Percolating Projects: Foyer Reveal!

Remember when I talked about the hideousness that was our foyer?

Well hideous no more!

I teased you a few posts ago about the big reveal to come.

Well today is the day! (Mostly because the sun FINALLY came out so I could get some decent shots)

Lucky you huh?

(Maybe its lucky me because I'm pretty sure I'm beginning to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder...along with 75% of the country!)

Lets travel back in time and look at what we started out with.

Yes, this was started Once Upon A Time ago in December. Hence the garland. Love Christmas and all, but come Dec 26th....that stuff is dooooown!

One of my concerns in knocking down the spindles that served no purpose, was wondering if the pattern on our textured ceiling was continued under the wood on the ceiling.

But my friend Travis was not as concerned. He had an idea. And I was in "go with the flow" mode!

See that GIANT plank o' wood!? That was the plan. We got that to put up on the ceiling just incase it was smooth in those two spots where the spindles connected.

Guess what...we didn't need to, but we did it anyways.

Mostly because we worked our butts off trying to fit that piece of wood in my minivan!

I love it.

Then we started hanging thin sheets of plywood on the top half of the paneling. I had toyed with the idea of filling in the grooves, but I wasn't confident in a solution that wouldn't shrink and eventually crack.

For those of you wondering why I didn't take the paneling down: there was no drywall behind it.

Fabulous.

I'm not a drywaller...thus liquid and finishing nails are now holding plywood up in my foyer!

Next step was to sand. I guess it would've been much more tedious without the palm sander.

I love tools.

Then some chair rail to make it look....well...nice

See!? Nice?

Then I primed, and primed, and primed some more.

(note: I seriously considered not putting this photo in. The priming didn't start til the next morning. Straight out of bed, straight to work. Thank you 5 year old for snapping this photo)

But I'm a team player....and this is the only photo I have of the primed foyer.

Then, I painted

Ack! I hated it. Its not a terrible color, but it just looked too nursery. See the plate on the wall to the right? That was more what I had envisioned. And believe it or not, more what the paint chip I chose looked like!? How the heck does that happen!?!?

So I started playing around with paint that I already had on hand. I loooove the color so much now! Unfortunately, since it was a mix, I have no recipe for it. (I did, however, paint an index card to use as reference for future purposes. I keep it in my wallet....because in a locket around my neck would probably be too weird.)

Muuuch better!