One of my many before and afters of our new, old house.

Step 1: Our New Old House

We bought our house knowing a lot of work needed to be done. The house was built in 1978 and the owners being an older couple never updated anything. There was different wallpaper on every wall of the bedrooms and mirrors on several walls. After we moved in my wife started to peel off the wallpaper leaving behind an ugly mess of old glue and damaged walls. The room was a large rectangle with wasted space where the entrance was because of sliding doors along the wall next to it. Being built in the late seventies the entire house had wonderful design features known as a popcorn ceiling and small base boards.

We lived with this bedroom for a few years while I updated every other room of the house so we could have friends and family over and not be embarrassed. Finally the time had come to treat ourselves to a semi-luxury retreat.

The first step was to scrape all the glue and old paint off the walls. Once that was done I could patch the walls and extend the doorway into the room. This served two purposes. It broke up the rectangle shape and extended the hallway so we could move the guest bathroom door but that is a story for another instructable. I then replaced the two windows and cased them with wood rather than drywall like it was before. I had already pulled of the baseboards so we could replace the carpet, pulled the mirrors off the wall and replaced the sliding doors with french doors. I used a yard sprayer filled with water to spray the popcorn ceiling. This will soften it so you can scrape it down to the drywall with a large putty knife. You can do a 3 foot by 3 foot section before it dries.

Step 2: Bedroom Takes Shape

Next came the paint. We had picked out a comforter we liked so I matched the paint to the light blue in the pattern after the walls were painted I installed new baseboards and framed the windows and doors with new molding. Since this was going to be our retreat I wanted something special for the room. I decided I would try my hand at a coffered ceiling. That is another intructable all by itself but it turned out great. The ceiling was painted flat white and the beams gloss. Last but not least I installed a new ceiling fan and blinds for the windows. The room was ready for our new furniture and beading.

This was a fun project and long over due. My wife loves it and I hope you do too.