Fireplace Painting

Turns out I hate this but so Far I haven't taken it down to start over.

The fireplace column is two stories. I was tired of looking at the bare space and wanted to add some color. The space was large and I wanted an inexpensive solution so I decided to paint an abstract triptych. I built the panels. They attach to each other with bolts and hang from two hooks by chain and a snap hooks. I textured the panels with some texture paint I had left over from the guest bedroom project. Bob thinks it is completely ridiculous and stupid, Jim likes it and those at work who have seen pictures seem to like it (or maybe they are just being nice). I sort of like it and it is growing on me. It does it's job of adding needed color. Besides I can always take it down and repaint the panels or make new ones.


Detail of texture:

Baseboards

The previous owners installed wood baseboards themselves. There were some problems with them such as the mitered corners did not line up properly ( I don't think anywhere) and in one corner there was a 1/2 gap with no baseboard ( I assume they ran out of board). Another problem was that they did not use baseboard at all. They used door casing instead (a sad waste of real wood). The room has a cathedral ceiling and diminutive door casing does not cut it. They were also not installed securely and popping off the wall.

I installed slate baseboards. The slate ties in the slate around the fireplace, on the stair risers and around the skylight and window ledges. The slate is 4" high, much better than the small door casing. Another great thing about tile baseboards is it is easier to clean you can mop and bang the vacuum around recklessly ;-) and since the grout seals the bottom of the slate to the tile there are not any hiding places for things. Since their was a gap between the wood baseboards and the tile floor and at places with the textures walls I found lots of spiders behind them. In the corner joining the living room and kitchen I even found a dead mummified mouse.

The worst part of the whole process was cleaning the grout before sealing. There is still some grout dust lingering. I guess it will take several times vacuuming.

Some people may wonder about tile baseboards but they are great and really make a visual difference in a whole room view and everyone who has seem them in person likes them.

Before:

After:

Why haven't there been any posts recently?

Since I have lived here a year and a half and still without any downstairs living room/dining room furniture I decided it was time to get some. Buying nice furniture is a time consuming process. Multiple trips to various stores, decisions to make (which furniture and then choosing the leather and fabric), and when a decision is finally made you have to wait a month or more to get your furniture made after ordering. There were two pieces of custom furniture I considered and would really like but it would have been 4 months on those. I decided I was not going to post any new downstairs furniture pictures until I have my furniture. By the end of this coming week I will have everything that was ordered. I still need to pick out an end table and an accent table. I am waiting on a light fixture as well. I have also started to accessorize by getting frames for some of my photos.