Slowly we have been upgrading different rooms in our house and doing new baseboards and trim. After fixing the guest bedroom into the toy room, I was anxious to also get the other bedroom upstairs completed.
This is what the room looked like when we first moved into the house.
It had sliding by-pass doors on the closet that I absolutely hated. The tracks were old and the doors would not slide easy and they kept falling off. Plus, you can only access half of the closet at a time.
When we moved Blake upstairs to share the room with Will, we took the closet doors off completely. It allowed us to put a dresser in there and not have to deal with the hassle of the doors not working properly.
Once I finally got my design figured out, it was time to start construction. We moved everything to the center of the room and started ripping out all of the baseboards. Updating all of the electrical outlets and switches. Adding some wainscoting/board and batten. And finally, fixing that dreaded closet.
I hated the sliding doors, but I have also never been a fan of the bi-fold doors, especially with kids. I knew I wanted french doors, but I was unsure how to go about the process. About a year ago or so, I even had a contractor come and give me a bid. He basically told me that it would be very expensive because we would have to increase or decrease the entire frame so it would fit standard doors. I wasn't ready to put that much money into it, so I put off doing the room. Then one day it suddenly occurred to me that I could just get custom pre-hung doors and that the entire process would be very easy. So I ordered the doors, and my brother-in-law Josh helped us to install it.
Then we started framing out the windows and working on the trim.
The room was a disaster. And the project took way longer than I anticipated. We threw the kids mattresses in the other room or sometimes on the living room floor. It was pretty hectic and both Lance and I felt the stress of missing that one room. I can't imagine living in a home while doing a full renovation. One room at a time is enough for us.
Doesn't that closet look amazing though?! It is one of my favorite changes about the room.
I learned a lot about doing board and batten during this one. The part that probably took the longest was figuring out the spacing. There were several spots where I was stumped on where to space the boards, especially around the windows. I ended up just doing what I thought was best, and I am very happy with how it turned out. I'm not sure if it is how the professionals would have done it, but it looks good to me, so I guess that's all that matters.
It didn't quite look "complete" so I added a small board to create a lip at the top. It really finished the look. You can see the part to the left of the window is plain, and to the right has that extra board on top.
With so much trim and wood nailed to the wall, there were a ton of nail holes to fill.
Not to mention all of the caulking!
I had bandaids on most of my fingers. Often when I went to smooth the caulk, it would leave a trail of blood behind with it. It was not pleasant. At this point, I still had an entire wall left to do. It took me days and I was so happy when I finally finished.
After caulking, it was finally time for some paint. I was a little worried, because the room wasn't turning out how I had envisioned. I kept telling myself to keep going and that it would look better once it was finished. But boy was I worried and a bit upset. With all the effort I had put into it, there was no way I was going to stop and start over, so I was prepared to be a little unhappy with it. Thank goodness I was wrong. What I difference a little bit of paint can make.
And suddenly it was time to pick out the color for the top. I originally planned on going with a super light, soft pink. Not too much more than white, but just enough to have some color on the wall. Then I found this "Coral Perfection" at the store, and decided to give it a try. Based on the small sample I tried, I really liked it and decided to go with it.
Once I had the entire room painted, it was a bit darker than I intended, and not quite the shade of pink I was going for. I liked the color, but I had been expecting something a little different. I chose to leave it and adjust my design a little bit.
And here is a before and after.
Click HERE to see the final reveal.
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