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f you like room makeovers, you’ll enjoy visiting ROOM TOURS on The Inspired Room!
If you have ever had the {insane} idea {like we did} of buying an extreme “fixer upper” you know that some rooms are so bad they really cannot be truly “fixed” with just a few well placed accessories or a pretty new lamp.
It would be a little like putting lipstick on a donkey (that saying cracks me up!)– you may as well just leave the poor thing alone until you can do some serious work on the foundation of the room. And, if you are on a budget like me, that can take some time.
Our house in Portland had a room on the lower level that I really hated. For lack of a better word, it was icky. It had faux 1970′s style paneling that was really hideous. It actually stunk or I might have considered just painting it. Gag, it had to go.
It was so bad I am bummed that I don’t have a true before photo of it (pre-blogging days, before I knew I would ever want to see that room again). But I do have photos of the process of ripping it apart.
This room was not one of our first priorities — so sadly, with our limited budget, it had to just sit there being ugly for the first couple of years while we worked on other projects.
Finally about two years ago, it was finally time to fix up the room to use as a guest space and office, as well as to have the flexibility to someday be appealing to a buyer as a library, media or game room.
Fortunately for us and our budget, my uncle had a few weeks of time to come and help rip out the old ugly paneling. Had our walls been in perfect condition, paint might have been a quick fix. But, when you are dealing with an old house like this, quick fixes aren’t always possible. Instead, we decided to install new mahogany paneling to tie in with what was in our main living room just down the hall from this room.
You can see the original 1930s mahogany wood paneling in the living room below, which was where we took the inspiration for the new room makeover. The original wood is absolutely gorgeous.
We bought the new mahogany panels from a lumber store, stained it to match the original wood paneling in the house, painted all the trim, doors and ceiling antique white to contrast with all the rich wood.
As you can see from the photos below, when we ripped out the horrible faux paneling we found this interesting wallpaper underneath! You never know what you might find when you start tearing things out!
BEFORE WITH WINDOW
AFTER WITH DOORS
We replaced an old window (before and after, above) with double glass doors to let in more light and make the room accessible to the patio. That alone made an enormous difference in how the room felt. It was no longer closed off to the outside!
In a matter of about a month it went from a dingy basement room to a more classy old world library-inspired room that was right at home with the style of the house. And now that the room itself looks better, it will be much more fun to decorate in the future. Of course, we won’t be those people since we had to move. To a new house this time, where nothing stinks or needs to be ripped out.
BEFORE
AFTER
(yes, that is a deep sunken tub in the bathroom!)
If you missed my kitchen redo, click here. Or if you want to read the story of the house, click here.
Tell me, how many of you have ever thought about buying a fixer upper? Or actually bought a fixer upper that needed more than a new shade of lipstick to fix it up? Tell your extreme room makeover stories. Was the process fun or did you regret getting yourself into that mess?
Check out ROOM TOURS, click on the big gray button below!
We strongly believe in buying the worst home in the best neighborhood. All of our homes were major fixer uppers. I like it this way because A. It financially makes sense, and B. The home ends up being more “mine”. My hands have changed every surface of every room. Something about that is so comforting to me and makes me feel more at home. One time we bought a condo that had been destroyed. The last tenants had literally shoved beer cans inside the air vents, let their animals poop and pee all over the place, etc. Not just ugly, but gross! Nobody else would touch this place. Well, because of that we got it for a “song”! It was so much fun fixing that place up. First things first, we just tore up all the flooring in the place! Then we poured bleach over all surfaces! That is when I learned that animal urine even soaks into the concrete under carpets! I’ve found that only bleach really gets rid of that! We were quite young and so all of the processes that we did were all new to me (I did not grow up in a family that “fixed up” our houses at all)! That was probably my favorite fix up just because it was all so new to me. I loved the transformation that took place, and with a REALLY tight budget I could not believe the options out there to us. That’s the first time I laid laminate tile (I was shocked that there were cute options of this), even the first time I painted a room (let alone that we repainted the WHOLE house), painted cabinets, decoratively painted on tile (ducks in my daughters YELLOW duck bathroom), etc. Each of my homes not only has memories that we made by living inside of it, but also holds memories of what we did to it. Each home we tried some new technique ourselves. This last time we even laid our own carpet. Doing things yourself is a great way to go and gives you such a great feeling of accomplishment. However, once your budget grows a little, you realize what things are worth paying someone else to do (lay carpet and tile are my 2 biggest ones to let someone else do)! We love finding unused space behind walls and “tapping” into them. We turned the area under the stairs into a playhouse by knocking out a door and window and finishing walls in there for it! I could go on and on (obviously) but as you can see I definitely am all for buying fixer-uppers!
Rebecca
RootsAndWingsCo.blogspot.com
Rebeccas inspiring blog post..Here we are together…
1. Was the sustainability of mahogany a concern for you?
2. I guess I’m alone in finding the “before” wallpaper lovely…I realize it couldn’t have been salvaged given your project, but you could spend a lot of money on a 2009 version of something like that…
3. What I like best about your reno is how you addressed the lighting — natural and artificial…it makes a real difference.
We just bought a house – almost 100 years old, but well kept. I just finished the floor in the kitchen to the original wood. Now if I just knew if the wallpaper removal so I can paint was going to be a “lipstick” project or more …
Abbies inspiring blog post..My new-old oak kitchen floor
Oh my! We just bought a major fixer upper with a basement room very similar to yours!! Ugly 60′s faux paneling. We have a room on the main level that has beautiful…absolutely beautiful…wood paneling. We will not be changing it. However, you’ve inspired me to think about transforming the basement room…
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This will be one of my new favourites. Great job. I found it because I was looking for before and after for ‘mahogany paneling’. I bought a project house in August of 2009 and have been working on it ever since. The blog covers what we’ve done so far (along with dog and kid related stuff, but you can scroll through that). It’s a 1960 custom built home in on a lovely cul de sac in a gem of a neighbourhood but boy did it need some work! We are currently working on the kitchen but that means we will shortly be working our way into the living room, complete with mahogany paneling. You may have inspired me to keep it rather than paint it. Just maybe. I look forward to snooping around here some more. Thanks!
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