Staining Again

Now that we're getting close to being able to finish the upstairs bedrooms, I figured we may as well keep our forward momentum going and try to work on the closets. (At least the easy parts, anyway.)

On Sunday, Jeff cut the support boards for the shelf side of his closet. He used the salvaged boards (removed during the remodel) that I stripped in spring.

I've spent the last couple of days sanding and staining the woodwork in Jeff's closet and the wood for the shelves.

Now that I have the stain up, I'm planning to prime and paint when it's all dry. I figure it's easier to paint before there's a bunch more stained wood installed on the walls.

We're going to wait to install the actual plywood shelves and the double-hang side until after the floors are refinished. There's no sense making it that much harder for the floor refinisher to reach all the corners.

I also sanded and stained enough shoe molding to install in the master and guest bedrooms.

And I started sanding the linen cabinet doors, but those are not my highest priority right now. I'm much more anxious to get the bedrooms finished so I can hire out the floor refinishing...so we can finally finish these rooms and move in.

Unfortunately—you can't work on everything first.

New Linen Cabinet Doors

I'm excited to finally be able to show pictures of this week's project. My brother Jeffrey has experience with woodworking and was able to help my husband Jeff get our new tools properly set up and get to work on our newest project: new inset linen cabinet doors.

Upstairs linen cabinet

Bathtub access door in master bedroom

We built these doors because while paint stripping we found evidence the linen cabinet originally had inset doors. There was an outline of butterfly hinges in the paint as well as evidence inside the cabinet where hardware had once been installed. So, we thought we would go ahead and just replace the doors now rather than strip the later-period painted doors. We don't know what the original doors looked like, so we just duplicated the rail and stile doors in the dining room built-in.

Right now, the doors are just taped together and sitting in the openings for the trial fit. They still need to be glued—and stained and shellacked, of course.

I'm glad to be able to finally finish this woodwork in the upstairs hallway.

Thank you Jeffrey

We Have a Garage!!

OK, this is not news—but I'm so excited to finally have space to work on dusty and smelly projects.

The two Jeffs are hard at work on a new project and I'm so looking forward to to showing pictures . . . but I'm waiting for assembly of the pieces and test fitting.  I'm not a patient person.  =)

I've been entertaining my brother's kids, so he is free to work in the garage. I'm spending lots of time coloring and playing games. Good times.

Guest Bedroom Painted

The guest bedroom isn't really "done," but it was done enough to pull up the masking. There is still quite a bit of touch-up needed where the paint oozed in under the masking tape. Sigh. Though, I suppose by now I've gotten pretty good at removing paint. It should be easier with the shellac under it. =)

It's difficult to get good photos in this room. The room is very dim because there is a huge walnut tree shading the window. And when I bring in artificial light, it makes the paint look too gold, so I tried playing with the exposure on the camera. It worked better than the flash, but I'll just have to wait until fall, when the tree outside loses its leaves and the room gets good natural light again.

The color is Hubbard Squash (SW0044) from Sherwin Williams, from their Arts & Crafts Historic color palette.

 We still have to rehang the doors and will probably do that tomorrow. They need to be stained and shellacked, but that project will wait until after my brother's visit.

Decision Challenged

Because I'm clearly decision challenged...

...I just keep stamping out more color combinations. (I even tried a different stencil once.) Thanks to everyone for your thoughts. It's probably easy for you guys, but I wasn't programmed with a decorator gene. I usually just find a picture I like and copy it.

But, in 1912, most pictures were black and white. The only color pictures I've found were from paint catalogs, and obviously it was in their interest to get people to paint the woodwork. So, I'm just trying to put together something that looks good from period colors.

I think I'll leave these hanging next week while my brother is visiting and I'll choose after he goes. That will give us an opportunity to see them in different light conditions over the week and will perhaps make the decision easier.

Master Bedroom Painted

It's been a long time coming (thirteen months since we started stripping paint), but we can finally start putting this room back together again.

I'm trying on a few different color schemes for a stencil for this room. (Jeff and I don't agree on the color, so if any of you guys want to chime in, we'd appreciate the comment.) I may also do a few more samples with some reds and yellows in them.

If the weather cooperates in the next several weeks, I'll get the frieze painted before we move our furniture back from storage.

We're also planning to have the floors refinished, so I've been trying to get a couple estimates. Apparently the market in Portland is better for floor refinishers, because I've had a hard time getting them to return calls or come out to take a look and give a quote. Oh well.

For folks who have just dropped by, here is where the room started last year.

Today, we're priming the guest bedroom, so maybe we'll have good pictures of that room tomorrow!

Sneak Peek

We're not quite ready to pull the masking, but we're close. I have decided we should put on a second coat of green paint to get better coverage. These plaster walls are not smooth, so it's a bit of a challenge to get the wall thoroughly covered. Once it's had several hours to dry, I'll be back up there to apply a second coat.

Yesterday, I put up a coat of primer. Since I hadn't masked the walls before staining the wood, there was quite a bit of stain slopped onto them. I was hoping the primer would help cover the dark splotches and it did.

When I bought the paint last fall, I had planned to paint the master bedroom hubbard squash and the guest bedroom ruskin room green, but recently I decided to switch them. The green paint will match our bedroom furnishings better than what we're planning to move into the guest room. The ceiling and frieze are painted in white hyacinth.

Now that we're so close, I'm thinking about whether I should go ahead and apply a stencil in the frieze this summer, before we move our furniture back from storage. Though it's hard to pick one since there are so many wonderful choices!