Tuesday, October 7, 2008

The Second Floor Hallway

This hallway really started several "chapters" ago with "Walls, Doors, and Walls"..parts 1 and 2. I fought with trimming the ceiling, the doors, the walls, and even the staircase getting everything to fit. It's all been in the dry fit stage while I did the library. Today, I took all the doors, walls, and ceiling out and what you see here is the area with a newspaper drop cloth, taped to the floors.

I'm sure you remember me sweating over my paint and ( printie ) wallpaper and I've made my choices with the wallpaper I showed you and the darker blue paint. I've sealed the wood with a light coat of Bullseye spray shellac and applied the first coat of paint to the 4 walls. It did bring out the grain of the wood some, so I sanded it smooth, painted again, and sanded one more time. I've since done 2 more coats, a total of 4 coats of paint and it looks good enough to move on to putting on the wallpaper. ( I'll start that tomorrow.)

The walls are about 8 1/2" high, so I'll put the paper on the bottom of the wall going up about 4 1/2" high. Where the walls and paper meet, I'm adding a 1/2" stained flat strip of wood. Nothing fancy. Where the opening of the stairwell is......1st floor ceiling meeting the 2nd story floor, I'll add stained corner guard, which will cover up the confused look of the 2 surfaces, giving it a nice clean cut look.

Once I'm finished with all that, I'll stain the doors and make the transom windows that will go over each door, then I'll work on the ceiling. ( I'm waiting on an angel friend to send me some paintable wallpaper to be able to finish the ceiling ) I want to add some sort of design to each of the transom windows for a crafted look.

This hallway has both a balcony with French doors and a bay window, which can be made to be removable for easier access. I'm going to leave it removable, unless it looks badly and will then glue it. I need to see how it'll look.

I've been looking forward to doing this area. I think it'll have a delightful effect on the center of the house since I'm carrying the same blue ( but with different shades ) up the center of the house.

2 comments:

Sumaiya Mehreen said...

oh goodie! can't wait to see the photos once the staircase goes up...

Kathy Calhoun said...

You know, Sumaiya, this was a place that delighted me when I saw it in your own house and I'm looking forward to that angle too. I'm working as quickly as I can to get it done. I'm feeling like it going to be the backbone to hold The Garfield together.