Usually our faux finish projects deal with one or two elements of a room, such as walls or kitchen cabinets. But sometimes we get to transform an entire room. That’s what we got to do on this project. Our client was ready for a new look in her family room. Her house was a 1960s or so vintage raised ranch in Liberty, MO. She was tired of the dark wood in the family room as well as the wall color.
She was also tired of the red brick on the fireplace and the rough cedar beam that served as a mantle.
The walls had a heavy texture that must have been a stucco or concrete material because sandpaper wouldn’t touch it. We scrapped the sharp edges off and painted it a neutral color. We also worked on the ceiling beams and did a faux finish glaze to lighten them up.
The entertainment center got some modifications in the trim–we took down some of the rough cedar and put up a simple crown molding. This took away the rustic look and fit in with our plan to give it a cleaner appearance.
We did our typical prep work of cleaning, sanding, priming. But in this project we had to do the same to the masonry of the fireplace as well. Eric was also at work crafting a new mantle to slide over the rough cedar beam. The mantle was prepped in the same way as the rest of the cabinets.
After painting and the faux finish glaze, the mantle and entertainment center looked totally different.
The brick on the fireplace didn’t receive an overall faux finish. We merely painted them with a white semi-gloss paint. Except for the bricks around the hearth. Those got a faux finish treatment of a bronze metallic. The contrast really sets off the hearth giving a clean, modern look.
In addition to all of this, we painted the chair rail and added baseboard in place of the quarter-round trim that was there previously.
Our client finished off the transformation with a new area rug. We had a lot of fun working on this project. It’s great to see this kind of decorative makeover. It’s even better when we get to help our client put the ideas together so we can create it.