Living room renovation complete- the reveal

Hello, hello, hello! Hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful summer weather.


At the start of the week I posted about our living room renovation. It was the second project we undertook and, with everything we had going on in our lives at the time (wedding plans, working on my Ph.D and, of course, work) it was probably one of the most challenging projects. Because it was a total gut of a large room in the home and we were new to the renovation world, we found ourselves overwhelmed! All the renovators out there know that little complication always show up, that time lines have no real significance, that budgets are meant to be thrown out the window, etc. But when your new at it, it's frustrating! 
At this stage in the renovation game (4 years in), I'm much better with all the challenges that appear along the way. One thing I keep in mind is that in the long run, it's always worth it. Also, all the little things that caused you to break out in tears or screams will actually make for good comedy once the project is over.


And after my rant, here are the after pictures of our living room:

We love the way the floors turned out. The color variations in cherry wood are just beautiful. The couches were hand-me downs from my brother. I'd prefer a darker color, but when its free you don't complain. You'll also notice from the before pictures below that the fireplace insert was spay painted black. If you plan on doing this, you must use spray paint made for fireplaces. The paint has to be able to withstand high heat. The light fixtures above the fireplace are the originals. I also sprayed them black (I know, I'm obsessed with spraying things black!) but I can't decide if I like them or not. I keep looking for alternatives but haven't yet found any I love.

The wall art is a reproduction of an Illustrated London News image from 1933. You can also see the train-station clock hanging on the wall.

View into the living room from the old kitchen. I am on the hunt for an area rug, but can't seem to decide on a style

View of our coffee bar. This is where we sit and have coffee every morning before work. I love this spot.

The bar, again.

Even our 17 year old cat Fonzi hangs out at the bar. He just waits to be served his milk. Cats can be so demanding!

Now, here are some reminders of what the room looked like before the renovation:

The fireplace remained more or less the same. The stone is stunning so I wanted to keep it. Everything else had to go.

View into the living room.

Entrance into the old kitchen

The bar

Let me know what you think. It still needs some decor so any ideas are appreciated.

Enjoy the beautiful day!


Nancy


See other posts about the living room transformation:
The before and the demolition  
Getting it done and choices 





I'm attending:

Living room renovation: getting it done and choices

Because this was our second large DIY renovation project (after the basement bathroom) we needed some help along the way. We were still new to the game. Luckily my father was still willing to help and teach us along the way. The project took a full 6 months to complete. This was because Tony and I were both working full-time, I was working on my Ph.D, and we were also planning out big Italian/Portuguese wedding. We were busy, busy bees!

My daddy and I hard at work! The first step was to put up the ceiling. 2"x4"s were used to help hold up the gyp. This isn't the smartest of ideas since the gyp was heavy! But, we were new to this. We used 5/8" gyp for both the ceiling and the walls.

We then installed the gyp on the walls. Even at this primitive point in the renovation I think the room looks better than the original. One thing I must say is that we didn't insulate the walls in this room. You can see in the previous image that there was some, although very inadequate, insulation. We were tight with the budget. Also, we figured that since many older homes in our area didn't have insulation, we didn't have to add it. This is one of our biggest regrets because the room is much colder in the winter than the other rooms we did insulate. Live and learn! 

You can see that there is a gap above the fireplace. This is where we removed the boxes hiding the old water heater pipes. We had to create a decorative molding to mask this gap.

My daddy working hard!

My daddy working hard again! I also enrolled my sister as a volunteer renovator. How nice of her to participate! Funny, both my father and sister stopped calling and coming over. I wonder why? Just kidding:)

The biggest impact in the room was the installation of wood floors. We choose a 2 1/4 inch wide American cherry. I know that large planks are in style but we loved the look of the very thin planks reminiscent of wood floors in older homes.

The arrival of tons of wood!

Installing the wood floors. We had such a hard time getting a company to install the floors. Because the planks are so thin, there was much more work involved. Some companies just refused while others wanted up to $5000 for the installation! Crazy! We called Montreal Parquetery, the store where we purchase the floors, requesting to return the floors. They recommended a company that gave us a great price and service. We are happy we didn't return it because the end result is gorgeous.

You can see how small the pieces are.

Installation complete! This is before the floors were varnished, which changes the color significantly.

We installed large 5 1/4 inch crown molding. Makes a big difference in the room.

The decorative items:

We wanted to keep a coffee bar area in the room so we purchased this bar from Hooker Furniture.

The coffee table and console are the Pavillion collection from Bombay Company

I purchased this clock years before we bought the house and just kept it in the box. It's large so you need tall ceilings but it's definitely a show stopper.

That's it for now!
Later in the week I'll show off the final product. Check back soon:)


Nancy

DIY Living room renovation

One of the most significant renovations in our home was our living room which was gutted and rebuilt. Because we spend so much time lounging, relaxing, and hosting in this room, it was a priority on our renovation list. It had been partly renovated in the 1970s and 1980s but was in desperate need of style coordination. The room is located in our walk-down basement but it is large (21 x 16 feet) with highish ceilings (9 feet). It felt had lots of potential!

Let me show you what it originally looked like when we bought our home (these images are from when the previous owner lived in the home):

The fireplace and brick wall were added in the early 1980s. The fireplace is clad in unfinished Carrara marble. It is actually really beautiful but it didn't match the brick walls and gray faux wood wall paneling.

I am normally a fan of brick walls but this brick arch was much to short and just made the room feel dark. The room off of the living room was a second kitchen (yes, this was a two kitchen home!) We quickly got rid of the kitchen but this is another post waiting to be written.

 The walls were clad in gray faux wood paneling with strips of stainless steel. Also, the floor was gray ceramic. The floor was passable but we didn't have any extra tiles to mend the spots where we extended the opening into the old kitchen and where we removed the bar (image below). Notice all the large boxes along the ceiling. These held the water heater pipes but since the house was converted to electric heaters these could also be removed.

Tucked away in the corner of the living room was a bar. The brick covering the bar was different from the brick on the walls and the brick behind the bar was also another type of brick. The arches, I think, were meant to mimic the arched entrance into the kitchen but again it just closed off the space. Also, notice the flowery tile along the bottom half of the wall behind the bar. There was much to much going on in this room!

A closer look at the bar.

Demoing!!!
We began the renovation in January- not an ideal time to start renovating in Montreal because of the cold winters but we couldn't wait to get this done. With a dumpster down my driveway the demolition began.

The first thing to go was the brick wall. Heavy but easy to demo. Once the top row of bricks was removed the others came apart with little effort.

Then the bar was removed and we found a piece of the original wood floor. I wish they hadn't tiled- it would have saved us a lot of cash!

We then removed the walls and I took a little break to chat on the phone:)

Then the stucco ceiling came down. Because we removed the boxes along the ceiling and also the arches above the bar, we would have had a difficult time matching the stucco.

Tony hard at work!

Me hard at work!

And finally, the floors were jack-hammered. The tile floor was laid on a 4-5 inch layer of sand coat. We removed everything in order to build a wooden sub-floor on which to install wood floors.  

A wheel-barrel and buckets are a must for demolition. Really helpful in moving stuff to the dumpster.

It took about two days to demo the room and at the end I was very happy that all the ugly was gone!

Tomorrow's post will chronicle the rebuilding and the selection of materials. 

Check back soon:)

Smiles,
Nancy

DIY outdoor towel rack

When the spa was installed we quickly realized we needed somewhere to hang our towels.  We've received many compliments on our towel rack so I thought I'd share it with you.


This is our DIY towel rack:

 

First, we went on a hunt for hooks. I found these at Home Sense for $4.99 each. I then saw them at a fancy schmancy store for $15 each!

You can use any hooks that appeal to you but remember that if your are keeping them outside they need to be weather resistant

Steps to getting this look:


1. I purchased a piece of untreated pine wood 3/4 inch thick by 6 inches high and 8 feet long (the size depends on how many hooks you need and the size you want the piece to be). I used untreated pine because it's cheap ($7). The wood plank was cut to the desired length (6 feet).


2. Spray paint the wood red and let it dry.

We used Rust-oleum American Accents in Colonial Red

3. Spray paint the wood white and let it dry.

We used Rust-oleum American Accents in Blossom White

4. Using sand paper, lightly sand the white paint so that the red paint shows. This gives the plank a distressed look.  


5. Seal the entire plank and also the hooks with a weather protector.

This is what we had on hand but any type of outdoor wood protecting sealer will do the job.

6. Using a drill, screw in rustproof screws to hang the hooks at equal distances.

7. To hand it on the fence, I drilled two holes at both ends of the plank so as to pass a long tie wrap that would hang the towel rack to the fence post.

The holes were drilled behind where the hooks would be located so as to not be visible in the final product.

8. Hang the hooks on the screws and install on the fencepost.


9. Hang your towels!

With the remaining two feet of the wood plank, I repeated the process and installed garden tool hooks (also purchased at Home Sense).

Enjoy!
Nancy