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Wow, this might be one of the most un-fun tasks I’ve undertaken in the history of ever but we have office progress! I detailed in this post the plans I had for this space. The first step was tackling all the texture on the walls. To take a trip in the way-back machine, here’s what it looked like.
It doesn’t look so bad in the picture, does it? Lies! I’m beginning to think I should start doing PSA’s against using textured walls. It may seem “fun” at the time and a “real kick”. But let’s move forward in time a bit to when you (or some poor homeowner after you) want nice, smooth walls. There were several times during this process that I thought it might be easier to just re-drywall. Seriously. It was that bad.
If you’re not familiar with skim-coating, it’s basically taking slightly thinned joint compound and going over and over and over and over… You get the idea. The first method I tried was using the paint roller to try and get it on the walls and then smooth it with a knockdown knife. Didn’t work for me so well. I think it would have taken about 80 coats and cost me my sanity. What finally worked was scooping a less-thinned out mixture with a regular old joint knife, slapping it on the wall and laughing maniacally. It was a long weekend, what can I say?
After that extremely long weekend, I ended up with this boo-ti-ful smooth wall. Big difference, huh? It’s hard to appreciate in this photo since it’s just a blank slate of smoothness but trust me, it’s way better already.
And what’s the reward at the end of all those coats? Sanding. Lots of sanding. I’m giving the room a good couple of days to dry but sanding is up next.
While I’m waiting for the walls to dry, I’ll be working on some of the other items that need to happen in here, namely refinishing the existing base molding and working on the cabinets for my desk. Because, yes, I’m gonna DIY the heck out of a new desk for myself.
A while back, I had posted about an adventure Alex and I had involving cabinets and a Camaro. My original plan for those was to use them in some dining room built-ins. When I was trying to decide what kind of workspace would fit in here I realized those cabinets would work better in the office. There’s both a double and a single cabinet and that fits the space almost perfectly. These were $5 cabinets I found at the ReStore. There were no doors but I wasn’t concerned about that so much. I can probably devise something or dig through the door pile at the ReStore. I think with some TLC these cabinets are gonna clean up real purty like.
Now that I’m done removing that cursed texture from the walls, I’m hoping the office progress picks up a little bit. I finally picked out a new light fixture and I’m narrowing paint choices down. I think I found a rug I like but I that’s still up for debate.
In the end, it will all be worth it. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. At the end of Phase 1 (AKA the worst of the phases), here’s where we’re at. The shadows on the wall make it look kinda dirty but it’s not really that bad.
It’s gettin’ there.
