RESTORATION DWELLING: Living Room

Thursday, October 6, 2016

#ladydianereno - Closet

I know that title doesn't exactly pull you in... a closet redo? Really? Yeah a closet! A closet that didn't exist now exists! And who doesn't want more storage in their house?

We'll start with a few before pictures.

Honestly, I can't even believe these pictures anymore. Now it looks like this...

We built a wall! Not like Donald Trump...we paid for this wall. We didn't ask Mexico to pay for it. How could I not go there when we built a WALL?!? Any who... I digress.

So this new wall creates a new built-in space for the fridge (creating better work flow in the kitchen), creates more space in the laundry room (Hallelujer!), and it creates space for a new closet! I guess technically it can be a linen closet, but we're using it for board games and movies.
(If you want to see more details about the wall you can check it out HERE!)

Here's the progression of the closet.

We framed in the rough in (and turns out we didn't leave ourselves enough extra...it was a whole thang) and then added drywall. Then mudded and taped all of the seams. And after each layer you have to sand them down. That's not fun. And that doesn't show up on progress pictures so major bummer for me there. Then I painted the closet and Jonathan added the shelves. Then we installed the door and painted it and installed the hardware.

Here's the deal. When you are beginner DIYers and you have three kids it takes FOREVER to get one tiny little closet done. Because after school, soccer practice for both boys, small group, other ministries, work, and throw in nursing a baby in there a few times... there is no time to mud the corners of a closet. You don't realize how many seams a tiny little closet has until you have to mud all bajillion of them. Maybe I'm being a little dramatic.

I still have to add the farmhouse trim around the door. And paint the walls in that alcove, but I'm waiting until we can texture them. And when I say "we" I mean we will hire someone with the right equipment who is a lot faster than me.

So that's our new closet. I'm really excited to have it finished and functional to take advantage of that new storage! Woohoo!

Next up...more shiplap. I couldn't get enough so I'm adding more to my dining room! :)

Monday, July 18, 2016

#ladydianereno - Laundry/Kitchen

We have an outdated, eighties original kitchen in #LadyDianeReno. Complete with blue wallpaper and fur downs. When we first moved in we had to do immediate demo to make room for updated appliances. The original range was built in and much skinnier than ranges today.

The progression...

This squeezed everything in there without having to damage countertops and send us into a full kitchen renovation right away.

Next, I think I waited a whole week before we ripped down the overhead cabinets blocking the view from the kitchen to the dining room.

We lost a lot of storage doing that but I. Did. Not. Care.

It also didn't take me long to start tearing down that wallpaper either!

We've been living with this for a year now as I tried to tweak my kitchen design to fit in that space. I've finally got my design in my head and have started the first phase. This first phase bumps out the wall dividing the laundry and living rooms further in to the living room. It creates a nice little space for my fridge to be built in, makes my laundry room bigger and creates a small closet for games and movies.

Before:

This wall wasn't load bearing, but I still wanted to construct the new wall before tearing down the existing one. So I pulled back the carpet, took off drywall and started marking everything on the floor.

Adding ceiling plates was by far the most time consuming part of constructing the new wall. After those were up we framed the wall and raised it into place!