Board and Batten and A Little Construction

It’s been very busy around my house the past few weeks. 

Does anyone else have a room in their house that they just don’t like? I do. Since I moved to this house I never could stand the look of the main floor family room.  It’s a big room and definitely has potential, but I hate the way my furniture looks in it. I have no walls.

One wall is all window, two other walls have room entrances and one wall is taken up by the TV. Not a great layout.

So instead of grumbling to myself any time I walk by that room, I decided to do something about it.

So here is my no-wall room before.

I took these pictures just before we started construction, so it’s in a bit of disarray already. You can see this angle from the entrance way.  Having this break in the wall actually made my entry seem smaller that it really was.  Company would crowd all around that little carpet area rather than walk a few steps in.

 

Here is another angle of the same room

What I need is a wall to put furniture against, so that my furniture isn’t in the middle of the room.  (What I really need is new furniture, but we won’t go there.)

So here is where the construction begins.

I must make mention here .. ahem.. that I, yes I did all my own taping and mudding of this drywall work.  Mr. Charming worked his magic putting up the wall, but I taped it. Ok, enough tooting my own horn. (toot)

A new day, with new sunshine. Don’t forget the very important job of priming bare drywall before you paint it.

So now that the wall is up, the board and batten commences.

Lets look at some before pictures. The baseboards have already been pulled off in this hallway.

Since my walls were in good shape, (although not always straight) The walls were painted white first and then strips of MDF were added in the chosen pattern.

After all the boards are up, its time to caulk all the joins and gaps.

After the caulking is dry, sanding is the dirtiest but most important job. Sand down any uneven joins with a power sander until it feels completely smooth.  I also went over all the straight edges with a sanding sponge just to make sure everything was completely smooth and no traces of caulking was left behind.

After sanding and wiping everything down free from dust.  Paint the entire thing all over again, including the walls you previously painted white.  You may need 2 or 3 coats.

I’m including this picture below because we started up the stairs before I painted the walls white.. and I’m here to tell ya… DON’T.  Paint them white first. It’s a lot less trouble.

So now lets take a closer before and after look.

The stairway went from this,

to this

The hallway went from this,

to this.

For more info on the wall hangings go to my previous post HERE.

The entry went from this,

to this.

This allows the room on the other side much more space to properly place furniture. You can see that the new wall has made my entrance seem so much larger too.

No wall hangings here yet.

As for the room on the other side of this wall… well that’s a post for another day!

 

ahhh.. now I can sit in my new room WITH walls and stare at my other walls.

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A Place on My Wall

What do these three things have in common?

A wicker place mat

A decorative bird plate

and this wooden charger plate

Well normally put together they would make for one fabulous place setting, but I had something else in mind.  Instead of using them for my table, I wanted them for my wall.

I’ve just finished some Board and Batten throughout my entry, hallway and up the stairs. I wanted something different for the top. I didn’t want pictures, I didn’t want metal florals, but these, THESE caught my eye.  And since I couldn’t decide on which color to go with, I went with them all!

And down the hallway to the end, is Yellow Bird.

I might be a little unconventional in putting these together the way I did, but when simple works, work it simple!   Thread wire through the holes in the wicker, twist and make a heavy duty, secure loop.

I’ve learned that Velcro can be your best friend.

Velcro the backs of your plates, making sure the Velcro lands on the ridge of the back of the plate. There are two sizes of Velcro here, just to show you the difference.  The larger in the center is the industrial strength and it’s all you need. Notice how the piece in the middle covers the ridge of the plate on top and bottom.

Stick the plate to the charger and the charger to the place mat, all the same way.  I love how they look. All three pieces are from Pier 1.

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Lace Dresser

This lace stenciled dresser started out as anything BUT this.

I had 3 totally different ideas in mind for this piece but then this came to me, and I just went with it.

Let’s start from the beginning, (after a little paint on top and sides).

It really wasn’t in bad condition at all. The top was a little roughed up, but it had good bones.

After the entire piece was primed with Kilz primer and sanded, it was given a couple of coats of Krylon Satin Almond.

The drawers were painted white.  When all the paint was dry, I took a piece of old lace I had in my craft drawer, (that makes me sound so organized, ‘my craft drawer’  ) It was in a plastic shopping bag in my laundry room… there...I said it.

Anyhow, I laid the piece of lace on the drawer.  I didn’t find it necessary to adhere the lace to the drawer as I really made sure that the lace was completely flat.  I didn’t want to have ‘sticky’ problems later when I tried to get any adhesive off, so I didn’t use it.  I sprayed a very LIGHT coat of the almond color on top of the lace and gave an extra spray on the sides.

And just because I’m daring, I took some gold spray paint and gave it a very light go over with the gold.  Then the entire dresser was misted with gold (barely noticeable) and then lightly distressed.

As for hardware.  I didn’t like the top knobs on the dresser, but I did decide to keep the retro looking pulls.  I lightly sprayed them with white and then wiped most of it off, leaving just white in the crevices.

 

As for the other hardware, I removed the tiny knobs that were there and used a couple of vintage pulls I had on hand from another project. The pulls were antiqued gold and I thought they were perfect just as they were. No paint required.

 

This can now be used an entry console, in a guest room, or living room.

Voila !

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My 15 Minutes of Fame – (kinda)

If you are an avid blog reader, ( or just simply follow this blog ) you’ll probably know about Flea Market Style Magazine.

Most of us do-it-yourselfer’s who refinish, recycle, repurpose and up-cycle squeal with delight when this highly anticipated, revered periodic arrives.

So one day during my routine blog perusing, I come across a blog that posted how she was mentioned in Flea Market Style Magazine…and thankfully she mentioned a few other blogs who were mentioned…and I see ‘Recaptured Charm’.  As I haven’t yet received my copy in the mail,  I just had to rush out and buy one anyway.

…and lo and behold right there on page 27, there it is…

Under the category of Best Before-And-After Posts, my lil’ ol blog was mentioned.

Top billing of course went to a well deserved Miss Mustard Seed’s Creative Blog. If you haven’t visited her, please do so, she’s worth the time. Also well worth the time is The DIY Showoff Blog, filled with before and after shots, (including some of mine!)

ok one more close up of my name.. woo hooo!!

A great big THANKS to the people at Flea Market Style Magazine for the mention!

Ok, someone peel me off the ceiling.