All Dressed Up: Our Dressing Room

While most of our house is still in a perpetual "almost done" kind of state, even after two years, there are some rooms that are starting to look rather civilized.

When we bought our little old house it had been chopped up into a duplex with two apartments. We got rid of pretty much everything that wasn't original to our house and returned it to its single family layout including the upstair's kitchen. Since it backed up against the existing bathroom and was connected to what we would claim as our master bedroom, we  knew the former kitchen would make a great master bathroom with extra space for a walk-through closet/dressing room. A real master suite - sweet!

After the initial demolition, our contractors put up a wall to separate bathroom from dressing room, we laid tile, painted, added baseboards and door casings, created built-ins and are finally approaching a completed set up (read more about some of the projects here).

This past weekend I decided to add a few more finishing touches. While we still have to finalize the flooring issue (right now the floor is new sub flooring that's been sanded smooth and painted) - we are thinking cork at this point - it's amazing what a rug and some art will do to a room. We went from construction site to pretty dressing room in no time flat!

I scored the little 5'x3' brother of the big 8'x10' chevron rug in our bedroom during one of the last Rugs USA sales for a whopping $20 (no kidding). While these rugs do tend to catch and hold on to every.single.hair. our cats shed (the pup doesn't shed - hallelujah!) and have convinced me that I do NOT want carpet anywhere in our house, it's nothing a bit of vacuuming and lint-rolling can take care of, and other than that they are rather low maintenance.

I had those three-dimensional flowers for two years, but never found a good spot for them. Girly touches like those have a hard time in my 1 tomboy - 2 boys household and so I kept them stashed away until now. Together with the empty black frame, I felt they worked well for that spot above my old dresser without looking too frilly.

I still need something like a clothes hamper, definitely window treatments of some kind and a bench or chair but so far I'm really really happy with how it's turning out!

Oh no, you didn't!

 Oh yes, I did.

When I last showed you the hot mess that is/was my dressing room aka walk-through closet, it looked like this:

Hot hot mess.
Tools scattered every which way. Paint cans. A shop vac. And much much more.
The "in-between" stage - when tools clutter every inch, and nothing is where it belongs - is always the scariest.

While at first I really really liked the stenciled floor (because it was different, a pattern that I liked, and probably because a painted floor was on the "It" list across the blog world), it was never ...well, me ...or us. We -are- fairly traditional, and somehow the floor always struck me as 'noisy' once the initial excitement over "Hey, I painted my floors!" had faded.

I don't like noisy rooms. Not at all.

And while we didn't want to start laying floors a week before Christmas and only days before the arrival of the in-laws for Pre-Christmas celebrations, I just couldn't suffer this noise anylonger.

What more is another gallon of paint?
Certainly no pearl from my crown (this is an attempt to translate a German saying that basically expresses the thought that it's not too much to ask to do a certain task).

Warning - Wet Paint!
Barely half a gallon of self-priming porch paint in a rich chocolate brown color later, peace and quiet arrived in my little walk-through closet/dressing room.
It also appeared instantly larger.

Once the paint was dry later that evening, my dresser went back into its old corner, conveniently hiding (most of the) the kitty bathroom. Once we have decided which type of new flooring to put into our bedrooms, this room's floor will be finished as well but for now I'm pleasantly surprised and happy with the new look. So is the husband.

To-do-list:
- separate from bathroom
- lay new flooring
- install shelving
- frame with baseboards
- paint walls
- paint ceiling
- install light fixture
- frame out windows
- hang window treatments
- art/painting
- rug

Getting there, getting there ...

Let there be light!

Look what the husband did when I was out playing one of Santa's elves!

He - wait for it! - installed a ceiling light fixture in our dressing room!
And took pictures!
And showed Little Man how it's done!

This project was brought to you by my bestest brother-in-law B. without whom this wouldn't have been possible ...well, not anytime soon, at least. You see, we live a solid 2.5hrs drive away from the closest IKEA store, all highway miles, mind you. Best Bil, however, lives in town with IKEA, and he graciously agreed to swing by with our shopping list and deliver to our door. (He's cool that way ...and he is single. You know, in case you're looking...)

For the dressing room, we settled on the ALÄNG light fixture from IKEA - a modern design with a sweet texture, flush mount for our low-ish ceilings in the addition housing dressing room and master bath and a very affordable price to boot!

Here the husband took a picture of the contents of the IKEA box: shade, fixture, and instructions.

This UFO shaped contraption is the actual fixture, the antennas have little magnets that hold up the shade. No worries, the magnets are surprisingly strong and the shade is holding up really well (and has yet to come down).

Ahh, here we go. There's the hole in the ceiling covered up with an oh so fabulous cover plate ... yeah. Yep, we painted the ceiling in the dressing room the same soft minty blue color like our bedroom.
Ugly Duckling Southern Style!

 

And here is Little Man lending a helping hand! And you get a better idea of the ceiling color, too! Ignore the splotchy door frame in the background; it's a work in progress, and I'd just started to patch and sand.

It's the Millennium Falcon! On my ceiling!
Well, alright, so it's the light fixture all wired into place and ready for some bulbs and a light shade.

 

Voila! We have a ceiling light! Ignore the rest!

I warned you! The rest is still a pretty (pretty as in "very")  hot mess. Ceiling and walls have been painted, I'm in the process if installing the remaining base boards, and we have plans for the floor, window treatments and accessories.
Until that's finished, we can always close the doors and pretend it's not there. Right?

In the Mood

... for more mood boards!

Yep, you heard that right. More mood boards!

On the quest for a more cohesive look for our sweet master suite consisting of bedroom, dressing/walk-through closet and bathroom, the husband and I have been digging through various sources of inspiration such as a slew of catalogs from Pottery Barn, Ballard Design and Restoration Hardware, board after board on pinterest as well as movies, TV shows and of course the creme de la creme, other DIY and House blogs. Well, okay, -I- have been trolling these sources and then presented the husband with my findings for a final "yay!" or "nay!"

In the end, both of use seem to gravitate to a style that can be best described as "NYC Loft meets Farmhouse Charm" or "Restoration Hardware goes Country"... heh!

With that in mind, both dressing room and bedroom - so far white with lovely dark teal accents - got a quick and rather simple make-over: off-white/light tan for the walls, white trim, black window casings to up the industrial feel of the ugly 80s aluminum windows we are not yet going to replace, wood and wicker and touches of vintage brass.

On Pinterest - the mother lode of all things inspiration - I discovered a lovely pin utilizing a screen door to separate rooms and LOVED it so we'll be doing that for our bathroom (possibly adding opaque plexiglass for privacy in and on the 'loo).

Dressing Room:

dressing room by littleoldhouse on polyvore.com

To-Do:
- paint walls off-white/tan
- lay dark cork floor
- re-upholster existing bedroom chair with linen
- add rug
- add light fixture (love those gilded accents; maybe I can create the look on a natural shade?)
- add wicker hamper
- install screen door to bathroom

Master Bedroom:

Bedroom Take 2 by littleoldhouse on polyvore.com

To-Do:
- paint walls above batten and board off-white/tan
- re-upholster headboard in linen/burlap
- new curtains (have idea - will diy)
- add rug
- find bigger, brassier lamps for night stands
- get a tripod lamp

Dressing room

I can't believe it's been 5!! whole months since I last wrote about our dressing room. Five months?! How did that happen?
Last time I mentioned this former kitchen turned master bedroom suite, I finished sealing the stenciled floors. You can read about that here.

[After]

This is what it looked like then. We built in two shelf towers (his and hers) on either side of the door to the master bath, added rods for hanging clothes and pretty much called it a day. When I finished trimming out the master bath with baseboards and quarter rounds, I used up my left over bits in the dressing room.

Gotta use the momentum when you have it!

Then, when I added the door jamb and frame to the door on the master bathroom side of things, I kept the momentum going and did the same for the other side as well. Yesterday I finally got around to caulking the seams so now things are actually getting to the point of paint!

Sometime ago I also trimmed out the top and bottom of our shelf towers for a nicer, more finished look.

Woop-dee-doo!

[In Progress]

I need to pick up some quarter rounds to finsih off the base molding and touch up the paint. Of course, even though we've been using our dressing room, it's clearly not finished. So, what needs to be done?

• 
  
  finish base molding with quarter round


• 
  
  touch up paint


• 
  
  add light fixture


• 
  
  install threshold to bathroom


• 
  
  fix threshold to bedroom


• 
  
  add a rug


• 
  
  add an ottoman or bench


• 
  
  add a shelf for shoes


• 
  
  add window treatments

Plenty of stuff still left to do, right? Yep, it never ends. Of course, I'll aslo never grow bored.

Sealing the deal

No, we haven't fallen off of the face of the earth (or a ladder). Really! Between starting a new job, a holiday weekend and life in general, updating the blog hasn't been my top priority. That doesn't mean work hasn't progressed more or less smoothly here at the Duckling. Far from it! We've been busy, and I can't wait to show you (once I get around to picking up new batteries for my camera tomorrow).

After I finished stenciling the floors in our dressing room, I wanted to protect the fruit of my labor as quickly as possible. We'd picked up a gallon of Varathane in a Satin finish following the recommendation of the nice gentle working the aisle at the box store. No odor, polyurethane strength for high traffic areas and a competitive price all fit the bill. We took it for a test drive on the counter top of our library cupboard (read about here) and loved how easy it was to apply and the beautiful finish. So, here it goes

[Hello non-smelly poly!]

This stuff is pretty watery (or maybe I'm just having a hard time letting go of the idea that anything poly/sealant needs to be somewhat viscous)



Husband had picked up a special floor applicator that screwed to our extension handle and it really made sealing the floors as easy as mopping them. Fortunately, Varathane doesn't only NOT stink to the high heavens, it also dries quickly and so I managed to apply 3 coats within just two days.

[After: All shiny! Please ignore the rough-looking edges;
they'll get baseboards soon and look all pretty again. I swear!]

Once the construction dust from the adjoining master bathroom is gone, I plan on buffing the floors once more and applying a final coat but for now this is it. Wait? Construction dust from the master bath? You bet'cha! Pictures coming soon!

All stenciled out

3 hours of rolling an almost dry brush over a sheet of plastic with funny cut outs did the trick and our dressing room floor went from looking like this

[Before]

to this! After I was done rolling on full sheets, I did go back and lined up the stencil so that partially it covered an already stenciled area and rolled on and additional 1/3 of the pattern to fill in the space between a full sheet and the wall.

[After]

I can't wait to trim out the room with some new base molding and add a bit of trim to the built-ins as finishing touches to the basic construction. We have plans for yet another built-in and we want to install an ironing board that folds out from a small wall-mounted closet, and of course the room will need much love in the form of window treatments, some nicer lighting and a few decorative touches here and there, but the bones, the bones are lookin' good!

Oh, right. I should probably seal the stenciled floor first ... wouldn't want to paint that one all over again!

Getting your stencil on

With husband working late nights and the Little Man in bed, it was as good a time to get started on stenciling the floor in the dressing room. Here it is, in all its baseboard-removed, grey-painted glory.

[Before ... or is it in-progress?]

I know. It's not really all that much to look at. For now. I armed myself with all the things I'd need, brought a drink and a boombox with some music along and made myself at home.

[Some supplies: Pencil, paper towels, foam roller, stencil]

Not pictured are paint, re-positionable spray glue and a ruler. The hardest thing is usually to get started for good. Where to start? Knowing that none of the rooms in our house are really truly square, starting in a corner wasn't really an option (and isn't something you should really ever consider). If you approach stenciling like tiling, you should find the true center of the room and orientate your stencil this way but I felt that centering the design on the doorway to the bathroom would be the right way to go.



Here it is, the beautiful "Traditional Tin Tile" stencil in its starting position. I decided to re-read the stencil instructions one more time and then poured myself some paint in the small paint pan that came with the high density foam roller.

Stenciling requires many passes with an almost dry brush. That way you won't squoosh (yes, that's a word, just like "Skloosh" is a ride at an amusement park in PA) any excess paint underneath the stencil and ruin the clean lines. So every time you pick up paint with your roller, you roll off as much as possible and add a quick swipe over a piece of paper towel to be safe.

[Here I go a-stenciling!]

[In progress: 3 down, many more to go!]

I'm glad I only decided to stencil the floor in a small room. It's not hard work but definitely falls into the category of the more tedious projects (spray glue, position stencil, roll on paint, repeat). Now I know why Stencilease offers bigger stencils of the same pattern with more repeats to speed up the process!

[In progress: Loving it!]

It's looking great so far! Can't wait to show the husband!

So floored - The Dressing Room Saga continues

We're making steady progress on our dressing room and soon the days that our clothes are stashed in baskets and suitcases or rumpled on the floor are coming to an end. I'm counting - trust me. After finishing two floor-to-ceiling shelving units, the floor had to be next.

If you've been following our adventures for a while you might remember my flooring dilemma described here and my lack of desire to commit to any kind of interim solution that didn't win my heart. Husband and I agreed that right now, a painted floor sounded like a really good idea. After looking at a couple of different design options, we found a stencil at Stencilease that we both really really liked
[source: Stencilease "Traditional Tin Tile"]

Shopping at Stencilease was joy: the ordering process was simple and straightforward, there were no computer glitches and within just a few days (my order shipped promptly the next day) we were all set to get started on painting our floors.

I'd already used Bondo and wood filler on the bigger and smaller seams and irregularities and given the floor a quick sanding before priming it. No need to go overboard - it is a temporary solutions and we do like the rustic cottage charm of a more natural wooden floor.

[Floors all painted and ready for some special stencil love]

Since we're going to seal the floor after painting on the stencil we went with some left-over dark grey paint from the livingroom. This will fit in nicely with the dark grey tile we chose for the bathroom floors and help turn our dressing and bathroom part of our sweet master suite a cohesive unit.

I gave our floors a solid 24 hours to dry completely before embarking on the stencil adventure so stay tuned for part 2!

Coming out of the closet

As sure as rain we wanted a "dressing room" as part of our Master Suite, especially given the amount of space we had to play with once the upstairs kitchen was gone. Just ...what makes a dressing room a dressing room? And why not just a closet? And ...? "Dressing room" is a pretty highfalutin concept, and the husband and I are nothing but pretty simple and down-to-earth-ish. So what are we going to do?



Well, we call it a "dressing room" but look at it more like a walk-through closet. That brings it down a notch and made planning for it a little easier. We were especially inspired by Ana White's closet system

[source: Ana-white.com]

Neat, hm? Some shelving, some rods for hanging, the option to create shoe cubbies and drawers - pretty much perfect for what we had in mind and not impossible to build ourselves.

Off we went to the home improvement store - coupon in hand - and shopped 'till we dropped. Little Man's legs got really tired so he hitched a ride

We'll be kicking off the construction phase in our dressing room with the creation of a floor-to-ceiling shelf tower and two hnaging rods on either side of the door to the bathroom for each of us. This first phase will later be followed by the creation of a dresser-sized cubby system on the other side of the wall for additional clothes storage.



First step was to prepare the plywood that we'd cut to our specifications at the store: husband and little man sanded it nice and smooth and primed it while I mudded, sanded and primed upstairs.

[Husband at work]

Rather than build two towers or stick with the originally suggested size on the Ana-White.com page, we decided to minimize the amount of headache the sloped ceiling could give us by creating true built-ins. We screwed two brackets each into both floor and ceiling, measured each corner point from floor to ceiling and cut the boards that would form the sides of our shelf to exact size.

At first, dear husband wasn't convinced my method would work, but work it did and the sides slid in perfectly. A couple of countersunk screws later and we had the first shell of a shelf!

[Shelf in progress]

It's nice and stable and straight! The rods for hanging clothes will extend from one side of the shelf to the wall on two different levels, high and medium, to maximize the space. Of course, there's still plenty of work left to do before we can move our clothes into the space but we're one step closer!

Prime Time

When we last saw our future dressing room it was all mudded and sanded. See here

[In-progress: drywall finished]

It's like "tone on tone" cow print! What it needed next was a coat of primer or else you'll get an effect referred to as "flashing". That's an obvious difference in the finish of a paint which is usually the most obvious when you look at it from an angle. So, out came the primer!

[More in-progress: All primed and ready for the big adventure]

There! All done - primed and prepped for the next step. It's amazing how much brighter the room looks with a fresh clean coat of white primer instead of the dingy dirty cream that used to be on the walls.

As you can see the windows are not original. One day we might find out exactly when that area was enclosed/ added on but these windows are fairly recent additions (as in, 20-30 year recent). I refer to them, lovingly of course, as "chicken coop" windows. Once painted they seemed to float in mid-air so I grabbed the bucket with "Industrial Gray" and visually grounded them by painting the window sills in a medium-dark shade of gray. It adds an interesting industrial twist to our dressing room and I'm liking it quite a bit. Now the question is how to tie this to our sweet country style bedroom and vintage bath ...hmmmm.