Specifically the owner who thought it was a good idea to cover up beautiful hardwood floors with carpet …

… thank you.

Because of you I do believe our beautiful hardwood has a better chance of being in good condition … which is more than I can say for the stank carpet.  #totalgrossness

You most likely saved the beautiful wood from years of wear and tear and use.  You protected them and preserved them …

… just for us.

I think that is more awesome than words can express.

But, can I ask you just one question?

Why, oh why, did it seem like a good idea to glue the carpet pad directly to those beautiful hardwoods?

Was that really necessary?

#puppyphotobomber #longexposureinlowlightcreatesextralegs

I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt … maybe it was before the era of the tack strip … because I see that you progressed to the tack strip when you decided to add a layer of berber right over the fabulous orange you chose originally.

Or were there two previous owners conspiring to bury those hardwood floors too deep to find?

But, really, I so appreciate that you saved the hardwood for us.

My arms and shoulders don’t really appreciate the glue … but they’ll get over it.

Just like Mico will get over me getting rid of all of her padded laying grounds.
Just in case I haven’t mentioned it recently … I am madly in love with that black dog.

If you’ve been blessed with your very own glued down carpet pad over hardwood floors you are preparing to restore, here are a few things I learned along the way.

• Settle in and get some padding for yourself, this project will take a few days, I used a patio seat cushion that’s navy … which leads to tip #2
• This project will be messy (so don’t use a good, light colored sofa pillow as your cushion), in a bits-and-pieces-of-carpet-pad-everywhere sort of way.  After I woke up to those bits and pieces in our kitchen and stuck in our bath mat and just fluttering around the house I learned to shop vac up (using one like this) at the end of everyday, a little extra cleaning each day = a little extra sanity for not only me, but Marley.

• We used an angled scraper like this one.  It has threads in the end of it so you could screw in a pole, but I was more comfortable sitting down and felt stronger without the added length.  And who doesn’t want to feel stronger?  :)

• After some trial and error I learned that I was able to scrape up longer strips (which is so much more fun and efficient than little bits) of the padding if I only tried to scrape about 1 inch wide strips.
• Be sure to use the scraper flat to the floor so you don’t gouge your hardwoods and scrape in the same direction of your wood slats.

• I worked from one side of the room to another scraping 1 inch wide strips about 15 inches long.

• Then just tear the scraped strips up and directly into a garbage bag.  And repeat until you’re done.

It really is more time-consuming than difficult but every once in a while I needed a break so it was a good project to work on a few hours a day for a few days in between other projects.

But wait … there’s more … and not in a good way.

In the living room we had the glued carpet pad and double carpet to contend with …

 … in the dining room, under the berber carpet and a very easy, what I would call “normal” carpet pad to remove … you know … rip up the light weight pad, removed the staples that had held it down and done …
 … and by “done” I mean left with about a 200 square foot section of asbestos vinyl floor tiles.

So we’re now in the process of researching our best options for taking that up without poisoning ourselves.  We’ll be sure to keep you posted on that.

And we’re leaning towards having the hardwood floor professionally restored because there is still so much gunk on them, and we’ve never done it, and it’s the biggest room in the house, and the first room you see when you walk in, and not that we need anymore reasons … but we just don’t want to totally screw it up.  :)

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Then whitewash it.

Then strip it again.

Ok, maybe that strategy isn’t the best approach.  ;)

You’ve all seen the whole mood board concept, right?!?!  Where people put pretty images all in one spot and use it as inspiration to design and decorate a room.  And then the room ends up looking eerily similar to the original mood board.

I honestly have no idea how people do it.

I think I have more “mood moments”.  And they can be fleeting.  :)

To take you back to when we moved into this house in the beginning of April and there was paneling Ev. Ry. Where.

We got busy tearing down all of the paneling only to find drywall (painted pink in spots!) so we took a leap of faith and started tearing down the drywall, knowing there was a chance we would need to just re-install new drywall.  I definitely prayed to the DIY Gods about our work not being a waste of time and money and energy and potentially my sanity.

But it was the best decision ever!  Like ever ever, even.

We uncovered beautiful wood slat wall after wood slat wall.  And their paint colors even made me a little giddy.

I can’t even tell you how many different design places my mind has wandered with these planked walls.

How fun would it be to salvage the original colors?

But how cool would it be to strip a couple to expose the beautiful wood?

What about a dark stain for contrast against light painted walls?

Or what about a whitewash for a more nautical/beachy look?

And when my mind is shifting through these ideas faster than Kim K is getting press over another questionable pregnancy outfit … I’m just sitting in the middle of the madness.

Do you do that?  Just immerse yourself in your space to try to see it.  I mean see it how it ends up?  Not how it is right now.

Unfortunately, it seems that Joel has a tendency to come home from work as I’m just sitting, staring, imagining what will be.  We have this exchange about 3 days a week.

Joel: (as he walks in the door from work) Is the house done yet?
Me: (as I’m sitting) Yep.
Joel:  I don’t know how you expect to finish by just sitting in it.
Me:  Do you want a glass of wine?

Whatever … it works for us.  :)

Anyway, there are so many reclaimed wood wall looks that I love, I just needed some time to decide what we were going to want to live with.  I showed you a few looks I was loving here.  And once we finished the board and batten wall, with all the white trim, it helped pull the vision together.

I did give whitewash a stab on the small wall, but in the end we decided that we really like the contrast of the stripped walls against the nicely finished, painted surfaces.  Check out the whitewash wall on the left compared to the stripped wall to the right of the board and batten wall.

It adds so much character and depth to the space, we find it perfectly rustic without going overboard. And it’s very Key West quirky, adding to the charm and appeal of the property here in the Key West real estate market.  Which never hurts when you’re working on home improvement.

For anyone gearing up to tackle your own stripping project, here are a few of my favorite tips.

* use a good quality stripper, don’t buy the bottom tier option, we use this kind, it took just over a gallon to strip the 3 walls of two coats of paint

* pour the stripper into a paint tray (if it is used like mine it will strip the dried paint in the tray, but that won’t be detrimental to the project)
* use a paint brush from the dollar store to apply the gel, it will get ruined, no need to use a good quality one

* read the safety instructions on the stripping product, I can attest to the fact that you will not die if you get some on your skin, but it will burn and itch, a quick wipe down with a wet rag does the trick

* keep another wet rag close by to wipe off your scraping tool, I use my favorite 6-in-One, you need to scrape before the stripping gel dries so the gunk (technical term) will accumulate on your scraper

* apply two coats of the stripper gel before you even start stripping if you are trying to remove 2 coats of paint

* let the stripper do the work, the container will have instructions for how long to let the gel set, but if you try to start stripping and it doesn’t come easy, give it more time

* I found the idea of a drop cloth futile, something about all of the droppings landing exactly where the drop cloth ends at the bottom of the wall didn’t work out.  But we have floors that we weren’t worried about ruining, it worked great to wait until all of the stripped paint globs (yep, another technical term) dried and then scrape them loose from the floor and vacuum them up with a shop vac.  Or maybe use a plastic drop cloth and tape it up about a foot on the wall so it would catch-all of the scrapes … if you try that idea, let me know if it works.  :)

This little video might be helpful for those looking for some tips in a more visual version.  And yes, clearly I am still working on the camera height as I do my self-set videos.  But it’s more about the tips than me really.  :)

And, for anyone questioning the lack of gloves, goggles or anything else that might be considered ‘safety precautions’ might want to check out the duma$$ disclaimer.  ;)

We are nowhere near done with this living / dining combo room, (What, did the random unstripped paint spots make that obvious?!?!) but having these beautiful hardwood walls exposed has dramatically changed the feel of the whole space.

Here’s a little rundown of where we’re headed:

* remove drop ceiling, paneling and old drywall, here

* prep old cracking paint to resurface, here

* prime and paint the ceiling, here

* create a board and batten accent wall to cover up old hallway opening, here

* expose some of the wood slat walls to add accent

* paint the other walls

* remove the carpet, carpet pad and linoleum tiles underneath (we have been working on this on and off for a week or so now … picture me scooching around the floor on a pillow because our carpet pad happens to be glued to the hardwoods)

* re-finish the hardwood floors

* add a set of French doors to one wall for easy access to the outdoor living space

* widen the opening between the dining room and the kitchen

* install crown molding around entire room

* install baseboard around the entire room

* finish it off with 1/4 round trim

* replace all outlets, switches and plate covers

* add architectural details to cover termite damaged wood slats

* add built-ins to create functional workstation

* built-ins or open shelving on the wall between the dining room and the kitchen

* replace windows

* replace window trim

Ummmm, that’s all I can think of for now.  And that doesn’t even include decorating, updating a few of our current furniture pieces so they fit in with the look we’re going for in the room and the biggest project of all … working with a contractor and an architect to raise the roof on that front part with the awkward lower ceiling.

How about you?  Been doing any stripping lately? Do you like the contrast or prefer the whitewashed look?  Or is fresh drywall more your speed?

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The post when life hands you a wood slat wall {paint stripping tips included} appeared first on the space between.

Would you believe it if I told you that we moved to Key West in January and I haven’t been to the beach once?  True story.

That could have something to do with the fact that we moved here from a Caribbean island with the most beautiful water on earth.

Or, more accurately, that I’m not really the lay on the beach type … I’m more of a scour-the-beach-for-seaglass-and-driftwood girl so I can whip them into easy craft ideas.

And this easy craft project is proof that there are projects that can take less than 15 minutes and have a huge presence in a room.

I’m super excited to be participating in a series called Craft Lightning, where a group of bloggers is putting together a great resource of beautiful craft projects that can be completed in 15 minutes or less.

Now, if you count the time I spent meandering the beaches of Curacao, this project doesn’t qualify.  But if you are a driftwood collector and have a backdrop and a glue gun and a spare 15 minutes, this is the project for you.  :)

The first step is picking a backdrop for your craft.  It could be a frame with craft paper in the back or a painted piece of wood or anything, really, that fits with your style and is flat.

I had just the perfect thing for us … another piece of driftwood.  :)  It started as a 16 foot long board I found at the beach in Curacao and last year made into a desktop.  After a quick chop down to size I had the perfect backdrop for my easy little craft project.
Please just ignore everything else in that picture, this side of the house hasn’t gotten much attention since we moved in.  :)

And I’ll take this opportunity to apologize to our neighbors who have no idea I have a blog for whipping out the circular saw after 9pm.  My bad.  :)

Once you have your backdrop, plug-in your hot glue gun and layout your pieces of driftwood in the shape you desire.

I knew I wanted a fish shape, but how about a tree shape for Christmas or a heart for a child’s bedroom or even a monogram would be fun!  You’re really only limited by the sizes and shapes of your driftwood.
Then just glue each piece one at a time.
 And hang.
We just screwed eye hooks into the back of the wood and secured a heavy gauge hanging wire, then screwed a heavy-duty hook into the wall … we have wood slat walls, but depending on the weight of your project you should probably look for studs.  :)

Super easy, right?!?!
And this piece is 37 inches wide and 25 inches high, not only is it the perfect statement piece for our new board and batten wall, but I love that we can create something so unique and meaningful to us in less than 15 minutes and for nothing more than the cost of the hot glue.

And if you’re wondering exactly what ‘statement’ this piece is making I think it’s “I love driftwood, and fishes and chippy wood and pizza” … or something like that.  ;)

If you, too, love driftwood check out how you can make your own driftwood Christmas tree, driftwood and seaglass Christmas craft or other random driftwood craft ideas.

And be sure to check in with Angie of Country Chic Cottage and Carolina of 30 Minute Crafts to find so many more easy craft ideas that you can do in 15 minutes or less.

Do you craft with beach finds?  Or would you rather just lay on a comfy beach chair soaking up the sun?

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