My latest Home Improvement Project

Thursday, March 06, 2008

My Stairway/Front Entrance
If you already read this on my blog, call me Dr. Murk. I recently remodeled my stairway/front entrance. It was in already rough shape. It is a recent stairways addition, and was put in to save room in the main house before the addition was added. To that end, the stairway is not particularly wide, and goes up almost spirally doing a complete 180 turn to get to the top of the upstairs hall.

Because of the that, I had to knock out a wall to get some furniture upstairs, and a few pieces of furniture caused cosmetic damage going up there. So we were left with this.

Now, if you look at the left side of this picture, that half wall went to the ceiling, and is what I ripped down. Also, the left part of the stairway was done in a 1960's style of drywall, while the right side (also the exterior wall) was done in horse hair lathe and plaster. You will notice the ugly brown paneling, which covered much of the house. The missing panels are from the move. The damaged ceiling is also from the move.

I know your wating with baited breath, here is the after from the same view, dont mind the ladder and tools: All I have left to do, is a couple of edges, and of course hang things on the wall, and replace the old light (lighting sale at Home Depot this weekend!). Can you say, Holy Crap what a difference? My parents haven’t seen any of it yet, so this should shock them. A couple of other views?

From toward the top of the stair: You can see a couple more views here (GOD I hate Blogger's image loading system).

Yes, you see stripes.

So, what do you think. Should I not be a designer on one of those TLC Programs (someone has already pointed out I am not gay enough)? As you can see from the first pic, I had to essentially rebuild the wall to the left of the stairs. I liked the open look, so I kept it like that and made it more of a railing. I had to rip all the lathe and plaster down, reframe, resheetrock it, and then did all the moulding (the angles are interesting to try do, but I had an cool angle tool, and since I was painting, I filled any gaps with a patch). In addition, I put some moulding in to cover the damaged ceiling.

I hate paneling, and as stated, this house has a plethora of ugly brown paneling. So my first step was to rip that all down. Then I stripped 6+ plus layers of wall paper dating back to the late 1800’s, patched the walls, and fixed any holes. I then primed the whole thing, moulding included with Kilz. Kilz is by far the best primer and stain cover I have used and will only use that for this purpose.

As for the painting, a plugs first. I only use Behr paint. I do not skimp and buy cheap paint. Why Behr? It is more expensive and such, but it covers awesome, has supreme colorfastness, is easy to clean, and wears forever. Quality stuff. Worth the $25 a gallon.

The painting itself. I decided I want stripes. I did not want them to be overpowering though, I wanted subtle. It wasn’t hard to do, but it requred patience, and accuracy. Here’s what I did. I wanted green, I wanted light, and I wanted warm. I went to Home Depot, and picked two greens, both on warm side (more yellow than blue), and one a slight hue lighter than the other. Also to distinguish them, one was eggshell finish and the other was a satin gloss. It makes a interesting yet subtle effect on the wall that is impossible to pick up unless you see it live, the slight gloss difference. I also wanted to tie into the wall of the dining area, which attached to the wall, which is a bright yellow, a spring green accent, and a cream color.

How did I get the stripes neat and clean? Again, it was fairly easy though time consuming, and required accuracy. I have a large level that is 2′ long. I used it to measure 2′ for each stripe, and then using the level drew in straight pencil lines on the walls. I taped off the lines for one color first. I marked the areas I was going to color with an X. Here is the important part, make sure you are putting the tape down correctly, as you will only paint one color now. Your X’ed stripe, the tape should be out side of the line with X’ed area in the middle. I then painted one color, let it dry over night. Retaped the next day (doing the opposite tape job) and did the second color. Now, you will have some peeling and damage on the first color, but just use a straight edge and touch up, if you let it dry overnight, it shouldn't be too extensive. Your lines will be straight, but the lines of your house might not. It will be worse in a older house, not really a lot you can do about that unless you want to rebuild what your painting.

Now the trim and moulding, I wanted a similar paint to the moulding in the dining room, a deep red, but did not want red (red compliments green and would too much of a color bounce). I chose a greyish red/brown, more of a chocolate brown. I made that paint semi gloss, again, a visual contrast.

The whole effect rocks, the walls are very subtle, and moulding pops right out. It is one of my more favorite interior design pieces I have ever done. Again just a couple things to touch up.

Best part the whole project only cost about $150.

I am Malach, and I could work for you.