$350 family room update (painted fireplace, board and batten walls, pallet light, etc!)

With the kitchen finished, we've knocked out one of our bigger house projects. That being said, we are constantly working on other little projects around the house. It's been about 6 months since we moved in, but I am finally confident in saying that we are (pretty much) finished our second room - the family room.



Our family room was an addition to the original house, which was added probably about 30 years ago. It's a nice big room, with doors to our porch and a fireplace (which shares a chimney with an outdoor fireplace - one of the best features of this house!)

When we first moved in, our family room looked like this:

It was perfectly nice, but just not us.

The first thing I did, maybe a day or two after we got the keys, was to paint the fireplace white and the walls a purpley grey. At this point, I had no idea where my camera was, so I only took a couple of quick, terribly lit photos of what I was doing.

I was pleasantly surprised to find these two beautiful air return vents that had previously been hidden behind old photos!I couldn't cover these up again, and luckily, I had a mirror that fit perfectly between them. 

Here's a photo during the painting process. We had a LOT of cream to get rid of (all baseboards, vents, etc.) and with the fireplace and walls, it was a huge job. Luckily, I had a friend to help me out (you can see her shadow on the right!)

I'm not sure if you've ever painted brick before but there was absolutely no trick to it - I used cheap white paint and a regular brush and it's held up perfectly.

Here's a photo from Christmas comparing the two - at this point, I had painted the walls and fireplace, but hadn't yet gotten to that gold colored insert.

By February, I was getting ready to call this room finished - we had sprayed the gold insert black, added a homemade coffee table, and done just about everything I could think of (with the exception of fixing the lighting, which I'll get to in a bit.)

One day, though, I was sitting watching TV and staring at the blank walls when I decided... I should do more board and batten. I had just had great success with adding it in my front hallway, and I was sure that it would look amazing in my living room.

Once I get an idea, it's hard for me to sit on it. Within a few hours, I had gone to Home Depot and purchased all of the wood I needed to board-and-batten up the entire family room.

(I'm going to say that there's really no excuse for the poor quality of these pictures, except that I think my camera was at work that weekend.)

Once I had board-and-battened the entire room, we finally decided to address the lighting issue. The biggest issue is that there wasn't any. When we moved into the house, there was a weird, completely off centered medallion on the ceiling. It may look somewhat centered in this photo, but believe me, that's a trick of the wide angle lens.

In a pinch, my husband wired a bulb from the medallion, so that we could have some semblance of light. This was supposed to be a temporary fix, but it ended up being our main source of light in the family room for almost 5 months. The reason for that wasn't laziness (because if nothing else, Joel and I are always up for a project.) It was more just that we couldn't figure out what to do. The ceilings are popcorned, and underneath the medallion was not popcorned. This means that when we removed the medallion, there would be a huge circle of non-popcorned ceiling. The worst part is that it wasn't centered, so we couldn't put something over it to cover it up.

Anyway, Joel finally came up with an idea for a 5 foot by 5 foot box that would cover the ceiling and center out the lighting. He covered the box with pallet wood in a herringbone style and added 5 potlights, giving us gloooorious light!

Here's a picture from the hanging up phase - you can see here how completely off centered the light was.

(If anyone is interested in the directions for how to build this light fixture, please let me know and I can post them.)

With the lighting coming together, I realized I was uninspired by the current purpley-grey color I had painted the room. As my final piece, I repainted the walls, using a Sherwin Williams color that had been color matched to Martha Stewart's Plumage.

First off, here's a couple of photos where you can see the light Joel made:

And now, the finished room!

This room really didn't cost too much to update. Among the things we did:

• painting the fireplace ($10 for a 5 gallon "mistint" of off white - the fireplace required maybe 1% of the amount of paint!)
• painting the room grey (another $10 5 gallon mistint)
• board and batten ($60 for supplies)
• pallet light (our biggest expense - $200 including the LED lights)
• blue paint ($1!! The paint store near me was clearing out cans of white for a buck a piece, which they will tint at any time for me.. I bought all 24 cans.)
• white paint for the board and batten (another $1 score)
• plus I'd factor in another $50 or so for all of the painting supplies, wood filler, etc. that was used along the way

So in total, under $350 for all of the updates we made. That's not including furniture (all of which we either owned already or made, or found second hand) and all of the decorations (as those aren't room specific, and will travel with us if and when we move.) I am, as always, very pleased!

What do you guys think - was the darker color a good choice? Or did you prefer the light?

Have you ever had a difficult design challenge (such as an off centered light) that you've had to overcome?

DIY - Oxidized wood X coffee table

This is a project from about a month ago, but I completely forgot to blog about it until now! Joel made this table for us on the Saturday before the Super Bowl, because we were hosting a party and needed somewhere for our guests to put their snacks.

I found the plans at Ana White, and Joel followed them pretty exactly. I was out while he built the table, but he did his best to take a few iPhone pictures of the process.

The table was so fantastic looking, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Even before Joel actually built it, I debated the treatment that I would give it - stain, or paint? I wanted to have that weathered, beachy, washed out grey look, and I wasn't quite sure how to achieve it. I finally came across some tips about how to oxidize wood. This is a process that basically rapidly ages your wood by exposing it to a rusted steel wool solution.

The formula is simple:

 In a Mason jar, mix a roll of fine steel wool (not the grocery store kind, but the stuff you buy at the hardware store) with some vinegar. I did about half a jar of vinegar and one roll of steel wool. Let it sit for a few days, and it's ready to go.

I will note here that after a few days, my mixture did not look ANY different. I was really disappointed, and was sure that I must have done something wrong. Many people online said that their solution turned brown or red, and mine definitely hadn't. I'm so glad I gave it a try instead of giving up on it though, because it worked so well! 4 weeks later, my solution is still clear.

The day that you are going to apply it to your table, you also need to brew some strong tea. I used 8 teabags to about 2 cups of water, so that it was strong and black.

Begin by painting your wood with the tea mixture. This isn't intended to change the color of the wood, instead it just provides a base for your vinegar solution to react with. I let mine sit on my wood for about ten minutes, then I brushed my table with my vinegar solution. The solution doesn't smell great, so it would be a good idea to do it outside or in a well ventilated area. I also found it was very drippy, so cover any important surfaces before you begin.

After about ten minutes, like magic, the table began to change color.  The color you get won't be 100% consistent, but I think that's part of the charm of this kind of table. I waited a couple of days and then did a second coat on just the top of my table, to give it some contrast. It darkened up even more, and it became exactly what I was looking for.

 Below you can see the contrast I did, by oxidizing the top twice and the bottom only once. I think it just gives the table an extra something!

 Below is a good example of the somewhat inconsistent results you can expect. I could probably sand down the darker spots to make it one fluid color, but I kind of love how it looks!

Have you ever tried this process before? Do you plan on trying it anytime soon? I'd love to see your results!