One Room Challenge Fall 2016 – Week 3 – Ceiling & Wallpaper Calamities

19 Oct One Room Challenge Fall 2016 – Week 3 – Ceiling & Wallpaper Calamities

I’m loving the direction of the Master Bedroom, but this week, we had a problem…

Remember when I told you the ceiling in our Master Bedroom had some cracks and was bowing?  We have some experience with what can happen.

Even though this happened two years ago, it is still fresh on our minds.

Most of the ceilings in our 1919 home were originally lathe and plaster which means they are about four inches thick and extremely heavy.  (we took out TWO TONS of debris when our porte cochere ceiling went down)  We think some of the ceilings have been changed at some point, and we have replaced a few in the rooms we have renovated, but we watch closely for any problems in rooms we are not sure about. Our bedroom has been concerning us for awhile now, and we felt it was time to have it looked at.  It seemed to be getting worse and worse.

After the furniture was all moved out into our landing and bathroom (which makes the bathroom a bit of an obstacle course), we started taking out the the most worrisome part of the bedroom ceiling.

This resulted in some rather scary cracking sounds and then a HUGE crash.  Luckily, everyone got out of the way, and needless to say, we are so happy and thankful we decided to take it out when we did.

Something we did not plan on was the ceiling falling and ruining our perfectly fine grasscloth wallpaper.  womp-wooooooooomp

I actually have a couple of rolls left of this wallpaper, and for a moment, I thought maybe I could replace the panels that were ruined.  Upon closer inspection (and this is sort of hard to explain), I observed the actual fibers had been damaged by the fall.  I tried manually rearranging the strands of grass so they would be positioned correctly, but there was so much dust and scraping, I realized doing this would be fruitless.

Not only is this an expense we did not see coming, I am disheartened thinking about trying to get new grasscloth wallpaper ordered, delivered, and installed on the tight timeline we are already on.

But the more I look at the room, the more I notice how the old wallpaper takes on an almost orange tint with the ceiling wallpaper sample next to it.

Therefore, the walls are Sample City.  I am a big fan of the texture and softness grasscloth brings to a space, and if I had my druthers (and it was not weird), I would grasscloth every room!  Grasscloth can go so many directions, but I know I want a paper for this space that is not too rough, with a slight sheen.

The new ceiling is installed, and although I am not a fan of recessed lights, we installed four of them for a few reasons:  1. The room is not centered on the windows, so a central fixture was out, 2. Four small light fixtures would be difficult for the same reason – the windows not being centered would throw the whole room off, 3. The ceiling wallpaper is so pretty, I do not want to distract from it, 4. I knew if we used smaller 4″ can lights, we could paint the trim to blend in with the ceiling paper, and 4.  I wanted to do wall sconces around the room, but my husband was not a fan of that idea and prefers overhead lighting and more practicality over ambiance. : )

Something else I did not foresee is the new gap between where the picture rail trim belongs and the new ceiling.  (Plaster walls require hanging things from the picture rail to avoid damaging the walls.)

Since the new ceiling is not concrete, it is much more shallow than the old, which creates an opening of variegated size around the room.  We carefully, gingerly removed the old picture rail trim before starting on the ceiling, and we cannot simply move the old picture rail up when we put it back because it has warped in places over time as the house shifted.  We need a level trim to go against the new level ceiling, and then we can butt up the old picture rail trim to the new.  Sidenote: Isn’t that old arched nook sweet?

Removing wallpaper is a beating, and I am not looking forward to it, but my youngest is a faithful little assistant.  : )

Another big project I want to tackle next week is the closet.  This old closet opening is getting about 18″ wider to make better use of the storage space, and this door will be replaced with the ones I told you about last week.  The blue opaline knob that I LOVE is staying though – it is moving to the bathroom door.

Goals for next week’s post: trim and doors painted and ceiling wallpaper done, closet opening completed.  (!!!!)

**A special HUGE thanks to Rick Goodwin and his team for escaping the crash, taking out the rest of the gaping ceiling, and making it new and smooth all in ONE WEEK.  This was a feat in and of itself, and I am so grateful.**

If you need to catch up:

One Room Challenge Week 1

One Room Challenge Week 2 – The Plan

Be sure to check out the other participants in the ORC by clicking here!

Follow me on Instagram to get sneak peeks of this project, plus my client work.

And now for the winners of the Table Grace Cards!  There were so many Instagram entries that I ended up pulling three from that pile, and one from the Comments pile.  The first video is the Instagram winners, and the second is the Comments winner.  Watch them below to find out if my sweet assistant pulled out your name, and I will be contacting all four of you today to get your cards to you!  I so wish I could send one to each and every one of you, they are so special.  I do hope you will get your family a set or put them on your Christmas list!  Thank you so much for participating!

Until the next story.

xo, G