Category Art

The big spring project, which I described in more detail a month ago, was to finish all of the flooring throughout the main Verona house and the guest house. It became a two-part project, with the theater, basement bathroom, and guest house left for part 2. Both the guest house and theater received the same LifeProof vinyl that I’ve been using elsewhere in parts of the house, and the basement bathroom received the same tile that I used in the entryway, kitchen bathroom, and laundry room.

After the flooring went in and before painting those rooms, there was some cleanup work to do. First, a bunch of trim had to be replaced in the guest house, and the door frames needed to be redone:

Second, I hung the projector for the theater from the ceiling so that the old shelves could eventually be replaced (the theater is currently in the process of being redesigned, which will be a future project in the spring or summer):

Third, I replaced the toilet in the basement bathroom with a new Kohler unit that matches the others in the rest of the house:

Fourth, I removed a cabinet from the guest bathroom walls and repaired the drywall. While doing this, I also installed a new mirror frame, courtesy of the awesome company MirrorMate:

After this, it was time to paint. I went with paint colors that were consistent with the rest of the house, although the theater walls are darker so that they reflect less light, and the guest house has new primary wall and accent wall colors.

Once all of the art and other decor was back on the walls, everything ended up looking incredible!

Over the years, I’ve accumulated more than a few t-shirts that have sentimental value. Many of them are worn out, or are shirts that I wouldn’t necessarily wear. I wanted to get them out of my closet and find a way to keep them as mementos, so I bought several crates worth of t-shirt frames that show off the shirts and are easy to store.

The frames turned out really nicely, and fit well in my office underneath all of my Arsenal kits!

One of the last untouched rooms in the house was my wife’s office, which had been more or less in the same state since buying the house in 2013. It looked pretty sad compared to the other remodeled rooms on the top floor of the house and needed a redesign with some more color and light. Additionally, the guest bathroom connected to it needed a similar treatment to the master bathroom.

The first step was to repaint everything:

Once that was done, all of the existing furniture was removed and I brought in a new rug. Here was the initial design board that I worked on with my interior designer:

Things started to take shape with the rug and some of the new furniture in place, especially the large white bookcase.

From there, we replaced the desk and chair (with temporary stand-ins until the real furniture is completed towards the end of the year), brought back the books and added more decor and wall art.

Finally, I brought in a new recliner and lamp for the corner, and the aside from a new window treatment currently being custom made and the real desk, the project was done!

The before and after is a pretty shocking improvement in my opinion:

A couple of weeks ago, I finished repainting the laundry room and mud room, along with replacing the art on the walls and the window treatment. It was a relatively small change, but it made a huge difference in making that part of the house look less dated. It removed the last of the cheesy 90’s decor from the house as well.

After the painting and art was done, I replaced the sink in the laundry room with a stainless steel sink along with a new fixture.

Finally, I added a new window treatment to complete the project.

Now that the lower level has been complete for awhile, my interior designer (Brittany from Interiors By B) wanted to bring a professional photographer to take pictures of the project. Obviously the pro did a much better job than my amateur iPhone photos, and was able to capture the brightness of the house. Here are the photos:

I can’t wait to see what the photos of the more recently completed room redesigns look like when we bring the photographer back for round two!

Similar to the guest bedroom, the lower level living room is now complete as well. I had movers take the old sectional the storage unit, and the new sectional, chairs, and other furniture arrived. Some construction work was required, since when I setup the sectional I realized that there was a gap between it and the wall due to the pre-existing ledge, and the sectional easily slid backwards when people sat on it.

I used oak boards, anchored into the studs using steel ties, and built a shelf behind the sectional that also doubled as a structurally sound brace that prevented the couch from sliding backwards.

I then realized that I didn’t really like it stained, it was hard to match the color of the other trim and it contrasted too sharply with the couch. I ended up painting it the same color as the mantle and the accent wall in that room, which ended up pairing really nicely with the couch.

After the shelf was done, the chairs arrived from Pottery Barn and completed the room. It looks incredible, and has its own personality as compared to the three other living rooms on the main level of the house.

The last things that need to be done in the lower level for now are new window treatments, which are in progress, and a new set of artwork for the wall behind the sectional. That’s been ordered, and should arrive in a week or two. It will look like this, and will complete the look:

More of the art I ordered has arrived, including a huge piece that you see when going up the main stairway, a large piece in the lower level living room, and a large mirror for the upstairs hallway.

As new art has slowly arrived, I’ve moved certain pieces elsewhere in the house. Some of this has gone into the bar area, and some has gone into the theater, which looks really great now that it’s filled with art.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve taken delivery of and installed a variety of new pieces of art, light fixtures, and TVs. First, I got two metal sculpture pieces for the upstairs hallway.

The second piece was a silver leaf that ended up being too reflective for the lighting the hallway, so I painted it bronze to match the other piece and the other frames and fixtures.

In the guest bedroom, I’m waiting on some larger pieces to be delivered, but in the meantime two smaller pieces arrived to go on either side of the window. I used a level and masking tape to make sure they were at the same height and distance from the window.

In the lower level, I replaced a variety of light fixtures. I added two floor lamps (one in the library and one in the lower level living room). I also installed five sconces: one in the lower level stairs, two in the lower level, and two in the master closet.

I also bought a new TV and console table, and mounted the TV on the wall in the lower level living room. It opened up and really improved the look of the room.

Finally, I ordered a new light fixture for my office, which I’ll install this weekend.

There are also numerous new pieces of art still being shipped; there will be at least one more post in this series as they arrive and are installed.

After repainting the walls in the lower level, guest bedroom, and the upstairs hallway, the next step was to get new art. Just like the main level redesign, I wanted to use a combination of existing and new pieces, and a combination of framed art and sculpture. I also wanted to eliminate some of the stock art I had before; the lower level was especially filled with a lot of generic alcohol-related pieces that were much cooler when I was 22 than they are now. Below is a partial selection of art that I’ve ordered so far:

One of the first pieces to arrive so far was the four panel map of London, which looks incredible in the base of the stairs to the lower level.

It also pairs well with some of the vintage maps I have hanging on the walls of the stairway, including a smaller map of London from 1836. As the rest of the art arrives, I’ll post more photos. I’m looking forward to everything coming together!