Room Remodels

 Tastes, like people, can change except where books are concerned.  Books are always, ALWAYS en vogue.  When we were first planning our home we knew how we wanted the house to feel; warm, comfortable, inviting, peaceful, etc. (like walking into a Brambley Hedge book or a great jazz song).  We chose calming, warm, colors. In our bedroom we wanted to bring out our love literature and children. We also wanted to match the wall color with a favorite antique painting we bought when we were first married. 

Then, we wanted to incorporate some wrought iron, old fashioned and quaint right? Yeaaaahhh, but it didn't work together . . . at alllll. Add to that the detail that all of the art that children gave us was taped and tacked on the walls "pell mell," and none of the furniture coordinated. What to do . . . what to do. . .

We took photos of the room thinking a color change would do the trick. Nope. One look at the photos and we realized it would take a lot more than a coat of paint to achieve a look and feel into which we could and would retreat.

First, we had to decide what we did want, since we could see what we didn't want.  I gleefully tittered, and skittered notes to myself as I browsed through Pinterest and Better Homes and Gardens.  I finally narrowed it down to a few "looks" from good ol' B.H. & G. that would work with our small bedroom and large window.  Nate and I spent nearly a week going over these finalists before finally selecting the winner, a blue and white color scheme with floor to ceiling shelves on either side of the bed. Gahhh! 

Secondly, we had to find the right shade of blue for our room.  I went down to Lowes and brought home a selection of paint chips in every shade of blue from antique cornflower to midnight navy.  Once Nate and I had our four or five favorite shades, I went back and purchased one pint (soooo cute!!) of each color to put on the wall and see which one worked best.  We decided on a light, dusty blue for all four walls, but at the last minute I changed my mind and went with a darker, Wedgewood style blue and a white for the accent wall.  That meant we had to go through the same process with the selection of the white. Only this time we had to coordinate it with the blue and with a painting we had purchased to put on one of the walls. This proved easier than we anticipated since the parameters greatly limited our options. Whew! After this it was only a couple of delicious days of painting and we were ready for flooring.

Nate and Andrew pulled up the carpet and carpet pad one evening after work and let the concrete air for a couple of days before Andrew put in the new moisture barrier and bamboo flooring. It was finally coming together!! While the menfolk were accomplishing these chores, I busied myself refinishing our bedroom furniture.  I purchased a few (ok, several) bottles of antique white spray paint and positively drowned our drab bookshelf and yellowed nightstand.  Once the glue on the floor and the paint on the furniture had dried (mostly) I eagerly rearranged the bedroom with most of our old furniture plus two rugs my mother crocheted from old quilt scraps. They put the finishing touches of perfection on the room. A bonus result of this renovation was that the heat efficiency of the room was greatly improved.

Once the efficiency improvements became evident, we decided that the girls room had to be next on the renovation list.  This proved to be much more time and labor intensive.

The first item of business was to clean and clear the room. There were books, toys, bits of food, and inexplicable mountains of garbage everywhere! This "purging" took nearly two days, but was worth it. We were able to give away several duplicate books and unused toys.  The rest were stored in organized piles until the renovation was completed. 

The inspiration for the room's new layout was inspired by a visit to my uncle's home over Christmas break.  He has 11 children and 8 of them still live at home! Several of his children share rooms, and to give them more space he recently suspended their former bunk beds from the ceiling. Genius!! With their high ceilings, this gave the occupants, essentially, multilevel rooms. This, we decided was exactly what we needed to do in the small room that our girls shared. It would allow them space to play, unencumbered by beds. Also, it would mean more efficiency in heating.

The process of color selection was much easier this time.  Each of the girls chose one color and I chose one more for the fourth wall (green, blue, yellow, purple).  Then I selected the colors in coordinating shades. I was able to reuse the painting supplies leftover from the master bedroom (chaching!) and began painting their room almost immediately. The difference in remodeling this room was that I could only paint half the room at a time because of the bunk bed.  I finished painting the first half of the bedroom so Andrew could hang the first bed.  To suspend the beds we purchased heavyweight chain, 2x4 boards, steel connectors, and bolts.  I was super excited when I found white enamel chain with the proper weight capacity!! Andrew screwed the board to the wall for the bed to rest on, as well as bolting the bedframe to the wall studs.  The chain was suspended from eye bolts inserted into our trusses. More eye bolts were put in the bedposts and connected to the chain with the steel connectors. Though Andrew made things look easy, especially in these photos, the first bed took nearly half a day to properly suspend.  Once up, he climbed onto the bed and tried to emulate excited children to be sure it would hold the girls and their little friends.

With the first bed hung, we pushed the second bed underneath and I cleared and cleaned the second half of the room in preparation for paint.  One thing I must point out as to the wall preparation for paint is that the so called "easily removed!" wall decals are NOT easily removed.  I ended up having to take a fillet knife to the walls to remove them.  Then I had to remove the sticky residue with "goo gone." It was grueling and easily the most odious job of the whole renovation. That stated, the patching and painting went very smoothly. The walls had to be patched with drywall "mud" due to scratches, nicks, and permanent marker. Yes, permanent marker will bleed through both primer and paint (I did two coats of each!).  Even with the mud, some of the marker showed through.  Lesson learned, NEVER, EVER let children use permanent markers. The second bed was a little more difficult to hang because it was on two exterior walls and ours are foam form. This meant that the bed had to be suspended from the ceiling by all four corners as well as being secured to the walls.  Despite the extra difficulties, the bed was suspended at long last.

The next step was to remove the carpeting. I cannot express how utterly disgusting this carpet was. At some point a child had snuck some sort of spillable spoilable.  It had accomplished both.  In that spot was a dried garden of dead life forms that eerily reminded me of Ursula's groups of victims, reaching upward toward the light.  They were also sticky.  Mmmmm creepy, crunchy and sticky, not a great combination for bedroom flooring. Andrew rolled up the carpet and we carried it outside.

The floor needed to air for a couple of days before Andrew could begin laying the new moisture barrier and flooring. The flooring in this room was also a bit more difficult because we decided to put the bamboo all the way into the closet.  This required some extra fitting and piecing. With the floor set and the trim replaced, it was now time to replace the bookshelves, books, toy baskets, toys, and clothes bins.  Oh, and we had to hang the rope ladders from the beds.  I had the rooms arranged in an afternoon, but the rope ladders proved to be another difficulty. "The boys" spent the better part of a weekend mounting, stabilizing, and securing the ladders to the beds and floors.  They had to use concrete "red heads" to secure more eye bolts into the floor to keep the ladders from swinging and swaying while the girls climbed. The bedframes also needed reinforcement to support the new movement and ladder style.  In the end they also decided to put hand rails at the top to assist the girls in the final ascent to their beds.  The final product is more than impressive.  The girls absolutely love their room and spend at least twice as much time in it now.  We arranged the room so that they each have a space to call their own, using the bookshelves as dividers and "walls."  They each have their own shelf, toy basket, and clothes bins. My mom made each of them a rug to match their wall color. Aaaaand the room is heating much more efficiently.  All tastes involved are extremely satisfied.