Media Room Flooring

We ordered the hardwood flooring from Lumber Liquidators- it's 3/4" hardwood, pre-stained.  This will allow it to be sanded and refinished, if ever needed.  We decided to do the installation ourselves.

The first step was mixing up the boxes of planks, so that any slight differences in the stains from different batches of flooring won't be noticeable. 

Then we made sure to leave a little space at the edge, and got to work laying everything out- being careful not to have the seams lining up.

We used pieces of the base molding to be sure that the space left for expansion of the wood would be covered.

The first row of flooring had to be nailed with the nail gun (which we borrowed from Mike's brother).  We made sure that the nails will be covered by the base molding too.

For the rest of the floor, we used the flooring nailer that we rented from Home Depot.

It took the whole day  and it all went pretty smoothly with the execption of the last row- those boards needed to be cut lengthwise about half an inch, so that took a little longer.

The trickiest part was getting the boards under the radiator.  We basically put those three boards together as a unit and as Mike lifted the radiator, I slid them under.  They aren't all nailed individually, but between the weight of the radiator, and the nails in the last row of boards (which will fall under the molding) it should hold in place.  We still have a random scrap board under there (on top of the flooring), which will be replaced with a piece of marble.  

So, now the flooring is complete!

From the doorway

Reverse from corner of room

Reverse from opposite corner

We're working on the base molding, and now the doorway molding can be completed.  Getting closer!

Media Room- Painting Done!

Lots of work done up here over the weekend... but first I need to get you caught up with the progress we made last week painting!

Mike took care of painting the ceiling and white walls, and I finished the second coat on the blue walls and two coats of white semi-gloss paint on all the moldings.

Here's a quick look at the walls fully painted, plus the window & closet moldings in place!

From the doorway

We still have to do the door frame molding, but need to wait until the floor is in...

Reverse from the corner

Reverse from the other corner

Next on the agenda is painting the door (the back of it is currently lovely shade of green that we're calling "rotten grape"!  I tend to have the door open in photographs, so you don't really see it in the shots above, but you can catch a glimpse here)

The electrician is also scheduled to be back to install the fixtures- getting closer!!!

Media Room- Window Moldings

The window moldings were a little more involved than the closet doorways...

BEFORE

Mike had to frame out the inside- including making the sill (had to round the edges a bit).

After applying the side & tops, he had to come up with something that looked good on the bottom, under the sill.  We looked around at how they did other windows in the house, and came up with flipping a piece of molding and making angled cuts to each end.  

Once we figured out the first one,
we used it as a template for the second.

Here's the complete window!  

Not all of the wood needed was pre-primed, so after filling with wood putty I gave the "naked" boards a coat of primer.

The moldings really make it feel more finished!

Still more woodwork to do... here's the updated list:

-Two "closet" doorways COMPLETE!
-Two windows COMPLETE!
-3 Door frames (inside the room & in the hallway for each)
-cap molding around the chimney (to make transition from plaster to brick)
-Entire room base moldings- we can't do this until the floor has been installed.

Media Room- Closet Moldings

We started working on the moldings in the media room.

Here's the list of what needs to be done...
-Two "closet" doorways (to access the storage areas under the eaves)
-Two windows
-3 Door frames (inside the room & in the hallway for each)
-cap molding around the chimney (to make transition from plaster to brick)
-Entire room base moldings- but we can't do this until the floor has been installed.

We made a big list of all the measurements, and headed to Home Depot to get our supplies.
We were able to find most of the boards we needed pre-primed (yay for saving a step!)

The first thing we tackled were the closet doorways.
Since almost the entire house has the block corners and fluted side/top boards... there's no need for mitered corners, so it was a fairly straight forward.

BEFORE

First, Mike trimmed out the inside of the opening.
(I missed taking a photo of that step!  But you can see the finished boards in the photos below)

We used glue to adhere the wood
before using the nail gun to secure it

We stacked up boards to figure out where the
bottom of the moulding should be, once the
floor is installed.  Then cut the boards to fit.

The very bottom boards will be installed after
the flooring & base boards are in.

Lots of little nail holes & joints to fill with wood putty,
then painting these can begin!

I'm currently hunting for closet doors...

Next up... window molding!

Media Room Paint

The painting of the media room is underway!

I knew I wanted to keep the ceiling white, but was having trouble deciding whether to paint the knee walls a color.  I decided that painting them would make the room feel more squat... so we're going to keep those walls white and just painted the "tall" walls on each end of the room.

For the decision on the color, we picked a blue that was in the pattern of the ottoman we bought.

We've only got the first coat done, and I took the photos at night (so they are a bit glare-y) but here's how it's looking...

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

I really like how the beams are in contrast to the dark blue walls.

We have to do a coat on the ceiling & knee walls, and one more of the blue.  

We're also working on installing the moldings... 

(you can see us starting in that bottom photo!)

Media Room- Flooring & Furniture

I'm happy to report that our flooring for the media room finally arrived!

Mike picked up all 13 boxes of it on 12/26.

On New Year's Eve, our sectional couch arrived!

(Photo from the website)

It's hard to tell the exact colors from that photo, but the sofa is a solid gray- not as purplish as the photo looks.  (I peeked in the boxes to be sure!)

I opened the box with the ottoman, so we could pick the paint color for the walls.  

This is a pretty accurate representation of the colors...

...And the stripes on the right are throw pillows that Mike's parents gave us for Christmas (along with some super cozy throws).  They had no idea of the colors we were picking for the media room, but I don't think we could have planned a better match if we tried!

So, I'm tripping over boxes of flooring in the hallway and making my way around huge sofa boxes in the family room.  And we hit a Black Friday deal for the new TV, so that's in a big box in the office.  It's looking like a warehouse around here!!!  But it feels good to have most of the major purchases complete and ready to go!

Now I'm just struggling to find a rug.  I was originally planning on gray, but now I'm worried it'll be too much gray with the couch.  Or worse- that the rug & couch will clash.  So, I may need to hold off until we get the flooring done and the couch set up to decide upon a rug.

White Washing the Beams

There were a couple of reasons we decided to keep the beams exposed for the media room...

   -It would be too closed-in/low if we sheetrocked the ceiling at the height of the beams.

   -If we enclosed the beams in sheetrock it would look too modern for our taste & the style of the rest of the house.

The only problem was that in addition to the original 1700's beams, there were some newer boards that had been added through the years.  You could clearly see the difference between the hand-hewn beams and the new ones.  

You can see the new beams tucked
behind some of the old beams.

To make them blend together better, we decided to do a white wash on them.  I think this will also make the room feel higher than if we kept them dark.

I mixed roughly two parts of water with one part paint and got to work.  I had to get used to the drippiness of the paint, but once I got started it went fairly quickly (for having to do all four sides of each beam!)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

An added bonus is that the roman numerals on the hand-hewn beams now really pop!

You may also have noticed that Mike got a coat of primer on the rest of the room.

Next up is adding some color!

Spackling the Hallways

When the guys were doing the media room sheet rock, Mike asked them for their advice about the hallway walls.  They recommended we use this stuff for the first two coats (sanding in between):

And then do a finishing coat with this stuff:

 We started a first coat up in the third floor hallway, and after getting the hang of it, made our way down.

Here's the second floor hallway with the first coat...

Now we've sanded and are getting the second coat on...  progress!

It looks so much better than the gray horse-hair plaster walls!

BEFORE

In Progress!