Inspo:

A little dark, a little moody, but also pops of yellow and white to brighten it up. Gold for metal accents, dark blues, dark greys, and mustard/golden yellow. Some wood natural tones to lighten up. Black to ground.

The Starting Place:

Closing Day:

The above pictures are from around the time we acquired the house. Overall, the living was in dated, but not obviously bad shape. The laminate flooring looked pretty good in here, but in other parts of the house it had water damage on top and mold underneath. The living room was one of the last rooms we removed the laminate from, but we wanted to uncover the real wood floors and didn’t trust that there wasn’t mold lurking underneath. There wasn’t much mold, but there was damage to the subfloor in areas so we repaired that and replaced damaged floor boards with the same flooring from the bedroom. These boards are only a quarter inch thick, and so impossible to find a dup of nowadays. So, we removed the flooring from the bedroom (as there were thicker hardwoods under that flooring anyway) and used it to patch in the dining room and living room.

 The paneling was bowing over the fireplace, so we removed it. The fireplace bricks have been partially primed and the paint swatches have been tested throughout. The ceiling fan was replaced with our electric work, and a light switch added by the dining room wall. The window has been repaired and the incorrectly sized storm window replaced. Ceiling dry wall was patched after electrical work, but still needs mudding.

The One Room Challenge Begins:

Since move-in, we’ve put boxes and packing materials that we aren’t sure what to do with in the living room along with the two couches that will make their home here. A bathroom door is currently being store in this room as well. Before we can get started, we’ll need to remove as much of the clutter as we can as that there is space to work. We’re still finishing up the dining room floors, but we plan to move the couches in there temporarily while we sort out this room once we’re done with those floors. Many of these boxes are empty and simply need to be broken down. Others can be moved into the future guest room for now.

So what are we planning to do in here?

Well, the paint color for the walls picked out is a darker grey – seen painted in the corner right now. I think the trim will remain white, as will be ceiling. I think the fireplace will be a darker color – dark blue or black maybe to contrast with the white wood work around it. I’m undecided on if the wall behind the fireplace will be accented or not. Landon will be handling the execution of re-covering the exposed shiplap (our shiplap was meant to be function, not pretty, and as sure isn’t in that great of shape) so I’m going to wait to see what he comes up with. I think I may jazz up the frame of the mirror the house came with and re-hang it over the fireplace.

Our floors will get refinished – we still have some extra boards, so Landon is going to go through and replace any boards with cracks or significant damage before we stain and seal the floors. The floor boards you see are only ¼” thick, so eighty or so years of wear and tear has really stressed some of these boards. The colors isn’t bad though and the floors aren’t currently sealed, so we’ll just be cleaning them and then staining a darker color.

Other tasks on the docket: The front door is going to get painted something besides red – maybe white to go with the rest of the trim. We need to finish mudding a drywall patch from our electrical work and then finish painting the ceiling. I want to get the windows over the fireplace to open more easily – right now they stick pretty badly. We have some trim to replace were it got removed. I also have a few pieces of furniture to refinish/rework to go into this room.

Old house things I find interesting in this room:

• It’s hard to see in the pictures and with the drywall dust, but there’s a very clear trail from the front door to the other side of the room which must have been the main walking patch at one time – the stain has worn away in that area.
• There used to be French doors on the big empty wall next to the fireplace, which really helps this weird layout make much more sense. We met a woman whose family lived in and renovated this house in the late 1970s – they added the paneling, dropped the ceilings, and covered up the two sets of French doors that led outside.
• At some point, someone cut pieces of peg board to replace floor boards… Use what you have, I guess?

To do list: (in no particular order)

• Paint walls – dark grey
• Paint trim – white
• Paint ceiling – white
• Paint fireplace – ??? dark
• Paint doors – ??? white?
• Fix paneling over the fireplace
• Get the fireplace windows to open
• Finish repairing the ceiling drywall
• Refinish the floors
  • Replace cracked boards as needed
  • Clean thoroughly
  • Remove carpet staples, gunk, nails as needed
  • Stain and seal
• Repair and clean tile in front of fireplace
• Paint bookshelves – white
• Replace trim in corner
• Add toe-kick/quarter round trim
• Furnish and decorate
• Cover attic fan switch hole
• Remove clutter
• Cover & protect couches

Week 2:

Goals: This week, I want to finish patching/mudding the drywall on the ceiling, test some paint samples for the fireplace, remove as much clutter as I can, and clean up so that I have the space I need to work with. I’ll also be trying to get the dining room floors more finished, so that I can move stuff into the dining room as needed. If I have the time, I’ll also be trying to get the fireplace windows to open better – it’ll be nice to have more windows to open to get the paint and stain fumes out when I get to that point!

This blog post is a late addition to my week one One Room Challenge participation – visit http://www.oneroomchallenge.com/orc-blog for more rooms and updates!