests in.

The shelving on the front gives me a place to tuck in the various television devices. The middle section is simply for decorative items and the bottom left provides a lot of room for the videos that we will view a little more often.

The back half is a storage area. The top easily lifts off for access. I have more than enough room to store all the many videos I have, and I have a lot.

Ann’s Upholstery in East Moline, created the cushions for me. The front is one long cushion and the back is two cushions, divided in half so that you can access the storage bins separately.

By the way, Ann does a great job. She’s 74 years old and can still outwork most of us. She’s done the work for the Exotic Thai restaurants and many other businesses, and I would recommend her highly.

So far I’ve thrown one long body pillow on it and a couple of other large pillows from TJ Max. I’ll probably pick up two or three smaller ones along the way to add just a bit more color and interest to it.

I’m one of those people who always sees what I could have done better when I get a piece done. Though that is indeed true with this one as well, I’m still very happy with the results.