We've begun to Renovate the Bedroom!

I can't believe it! I had hoped the bedroom would follow the living room but didn't dare dream. We've actually begun building in the his/her closets on either side of the north facing window. When we moved in we were forced to tear out the only small closet in the largest bedroom as there wasn't a wall that would accommodate our king size bed without placing it over a window. I have a thing about obstructing windows, I love natural light and have always considered covering a window for any reason unforgivable so we ripped out the closet.

From my many years of religiously watching HGTV I've learned a room without a closet can't officially be considered a bedroom. This old house has so few bedrooms for the total square footage sacrificing one isn't possible. It would kill us when we decided to sell, trust me that's many years away but is always considered when making decisions. Someday when we've both retired we'll want to sell and move south. We share visions of retiring to a beautiful South Carolina town called Beaufort. We've vacationed there for ten years and have always talked about living there.

The bedroom is officially begun and will consume our weekends for a few months to come.

To see our Photo Journal of all the renovations we made to our 1926 SW Va Farm House visit us at Leyland Ridge Farm.

The Living Room is Done At Last!

We moved into the old 1926 farm house in 2005. The things that demanded our attention like heat, windows and roof pushed the things of comfort far back on the priority list but just after the holidays to my surprise my husband announced we would begin on the living room over the weekend. Several weekends and a lot of dust later the project is finished.

The plaster on the walls had cracked and under the old windows over years of neglect rain had dampened huge sections that appeared to have dissolved. Old wallpaper was stuck stead fast in some places and pealing in others. To avoid the expense and time of applying sheetrock we choose to apply a Venetian plaster finish to camouflage the damages.

We scraped as much of the wallpaper as we could, repaired the missing plaster, gave the walls a plaster skim coat and lightly sanded. This primed the surface for the faux finish. I choose a light gold and the darkest of the same gold on the paint chip. After an initial coat of Kilz we painted the walls the light gold, a 50/50 mix of dark gold and glaze was hand rubbed into the surface to create the antiqued finish we desired. It was the perfect solution for such an uneven surface. The cracks and bumps played into our plans perfectly. I’ve very happy with the final results.

The old plaster ceiling was replaced with tin look ceiling tiles. We painted the ceiling a lighter gold to make the new beautiful crown molding pop.

Over all I like the new look and am happy with the new living room. Now, if I can direct his attention to the bedroom I can say we’re on a roll.

Visit us at Leyland Ridge Farm to view the project photo journal.