Sun 7 Jan 2007
As you can see, we tried many mixes of stain to get the wood color just right.
And in the end, we decided our perfect wood trim color is ….
Continue reading “The Color of … Wood” »
Bedroom
Archived Posts from Category Bedroom
Sun 7 Jan 2007
Ahh…Saturday morning. Time to start up on the master bedroom again after a two week hiatus. One of the weekends we were busy visiting family for the holidays. The second, we were working on our friend’s condo. I mixed some stains and tested them on the back of a wood trim. Tig was cleaning and stripping the paint off the base trim with his newly built Infrared Paint Remover.
Several hours later, we were not satisfied with the wood stains. The trim in the bedroom was not of high quality. The grain was wildly different from one piece to the next. The stains only magnified it. Noon rolled around, I looked out the window. Sunshine, clear skies, temperatures of 70 degrees.
Continue reading “Walden Moment” »
Wed 10 Jan 2007
You may have wondered from a previous post, what the heck is that? Well, it’s an IPR. What’s that, eh? An infrared paint remover.
People have been trying to devise ways to safely remove paint for years. There’s always the nasty chemicals that do a pretty good job, but they’re nasty chemicals for a reason.
Continue reading “The IPR” »
Tue 16 Jan 2007
The Neverending Bedroom Saga … Finally Ends
Posted by tig under Home Renovation , Painting , Bedroom[3] Comments
I posted about a month ago some of the problems we’ve had with the master bedroom.
So yes, it would be cool if all the trim were bare wood (no paint) and just finished with a nice stain or oil.
Since that realization, we stripped over 95% of the paint off the “difficult trim” (all around doors and windows) and stripped about 40% off the baseboards.
Continue reading “The Neverending Bedroom Saga … Finally Ends” »
Wed 17 Jan 2007
Let’s face it. Plaster sucks. Some people may think horsehair plaster is sacrosanct, and all the fervent restoration folks will want to kill me for saying it. But I just don’t like the stuff. It’s really dusty and flaky, and a pain in the butt to fix. Originally made of lime, horse hair, and gypsum, it was used extensively throughout our house. Drywall and joint compound is much easier to work with. And much easier to sand, since they make “easy sand” versions of joint compound.
Our bedroom ceiling had a fairly large crack in the ceiling.
Continue reading “Sealing Ceiling Cracks” »
Wed 17 Jan 2007
The Excorcism of Ghost Plates
Posted by serena under Home Renovation , Painting , Bedroom , Best Of , Before & After1 Comment
Pictures of the grueling and often ugly process.
Before - the plates sneered at us from the safety of the previous owner’s protection.
Continue reading “The Excorcism of Ghost Plates” »
Thu 25 Jan 2007
Some of you may wonder at the lack of blue tape in the above picture.
Continue reading “Look Ma, No Blue Tape” »
Mon 29 Jan 2007
In John Rush’s classic book on remodeling, On Time and On Budget, he states that a designer (and I’m paraphrasing here from my notes, so please excuse the inexact quote) “picking out the correct hardware is going to cost a lot of money in relation to the item’s cost…Homeowners working alone often get confused and pick the safest thing possible or the thing they saw in a stylish magazine…Your renovation project should have an integrated design. Consider hardware and lighting fixtures the final voices added to your house.”
Continue reading “Bedroom, Design and Bling” »
Fri 2 Feb 2007
As part of Serena’s design brief for the master bedroom (see “Bedroom, Design, & Bling”), we needed a new ceiling light. When we first bought the place, there was only a blank canopy plate that covered what once used to be a light. I upgraded it, by putting up a temporary light (and wall switch - don’t get me started on all the pull switches that were originally throughout the house).
This may not seem like an upgrade to some, but that’s besides the point. It provided decent lighting when I used the bedroom as a workshop. Now, it’s a bedroom and hence it needed adequate lighting (read - mood lighting).
Continue reading “Bedroom Lighting” »
Sat 10 Mar 2007
Artist in Residence (hint: it’s not me)
Posted by serena under Home Renovation , Bedroom , Furnishings1 Comment
Tig likes to think of himself as an engineer, but I think in the eight years that I’ve known him, there is a budding artist. He loves taking photos. Last year, on our trip to Paris (pre-house), he took this amazing panorama of the Eiffel Tower.
Continue reading “Artist in Residence (hint: it’s not me)” »
