Living Room Finish

 If you page back through the blog you'll find a post regarding the living room back in 2012.

At that time we were in a mad rush to get things done before move-in. We thought "A couple coats of Killz primer on the walls, and we can paint it later". Well, 9 years later we finally got around to it. Along with some other additions. 

The ceiling in this room originally had some printed cellulose tiles that in many ways inspired our use of faux tin panels throughout the rest of the first floor. That said, they didn't match. So we decided to use the same finish in the living room to keep things consistent. 

As with the dining room, sealing the seams is the most time-consuming part.

This process took about half the time as the last room. We've gotten pretty good at installing them at this point. Caulking the seams on the other hand; started out taking quite a bit of time. Justin figured out that using a paintbrush to blend the caulk instead of the labor-intensive tasks of hand wiping it off sped things up considerably. The excess still needs to be wiped down, but the blending process takes less than half as long. 

Our resident paint ninja.

Commitment is cleaning the woodwork where no one will ever see it.

Brigitte tackled the taping and painting. As well as cleaning the woodwork. Justin had quite a bit of wood trim to replace in this room. As well as creating new crown molding for the ceiling to match the dining room. Not to mention filling 12 holes drilled in random places around the perimeter of the floor.

It's already looking better than when we first bought the house. Back then this room sported sponge painted over wallpaper on the walls. Along with some really sloppy crown molding. We spent weeks removing the wallpaper back then. 

Circa 2012

The floor required quite a bit of attention before moving furniture back in. A heavy coat of boiled linseed oil, and some touch-up of the polyurethane. Followed by some paste wax and buff. Though we had to take some extreme measures to keep the pets out while everything dried. 

Brigitte had a side project as well, finishing up the bookcase. It's part vintage, and new. The base came from another house down the street as a built-in. The top section was recreated to match.

Brigitte's handiwork.

Overall we are thrilled with the results. The only issue we ran into after the fact was that this beautiful room was now occupied by quite a bit of worn furniture. But the redecorating adventure will have to wait for another post.