Organizing By Color

On the heels of decluttering, I did a little organizing.  And I did it with something this very white house has very little of...color. 

Our Beloved Closet

I adore our closet if only because our previous one was horrifically small, dark and impossible on every level.  The IKEA Pax Tonnes changed my life. 

A Place For Everything

Then I copied the drawer/shelf system they had in-store.

Hmmm

And wound up with this.  Jewelry that doesn't have a place in the box because it's worn too much, still in baggies from visits to my family back home, big and small, different colors...what!?

Then I went to Target.

Metal serving tray (on sale), appetizer plates (clearance) and small dip bowl.  I didn't know I needed them until I got them home.

Before

After

Hello.  Now I can see what to put on in the morning before I've even had coffee. 

Before

After

And the pops of color are necessary in February.

The gold/yellow and silver/gray color coordination was completely accidental.  I only noticed that after taking these pictures.  Unconscious OCD-ish?  Um, yes.

I may love this bowl even more than joe fresh jewelry.  And you can see that's saying a lot...!

Home is Where the Settee Is

We have a piece of furniture that doesn't fit our house.  It's too big, too formal and nobody ever uses it.  But it's never leaving.

When Steve and I lived in New York City, we walked past this every day on our way to and from work.

Gorgeousness

After months of seeing this settee morning and night in the front window of a neighborhood antiques store, Steve said, "I think we should buy it."  Nothing more random had ever left his mouth.  The next day it was ours. 

But it was in bad shape.

And after three moves with us, it got worse.

The worst you can see here.  The bum leg was now completely sheared off the frame, hanging on by a fabric staple.  Yes, that is a garden planter supporting the weight of the settee. 

The cracks in the arms and back frame were getting bigger. 

And there were knicks and scuffs everywhere.  A bit of character, but verging on in-really-poor-shape. 

Even though these pictures show the worst, it was still a beautiful piece.

Still in Love

So we decided to have it fixed.  After searching high and low for the right place, we took it to Carrocel Restorations just North of the city, in Markham, ON. 

If I had any hesitation about the care they might take with a piece of furniture I adored, it was gone the instant I visited their showroom & workspace.  John, the office manager, was amazing - and the pictures he sent me as they worked were icing on the settee cake. 

Actually, they were magic. 

Removing the Fabric and Staples

I was amazed at the level and amount of work that had to be done.  Hundreds and hundreds of staples removed by hand.

 Painstakingly taken apart to repair and rebuild.

I was floored by the detail.  And the number of staple holes.

Then came the finish.  I chose to stay with the deep, dark, rich wood color. 

Multiple layers of sanding between multiple layers of finishing.

My intent was to fix the settee but not change anything about it.  At all.  Thus my choice in wood color.  But the fabric was another story. 

The settee is stunning because of its fabric.  The stripes.  The sheen.  The deep red against the crisp (but yellowing) white.  It stops you in your tracks.  But I couldn't fix the settee without sacrificing the fabric. 

Surely I could find more of it somewhere.  Anywhere.  Carrocel's fabric books.  The overflowing fabric stores on Queen.  The internet.  Nothing.

Soon I found myself completely out of place at Designer's Walk showing the manager of every high end fabric store an iphone picture of my beloved settee, willing them to match it.  At any cost.  Nothing.  No Regency Stripes anywhere. 

I wanted to cry.

I ran out of time.  John needed the fabric.  So I settled for this.

I was warned that trying to match the fabric wasn't the way to go.  I should choose something else all together.  But my heart wasn't in it.  So I went with my gut.

Carrocel ordered the fabric, upholstered it and delivered the settee to my door.  We put it outside the Master bedroom last fall, and there it stayed. 

Every time I looked at it, I still loved it.  But it wasn't the same.  I missed the crispness of the white.  The gold felt too muted.  In the pit of my stomach, I wished I had picked a different fabric. 

Until last weekend's project.

BEFORE (Settee was on left in front of window)

AFTER

I didn't need to change the fabric.  I needed to change the background. 

The deepness of the red and richness of the gold look amazing with the exposed brick.  And the dark wood separates the background from the settee perfectly.

I see this every morning and every night.  Just like I did in New York City. 

And I'm still in love.

*Thank you Carrocel!*

"Hun, let's expose the brick..."

Just what any wife wants to hear.  Especially when it's from one very-non-DIY spouse to another.  So, of course, the perfect response would be:

"Yes."

So here's what we did yesterday.

Before

After

Oh yes we did.

Let's start from the beginning.

This room is officially called "The Sink Room".  It's a room that's at the end of our 2nd floor hallway that you must pass through in order to get to the master bedroom.  And it has a sink in it. 

View from the Hall

That window faces the front of the house and you can see the master bedroom door on the left wall.  The sink room is about 6 feet wide and 12 feet long.  Small but big is how I describe it.  Too small to be a functional room on it's own, but too big to be ignored.  The sink is the best part of the room, as we use it every morning and night (it's our "ensuite").

Because we don't want to add a toilet or shower to this room to make it a real ensuite - its end-of-the-hall location and front window give it a spotlight -  future plans include removing that wall on the left and merging it with the current master bedroom.  One day.

So that's the background.  Here's a bunch of dirty and dusty pictures.

Cutting the Drywall

Steve researched the heck out of this project.  He took the lead.  Since we know there is drywall leading up to all three sides of the brick, he cut the seams to help the plaster crack away at the right spot.  While he was doing that....

Door to Master

I was taping away.  Everything he read about tackling this project stressed the clean-up part.  Super messy.  So I taped the door, air vent (turned off the heat) and vanity.

Starting Point

Then we got started.  Steve began by cutting a small square with the carpenter's knife and chipping away with a screwdriver. 

Yikes

Yup, here's my moment.  I always get one.  Every project.  The point of no return panic attack.

But this one disappeared quickly because as soon as I changed into my working outfit, I came back to this.

Whaaaa?

Orange Peel

Once we put the screwdriver down and used the proper chisels, it started coming off like crazy.  If you chiseled gently, you could get whole two-handed pieces to peel off at once. 

At this point, I put down the camera and we both went to town. 

An hour and a half later, we took a break for lunch.

Progress

We couldn't believe how fast it came off.  So fast, that we had to keep an eye on the weight of the garbage bags.  We couldn't fill them too full because plaster is HEAVY. 

Another thing we kept our eye on was a pipe we started uncovering.

Surprise

When I started uncovering it at the baseboard, I was worried.  As I got higher, I was intrigued.  Now that it's completely uncovered, I don't know if I love it or hate it. 

It's a pipe - maybe 1/2 inch wide - with a T at the top. 

It seems to be part of the original construction of the house.  My guess is it's a water pipe, maybe for a shower.  Steve thinks it's gas.  Either way, we can't figure out why it has a T at the top.  This is the shared wall of our semi-detached house, but the T just ends.  It doesn't go through to our neighbor. 

Hmmmmm......

Character?

Either way, we can't decide if we want to keep it or get rid of it.  For now, it stays. 

After lunch, we took some action shots.

Mask & Goggles

Serious Chiseling

I'm never in pictures on this blog because I'm the one taking them. 

Hot

Hello...I'm Working Here

You might be wondering what 106 year old plaster looks like.  Here it is:

Between 1/2"-3/4" thick

Layers

You can see three layers here:
1/ morter with horsehair (you can see wisps of it on the right side in the pic above - we were told it was horsehair, anyway....helps with the insulation/sound barrier-???)
2/ plaster
3/ paint - as chunks came off, the blue chipped away to a red-hued color

Overall, 85% of it came off in chunks that we could break off and put directly into bags.  The rest chipped off easily but hit the floor as we gently chiseled.  There were only two small areas where we had to work at a stubborn patch of mortar. 

After 3-1/2 hours of chiseling, we had this.

Wow

Nice View

We stood back and admired our progress through extremely dusty goggles.  It didn't photograph well, but you can sort of see how mortar-crusted the wall was.  We wanted some patina, but this much looked quite dirty.  And it was.  So we started gently scrubbing each brick with a wire brush.

See the Line?

I was worried we were cleaning off too much.  But at this point, we had to keep going.  So, we did.

Two hours later, we had this:

Lookin' Good

A little less mortar-y/crusty, but still rough enough to have a character-filled finish without looking dirty.  Make sense?

Still Sorta Mortar-y

The Pipe

Then came my favorite part.  The clean up.  Steve thought I was being sarcastic.  But I honestly really truly love to clean up after any project because that's when I get to see my hard work in all it's sparkly clean glory. 

Before

Almost After

*Disclaimer*  I hate that sink.  It's the same crap build as the kitchen cabinets & countertop.  But it serves a major functional purpose for me every morning and night, so I embrace the ugly.  For now.

Cabinet

I hate this guy, too, but he's custom made -from bad plywood- to fit between the bulkhead on the left and the doorway on the right.  So I embrace him, too.  The good news is my plasticizing inside the door totally worked - not a trace of dust. 

And now, after cleaning an inch of mortar, plaster and brick dust off the floor, may I present our DIY exposed brick wall.

In stages, at the window:

Before

Lunchtime

Just Exposed

Cleaned

From the hallway:

Before

After

From the master:

Before

After

Waking up to see it this morning put a smile on our tired faces.  Now to finish the job by washing the brick and then sealing it.  Always more work...

...and more updates to come!