Help, hubby wants a more rustic vibe for this downstairs area
We just got this home real cheap as an investment. We are enjoying it as a weekend home for now. We don't have a lot of money, so we have to do a lot by ourselves and spend smart.
We have focused on the upstairs which is totally coming together little by little. Need to take a more recent picture of that but anyways, the downstairs pictured here, is just strange to me. We have not done a thing to it yet. What ever you see will not be any part of the room except the tables that I got in a thrift store and need to fix some scratches with Old English scratch cover.
Hubby really wants a kind of light cabin like feel. Like ship lap ceilings perhaps in a natural finish or painted. I would LOVE to do something with the brick, but he loves it as is. Ok I can live with it, if I can figure out how to make this nutty paneling work. He loves it and oddly we get a lot of compliments on it, but it is just too much.
I still want it to somehow transition well with our upstairs. Any ideas without me ending up in a huge fight with hubby.
Tip the home is in a forested area of California, it is on a hill and has lots of Oaks and mountains to see around, so making it sort of nature-ish is not all that bad but come on. This is a challenge that I would love to work out, and start on with tax return money possibly.
We have focused on the upstairs which is totally coming together little by little. Need to take a more recent picture of that but anyways, the downstairs pictured here, is just strange to me. We have not done a thing to it yet. What ever you see will not be any part of the room except the tables that I got in a thrift store and need to fix some scratches with Old English scratch cover.
Hubby really wants a kind of light cabin like feel. Like ship lap ceilings perhaps in a natural finish or painted. I would LOVE to do something with the brick, but he loves it as is. Ok I can live with it, if I can figure out how to make this nutty paneling work. He loves it and oddly we get a lot of compliments on it, but it is just too much.
I still want it to somehow transition well with our upstairs. Any ideas without me ending up in a huge fight with hubby.
Tip the home is in a forested area of California, it is on a hill and has lots of Oaks and mountains to see around, so making it sort of nature-ish is not all that bad but come on. This is a challenge that I would love to work out, and start on with tax return money possibly.
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I love the fireplace but think the brick should be limed or acid washed or whitewashed to be lighter. I love the wood stove it has soap stone all around it which helps retain heat longer.
Maybe I could put large reclaimed wood base boards, crown molding and wall corners, to hide it. I agree the prep in painting is a pain, but it would be cuter than this stuff. The bedroom down there is worse it has the photographed picture of wood grain, old school fake wood paneling, like in the 70's.
We have not had to move much inside yet, but what we have moved in usually goes up one of the side stairs on the outside to the main level. My husband has a plan and bought a wench, He won't tell me what he is going to do with our new tv wall unit that is about to be delivered this week. I'll let you know how that goes.
My sister said her husband would love that paneling because he hunts. I just can't see it looking like anything but cheap.
[houzz=Marsh Residence 1]
[houzz=Marsh Residence 2]
Curacaoblue's selections are awesome and suggest how good the paneling would look painted a similar hue. Using that as a guide, I'd get a similar color rustic beam for the fireplace mantle as suggested by Carole and trim the doors and baseboards out in a similar wide trim painted the wall color. You could try watering down the wall color with water and some white paint and testing it as a white wash to lighten the brick in a tone that would soften it and work with the wall color. (Maybe get some old similar colored bricks to try out as a sample to see if you like it before using on the actual fireplace in case it's not what you want.) If you're going for the look in the pictures, then whitewashing might be better than painting out which would give the brick a more contemporary look. For upholstered furniture, old leather or soft fabrics like in the sample pic would be great with the tables you picked up already. Slipcovers in ivory cotton or painter's drop cloths would also be terrific. This is the kind of casual rustic that some of the classic Ikea furniture and their slipcovers look really good in.
I thought the ideas of a compromise with keeping the paneling just up the staircase, is a good one.
We built our house in the Smokies in TN and cladded the interior walls and ceilings with local pine in wide horizontal planks. It was relatively inexpensive because a farmer nearby has his own mill. The planks were lapped of course making it pretty easy to put together. If you like working with wood like we do, and have a good table saw and circular saw it's a fun project.
I'll try to attach a pic or two of what the pine looks like up close (untreated) - You can see some of it in my kitchen remodel pics (excuse our construction mess!)
As for the fireplace brick, try this idea. We had 7 brick fireplaces in the last house we renovated, and they just looked too dark and gloomy, some of the bricks had deteriorated over time and we didn't have the money to replace them all. I grabbed some of the off-white paint I was using as trim all over the house and painted the brick, then before it dried wiped it off with rags.
This lady used another method and I like the results: http://cleverlyinspired.com/2011/01/first-project-2011-whitewash-brick-love-it/
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_F7pN3Bb1UW8/TSM1pF5X0-I/AAAAAAAAA4o/lqRow6ucb2Y/s1600/DSCN6889.JPG
good luck with your new home! (Nasty old paneling aside) I love your downstairs area, it has good bones.
That paneling is common fare for ever mom and pop restaurant in Florida that serves fried catfish as their Early Bird Special!
I actually can't believe it wasn't in my former home. Every, and I mean EVERY form of paneling and faux surface (bricks! volcanic rock!) not to mention a wall of cedar shakes, was used in various rooms, all of which I tore off or painted, room by room until the day it burned.
I hope you find a happy compromise.
Here's what I'd do:
First - remove the paneling from under the stairs (carefully, it might be useful elsewhere);
Second - Paint walls, medium stained doors and trim the color of a darker tone in the paneling (I suspect that was the intent with the dark trim already there). If you don't want a dark alcove, you could go for a creamy or rosy tone;
Third - paint stair railings, banisters and all other white paint in the room, (including inside front door) the same as alcove color.
Stop there and take a long look - that may be enough. An area rug with less blue in the tone would help also. I can't tell from the pictures if the panelling has a yellow brown or pinky brown tone. To get a really good color, you could remove the panelled door from its hinges and take it with you to your local home center. try LOTS of different paint chips with it to find the right shade. When you think you're close, take the whole works out to daylight and take another look before making your final choice.
While you have it out, take the door to the carpet department and match your paint color and door to a good piece of carpet. you can have it bound for a pretty small fee.
I do believe you are on to something!
With hollybar's marketing skills, all we need is a name for the paneling, and this stuff will be on backorder
http://thebedlamofbeefy.blogspot.com/
I love all the ideas and the banter and the humor. I don't take any of this personal. I sure did not put that hipster paneling from Tampa Bay IHOP on my walls.
It is actually a true cream color, with warm beige and a sort of stick brown background. I think it would be more fun and quirky if it had been on the ceiling behind some natural bead board or pine strips, so it peaked out behind it and made you want to explore the pictures while making out on the sofa.
I really did talk to him last night and he claims now, that he does not really like the paneling. (Yeah right), but does not think we need to worry about the downstairs yet since we can only afford to work on so much at one time.
Stall tactics. Anyways,
Rowe I love,love love the wide pine walls you shared.
Judy you are so right.
M.A.S construction loved the affordability of what you did with the 1X8 in the basement. I'm feeling ya.
Joanne yes too many patterns and colors, not cohesive.
Becky OMG! Uncle Beefy. I almost soiled myself. Yes maybe he can help me Becky.
Give the white trim a Marsh Residence look to quiet the paneling.
Then, use cream and light blue grays liberally throughout.
And yes, lighten the brick!
They want their paneling back.
Yes but the home is in such an adorable area, 30 minutes from our regular house, has 4 seasons, in the desert that is rare. One day the home was a repo that was overpriced and one day it went down 70K and we bought it without even blinking, with a pass a detailed inspection, which it absolutely did. So here we are.
Honestly, it is so weird but the people that like it love it. So it makes you look at it in not so horrid a light. But when I go upstairs, I say no, this does not work, with the upstairs.
Lets send IHOP on Dale Mabry this post. lol
So many people need our help... tongue in cheek ha? Thanks for the fun. I'm sure I will have more problems I bring you later.
Men! He said he will post a thread. My wife loves this paneling, help me. lol
We agreed that our money would make a bigger difference in the up stairs when we first bought the house. We said we were not going to deal with the bottom for a while but I started getting anxious about what direction we would go because He keeps saying I want a rustic cabin downstairs for a Man cave. I'm not agreeing to any man cave in a 1776 sq ft home so I thought maybe you guys would have some ideas that made him want to commit to a direction, but it is not happening. He just wants to put off the downstairs, which is basically a small bedroom and a big storage area of a den for the time being, near the wood stove with a 1/4 bath that someone put in oddly.
I need to get the original plans maybe that would help us. Someone did something odd down there.
So I guess we are not planning to spend money down there at the moment still.
Thanks so much for your help. Will be back. He said we don't have to keep the paneling now. Thank God! I agree that someone may like it on Ebay if we save it. My sister swears her husband would love it. It's all his.