WE'RE DONE! WE'RE DOOOOONE! (Steampunk Room Update)

Well, with the walls and floor, anyway. :)

I know I left you guys with some scary process shots last time, so hopefully this will help.

So, we went from this:

To this:

To this:

 

(That left side looks like something out of The Simpsons, am I right?)

To this!

Ta-daaa!

That's a terrible night photo, but I was too excited to wait for better light. Plus we were on a deadline - but more on that in a sec.

So we fauxed the brick paneling to look like - surprise! - bricks, albeit lighter and more golden-toned ones. 

I'm terrible at visualizing things, so Pinterest has been a huge help along the way. In fact, this was my main inspiration photo:

(via)

It's hard to mimic that fabulous crumbly texture of real old brick, but we did our best. Here's a close-up of ours, which is a little lighter IRL:

This brick finish isn't nearly as time-consuming as you might think: about a day's work. It's also surprisingly easy. Maybe I'll post a quick tutorial later, if you guys are curious?

All of the trim except the crown is also faux finished to look like dark wood.

We initially planned to faux the paneling, too - ergo that ugly orange from The Simpson's pic - but had so many problems with our paneling and glazes that we eventually gave up and just painted it flat black instead. The black is now our favorite part, so chalk that up to a happy accident!

We've installed a LOT of laminate flooring over the years, both for friends and ourselves, so John's a veritable expert now. He finished this whole floor in about half a day. o.0  (I know, it's sickening.)

Those white doors are going to be painted black; just haven't gotten to 'em yet. (And the little white patch near the floor has already been touched up.) I replaced all the old wall plugs, so now the ones on the paneling completely disappear.

We've already loaded most of the furniture back in to the room, because remember that deadline I mentioned? Well, by the time most of you read this John will be in the hospital having inner ear surgery (!!), and his recovery requires that he not lift anything heavier than 20 pounds for a few weeks. (?!) That little wrinkle had John sprinting for the finish line on this project, so we've been putting in a lot of long hours.

Now that all the foundational stuff is done, I'm looking forward to taking a break from the room and catching up on blogging and life in general. When we get back to it, though, we'll be installing steampunk sconces down 3 walls (hellooooo, Edison bulbs!), custom window cornices, and John will be building another entertainment center - this time heavy on the rivets. (WOOT.) 

Thanks again for your patience while I took this time out, guys. Please send happy thoughts and good juju for John's recovery, since we're hoping he won't have to deal with any dizziness or complications afterward - and, of course, that the surgery actually restores his hearing to 100%!

Lest The Silence Become Ominous... Building Update!

Sorry for that long break there, guys! John and I are still hard at work on our big room renovation, but most of it has been stuff like wood rot repair, wiring, and concrete patches - nothing that makes for interesting photos.

I also took a few mental health days, to be honest; just resetting and recharging a bit. I know you guys know how it is.

So. PEEKTURE TIME.

This used to be a door we never opened:

 

 Bye-bye, door! Have fun storming the dump!

Opposite the vanishing door:

Since it gets dark by 5ish, we do a lot of work at night.

The weather has been perfect: a cool mid-60s. Now if it would just stop raining...

Tried out a little Adam Savage-inspired knolling:

 

John loved it; he's always losing track of tools on job sites.

We plasticked off the back room to contain the dust, but more importantly, to keep out pesky feline invaders:

There were NOT pleased. Broke through that plastic 3 times so far. o.0

 

 "YUP."

Now, through the magic of time-lapse photography: NEW WALLS!

 

 Don't freak out; they aren't staying like that.

Also, WOW is brick paneling hard to install when your room isn't remotely level. Making all those lines line up! Arg! So funnily enough, the walls are perfectly level now, but the sloping ceiling and floors make 'em look crooked. Greeeeat. (I told John it adds character.)

Here's a handy tip if you ever put up paneling, though: chalk the faces of your wall outlets. Then press the panel in place, and voila! Your outlet location is marked. MUCH easier than trying to measure each time.

Installing crown molding & chair rail:

 

And then (brace yourself) - the world's most 70's wainscoting:

 

It's times like these that you really have to hold on to your vision, because John and I both agreed, "That's a whole new kind of ugly."

'Sokay, though, my friends. You know how it's always darkest just before the dawn? Well, home renos are always ugliest just before the painting. All of that is just the wall textures; it's going to look drastically different by the end.

So, after a day of spackling, sanding, and caulking, the first step:

 That's a little better. 

And this was taken just an hour ago:

John's waiting on me to start on the faux. YAY FUN PART.

John and I ran our own faux finishing company for almost 10 years, so painting together is always a blast. It's also fast, so - knock on wood - we should be done with the whole room before tomorrow.

More soon!