The 515 Day Bathroom Remodel—Art Deco Accents

The Art Deco style originated in Paris before World War I, but didn’t make it to our shores until the 1920’s through the 1930’s.  It was the ultimate in the modern aesthetic and was the symbol of luxury and fine craftsmanship.  While Art Deco was predominantly used for office buildings, most notably the Empire State Building and Chrysler Buildings, our Los Angeles Union Station is a fine example of the style.

Residential homes sported furniture pieces and small kitchen appliances, but by the end of the 1930’s and the advent of World War II, the Art Deco style was dimming. 

In our 1938 home, the bathtub, and the front door handle set were distinctive of the Art Deco style.  Our house was built in the Modern Traditional style, interior corners are rounded, but the exterior is fairly plain without any curves, geometric details adorn the front porch.

As a prelude to entering our primary bathroom, I moved a 1933 Sunset Cover poster that we framed about 50 years ago.  I always loved the print, and it finally had a proper place.  

My fixture choices were directed by the simple but elegant style of the 1930’s.  We decided on black finishes and white tiles to coordinate with the dark soapstone countertop and slate floor.  Our splash of expense was on the rhomboid shaped marble for the niches, which reflect the geometry of the era.  I wanted to keep it simple, and let the small details define the room.

The chandelier has a definite Empire State Building look to it, and casts a beautiful pattern on the ceiling, which is painted a different color than the rest of the room.  

The small live edge shelf that is under the huge mirror, circa 1908, from my aunt and uncle’s house just off the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, holds all I need.  The brackets are reminiscent of the curved and stacked style of buildings of that design.

As I have mentioned, the tub was the driving force for the bathroom design.  It is resembles the shape of many trains of the era.

The stencil in the toilet room was also inspired by one of the many geometric designs favored in the day.  It resembles a stylized sunrise or elaborate headdress from one of the flashy Broadway Shows.

The X pattern inlay on the cabinet drawers was a nod to the rhomboid shapes in the bath niches.  I left the center panel blank to keep it simple, but wanted the cabinets to have a little extra design interest.

Black and white colors were used in the 1930’s as they complimented the many bright to subdued colors used.  Colors ran from bright turquoise and pink and lots of teal, black and white featured everywhere.  Metallic’s were very popular, you saw them in wall coverings and inlays as well as furniture accents.

The Art Deco era was a fun and creative time.  It was bracketed by the sinuous botanicals from the Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts style that brought in more geometrics.  You can see elements of all these shapes in the Art Deco designs.

All of these little touches add just the right amount of interest to an otherwise plain bathroom.  And, the engineer did all the installations, which were tedious at times, but worth the effort.

The 515 Day Bathroom Remodel-Slate Flooring

Flooring—“the final frontier”, or so to speak.  When designing a room floors are always considered, but often people figure they’ll think about it more specifically as they get closer to installation time.  They will know roughly what kind of surface they want, i.e. carpet, tile, stone, hardwood, or vinyl.  An unfortunate truth is that by the time they get to choosing flooring, they’ve spent most of their budget on other things, and flooring is last.  Also, unfortunately, flooring is expensive. 

I had decided on slate years ago, when our daughter asked what I thought she should replace her kitchen flooring, which was alternating black and white vinyl squares.  A great look, but not practical with dogs tracking in mud and dirt from the yard.  She could have extended her hardwood into the space, but black slate was more durable—dogs, again.  

By using slate in our bathroom, it would not only be attractive and durable, it would help anchor the room and balance it with the soapstone countertop.  I was sick and tired of the light tile floor we’d been living with and it seemed dirty most of the time.  The slate only needs a quick sweep or light vacuum to keep it looking clean between washings.

If you’ve been reading about this 515 day remodel, you know how long we’ve had to live with the floor in bits and pieces. From the beginning, a two foot square hole cut into the floor to allow access under the house for plumbing.  A carefully cut piece of plywood was screwed in place until it was necessary to go under and then only a couple of screws had to be removed for access and replaced again.

The tile came up in stages and each time it was a little more unpleasant to look at and walk on, but it was only temporary.  I repeated this many, many times during the 515 days.  The first tile to come up was around the old vanity so that the new vanity could be placed on the new subfloor.  I must say, the backer board over the subfloor was lovely, it felt finished, or at least clean and level.

As we progressed through all the stages of this remodel, tile came up as needed.  Once the shower was demolished, that area needed backer board before we could continue.  The toilet room needed to be completely finished before the toilet could be installed.  It was nice to imagine how the entire floor would look with just that small room finished.

Onward to the rest of the floor, now the rest of the tile could come up and finally the hole in the floor could be permanently be closed up and nice, clean backer board was laid down.  We could see the light at the end of this long, long tunnel.

The engineer did spend a lot of time figuring out where the grout lines would fall in relation to the vanity’s opening and relative to the door to the bathroom.  This may not seem important, but believe me, you would notice it if it wasn’t lined up properly.  Not to mention having lots of small pieces to “fit” in to finish the floor.

After the floor was fully installed, we felt like we could dance in the room, so spacious, and level!  There were some tricky area’s to deal with.  As mentioned earlier, the tub has an Art Deco design.  The base has a small curve on either end with a panel in the center.  Fortunately, the original linoleum had been carefully cut and made a perfect pattern to cut the slate.  Not that cutting the pattern in slate was easy, but at least it didn’t have to be done by chiseling it by hand on the floor, but carefully cut on the tile saw while standing.

Of all the elements in the bathroom the slate flooring may be my favorite.

Next time:  Art Deco Details

The 515 Day Bathroom Remodel-Tile and Stone

Finally some pretty stuff.  The tile had been stored in the tub initially and now it was time for it to be applied to the walls, oh happy day.

However, first there were again many measurements to be made, while the vanity was in place and with the help of son-in-law and a helpful neighbor friend the ninety pound trough sink could be set in place so the stone counter could be set.  Plumbing in the wall had been completed for the two faucets and we had a fully functioning sink again.  We were only without a sink in this bathroom for two days.

The stone fabricator had picked up the soapstone slab, which we had stored for a couple of years in the garage after the kitchen counters had been finished, to be cut to fit the sink opening.  Once the stone masons came and got the slab cut and returned to set and caulk it, we could plan for the tile.

Measurements from the surface of the stone, allowing for grout lines, began and the engineer put a ledger board around the walls to ensure that the tile lines would be consistent all the way around the two adjacent walls encompassing the tub.

We decided the wall that held the sink and two windows would be fully tiled since one of the windows was partially over the tub.  We had taken both the windows out so they could be restored to proper working order.  Which meant they had to be stripped of eighty plus years of paint and the lift systems had to be replaced to function again.  

Once the windows were restored, I was concerned about having a wood window frame inside the shower area, which previously had only been a tub.  I came up with the idea that we could frame out the windows with marble chair rail and a marble window sill.  The niches were all marble and framed out similarly, so why not add the chair rail to the windows.

Naturally, this addition had to be considered before the backer board was installed, so the tile walls would be flush to the chair rail. 

A word about the niches.  We had decided that since the tub and shower were in one place, we would need a niche for the tub as well as for the shower.  The engineer designed a vertical niche to accompany the bottles of shampoo, body wash, etc., and a horizontal niche for the occasional tub soak.  To complete the experience he added a teak shelf that could be placed across the tub to hold a cup of tea or wine, and the niche would be an ideal spot for a scented candle.

The stone for the niches was selected long ago.  I had found a beautiful marble rhomboid shaped tile, while it was a bit of a splurge, it was a relatively small area.  The chair rail framed out the niches as well as the windows.  However, the window framing was a late decision and we needed more. As luck would have it we found just enough to finish the project, as the chair rail was discontinued.

It turned out that the chair rail had to be epoxied to the walls, which turned out to be a multi-day project.  Now that the niches and windows were installed the tile on the walls could begin.  The engineer started from just above the tub at counter height and went up and onto the adjacent wall before finishing below the ledger board.

At this point, we were feeling like we could see the light at the end of the tunnel and we were just under a year into this project, and only had two walls finished.  Albeit those two walls were heavy with plumbing and electrical stuff, and all that tile.  Those two walls held three of the four essential  components of a full bathroom.

Next:  Preparing the toilet room and stenciling

The 515 Day Bathroom Remodel-Plumbing

Now that we are on the other side of the 515 day bathroom remodel, it is a bit easier to see the journey.  

Keeping in mind our primary goal was to move the toilet into the shower space and give us floor space and better function with the vanity.  It was tempting to just tear out the old shower and move the toilet and work on the rest at some point.  Fortunately, reason took over and planning the actual plumbing needs was the next order of business

We needed to remove the linen cabinet first, so that the plumbing for the tub/shower could go in behind the cabinet. My handy, engineer hubby tore out the linen cabinet and tub wall to the studs to begin his own schematic for the plumbing in the walls.

The bulk of the plumbing would go between the shower wall and linen cabinet, but, additional pipes were run in the wall adjacent to the end of the tub wall..  This was messy and difficult to remove because  the cement was so thick.  Removal and clean up took time.  

Once the walls were totally open, the pipe positioning could be thought out and installed.  First of all, framing of the end of the tub wall, where the linen cabinet had been, needed to be built to support the new pipes.  Fortunately, we had selected the fixtures for the shower assembly and we had them on hand.  Knowing the exact dimensions of all these fixtures was key to making them work in the space allowed.   

The finished space between the shower wall surface and the inside wall of linen cabinet, is three and three quarters of an inch wide.  That means the internal space in shower wall is even less, so the actual pipe placement kit critical.  We also replaced all of the plumbing at the tub fill end and took this opportunity to raise the valve positions which make reaching the valve handles much easier. 

Additionally, the two niches we had planned needed to be framed and positioned to avoid plumbing as well.  As a designer, I appreciate that form must follow function, but it’s hard not to want to rush this phase and get to the “pretty stuff”.

At this point, we are living like “campers”, with open to the stud walls and old tar paper exposed.  We were pretty excited to be able to close up the walls with insulation and fiber board, and feel like we were on our way to a finished project.  But, we still had window wall completely open to the studs, so we focused on the almost finished part to keep sane, and be able to move forward.  

While I’d like this to be the end of the “endless” plumbing, it was far from over.  Our son flew from the east coast to spend a week helping his dad with some under the house copper pipe cutting, connecting and pressure testing.  This exercise would bring the sink plumbing to the ready for the placement of the two foot by four foot trough sink.  With all the under the house piping complete to this point, it would make it easier for the plumber who would come and cut the cast iron waste pipe and connect the toilet in its new location.  But that exercise is still months away.

As I mentioned this bathroom was fully functional during 90% of the remodel.  As the picture shows, my husband cut a two foot square in the floor for easy access to the plumbing under the house.  It was tight as the floor joists are actually only eighteen inches apart, but it was far easier for the guys to scrunch their shoulders to wedge themselves through the opening, than it was to crawl about 50 feet on stomachs and elbows from the exterior access.  We were delighted to see the original 1938 linoleum, complete with gold metallic flecks.  Classy indeed.

Next time:  Cabinet Making

Antique Sewing Machine Revival

Table compete, just waiting for chairs

A friend had an antique sewing machine in a lovely oak cabinet she was looking to dispose of, unless I had any ideas for another use for it.  My friend had been using it as a side table, mostly as an interesting conversation piece.

I named a half dozen things she could do with it within a couple of minutes and she was intrigued with the idea that it could be made into a dining room table, since she was considering leaving her current dining table and chairs when she sold the house. 

I explained that the ornate iron frame can be separated from the decorative oak box and sewing machine.  She was hoping to have a round glass table top cut to fit the iron base.  Knowing that the standard height for a dining table was 30” and the frame was only about 28”; an extension would need to be built or casters could be added to the legs for the additional height.  Who could do this, she wondered, well, “the engineer” of course.

We collected the heavy— very heavy and awkward sewing cabinet and brought it to the “workshop”.  The engineer was delighted with the new puzzle.  Thinking we had found all the screws, we’d be surprised to have to search yet again for the reason the box would not separate from the frame.  

Finally, with the two pieces separated, we went into discussions about how to build the frame.  My very handy husband, wanted to buy new wood, but being a practical sort of person, I wanted to use what we had, in scrap, it would only be painted anyway.  Oddly enough my husband had just cut up the pallet on which, the ceiling wood (Office Remodel Phase 1) had been delivered, and put into the trash.  Ugh!  I had suspected that part of the frame of the pallet was made of a very good hard wood; a friend thought it might be maple and I think he was right.  I thought about all the different types of maple and think it is most likely,“ribbon maple”.  A beautiful wood.  There was only a very little of it having been used as the ribs of the pallet, but as luck would have it, just enough to make a beautiful frame for the iron legs and extension for the table top.

Painting complete, including a little gold leaf on the lettering at the base identifying the machine; all that was left was a round glass table top, my friend was delighted with the outcome.

A little gold leaf

The beautiful oak box was mine to do as I wished.  I decided I did want to add it to the office as a permanent place for my light table.  Now, however it has no legs!  My dear friend and fellow designer Dawn, in Virginia suggested hanging it on the wall.  I had thought of that, but there was a window where it needed to go, not a solid wall.  Again, luck was on my side, it was just wide enough to clear the window and be fastened to the wall.

Nice fit!

The engineer was able to find some iron brackets to hold the weight of the oak box and cast iron sewing machine inside.  In addition he used a piece of left over walnut to strengthen the bracket and support the box.

Two antique sewing cabinets in use.

The Antique Sewing Machine has served many masters, since it was built at the turn of the twentieth century, and now in the twenty first century, retirement is still in the future for this well built piece of history.  It is perfect for my light table and the placement is ideal.

Office Update: Part 2 Flooring

The floor.  Now that is a special problem unto itself.  Originally the room we call my office was an outdoor patio.  It was probably enclosed in the 60’s and done fairly well, except for the wiring, I mentioned in Part 1.  The skylights were a wonderful addition as well as a beautiful large window, looking out onto a small private patio.  The problem was the fountain that had been installed in the floor under the large window; a questionable addition at best.  UGH.  Wiring, again, and plumbing, not to mention the recess in the tile floor.

When we had tenants, the fountain had to be covered for safety reasons.  When we moved in, I wanted the raised tile covered curb knocked down, so the floor would be somewhat flat, giving me more useable floor space.  I put a large area rug over the floor and moved in.  All fine, until we were ready to deal with that room, and all of its various elements.

Well, as the Walrus said, The Time Had Come, to talk of many things: not shoes and ships and sealing wax—- primarily, that floor.  Having been in the flooring business for many years, I knew what would work and what wouldn’t and, what I wanted verses what would work.  I had thought of several options, but many of my brilliant ideas were more money and work than I wanted to deal with.  

First things first, that fountain had to be filled in.  It took several hundred pounds of gravel, brick, cement and finished off with a smooth concrete surface.  Having been an outside room, and sitting on a cement slab, it would be unwise to continue the solid hardwood floors that exist in the rest of the house.  An engineered floor would be ideal, except that today’s engineered floors are all much wider and more “modern” than what we currently have.  I wanted to continue the look of the narrow strip flooring, but did not want to use solid flooring (unwise on a slab foundation) and have to stain and finish it to match.  Laminate floors, don’t offer the more narrow boards either.  Luxury Vinyl Tiles, nope, what it boils down to is I am out of fashion!  Too traditional.  Nothing new here, move on.

In the final analysis I chose to cover the now flat tiled floor with two 8X11 area rugs.  I decided on indoor/outdoor rugs made of polypropylene, certainly not my first fiber choice, but under certain conditions, it is best.  I had a beautiful wool rug that faded terribly from skylight exposure and somehow a moth infestation.  I’m guessing it was moths, but fortunately they stayed with this one rug, and none of the other wool rugs.  Polypropylene is a manmade fiber that does not fade and insects are not interested in it; although our cat might enjoy it for sharpening her claws!  The rugs all but cover the entire floor and add a bright and interesting pattern.  While the rugs are not necessarily a permanent solution, they are a happy solution for now, and much less expensive than flooring I did not love.  But I do love the room now.  Problem solved. 

Office Update: Part 1

Looking for the silver lining this past spring of 2020, and our stay at home orders, my office is getting a much needed ceiling repair, clean up and general update.  While we had tenants here, we had a leak in one of the skylights in what is now my office.  Fortunately nothing the tenants owned was damaged and it resulted in an unsightly paint blister that I’ve lived with for more than five years.

The paint blister was quite large, unsightly, but livable and low on the repair list…until Covid-19 quarantined those of us of a certain age.  We had managed to stay petty busy up until April, with the re-upholstery on the Model A, but when that finished, we were looking at our project list.  The complete gutting of our main bathroom was simply out of the question at this time.

  So, why not tackle the ceiling in my office?  Seemed reasonable, we had planned on using a pre-finished plank intended for ceilings and already had samples.  Like all projects, on the surface it seemed simple enough, at least to me.  The engineer, however saw the problems that needed to be addressed before the “pretty” part of the project.  Like, getting firing strips up to make the ceiling plane, or level if you will.  He found variations up to an inch and a half.  Then there was the ever present electrical issues we have had to deal with in each room as we worked room by room.

The electrical problems never ceased to amaze, with hot wires left in the ceilings improperly disconnected.  Other connections to other rooms making no sense at all.  But room by room, the engineer has made code corrections and wiring is all correct and safe; which takes t-i-m-e, about two weeks of time.  Not being able to just run up to the local hardware store, we were dependent on family or mail order to get supplies, which adds to the delays.  All in all, not too bad, since we have no where to go anyway and there is always something else to work on in during the waiting game.

Finally, all the panels were up and skylight wells were perfectly fitted and the ceiling has never looked better.  Well done.  But since, I’ve been out of my office for many weeks, I figured we might as well tackle the floor, since the room was pretty empty.  Flooring story will follow in next installment.

Kitchen Complete

Kitchen renovations are always about compromise.  We decided to keep somethings that were here when we took up residence, although they are not original to the 1938 design of the house.  While we made some big changes, none of the fixtures moved except the dishwasher.

When I last wrote, it was July and my handy husband was removing the old tile countertop and backsplash set in an inch of concrete and a stiff wire mesh.  It. Was. A. Mess.  Not to mention time consuming and hard on his shoulders.  You might think that once the tile was up the countertops could go down.  But, in the real world it does not work quite that easily.

There is electrical work to do to bring the formerly remodeled kitchen from, I’m guessing, the 1960s into the 21st century.  New electrical outlets, some with electronic charging capabilities.  Walls were opened for additional outlets to supply a coffee maker and coffee grinder, along with a spare or two for good measure.  All appliances get their own circuit which eliminates breakers kicking off in the middle of a task.

Once the electrical was compete, and that means pushing and pulling what seemed like thousands of wires through tiny openings, above ground and under the house, my husband moved onto building a new cabinet to contain the trash and recycling.  This cabinet would serve as a base to an additional two feet of new counter space.  My very handy husband built the cabinet to match the existing cabinetry that we chose to keep; while he was in the carpentry mood he made new doors for the cabinet under the sink as well.

Next came the plumbing, new faucet and high loop for the dishwasher drain line, and moving the garbage disposal drain pipe, that changed position for the new sink.  All of the above work took us through August.  Someone asked how retirement was coming along.  We answered, working every day and weekends, just like before, but on a fixed income!  All true, but not as bleak as it sounds.  These are projects “we” like to do, keeping in mind who is doing most of the labor, I’m the idea person, with a side of clean up and help where needed part.  The hero in this story is the engineer!

I was thrilled to have a new sink and faucet working before the countertop was set.  We purchased a soapstone slab and had a fabricator measure for us and get onto his schedule, while I painted the new cabinetry.  The slab was installed a week earlier than expected, but none too soon for us, we were ready.

We did take a little time for celebrating birthday’s and our anniversary, before the tiling of the backsplash began.  Now it is finished and we are so pleased.  I love that I have my trusty Hoosier Cabinet dedicated to baking and cereal storage only, a place for the coffee maker and more counter space than this kitchen has every had.  A bonus, is that “we” extended the floor under the sink to be flush with the existing cabinetry, giving us about three more inches in depth.  With this my handy husband built a pull out shelf to contain the under sink necessities, now easily accessible.  

I think my husband is going to move to working on the Model A again, to give his brain something else to think about, and different muscles to get sore.

TV Room Renovation

The Engineer worked on a friend’s Cinema Room last year and it really got his juices flowing to dig into our meager little TV room.  We have had new speakers, fortunately still current and the same ones installed in the fancy Cinema Room, since before we moved nearly four years ago, just waiting to be installed.

Similar to what was original

Part of the delay, besides all the other projects that had priority, was wondering what was under all the dark blue paint.  We figured it was paneling, but not your 1960-70’s paneling, this stuff,  was something we had not been familiar—really wide and oddly spaced.  Well, now we know.  I am sure it was in Ozzie and Harriet’s den or Mr. Blanding’s Dream house, I will have to check on that.

Mystery solved, it is paneling, three quarters of an inch thick, and eleven and a half inches wide, and extremely hard wood.  We knew the hard part, because we had to drill pilot holes in the surface in order to hang pictures.  The reveal happened when my husband took off the crown molding at the ceiling and removed the door frame and jam.  We could see the plaster they used to “fill in” the groves of the paneling pattern.  

I laughed, that is exactly what I did when we bought a single wide trailer to live in while we built our home in the foothills.  All the walls were paneled, but with inexpensive  and thin 1970’s paneling.  To add some design and color to the two bedrooms, I used good old Plaster of Paris to level out the bevels of the paneling.  I added a chair rail and wallpapered above the chair rail and painted below, leaving the bevels for interest.

This discovery lead the engineer to rethink his previous plan of removing the paneling to simply adding quarter inch drywall over it.  Far less messy, less work, and the landfill will not burdened with the scrap wood.  A win-win, I think.

You can see from the photos that the wood expands and contracts with changing temperature, leaving vertical cracks at bevel lines.  Also, the wide depressions are from shrinkage of plaster after it dries.  These traits are what left us confused as to what was behind the paint.

You can just make out the vertical cracks in the paint between the panels.

Now the wiring begins, so there will not be much interesting stuff to report for several weeks, I am guessing.

Panel at the ceiling

Stay posted, I will send photos out as we move along with this project.

Sneak Peek

Here is a sneak peek of things to come in my blog.  Having completed the near complete gut-job of removing my daughter's kitchen, leaving most of the walls and floor, the rest removed, I will share a few pictures.

A $5 piece of wood found in a bin at Rockler's.  With a bit of routing for the edges and to prepare a space for Rare Earth Magnets, a handy knife holder has become one of the most useful additions to the "new" kitchen.

The wood for the shelves was chosen for its "character", since the underside of the upper shelves would be visible, we chose the most distinctive side to face down.

With the absence of a real lighting expert, we had to rely on what we had and who was available.

Hazel Nut proved to be willing to help at every opportunity.

Bathroom Remodel:

When the Open Concept is Taken Too Far

We started the hall bathroom remodel several weeks ago, a bit backwards perhaps— with a door.  Years ago, I bought an antique leaded glass door with the hopes to use it as the door for the hall bathroom, since it was so pretty and the bathroom was not.  My main objection to the hall bath was that whomever added it on, placed the toilet smack in the middle of the doorway, with the door open, it was not a pretty sight, especially since you see it from the kitchen.

My handy hubby, the engineer did another stretching job to the door, it was wide enough, but not long enough to cover the opening and hang from the sliding mechanism.  Then, there was the task of filling holes from door knobs and dead bolts.  And finally, hours of filling, sanding, priming and painting!  A substantial header needed to be put in place to hold the heavy duty sliding mechanism to allow us to hang the door.

Next up was what to do with the leaded glass that offered lots of beauty, but little privacy needed for a bathroom.  I thought an antique mirror behind the leaded glass would offer the necessary privacy, and thought it would be interesting from the kitchen/hall side.  As for the bathroom side, I am planning on a sheet of wallpaper that will compliment the bathroom, or maybe blackboard paint.

The actual tear down of the bathroom or demo to the studs was next.  The house was built in 1938, when a 2X4 was exactly that, not today’s shaved down version.  When the bath was added, this factor was not taken into consideration, hence uneven walls with odd bulges and waviness.  My engineer decided the only way to fix it was to strip it down to the studs.  Besides, the reason for the remodel was to move the toilet from, “front and center”, to under the window and move the sink to where the toilet had been for a more pleasing view.

This bathroom was “carved” out of what we expect was a “laundry area” and stolen bedroom closet space on the common wall behind where the toilet was placed.  We decided to take more out of the closet area, by removing some of the upper storage, that had been left with the previous remodel.  We wanted the new sink area to have full ceiling height, rather than the lowered ceiling that was from the previous remodel.  This would allow for a nicer lighting fixture and a more spacious feeling in this tiny three quarter hall bath.

The demolition of the surrounding walls, left the toilet standing in my husband’s office; pretty convenient for him, but lacking privacy all around!  He is wasting no time getting the remainder of the closet walls reframed, thus closing in the bathroom from the office side, at least.

Next up will be further demolition of the shower tile and floor tiles.  Floor tiles have been ordered along with a mirror/medicine cabinet. Stay tuned.

The Art of Stretching A Door

It’s been a long time since I posted anything about the guest room makeover, so long that I forgot I had started to write about it back in January of this year.

It has been a long five months in the making…but it is finally habitable— not completely finished, but livable at least.

One of the primary things that needed to be installed was a door to cover the opening for privacy between the guest room and my husband’s office.  We actually found an entry door back in November and decided it was just the ticket for our sliding door. Except the door was a standard 6’8” door and the opening was standard for a typical inset door, to cover the opening it needed to be s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d for full coverage.

My handy husband began cleaning up the door that is 80+ years old, by filling the door handle, lockset and deadbolt openings, sanding down much of the eight to ten layers of paint and adding about three inches to the bottom of the door.  I think he used poplar to extend the door; this was done by cutting and glueing pieces together to make the extension.  Once the door had been made to the exact size to hang over the opening and offer complete coverage, top and bottom and side to side, it was nearly ready for priming.  

But, before that, the speakeasy needed to be recessed so it would pass on the wall side of the guest room when it was completely open and not scar the wall.  My husband needed to chisel out the stepped configuration of the speakeasy to match and make the depth flush with the exterior of the door.

Now, it was ready for some heavy duty priming.  I used an oil based primer, since it offers the best coverage and would prevent any ghosting of previous colors.  Priming and painting took time, since both sides of the door needed to be painted, and with this winter and all the glorious rains, it was a challenge to get good drying time.  I wanted the door painted two different colors, since one side would face my husband’s office, it would be white to match the trim in that room.  On the guest room side, I decided that I would set it up like the entry door it had been in its glory days.  Painting it the same color as the sleeping alcove, a deep blue, against a cool, pale blue on the walls outside of the sleeping alcove, allowed it to stand out on its own as a showpiece.

I was fortunate to have had a small armoire, complete with hanging space, shoe rack, shelves and drawers; perfect for the space on one side of the door.  The other side of the door was large enough for some kind of furniture piece, and went back and forth about what would be the most serviceable.  I finally found a small dresser that looked more like an entry console, perfect!  It is small enough not to crowd the available space and large enough to be serviceable for storage of sheets and towels, until guests come and then it serves well for their clothing storage; one guest gets the “closet” and one gets the dresser, they share the hanging space.

With a generous platform serving as the step down, it feels more comfortable than a small awkward step, and there is an electrical outlet in the riser for plugging in an additional lamp by the chair.

Flooring, operable windows, and at the air conditioning unit will be the next big expenses.  Guests say the room is quite comfortable, except that the newest cat can open the door!  So, maybe it is not so private after all. 

Adding a Little Bling

My daughter’s closet has always been a bit dull, serviceable, but nothing special.   Most closets are really just utilitarian, unless you can make-over a small room into a fantastic closet, and add lots of fancy extras: lighting, seating and specialized compartments for shoes, jewelry and accessories.  Lacking an entire room to remake into a specialized closet, we are working with what we have; a small, but well organized space.

A year ago for Christmas, I gave my daughter a pretty chandelier for her closet.  We always thought we would get that closet painted, and shelves covered in pretty wallpaper, and the chandelier installed; but that plan just did not happen quickly.  Here we are a year later, and we decided to tackle the project.  

We thought we could install the chandelier by ourselves; after all, we’ve done simple stuff like this before.  What we did not realize is that the bare bulb that illuminated the closet was actually in a junction box and had a pull cord to turn on the light; it was not hard wired into the wall, to a light switch.  Handy husband aka dad, had to do a little work on the chandelier to make itwork in the closet.  While he could have hardwired it into the wall, he has too many other projects on his worktable at this time.  He decided it was easier to rewire the chandelier to work with a pull cord; he could do without having to cut into the wall and do some plastering work to boot!

My daughter and I had decided a metallic paint for the walls would add some glam.  We bought what was available, one of the three colors we wanted to try—the paint store was out of the other colors.  Without other choices, we decided to plunge into the project full force, now that we had the light that would be in the finished closet, instead of the bare bulb with low wattage.  

I am nearly always skeptical after the the first coat, when I start a painting, stripping or staining project.  “What was I thinking” comes to my mind, but knowing that the next coat will be a huge improvement, I power on.  After the second coat of metallic paint on these walls, I was still a wee bit unsure.  The metallic paint is not hard to work with, but it is a bit tricky and does not cover as evenly as I expected, even with the advised paint extender meant to give you more time before it sets.

After painting the walls and trim, we were anxious to get the chandelier put together to see if we would like the paint color.  The paint color was called Champagne, but it is most definitely an antique gold, much like the gold calligraphy ink, I have used.  It was growing on us.  The chandelier was another trial, to get all the crystals put together and then hung on the appropriate arms of the frame.

We were afraid early on that the project would look a bit more like Liberace’s closet than chic Hollywood Regency on a small scale.  In the end, we love the effect.  The Audrey Hepburn poster from Italy has been framed in a simple black frame.  We added a pretty cord of silk with one of the crystals on the pull chain, and painted the dresser a fresh new color.   All new hangers, will complete this project.  As usual, small projects can morph into much bigger ones, but they can be broken down into smaller, more manageable ones too, that allow for you to complete them as time allows.

I am happy to say, the closet turned out to be a great success and my daughter loves it; just enough bling for the small area.

Christmas Project Breakthrough

Christmas Project Breakthrough    

I feel as though I won the Christmas Lottery!  This year, the holiday project was at our house instead of at our daughter’s house.  When we first looked at this house, we found it a bit quirky.  Fortunately for us, the quirky characteristics caused many potential buyers pass on it, leaving it for the more adventurous.

We have not yet figured out what the original intent was for the add-on room, our project room.  We believe the room was added on about 25 to 30 years ago, based on materials used.  The do-it-yourself person who built the room did not have the qualifications to do a really good construction job, especially with the electrical system.  The room has seven good quality, floor to ceiling windows, all dual glazed, but none of them open for ventilation.  The exterior door, off the driveway, is the only access into the room; fortunately there is a screen door for fresh air.  This room was not good for not much more than a sunroom or storage, which is how we have used it.

However, we always intended it to be a guest room, knowing we would need to upgrade many aspects of it.  Most important was constructing direct access to the rest of the house from the room, without having to go outside walk down the driveway and enter the house through the back door.  Having an accessiblebathroom without having to go outside was primary.

The plan was to cut a door through a wall in the second bedroom aka my husband’s office.  We could see there had been a window in that wall prior to building the add- on room; therefore, there was an existing header in the wall.  That wall was the logical place for a door.  The window was simply walled over from the inside and left exposed on the guest room side, though disguised by a make-shift closet.  

The biggest problem was cutting through 1938 stucco and about an inch of concrete.  I was grateful to have a much younger person doing the cutting: our gallant son who was willing to do the very, very dirty work.  Once the cuts were made and the wall removed, we all finally could imagine the finished project.

Sadly, there is much left to do before I can jump in and share with you all the fun decorating plans I have; but be patient, it will all be recorded here for you in the coming weeks, and months.

There is a need for only one step down from my husband’s office into the newly created guest quarters.  After some discussion, we agreed that making the step into a full platform would serve best.  First, my husband would not have to level the pebble path that ran under the window before the room was added, and I would not have to deal with an awkward step into the room.

We purchased an old, entry door from Pasadena Salvage, as the door that would offer the necessary privacy for our guests.  I opted for a Speakeasy door to add to the interest and maintain the quirky quality of the house.  This door will slide on barn sliders for access to the rest of the house.  Stepping down from my husband’s office into the room and onto the platform will offer very secure footing.

Currently, my husband is working on the electrical system in the room; there will be plenty of outlets, USB ports, and lighting options.  Having the platform, will afford an outlet or USB port in the riser, wires running under the step, and no encroachment on the very limited wall space, since two sides of the room are all windows.   

Progress beyond the electrical will be fun to share; I am expecting the door hanging to be a whole new story—stay tuned.

Fractured Beauty

A year or so ago, a tiny pebble struck the French door at my daughter’s house.  Sadly, the pebble was thrown by a weeder the gardener was using— he was devastated. Naturally, my daughter was equally devastated, but for different reasons.  She knew what getting a new door would entail; the gardener knew it was a costly accident for which he was ultimately responsible.  

When I saw the door, I couldn’t get over how beautiful it was, the sun was glinting through it, refracting light like a prism.  “We can use this”, was my first comment. After her initial shock, my daughter could see it too, but we were far from being able to implement the idea into the backyard design at her house.  

Once the door was replaced, the fractured door was stored.  I knew the door was still “somewhere”, but out of sight out of mind.  When my daughter suggested we use it in my Alice in Wonderland Garden, I thought it was a brilliant idea.  Yes, we could lay it on its side and it would act as a barrier between Alice’s garden and the grassy area behind the patio; effectively cutting off a short cut for the dogs between the two spaces.  Since the door was a standard six foot eight inches, the space between the posts that separate the two outdoor areas was perfect.  Transporting the heavy door would fall to the men in the family; they got it loaded onto the rack on top of my husband’s SUV and they unloaded it at our house.  My husband got it screwed into the posts and it was secure.  

During one of my daughter’s “scavenging for doors” trips, on a tip from a friend, she managed to pick up a four windows painted a funky yellow-green color, knowing they would be useful.  Two of the windows are a great backdrop on the fence in Alice’s garden, and the other two fit side by side by the French door, in the second eight foot section of the space separating the two outdoor areas.

Alice’s garden is finally coming together.  Once I got a pair of white tree roses and a shorter pair of red roses, Alice’s garden was beginning to take shape.  The Queen of Hearts was the beginning of the Alice Garden, a gift from my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, and grew from there.  The gate I was planning to use against the back fence— when I thought I would link old doors to create a solid barrier against the snarling dogs living behind us— is now in Alice’s garden.  We had to put up a solid fence between the yards to save our sanity and do it in a weekend, so the gate was free to be reused…again.  I love finding new uses for old things, but I fear it is the bane of my husband’s existence; thankfully he continues to tolerate my crazy ideas.

This exercise proves that we can make good use of seemingly “broken” items.  Finding new uses, is my gift.  I remember suggesting to people who lost all their crystal in the 1994 earthquake, to save the shards and pieces, fill a glass cylinder and make a lamp out of the glass and cylinder.  The light shining down through the glass would allow the beautiful fine crystal to sparkle and shine again, just in a different capacity.  There are so many possibilities!

Decorating With A Cat

Statistics show that most of us have pets of some kind, and cats and dogs top the list; however, there are a myriad of other pets to consider in a household.  How to decorate around some of the necessities of having pets can be challenging.  Some pets require much more thought than the usual couple of cats and dogs; snakes, small rodents, small horses and the occasional arachnid may need special attention.  Fortunately, other than cats and dogs, most other pets fall outside of the public rooms in most homes.

My downsized situation required me to find a suitable place for a litter box, not an unusual problem for cat caretakers.  Having no separate laundry room made my litter box issue a problem.  The bathrooms were not really large enough to share suitably, leaving only my office— yuck!  What could I do?  I was pretty pleased to get he box out of view, for the most part; however sitting at my desk, I could see it. I put a privacy curtain along one side of the desk, offering the cat and myself a little privacy.

This solution worked for over a year, but the litter scatter was still an issue for me, and vacuuming multiple times a day was not in my game plan.  I took a look at Pinterest and found a simple solution using an inexpensive IKEA wicker basket idea.  I had a wicker basket under the picture wall of my office, but didn’t want to cut a side away.  Besides, its construction was not conducive to cutting a hole in the side.  The IKEA basket was perfect for this application.  Using tin snips or garden clippers, my husband and I cut away the wicker on one end of the basket leaving the heavy framework in place.  We used heavy plastic and lined three sides of the basket and the floor, inside, clipping the upper edges of the plastic to the upper edges of the wicker.  I found a mat at the pet shop that was intended to capture the litter from the cat’s paws as she left the enclosure, and this mat helped cut down on the tracking of litter, while the liner inside the basket took care of the scattered litter.  Cleaning and scooping the litter is so much easier now; I just lift the lid and have full access to the box, whereas before, I had to clamber under the desk and wiggle the box out to remove it, and that put me way too close to the contents to be happy, I find this much easier to deal with.

My ideal would be have a “Catio”, a term I heard from a local veterinarian; I was intrigued.  I have a perfect area just outside my office that I’d love to have screened in for just that purpose.  It would require a door leading out to the back yard, but oh my, the cat would L-O-V-E to have her own, semi-outside space; and I would love not having the litter box inside my office.  Of course, we would need a small cat door in the wall for her to access the “Catio”, but that seems minor to me, as I would not be the one cutting a hole in an outside wall.  

Maybe someday, this dream will come true for the both of us.  Next, I wonder if Sophie would use the area box in the cold of winter; maybe if I had a heated pathway for her to walk to the litter box—but then, maybe I’m getting a little carried away, or not.

Red Brick Fireplaces—Some Options

People either love or hate red brick or used brick fireplaces; there seems to be no middle ground.  People see painting brick much the way they see painting natural wood trim; and feel it a sacrilege to paint it.  I find it fascinating that some people who don’t like brick fireplaces, but do not want to paint it either, which is a problem for a designer.  I regard painting brick in the same way I regard painting furniture: if you do not like a piece the way it is, and it is not valuable as an antique, why not paint it and make it into something I will enjoy?

I was asked recently what to do with a red brick fireplace that the family did not like.  I suggested something that I had seen done more than 20 years ago in a home in the San Fernando Valley: smear coating it with joint compound.  The homeowners could use as much of the compound to cover the red or used brick as they were comfortable using and still be able to wipe away some if they felt it was too much, giving the fireplace an old world or cottage look.

Today, on design shows you may have seen the use of the German Schemer technique used, which is based on the same process.  Outside, this process would use a mortar mix, but the effect would be the same: wipe on, wipe off to the desired effect, but doing it more quickly as mortar sets up far faster and more permanently than joint compound.  

I like the joint compound smear because you can try it out and wash it off, if done soon enough and restore your red brick is you do not like the effect.  Painting brick is mostly a permanent process.  To remove the paint, you would need to sand blast it off, and that is a mess of a serious magnitude; if you think living with drywall dust is a mess, just try living with brick dust!

There are a multitude of other surfaces you can apply over your brick if you do not like the brick and do not want to paint it.  You can apply drywall to the brick and paint the dry wall for a more modern look.  You can use metals for an interesting change, think of copper or reclaimed wood and a metal mantle.  Adding natural stone or tile will require a much larger budget than joint compound or paint.

The application of a smear technique will give your home a more cottage look and may be easier on the eye than solid red brick.  One of the problems I hear from people is how to decorate around so much red.  A fireplace is usually a focal point in a room and therefore will have a dramatic design impact.  I find that the liberal use of a cool color will help tame the red, inside or outside.  Outside, adding black trim or shutters.  Inside, adding black accents to a red brick backsplash was the answer to my friend’s kitchen dilemma.  Using a charcoal or blue-gray color on the trim outside is another good way to tame the abundance of too much red on a house.

I happen to love the look of brick in New England, where we can see row after row of beautiful, architecturally interesting houses on tree lined streets.  However, these houses have a historic appeal and do not look as harsh as some newer red brick out West.  Besides, if you look carefully at New England houses, they have a lot of black and white accents to compensate for all the red in the brick.  I like correcting color with color; remember it is proportion that the makes the difference in many cases.

Cozy-Up Fall Decorating

I know the official start of fall is still nearly a week away, but there is something about the beginning of September that makes me ready to nest and prepare for fall. The cooler mornings and evenings, the warm days, and the falling leaves signal a change in the season, albeit a slight change here in our mild climate.

When September arrives, I begin pulling out my fall decor and setting them around the house, ready for the seasonal change. There are so many little things you can do to decorate for fall that are simple and easy.  Just changing out the sofa pillows is a good start.   Adding some soft throws in warm fall colors adds that extra layer of warmth you need in the evenings.

I like decorating for fall as if were a holiday in itself.  I can put out some pumpkins and orange lights around the entry for Halloween closer to the end of October, but fall decorating lasts until after Thanksgiving for me; it is such a satisfying time to decorate.  Addinga fresh fall door mat and a wreath at the front door signals to all who enter that warmth awaits them.

Keeping fresh flowers in your home is another great way to enjoy the colors of the season.   Some scented candles conjure up a batch of cinnamon cookies baking, even if baking is not your forte.

Decorating fireplace mantles is a tried and true tradition, but if you do not use your fireplace for fires, at least not this early in the season, don’t forget the hearth and firebox.  The mantle can take second seat for a change.  Add some candles and logs to your firebox for fall interest.  Birch logs are always pretty and show up nicely against the dark interior of the firebox.

Little touches can make a nice, quiet impact in your home and hopefully will enhance your home as a sanctuary for you and your family as well as friends.  A trip to your favorite home store will give you plenty of inspiration.  You can easily match your purchases to your budget before you shop if you have made an assessment of your existing collections.  Once things are stored for a season, I forget what I have and what has been discarded.  Some things need discarding once I open the boxes again.  I keep my new purchase in check by reviewing what I have decided to use again.  Sometimes, just visiting seasonally decorated shops is tonic enough for me to resist spending a small fortune on more fall decor.

Commitment Problem

Everyone has a problem with commitment at some time or another whether it be personal, financial, family, or design.  Design commitments will have far less impact, hopefully, than family issues or employment decisions,  but hesitance to make design commitments seem to result in people doing nothing rather than something or anything, when it comes to changes in their home.

I, too, have commitment problems with some design challenges.  My solution is to find an option that will give me more choices.  The most recent dilemma I faced was what to do about the inside of my upper cabinets in the kitchen.  The doors on the upper cabinets are glass and therefore expose my dishware, which is white; with the interiors painted white, there was no contrast and hardly made an impact.  A few weeks ago, I emptied the upper cabinets of all the dishes and glassware on both sides and painted just the back wall of each of the upper cabinets the color of the kitchen walls: a soft sage green.  While I liked the change, it was barely noticeable.  At least that exercise forced me clean all the glass shelves, and the new color did give it a fresh look.

Still not satisfied with the lack of impact in those cabinets, I had toyed with the idea of painting the backs of the cabinets black—yep, black.  I can imagine what many of my readers may be thinking, “Is she painting the entire house black”?  I do like a bit of drama in design.  The kitchen is one of my favorite places, and I thought the introduction of a little more black would give me the impact I wanted.  Painting the backs of the cabinets is not an “in your face” dramatic change; it is more subtle.  In fact, people hardly notice it; but I do, which is the point.

As for the lack of commitment, I decided to use black foam board cut to size before painting the cabinets and then painting over the black if I did not like it.  I have suggested to clients over the years that to add a little color in bookcases or glass fronted cabinets, first use foam board painted the color they want, to see if they liked it, before painting the back of an entire bookcase.  This option also allows for seasonal changes for displays for Easter, Halloween and Christmas.

I will confess that painting would have been cheaper and take less time than I spent on cutting foam board and going back to the office supply store for more material.  I was pretty sure I was going to like the black, but thought I would give the foam board a try.  I am glad I did.  I like the smooth texture as opposed to the less than perfect plaster walls behind my cabinets dating back to 1938, and all the things that have been done to these cabinets over the years

I still have some black paint plans for my home.  They too will be subtle, but will make an impact.  If you have considered taking an old entertainment unit or bookcase, and using it as a room divider or as a display area for some of your collections, you might consider removing the back of the cabinet and painting it a bright accent color that you are using elsewhere in the room.  Painting an old cabinet or dresser that you are re-purposing, is a win-win project, with little to lose and a good exercise in trying something new.  Try it, you might like it.

An Entry With A Little Pizzaz

This is a good news, bad news dilemma.  The good news was that we have an actual entry in our little house, something that has always been important to me.  I suppose it is because my father always wanted one in our 1950s house, but by then entries were given up in favor of more living space elsewhere in the home.  We had a covered front stoop; and eventually, my father enclosed it and made a formal entry to our little home.  

The bad news regarding our entry was that it was tiny and dull.  It was painted the same color as the living room— a color that I love; but since the entry was so small, I felt it needed to have a little pizzaz.  In truth, as you enter the house, you never see the only wall that does not have a door in it or an opening to the living room.  

As I sit in my office and look out across the living room, I can see into our dining area with windows that give me a view of our mountains, and into the living room, as well as the one wall in the entry where the only interest on the wall— the three brass pipes that give tone to the door bell, but they are not very interesting.

What to do?  I pondered this question for a short time, thinking paint is the quickest solution to my problem; but I was not certain that paint would be enough.  I remember, when we first saw the house, I was thinking I could put a gatelegged table in that space.  Then I realized there was no space for any furniture, paint would have to be enough.

This thought left me so unsatisfied that, I began thinking around my depth problem and decided I would find an image of an entry table and tape it on the wall to trace it with a chalk pen.  After finding the perfect table for my aesthetic, I took it to a photocopy store and had the staff enlarge the image.  This proved not so simple, since the aspect was not quite right.  I ended up taking the image the photo shop provided, and cut the legs crosswise and extended them to table height—voila!  Since I did not expect the table to be taken seriously, its rangy legs were not an issue.

I used chalkboard paint on the wall and a chalk crayon to get the image onto the wall.  Actually, I had an artist friend come over and draw the outline, thinking that if I did not like it, she could draw something that would be suitable.  It turned out that I liked it, as it was, not perfect, and a bit whimsical.  

Entries are important in homes, and I have spent quite a few hours creating them in my client’s homes, when there is not a designated entry with traditional walls.  Entries can be “imagined” into rooms that open directly into a living space, by placing a large table to stop guests from simply walking all the way into a room upon entering.  A decorative screen can also be used to stop the eye from roaming about the family living space, and sometimes a bold paint color will serve to delineate an entry space.

An entry gives a homeowner a sense of privacy to anyone coming to your door, either invited or not.  Sometimes, a homeowner may not want to have a visitor actually enter personal living space, so an entry is a way to hold them to a more confined area, even from looking in from the outside.

I am so happy to have my little entry, and now I love it even more that it offers some interest to me and my guests, once they come into the house.  More likely, visitors will not see my little table until they leave; nevertheless it is more interesting than bland walls.