We bought our 1.5 story ranch in September 2008 with the intention of making it our own. The entire house was covered in paneling, wallpaper, shag carpet, full out 70's orange & green decor. YIKES!
I really really really hoped I would pull back the carpet and find hardwood underneath - alas nothing but boring ol' subflooring. Our entire budget for our home make-over was $1,200 (1900 sq ft home) - this was for paint & lighting & window treatments. I'm a die hard bargain hunter so this was great fun for me!
Today we'll visit what would become our Formal Living Room
This is after I tore down some wallpaper. Check out little Red Riding Hood stenciled on the door (every door had some strange cartoon stencil on the back of the door).
We primed and painted 3 walls 'Sand Fossil' and the 4th wall 'Icelandic' then I traced Hula Hoops for circles and painted the outline with a dark brown and lime green.
I'm crazy about circles in decor - check out the BIG ROUND Shaggy rug! From JCP!
I love this room - everything in it was a bargain! I did the wall art myself with some canvas and left over paint.
My favorite part of this room is the hardwood floor. We laid it ourselves (with the help of 2 awesome friends! They had both recently laid the exact same flooring in their homes). Its Red Oak Solid hardwood - no fake stuff for us! It was hard work but so rewarding ;-) Plus we got it on the cheap - entire room plus hall including stain cost us $480 - compared to the $2000 we had been quoted.
We tore up the carpet & padding (which for me was the worst part - picking out staples). Under the carpet we found that our floor had hills and peaks - it wasn't flat... But that hasn't caused any problems and you can't even tell!
We laid down tar paper (left-over from our DIY roof)
Hardwood boards!
Next was laying the boards correctly, cutting the ends, and stapling them to the door
Almost done!
Pretty dark stain - I was nervous about the dark stain since the room doesn't have a ton of light, but I wouldn't have it any other way! The poor guys at Sherwin Williams saw me daily for about 2 weeks - each time bringing in wood scraps for them to stain so I could get an idea of what color I really wanted.
This is by far my favorite room in the house. No TV in there - a perfect 'sitting room' or 'parlor' just the right space to read my Bible with a cup of coffee, play cards with the friends, board games with the kids, perfect for entertaining!
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