Ted
The pilot formerly known as Twin Engine Ted
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2007
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iFlyNothing
@kayoh190 had asked me to post some pictures when we were done with our remodel, so I figured I'd make a thread.
Our house was a bit of an unusual custom home build. The wife in the family who built it was a photographer who did her photography at home, and so the house had some fairly unique features to accommodate this. For example, the kitchen itself was extremely tiny, but next to it was this large room with industrial linoleum flooring (the rest of the first floor was oak hardwood), a wall of windows (which seemed like a big expense for such a non-ornate room), 9' ceilings, and outlets in the ceiling. Turns out this was her photo studio, and the windows faced north, so it was a good setup for natural light but no direct sun coming in. Outlets in the ceiling for some of her photography stuff. One of the bedrooms has a 30A 220V outlet in it, we couldn't figure out why exactly. Another bedroom had a bunch of built-in desks and workbenches in it, seemed to be a workroom of some sort.
Anyway, the room we use as an office she used as a showroom (and perhaps office as well). It had an outlet in the ceiling and track lights in addition to a pair of can lights, the track lighting obviously to illuminate items on the wall. Boring grey carpeting and taupe paint on the walls (we've been going through and making each room more interesting).
The goal was a rustic/western theme for the office. So we ripped down the track lighting, replaced the can lights with some fixtures that looked more appropriate for the look. Ripped up the carpet and replaced that with a wood looking laminate, which we then complimented with a different wood on the main wall and the ceiling. Offset those with turquoise paint on the remaining walls. We already had the longhorns (a present last year from Laurie), but she also found a ranch that sold off their retired ropes, which adds a nice touch. For trim we just used stained 1x2s along the ceiling and then in the corner where the wood meets the painted wall, and stained 1x6s for baseboards. Couch and desk we already had - in fact those are two pieces of furniture that I've owne dlonger than about any other furniture I've owned.
Laurie's the source of all the ideas, and in this case most of the execution. I mostly did the wood on the ceiling and the light fixtures, she did the rest. I think it turned out great.
It's not 100% completed. In those pictures we still had the desk on dollies while figuring out where to put it and how to orient it, which we've settled on angled in the corner it's in instead of straight. I'm going to be building some built-in bookshelves using iron pipe, and of course we have to hang things up on the wall.
This ended up being a pretty cheap remodel that adds a whole lot in terms of our love of the room itself while adding functionality. Before it wasn't very thoughtfully arranged, more of the standard "Ok movers, just put this stuff in here" and we added some bookshelves, but it was never enough storage space. The laminate was still a nice quality but under $2 sq/ft, a $35 gallon of paint, the light fixture, and then otherwise just some lumber. Building the bookshelves of course will add some cost but not too bad. We'll have a lot more storage space and enjoy the room much more. At this point, the downstairs of our house is just about complete. The main project that I hope to get done in the next couple of months is the propeller light fixture, replacing the (cheap, boring, builder basic) chandelier that you have when you walk right in the front door.
Our house was a bit of an unusual custom home build. The wife in the family who built it was a photographer who did her photography at home, and so the house had some fairly unique features to accommodate this. For example, the kitchen itself was extremely tiny, but next to it was this large room with industrial linoleum flooring (the rest of the first floor was oak hardwood), a wall of windows (which seemed like a big expense for such a non-ornate room), 9' ceilings, and outlets in the ceiling. Turns out this was her photo studio, and the windows faced north, so it was a good setup for natural light but no direct sun coming in. Outlets in the ceiling for some of her photography stuff. One of the bedrooms has a 30A 220V outlet in it, we couldn't figure out why exactly. Another bedroom had a bunch of built-in desks and workbenches in it, seemed to be a workroom of some sort.
Anyway, the room we use as an office she used as a showroom (and perhaps office as well). It had an outlet in the ceiling and track lights in addition to a pair of can lights, the track lighting obviously to illuminate items on the wall. Boring grey carpeting and taupe paint on the walls (we've been going through and making each room more interesting).
The goal was a rustic/western theme for the office. So we ripped down the track lighting, replaced the can lights with some fixtures that looked more appropriate for the look. Ripped up the carpet and replaced that with a wood looking laminate, which we then complimented with a different wood on the main wall and the ceiling. Offset those with turquoise paint on the remaining walls. We already had the longhorns (a present last year from Laurie), but she also found a ranch that sold off their retired ropes, which adds a nice touch. For trim we just used stained 1x2s along the ceiling and then in the corner where the wood meets the painted wall, and stained 1x6s for baseboards. Couch and desk we already had - in fact those are two pieces of furniture that I've owne dlonger than about any other furniture I've owned.
Laurie's the source of all the ideas, and in this case most of the execution. I mostly did the wood on the ceiling and the light fixtures, she did the rest. I think it turned out great.
It's not 100% completed. In those pictures we still had the desk on dollies while figuring out where to put it and how to orient it, which we've settled on angled in the corner it's in instead of straight. I'm going to be building some built-in bookshelves using iron pipe, and of course we have to hang things up on the wall.
This ended up being a pretty cheap remodel that adds a whole lot in terms of our love of the room itself while adding functionality. Before it wasn't very thoughtfully arranged, more of the standard "Ok movers, just put this stuff in here" and we added some bookshelves, but it was never enough storage space. The laminate was still a nice quality but under $2 sq/ft, a $35 gallon of paint, the light fixture, and then otherwise just some lumber. Building the bookshelves of course will add some cost but not too bad. We'll have a lot more storage space and enjoy the room much more. At this point, the downstairs of our house is just about complete. The main project that I hope to get done in the next couple of months is the propeller light fixture, replacing the (cheap, boring, builder basic) chandelier that you have when you walk right in the front door.
