The Landing - looking literally up
Well, starting from the top down...
First, the walls had big cracks in them, so all the trim came down, and the cracks were all plastered and sanded. In addition to the cracks, since I wasn't going to put the doors to the kitchen and living room back, the areas where the door frames were were also treated to plastering to finish them off.
Next, paint color was chosen - a Dutch Boy washable matte paint in yellow with a tinge of gold. The idea was to use a color that would brighten the space & make it warmer looking, and look good with white trim. It went on beautifully, and made a big difference! I originally thought I wanted to strip all the trim in the house & just varnish to finish, but a) it wasn't the best quality wood, b) too many years of bad paint and wear made it less worthwhile, and c) that base coat of shellac makes me think the house trim was originally painted & never intended to show the wood.
Finally the fun stuff. Yanked the light fixture and then, to hide all the wiggles in the plaster, decided to make a fake pressed-metal ceiling. I found a textured, paintable wallpaper at the local chain store and glued it up. Next, a coat of the selected wall paint went onto the wallpaper, finished by a coat of gold metallic glaze that was wiped off after about 2 minutes. The first picture is before the gold glazing:
and here we are after glazing and attaching a crown molding (this is a much better color rendition of what the wall color looks like:
Finally, we mounted a ceiling fan rescued from another house in the place of the 'space can' light. The original fins were white, but Remodel Buddy thought the burgundy would be a nice touch:
I added longer pull chains (needing a stool to pull chains seemed dumb)- a white one for the light control, and a burgundy one for the fan. It was nice to have in the summer - really kept the space from getting too stagnant.
First, the walls had big cracks in them, so all the trim came down, and the cracks were all plastered and sanded. In addition to the cracks, since I wasn't going to put the doors to the kitchen and living room back, the areas where the door frames were were also treated to plastering to finish them off.
Next, paint color was chosen - a Dutch Boy washable matte paint in yellow with a tinge of gold. The idea was to use a color that would brighten the space & make it warmer looking, and look good with white trim. It went on beautifully, and made a big difference! I originally thought I wanted to strip all the trim in the house & just varnish to finish, but a) it wasn't the best quality wood, b) too many years of bad paint and wear made it less worthwhile, and c) that base coat of shellac makes me think the house trim was originally painted & never intended to show the wood.
Finally the fun stuff. Yanked the light fixture and then, to hide all the wiggles in the plaster, decided to make a fake pressed-metal ceiling. I found a textured, paintable wallpaper at the local chain store and glued it up. Next, a coat of the selected wall paint went onto the wallpaper, finished by a coat of gold metallic glaze that was wiped off after about 2 minutes. The first picture is before the gold glazing:
and here we are after glazing and attaching a crown molding (this is a much better color rendition of what the wall color looks like:
Finally, we mounted a ceiling fan rescued from another house in the place of the 'space can' light. The original fins were white, but Remodel Buddy thought the burgundy would be a nice touch:
I added longer pull chains (needing a stool to pull chains seemed dumb)- a white one for the light control, and a burgundy one for the fan. It was nice to have in the summer - really kept the space from getting too stagnant.