Saturday, September 22, 2012

Before-after attic office corner

Studio office before - after

From: Designsponge.com

After seeing Dana’s 3D diamond wall pattern last week, I’ve been brainstorming all the ways to add cool sculptural elements to my walls. I love wood paneled walls, but this awesome studio renovation from Cheryl Andrey is making me seriously appreciate the look of wood alone. I can imagine this looking nice as an all-wood wall, but Cheryl’s made a far better decision in breaking up the wood with stripes of blank white. It provides more light and more interest and takes advantage of the angled wall in an unexpected way. Also - using the wood as a place for pinning images? Genius. Awesome job, Cheryl! - Kate





Time: Two weeks (on free nights & weekends).
Cost: $250 (drywall, insulation, primer, paint, lathe for the accent wall and some wood and brackets for the shelves).
Basic Steps: This was the first room that my husband and I have finished completely in our 1920 house after just moving in around Thanksgiving. One of the most rewarding parts of this renovation was pulling down all of the carpet squares that literally covered every inch of the room, ceiling and floor included. Once that was gone, it was apparent that the plaster on the slanted wall was not repairable, so we took our first step into the world of drywall guided by our more experienced friend, Ryan, who has been renovating his own old house. The mudding was tricky, not only because it was my first time, but because I was attempting to match the original curves of the corners. I would say that was the most time consuming element of this project. After that, it was all prepping for painting, sanding, sanding, sanding and filling in the gaps between the molding and the walls.

When we demolished the original plaster wall, I had the idea to use lathe as a sort of pin board in the room. Unfortunately the original lathe that we removed was far too dirty to try and re-use. We completed the whole wall with one bundle of new lathe from the hardware store. I absolutely love the way it looks. It makes the room. I can’t over emphasize the impact made by just painting the room white. Since it’s my studio, it was really important to me to have a light working space. I was worried that we weren’t going to be able to achieve that without installing more lights, but the white really brightened up the room. Our plan for the future is to install a skylight on the slanted wall, but that’s for another day when there isn’t snow in the forecast.

The best tip I can give for a project like this is to not be afraid to try new things. We had never attempted to install drywall before, but we did a great job with it, and I now I feel 100% confident that I could do it again. If you’re not sure what you’re doing, don’t hesitate to check out a book or Internet resource. I purchased the 3rd edition of the book Renovation by Michael Litchfield, and it has been an amazing source of information for us as old-home owners. - Cheryl




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