Yep that’s right. TD’s “Tah-Dah” #1–the big reveal of the back foyer redo–is finally happening, even though I think I could have used two months–on the tiniest room in my whole house!!
It’s been slow going…
Y’all. I hope I get faster. Because this has taken 20-25 hours—and that’s a conservative estimate. The goal was to complete the project in February, working 4-5 hours each week. It has spilled over into the whole first week of March and I’ve put in some long weekend time as well. Of course I’ve spent a stupid amount of time standing and staring into space and trying to imagine the best course of action. And the best order in which to do everything. I am a world class analyzer. If I were nearly as good at DIY and decorating as I am at analyzing, they’d give me my own show!
And in my defense, there were a lot of tedious details that needed attention in that tiny space. Not the least of which was likely-100-year-old beadboard. I know I use hyperbole a lot, but this time 100 years means 100 years.
And then ordinary life crises have popped up and made some weeks less productive than others.
But on a positive note…
I’m fairly pleased with the results. And that’s all that really matters. (I mean, that and what my family thinks, haha!) Also the fact that I’m somewhat satisfied is really saying something. Because I’m super critical of my own work. Always. But even though I live here and what I think matters the most, I hope y’all like it too. Or at least you learn something. Or at least you just feel better about your own projects after you’ve seen one of mine. 😂 I’m here at your service, whatever the case.
I think it was a good idea to start small, and on a less public part of the house. However, it has become more important to me to get it right as I’ve worked along on it. My mom had a sign beside our back door, which was the ONLY door we EVER used, that said, “Back door friends are best.” It was a joke with lots of my friends that frequented our house, probably because the sign was on a cheesy wooden cutout of a goose. And they ALL used the back door. But I tend to agree. I won’t be putting up a painted goose sign that says so, but it’s true–back door friends are best!
Even though we use our front door a LOT more than my parents do because we live in town and it’s the obvious entry to our home, some of the most important people in our lives enter through the back door. And it’s nice for it to be a little spruced up.
The Plan
So the problem areas that most needed addressing were as follows: 1) the dark walls didn’t go with my fading eyesight. 2) The half-finished-for-a-solid-decade “decorative” painting needed to be redone or scrapped in favor or something at least… well, finished. 3) The top of the shoe cabinet is a catch-all that needed rethinking. I additionally ended up doing some subtle finish changes to the cabinet to go better with the new color. And I replaced the light fixture and the faded, scuffed floor tiles (Ahem… I still have a few to go. If you look closely on the “after” picture, you can see a really yellow one at the edge…)
I’ll outline the basic steps I went through and try not to write eight thousand words about every step of the way. I said try… But I’m happy to further explain any particular area. So if you have questions, feel free to pose/post them in the comments.
AND if you just want to see the pictures and not geek out over DIY stuff, no shame. You’ll just miss some of my best how-to advice and secrets. It’s no problem. Really.
Step #1 – Prep the Space
Before actually starting anything, I had to remove everything almost everything from the walls. The shoe cabinet, the light-switch plate, and the key hooks came down. I actually left the coat hooks, however since 1) I knew I wanted to put those coat hooks or at least another set that size or larger in the same spot, and 2) the previous paint job had slopped over onto them (no, not moi—I don’t do that…)., and I figured it would be just as easy to correct the slopping as I was priming and re-painting with it already on the wall.
Step #2 – Prep the Surfaces to Be Painted
Sanding
I began by sanding the walls. They had a little bit of sheen and lots of surface imperfections. I didn’t want to carry the flaws forward to the next coat of paint (they don’t go away), and the sheen could affect paint adhesion, so even though I was dying to get to the more fun part, I sanded.
Priming
The next step I took (which is not necessarily the norm) was to put on a couple of coats of primer. Usually it’s recommended to fill all holes and cracks with spackle or caulk and then prime. My caulk, however does not create a weird texture when it’s painted over (like most spackle and wood filler does) AND I needed to lighten up the walls to be able to SEE all the cracks, so I did the primer step a little out of order.
(As a little aside, if you’ve never primed before painting, a few words must be said here. Primer is a good idea for paint adhesion AND to help with a color change. But be warned: the first coat always looks ghastly. I always have to resist the urge to abandon the project after that first coat looks terrible. But it’s worth it.)
Caulking… arrrrrggghhh!!
The caulking was a HUGE job, and one I haaaate, but it made a big difference in the final appearance. It’s not that it’s SO hard. But it’s messy. One day I’m going to design a better caulk gun so I don’t have to put my hands in the stuff. But for now, fingers in caulk is the only way I get things to look comopletely smooth.
The old caulk, especially around the doorway trim was a bit of a botched job. AND it was hard as a rock. There wasn’t going to be any cutting it out with a utility knife. Of course it could be fifty plus years old! Who knows?? There was little hope of effectively removing it (other than spending an extra 15-20 hours with a dremel carving out the petrified caulk around each groove in the beadboard. Maybe that would work??). Anyway, I decided to use my best sculpting skills and tried to smooth what was there. And I trusted that the new, lower sheen paint and a careful paint job might deliver better, not perfect, results.
The cracks in the ceiling also got some attention, even though in nearly thirteen years of living here, I don’t know if I’ve noticed what terrible shape that ceiling (also beadboard like old-timey porches) was in. It looked much better after I was done in case I decide to look up again sometime in the next decade or so.
Step #3 – Painting the Walls. FINALLY!
Just in case you have the slightest interest in painting, I’ll share a little about that step. I rolled on the primer with my favorite type of roller. I’ll have to do a whole post one day about how these rollers (see the picture) have changed my life and I’ll never go back to the traditional type that you fit over a roller cage.
Having never painted beadboard that I recall, I wasn’t sure if I’d prefer to roll or brush the paint on. I ended up rolling the primer and brushing the paint. And I still don’t think one is SO much better than the other. With the brush, however, I at least didn’t have to fool with a roller tray.
Pro tip: I made sure to do the cut-in line on the smooth surface of the doorway trim, rather than try to put it in the true corner (where all the botched caulk lies).
The color on the walls was from a gallon I custom-mixed from some leftover paint. I actually had nearly two gallons of SW Sea Salt in my basement from apparently overbuying a few years back. I added a considerable amount of SW Eider White. Along with some pretty hideous pink paint I may have bought cheap as an “oops” quart to do some furniture for one of my daughter’s rooms when they were in their “all-pink-all-the-time” period. I think I may have added some ceiling white in as well. I was trying to go a little lighter and a little less green than Sea Salt. We could call the result “Salty Duck.” Or not.
Step #4 – Painting the Trim
I also sanded, primed, and painted the door and its trim and the other two doorways. I chose a satin because it was also in my basement (ha!) and because (as I mentioned with the wall paint) a lower sheen shows fewer imperfections.
Step #5 – Lime Waxing the Shoe Cabinet
Once the walls were painted, I was concerned that the shoe cabinet might look super orange against the new toned-down color. So I used some liming wax left over from older daughter’s furniture redo (last summer) on it, and also spray painted the knobs black as a small accent to tie into the checkered floors.
Step #6 – Retiling the Floor
Speaking of the floors, I replaced the tiles, which had taken quite a beating over the last thirteen years. I would absolutely love to replace the floors which continue into the laundry room, pantry and kitchen with a professionally installed, eco-friendly true linoleum tile. Softer floors in a kitchen than ceramic are my preference, and though I enjoyed having hardwood (for about six years at another house), it was always a bit of a concern in a high traffic area with lots of spillage.
I think real linoleum would be similarly easy care to the vinyl and the right feel for me. But at this point, I have a lot of other projects in the kitchen that come ahead of the floors, so until I’m ready to pony up for those, I’m just going to put down some more vinyl tiles for aesthetic purposes in the meantime.
Another consideration with the floors is that I suspect the old linoleum underneath the vinyl tiles may have asbestos in its backing, since most such flooring did between the 50’s and the 80’s. I’m nowhere near ready to get into an extensive demo and remediation project either.
Step #7 – Concealing the Electrical Panel
By now you can see that the reason I had a gigantic unfinished painting hanging above the shoe cabinet was because there is a rather large electrical fuse box that I would like to conceal any time I’m not using it.
About the canvas painting, I had a plan. I wanted to do something fairly abstract and in softer colors (ANY colors would have been softer). So after hunting around for inspiration, I found a picture I took a few years ago that would lend itself to the correct format. I spent about an hour one evening and got started on what I thought would be my solution.
I wanted a slightly more abstracted version of the first hour’s rendition of the painting; however, after seeing it on the wall, it turned out that the canvas itself was not the look I was going for. I knew I did want to rework some parts of it, but I decided that if I do, it won’t be for the foyer. I hung it and lived with it for about a week to make sure. And just something about the unframed canvas seemed out of place in the space.
So, switching gears, I bought a mirror that looked like it had belonged to a dresser in its past life, and painted it after both my daughters agreed I should go with black (actually leftover charcoal chalk paint from–you guessed it–the basement) rather than white as I had originally planned. I thought I would hang a wreath on it, but they also agreed that they liked it without. They liked just some sort of greenery beneath instead. My daughters hardly ever agree on anything aesthetically speaking, so I took it as a sign and followed their advice.
Step #8 – Controlling the drop zone
I bought the four black bowls even before I painted, with the plan of each of us having our own separate key receptacle. I plan to anchor them to the top of the cabinet with some museum putty so they won’t slide around when we’re dropping our keys in. Perhaps I’ll get smart and label them artfully with initials one day, but for now they’re just in age and/or first name alphabetical order (same results) from left to right.
I already had the white vase along with an array of other ones, and I grow fresh rosemary year-round out front (it’s looking kind of frost-bitten at the moment, but I think it will green up in a few weeks), so I’ll use it, or something live from the yard or occasionally from the store as the mood grabs me.
The Budget
You may or may not recall that I set the overall budget at $100 per room. However, for the smaller rooms like the foyer, laundry room, and small guest bathroom, I’d love to come in under $50 in order to divert needed funds to larger projects.
But even in this small space, it was certainly a challenge! I thankfully I had a decent amount of materials, and we’ve got some pretty good discount options nearby. All of the paint and painting supplies, excepting the caulk, I already had. The liming wax, as I mentioned, was left over. I bought a second-hand fixture and swapped out the one I had put in my pantry a couple of years ago to use for the foyer.
I used the last of the leftover tiles from the original job (stored in our basement), but did have to buy a box to finish the foyer. But I found ones that matched what I had exactly at our local Habitat ReStore. And for cheap!
So here’s the breakdown:
Caulk – 3.49
Light fixture – 10.97
Mirror – 10.97
Box of 20 tiles – 8.78!!
Four plastic bowls – 2.20
The total I spent was $36.41 including tax.
Thankfully I didn’t have to pay for all that labor!
On the other hand, I guess I didn’t get paid for all that time other than with the satisfaction of a job well done, and some more experience gained that I can pass along to inquiring minds. I guess I also have to consider the physical benefit I got from climbing up and down repeatedly to paint (I was crazy sore for a couple of days!). And I had lots of alone time to catch up on podcasts, sermons, audio Bible reading, and all my music playlists!
I welcome your questions and comments… and even your suggestions as long as they don’t involve any major reworking for a while.
Blessings,
P.S. Next month’s reveal will be another tiny room that gets lots of traffic: the laundry room!