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Cleaned Up and Painted in the Entryway | ORC Week No. 4

May 27, 2020

A little paint, stain, and trim are what this dated space needed to be completely transformed into a welcoming entryway at my fixer upper.


MACTAVISH HOUSE   |   Published May 27, 2020







It is week four of the One Room Challenge, and I am beyond happy to finally be able to share something presentable and cleaned up with you in regards to my entryway.  The demo is doneDesign plans have been made.  And now the walls, ceiling, flooring, and trim are complete.

In case this is your first visit here, please be sure to check out my entryway before tour of this fixer upper space so that you can fully appreciate the transformation that has happened so far. As one reader pointed out to me last week, it is amazing what a coat of white paint can do!






So here has what has transpired since showing you the room in it's demo state:


FLOORS


As I mentioned in my last post, my original plans of installing vinyl tile in here didn't work out and I was then hoping to salvage the wood floors.  It was a messy job to sand them because they were covered in paper tape and a weird concrete-like adhesive.  But I got them cleaned up and discovered that not all the boards are the same color/type of wood.






Not sure why they would have done this, but I decided to go with it and see how they would stain.  I used Fusion Stain and Finishing Oil in Cappuccino (the same as I used in the living room).


For the most part, all the boards look about the same once stained.  There was one against the old exterior that I switched out because it was very noticeable.  But the other couple are going to be covered by a rug, anyways.





WALLS


Even though they looked pretty bad with the old vinyl tile and adhesive still attached, the drywall was able to be cleaned up.  Everything was freshened with a layer of joint compound. 


The wall where I removed the drywall was pretty uneven given the old exterior boards and the way the addition was put on.  I'm not actually sure how they had the drywall attached in some area, especially near the floor. The proper way to drywall this would have been to stud the wall out with 2x4s creating an even, level surface.  But this would have eaten up four inches of the already small space.



So I decided to create a board and batten type effect on the walls using thin trim and the paneling I removed from the breakfast nook.  This allowed me to cut the paneling boards to fit over the trouble areas that I knew I could cover with trim.  It wasn't the prettiest job, but once it was all installed, caulked and painted, you'd never know how it was constructed.








The main reason I did this was to tie into the walled area I had to create around the heating duct in the corner.  I felt like extending the trim across the entire wall made the bump out section a bit more intentional, plus it adds some interest to the wall.


(And I'd just like to add, there IS vertical trim in both corners that you see here, but for some reason the way the light was coming in the window, it makes it seem like there are just two lone pieces of trim in the middle of the wall!  I didn't get a single picture where the pieces in the corners show up.)





CEILING


I had hoped to save the ceiling in this room, but it was badly damaged and falling down.  I was unsure about what to do with it because hiring someone for this tiny space didn't seem possible (and this was after contractors were no longer allowed to be working in my state after the stay at home orders) and I've never done drywall work before. 


All the projects in this house seem to be about me figuring out ways to just get the job done, though.  So, I decided to try something that is highly frowned upon in the drywall world.  If you don't know anything about drywall, the proper way to do it is to have as few seams as possible because that is where you have to tape and mud to make it all even.  Ideally, you need as few cut pieces as possible so that you have very little to try to make smooth.


But me installing a 4x8 sheet of drywall on the ceiling by myself was not possible. So, I bought 2x2 square drywall at Lowes and installed that.  Theses squares are meant to fix small areas of drywall and it wasn't exactly an economical way to do this.  But I was able to do it myself and I'm extremely proud of how it turned out doing it this way.





PAINTING


The walls and trim were painted in the same Valspar Snowcap White I used in the living room.


For this project, I've had the pleasure of trying out some supplies from Handy Products, a company that manufactures paint trays, handheld cups, and liners.  The Handy Paint Tray holds an entire gallon of paint which is really helpful to not have to keep refilling it as you paint.  It is really deep.  And the Handy Paint Tray Liners that fit securely inside make clean up really simple. 


The Handy Paint Pail is especially nice when painting trim.  It is lightweight and has a comfortable strap that fits around your hand as you hold it.

I will definitely be using these products as I paint other rooms in this house!





ENTRY DOOR


The entry door was sanded, cleaned, and then given a few coats of the same Snowcap White.  And I spray painted the hinges in a metallic black to match the doorknob.






BATHROOM DOOR


I'm working on the bathroom door and hope to share it with you next week.  But in order for a sliding barn door idea to work, I needed to make the bathroom door opening smaller so that the door will cover the opening.  I formed a cased opening with new trim boards, but was able to reuse the old trim around the door.  (I also reused the old trim around the entry door.)





Well, I believe that catches you up to all the work that has been done in this entryway.  As I mentioned, I hope to be able to get the bathroom door done and installed to show you next week.


Can you believe how much this room has changed?  It is so much nicer walking into the back of the house now being greeted by this cleaned up space. I've really enjoyed hearing from so many of you how much you like following along with this fixer upper and hope that you are as excited about these changes as I am!






ONE ROOM CHALLENGE
Week No. 1 - Entryway Before Tour
Week No. 2 - Demo in the Entryway
Week No. 3 - Entryway Design Plan 
Week No. 4 - Cleaned Up and Painted in the Entryway- You are here!
Click here to see all of the participants in this year's One Room Challenge and the rooms that they will be designing.  Links are shared through midnight Sunday.



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