Making an Entrance
This is the sight that greeted us the day we took our first tour of the house that would become Serenity. The entry featured bland striped wallpaper, classic 1980s spindle rods, and tiles that my Bear colorfully described as resembling meat chunks surrounded by vomit. It was a distressing and dismal prospect, but didn’t dissuade us from putting in an offer that night.
It only took five short years (haha) to transform it into a space we hope feels like coming into a welcoming, peaceful oasis.
Here’s that journey as demonstrated by photos from the opposite perspective:
The first thing to go was the wallpaper. I have a deep-seated animosity towards wallpaper. Going into the project, I thought, “This shouldn’t take more than a day. Easy-peasy!” Two days later I was only half done in spite of experimenting with every wallpaper removal tool and product I could get my hands on. Once the wallpaper had been relegated to the dump where it belonged, I textured and painted the walls Warm Vanilla Sugar by Sherwin Williams. Honestly, the name alone sold me.
Removing the spindly-things was a welcome change of pace from tackling the wallpaper - it was a relief to release my frustration by attacking the spindles with a hammer.
I took out the old light and created a new one that felt more substantial and modern by spray painting a cheap chandelier oil rubbed bronze and altering a large drum lampshade to sit on top. I was considerably happier with this fixture, even though it was a bit on the bland side. For $35 total, it was a fine intermediate solution.
I put off redoing the floor for the first ten months we lived here by finding other projects to do to justify procrastinating. Finally, I couldn’t postpone it any longer. I borrowed a jackhammer from a friend, blasted “You Can’t Stop Me” by Andy Mineo about five times, then dove in. Once I got started, the process went pretty quickly; it took less than a day to rip out that tile.
While removing the tile, I discovered that it had been sitting on top of a 1” thick bed of mortar. The 1/2” tile I had selected plus the 1/2” or so of mortar wouldn’t be enough to raise the flooring I planned to install to the height of the previous surface. I made the ill-fated decision to attempt to make up that 1” myself by using leveling compound. I thought, “How hard could it be?” and got to work mixing the compound according the directions on the bag. Disaster ensued immediately. The compound started to dry almost as soon as I set it and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to get any of the surface smoothed out before the entire 5 gallons of compound set in the bucket. Cue the meltdown and torrent of catastrophizing thoughts like, “Why do I ever think I can do these things?! I’ve totally destroyed the value of this house. We’ll never be able to sell down the road.”
Once the storm subsided, I called my friend who leant us the jackhammer and also happens to be a contractor. He recommended essentially tiling in two layers of cement board to make up the difference. That worked like a charm and I was back on track. I layered a couple of types of molding to cover the transition into the living room that the tiles had hidden.
But it was sooooooo beige. For years, I debated painting the walls a deep, bold peacock teal or vibrant green, but felt like either solution ran the risk of feeling oppressive. While I waffled, the idea of stenciling the walls emerged. But I had the same problem: green or blue? Enter the Magnolia and Berries pattern from Cutting Edge stencils. It provided the opportunity to incorporate both in a way that felt natural and tied in perfectly with the warm, botanical vibe in the rest of Serenity.
I’ve been obsessed with mid-century lotus lighting for years and pounced on the idea of incorporating it as the crowning touch on this makeover. I scored this lovely vintage glass shade from Ebay after scouring all of my usual secondary market sites for weeks and used an adjustable oil rubbed bronze pendant kit to hang it.
I found this adorable chest on the curb while looking at Christmas lights one year. I had no idea where I would put it, but I had to bring it home with me. Before stenciling the walls, I was toying with the idea of painting it green and going over that with a brown glaze to give it the appearance of fresh bamboo. Once the walls were stenciled, though, I loved the way it popped against the blue and green as well as providing a visual tie to the red accents in the dining room and decided to leave it alone. The shells and rocks in the wooden dish were gleaned from the beach in Puerto Rico.
A gallery for easy observation of the transformation:
It’s a small space, but it makes a big impact.