Making Ugly Beautiful (Part II)

It is the "REVEAL" episode for my front entry (aka "The Foyer").  Let me show you how I took this room from Ugly to Beautiful as we look over the past two years of photos.

The true BEFORE picture is below - we had first moved into the house.  Note the original drapery, window trim and flooring in this picture.  

When we were looking at the house, I loved the charm of the front entry way and how it showcased the stair case and beautiful post detail at the bottom of it.  I loved the color of the staircase, but wasn't crazy about the woodwork on the window trim and door casings in the Foyer, or the rest of the house, as when I took the curtain off of the window, someone had craftily covered up the terrible trim work on the window.  On one side of the window, two pieces of trim were butt together, leaving a seam that wasn't puttied or matched up at all.  Just a big, ugly joint.  I hated the dusty, ugly curtain that was there, so I lived with the big cracked joint in the trim.  The trim was around an old window that was cracked and let in (and out) a lot of air.  We didn't dare open it, as there were holes where critters could crawl in and that gave the the heebie jeebies. 

The trim work in the foyer for the baseboards were the big, tall, original moldings to the house (which we estimate around the 1920's with some of the doors upstairs).  They look pretty nice, until I was scrubbing the floor and looked closer and discovered that they had painted the baseboards to look like stained trim!  Additionally, the door trim on the foyer side of the wide opening (you can't see) they had switched out (like the window) to a standard smaller trim (not matching the size and profile of the rest of the trim in the house.  So you have all this beautiful trim work, except for around the window (where they cobbled stuff together) and around the wide opening into the living room.  I'm so not sure why they did that!  

The flooring in the picture is pine and sort of a reddish color at that.  While it was ok, it needed a good sanding and restaining, as it was very worn in spots.  When we had a flooring guy come to our house, he said that we really couldn't sand and restain it, as it was not thick enough to do that to.  Plus, we had decided to get new flooring for the Kitchen, and in that part of the house, we didn't have this same flooring underneath it, so we decided to match the Foyer and the Kitchen flooring to make things more cohesive.  It kills my little brother that we covered up the original floor, but in my mind, it is "protected."  :)  

Also, as you can see, we have a vintage hanging light circa Montgomery Wards 1970's edition.  It is a beautiful 2 bulb brass light with layers and layers of dust and grime and really didn't put out much light at all.  My dad worked at Wards back in the day, and he remembered the exact item number of this light, which he says was a big hit in its day.  I'm sure it was in its day, but I sure don't agree with its beauty now.  

Below is a picture after we had painted the ceiling and the living room, repurposed an old bookshelf into a TV stand and I had added some decor to make it more "home-y".  Note the original window, flooring and original woodwork in the living room.  

Below is a shot of all the stained wood trim in the house ... it was all different colors and I thought made the house feel "old," if that makes any sense.  The colors of the woodwork in the living room were different from the stairs, which were different from the foyer baseboards, etc, etc.  They kind of hodge-podged this house together, I think.  

Below is a picture before I began painting the trim in the entry.  Note that we have by now replaced the window itself and the window trim (it is crazy-amazing what you can actually *see* through clear, new glass and not a dirty old window with terrible glass!).  I had a remodeler guy do both for me - for the trim, he just used some 2x4's and I had him round the edges to match the profile of the rest of the trim work.  I was going to paint the wood anyway, so it didn't matter that the wood matched anything else.  He also replaced the trim work on the foyer side of the large opening into the living room.  

Below is a picture from the front door angle, of what you can see as you stand in the entry.  Note the replaced 2x4 trim on the foyer side into the living room.  MUCH better!!

Here is a picture looking up the stairs with the old light.  You can't see the marks on the wall or the general grossness of "builder white" painted walls with years of gunk and fingerprints and marks on them.  As I was painting, I kept being so thankful to be covering up the grossness with new, clean paint - and COLOR!  

Below is a view of the front door and a little snippet of the window.  

Below is a picture of one of my brothers old antique dressers in the entry.  I liked it well enough, but it was hard to decorate around and with, and it gave the house more of a period feel, which didn't match the rest of my furniture.  

Here is one more last shot before the big reveal ... remember the ugly when you see ...

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Here are the AFTER photos!!!

Above is a shot of the foyer with the trim painted, the stairs painted, new flooring, new blinds and pictures hung.  I may put a valance above the window, as I think the window and to the left of the window look a little bare, but will wait until I find something that fits.  You may notice a new TV stand, paint & decor in the right edge of the photo - the Living Room has changed as well, but that will be another post.    :-D

I took the pictures at night (they turned out better than in the day), but the color is more of the blue to the center and right in the photo, not the greenish blue like between the window and corner where the wreath is.  The paint is a pretty blue by Sherwin Williams, called "Silvermist" (SW 7621).  The trim color is also by Sherwin Williams, called "Roman Column".  It is not a bright white, but more of a creamy white.  I painted the ceiling and the trim the same color.

Let me tell you about painting stairs and bannisters.  Do not think about how long it will actually take you to tape everything off, how much tape you'll use, how long it will take to paint it and about how many coats of paint you will have to do and how much you'll have to look for paint drips down the bannister rails.  Do not think of any of those things.  Just do it.  I was SO glad when I was done with the stair case!!  

To get started, I first gave all the trim a light sanding with a sanding pad and then I wiped it clean with a tack cloth.  I needed to get the old finish off and rough up the surface to accept the new coat of paint.  In homes earlier than 1978, you should wear a mask, tape off all areas to be affected by the sand dust, etc and then wipe everything down with wet wipes and bag things in hazardous material bags.  I know the rules but I didn't do any of those (may regret it later).  If we were actually ripping into the walls (like in the Kitchen), we would have done that, but I did not do that for this.  I wore a mask for the light sanding I did do, vacuumed the dust up that did accumulate and prepped to tape.

I think I used a roll of the blue painters tape to tape off what I did - and I didn't tape off everything!  It took about 2 hours to tape everything off on the stairs themselves and from the baseboard molding down to the carpeting / vinyl flooring below.  After taping things off, I painted all the trim first before I rolled the walls.  That way I didn't need to worry about taping around all the openings too.  If trim paint got on the walls, so be it - I was going to paint the wall color over it next.  (I'd painted first and then taped off for the trim in the living room, and it was *SO* much more work to do that, plus, the blue painters tape didn't stop the paint from bleeding under it in spots, and it pulled off the wall paint in other places - so I had to go back with a fine small paintbrush and paint back wall color on.  Not fun!  Lesson learned - paint trim first, then wall color second)  It took 3 coats of trim paint before the the old woodwork was covered.  I could have done 4 coats, but I just touched up the really bad areas and called it good.  By that time, I was tired of painting and wanted to get to the "fun" blue color that I'd waited so long to get to!!

A shot of the corner between the door and the opening to the living room.  Note how the trim work matches now in size.  I also painted the door in Sherwin Williams' "Peppercorn" color.  It coordinates with the curtains in the living room (and I used it upstairs in Luke's room to paint his furniture). 

A shot of the newly painted door and window.

A shot of the wall of photos and the little bench seating area.   In the last house we lived at, we had a long hallway, so I put up a cluster of photos in the hallway.  Here we don't have a lot of wall space that isn't windows or door openings, so I wanted to make the stairs a focal point.  The color of the stair post, bannister, picture frames & crucifix are all about the same color, so that ties it all together and repeats.  I did not plan for the bench seat to match - but it fit well there, covers the old vent with all the super old cobwebs inside (think haunted house cobwebs, but for real!) and the pillows popped the colors in this space as well.  

Here is a shot from the living room / tv area towards the front door.   I didn't realize how drastic the white painted base shoe looks in the pictures against the post - maybe I shouldn't have painted it - but oh well.  By that time, I was tired of taping the bannister and didn't want to mess with the headache of thinking about that (poor excuse, I know).  

A shot in from the front door.  Welcome!  

Here is a close up shot of the cute little bench setup right inside.  We can sit and read with Luke (if Luke will sit still), but mostly it is a "look cute, but functional" place to sit down and put shoes on, throw coats, etc when guests come over. 

Here is a close up shot of the decor above.  I found the blue "Live Simply ..." sign and the greenery ball at Gordmans (don't forget to use a 20% off coupon!), had the picture frame from before, bought the shelf at Menards, found the tall "In this home ..." sign at Gordmans (or Hobby Lobby - I can't quite remember which - they are both my favorite stores!) and the crucifix is from my childhood.  

Above is a view up the stairs.  It adds so much character with photos hanging in the stairway.  I may eventually fill the wall going up where the stairs turn and go up, but for right now, this works for me.  

One thing to note here above the crucifix, is that the stained board that was above it, I painted the wall color, not the trim color.  While I'd painted the board the cream trim color initially, I felt like the cream made the decor wall less wide - and by painting the board the wall color, it visually expanded that decor wall.

Above is a view from the stair landing up to the second floor.  The left doorway goes into the playroom, which goes into Luke's room.  The right door goes into a bedroom (note the fancy "accordion door".  This house was definitely stylin'.  That will get fixed someday.)  Picture the trim up here painted a dark brown - it looked like poop (honest!) and I don't think whoever painted it cared what it looked like.  It was the most hideous of all the trim work in the house.  

Above is a picture taken from the second floor, looking down onto the stair landing.  

Above is a picture looking down, taken from the stair landing.  We upgraded the light to a beautiful fixture we found at Menards.  See below for a close-up shot.   The light doesn't hang down so far and obscure the view of the pictures.  It also is larger in scale and fits the room, as well has an additional light bulb in it (3 instead of 2).  Plus - it has fancy crystals hanging from the bottom of it, making it a fancy-but-fun light for the entry way - and the price was right, too.  

Here is one last picture with Luke in it, loving his new colorful entry way and stairs!

(I'm sure he loves it, but he was really "helping" me take pictures.  :-D)

Posts coming soon related to DIY are the Upstairs Playroom + Luke's Room before & after, as well as converting our old Junk Room/Office + Guest Bedroom into our current Master Bedroom.