Room Rehab

When we started the work in this West Philadelphia house, we found a mostly unusable/inhospitable room in the rear of the 3rd floor.  It was a simple painted brick room with an old carpet.  The bricks were peeling, there were no overhead lights, very few electrical outlets, and it did not feel very comfortable.  The homeowners had recently installed some new windows on the north side of the room, and wanted us to make it into a functional bedroom. 

Here is what the room looked like when we found it.  There were a few plants, a couple of lamps, and an Ikea futon in there, but nothing else.  It was an interesting room that seemed like an addition.  The old slate siding and a nice door entryway were still there.  Also, the kids who lived there had some fun writing on the bricks before we started, and someone spent too much time making a checkered pattern on the one drywall portion of the area.

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We started by tearing up the edges of the carpet so we could frame.  The owners wanted to keep the mansard roof exposed, so we framed 3 of the walls.  There were some odd angles in the corners at the west side, so we had to be a little creative.  When finished the framing, an electrician came in.  He installed some LED recessed lights and 5 outlets.

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The next step was for us to insulate and drywall all of the framed areas. Images of un-primed and un-painted drywall are not very interesting, so I only have one here.

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The final step took the longest.  We installed baseboards, window sills, window trim, and repaired the old "entry" into the rest of the house.  Then we primed and painted the entire area, including the slate.  They chose 3 complimentary colors for the walls, a flat white ceiling, and white trim. The homeowners had a new carpet and cast iron radiator installed after we were done.  I was able to take the final photos when I returned for some other work and before they moved in any furniture. 

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I am particularly proud of this work as we made a huge improvement to this space. 

Decorating Advice From Other Sources

If you find that picking whites or accent colors to be difficult, I recommend that you check out these two articles from Houzz.

What To Know Before You Paint Your Walls White

How To Pick The Perfect Accent Color

How to Decorate Your Staircase

Updating

These homeowners lived in their house for over 30 years and have done very little to the walls over the past 20 years.  These retired folks in their 70s decided that they were not moving or down-sizing any time soon, and they wanted to update a few rooms of their house.  They contacted me 4 years ago, and they were finally ready to get the work done.

The first thing they wanted done was to have their living room painted.  As usual, I requested a color list ahead of time so I could be ready on the first day.  Shortly after we got started, they left us alone.  When they returned a few hours later, they hated the color they chose.  So, we helped them meet their vision.

Below are 2 angles of their living room.  They cleared all of the book shelves and took all of the pictures off the walls so we could paint everything.  We painted the ceiling, walls, book shelves, louvered doors, windows, and all trim.  After making their room pink with their original color choice, we returned it to neutral.  The walls were a nice beige with a darker hue on the trim.

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 We also painted everything in their dining room.  After the wallpaper was removed, we painted the ceiling, walls, all trim, and the built in closets.  They needed our color consulting in this room, as well.  The homeowner was very pleased with the results.

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I neglected to take "before" pictures of the kitchen, but there were many severe nail pops in the ceiling.  So, we painted everything in that room too.The homeowner did a great job picking this color on her own.  We based the other colors in the house on this one. 

Here is a photo of all 3 rooms that we painted.  We helped her make all of them flow together in the same color family, but have different individual palates.

It is a rare occasion that my crew and I get a hug from the homeowner.  This lady was so pleased that she hugged all of us.  We did quite a transformation of these rooms, and she was more than pleased.