Thanks for everyone who had kind words to say about my last post on the hallway. For those who missed it, here it is! , and for my biggest fans out there (hi mum) you’ll remember that the hallway marked the final room in our house that needed re-plastering, and since we moved in the house 3 years ago we have now had every single wall re-done. It’s a big achievement for us and I’m just so chuffed with reaching that milestone.
If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d 100% crack open a bottle of bubbly. Instead, it’s a celebratory Nesquik. And that’s just fine by me.
The thing about doing a plastering update, is that they’re a bit boring really. I hate saying that because when it’s being done at the house, I get embarrassingly excited. The room changes appearance in a matter of hours, and it very quickly goes from a room which belongs on a construction site, to a room which is ready for decorating.
So please pardon the sheer amount of brown & terracotta walls which will follow! But I set off on this blogging adventure to document what we’ve done, and this is very much a part of that.
Let’s recap where we left off last time.
Joe had spent a long time adding plasterboard over the exposed brickwork. You can read all about it here.
He did a wonderful job, but the final plastering work has certainly made the room feel less jigsaw like, giving it smooth continuous walls. Let’s take a looky looky shall we, now that it’s all dried?
Looking better isn’t it? Like real grown-up walls! I’m amazed that the plasterers did such a good job on this ceiling, as you can see below. It’s a pretty tall one!
…and we even got the loft hatch finally plastered in. Joe and his dad cut this hole in the ceiling in 2011, just after we moved to give us more storage (see that here). For quite a while, the frame had been hanging on with a bit of Duct tape! So needless to say, I’m happy to see it plastered in and part of the actual structure now. Yippee.
The edges have been done really well, I think. As I mentioned in my plastering tips post, it’s a messy job, and it’s also hard to find a decent tradesman. I think the guys we chose did an ace job, they were very neat and all that’s left for us to tidy is a slight dusting on the windowsills – truly unavoidable when you’re having your house plastered. And I know, I know, they desperately need repainting. It’s on the to-do list I swear.
When Joe removed the original plaster – because it was so crumbly and made the room rain soot everytime we opened the front door – he realised that it was lime plaster straight onto brickwork. I’m no expert, but I think this was standard for a long time. As Joe decided to plaster board over the brick to then be plastered, it actually meant that our new walls would come ever so slightly over the existing skirting board. We didn’t want to remove the original skirting in this room because it’s in good condition (albeit a bit messy right now). Plus, can we really be bothered replacing it all, on an angled staircase? No thanks.
So, Joe has taken some thin wood, nothing special, in order to cover any awkward gaps between the plaster and the skirting, and make the whole situation look a bit neater and hopefully, seamless. In fact, it should just look like the pattern of the skirting with a bit of luck! This will be glossed along with the skirting. Soon. Soon….
And that’s it really!
Like I said, plastering isn’t all that interesting is it? But what is super duper exciting (and so exciting that it makes me use ridiculous phrases such as super duper) is that the next step is decorating. We’re trying to decide whether to paint or wallpaper, both of which would be difficult with all those angles and high ceilings. I think I have my heart set on the colour yellow though. The colour of happiness and optimism, as well as being a lovely bright colour to lighten this dark narrow space. I can’t think of a better way to walk into our home at the end of the day. Send me your ideas 🙂
We’re also going to be carpeting this room during October if all goes to plan, so we can finally wave goodbye to the awful looking stairs, which have sadly taken a real beating as the renovating has taken place over the years.
Very excited at the prospect of being able to post another update on this room soon. For the first time ever it’s going to look CLEAN! I can’t wait.
