One Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago while I was getting ready, Chris came and knocked on the bathroom door. “What, Chris? What do you need now?” came my standard response. I thought he was going to ask me why the sugar bowl was empty or something like that again. “No”, he said “this is something that you’re interested in.” OK, fine. I came out.
He had come to a decision, he said, that he couldn’t just leave the wall in the bedroom upstairs how it was, he had to tear out the ugly panelling and put in drywall. OK, I’ll buy more paint and re-paint that wall. But then he said that if he was going to be doing that, he might as well build some bookcases into the wall there like I’d been insisting we need to add into every room in the house. Bingo! I was interested. And we were off! Within the next 3 hours, we had planned out exactly what depth and height the shelves would be, where to put them on the wall, bought the materials and started installing them. Now that’s what I call a productive morning!
First, here’s how Chris usually works. This is him finishing up the beadboard ceiling in there:
Everything piece had to fit just right.
And it doesn’t matter if it takes 6 months to complete one ceiling.
Normally, I don’t really mind much because the end result is amazing.
We don’t use this room for anything right now anyway, so it’s just fine to take our time.
It is really nice to see such a drastic change in the room take shape so quickly though!
We have a long white dresser that’s going to sit in between the two shelves.
It might be making this room take even longer, but I think it’s definitely worth it! Do you remember how this room used to look?
We have roofers at our house this week so Chris is even planning to take a day off work to watch the roofing magic. He says he’s going to try to get the shelves finished that day too! Finished! Can’t wait to show you that next little baby step in the progress of this room!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.