67 Cottage8: Cinder Block Wall Reveal

Thanks for joining me here today. I just love a good reveal don’t you! All the drama, and the excitement. And the nail-biting anxiety that folks are hopefully going to like it. But enough about me. Allow me to turn your attention to exhibit A, below. I figure if I’m going to make this a good reveal, I’m going to go full monty and show you not how our living room looked last month, but how it looked the day we bought this house, 2 1/2 years ago:

Cinder Block Wall, Living Room Before:

Good-Bye Cinder Block Wall, Living Room After:

Truth be told, we didn’t actually tear any of the cinderblock down, we simply covered it in 1/4” drywall, secured with construction adhesive. We may be insanely passionate about remodeling, but we’re not crazy. And it would have taken crazy money to take on that kind of major renovation. We’re saving up all our pennies for a new roof. So that means creativity and thinking outside the box is the vehicle that allows me to continue to fix up our house, while keeping us on budget.

On the side of the wall that faces directly out, I decided to cover it in chalk board paint, right over the drywall. It was so easy and quick. The hardest part was convincing Adam that it would look good. Funny thing is, after I painted it we both loved the clean black wall so much, we dragged our heels a bit before actually using it as a chalk board. But after I bought this fabulous old frame from my friend Debra, we were finally ready to break it in. Inside the frame I wrote my favorite quote…

And wouldn’t you know it, the ledge of the frame makes it the perfect spot to hold my chalk!

Beneath the old frame are a couple of large glass jars I bought at Restoration Hardware. I filled them with fun and curious objects, and I plan on changing out this jar area often. Currently in my jars are rolled copies of documents tied with twine (left) and cactus skeletons (right). For those that are curious, apparently the cactus sheds its skin and leaves behind its skeleton. I just loved the texture and quickly grabbed them up when I spotted them at a flea market one day.

On to the fireplace wall, did you notice the new mantel? Our handyman, the one who built the floating shelves in our dining room, built this mantel for me. I love collaborating with him on projects. He listens very closely to what my “vision” is, never questions my ideas no matter how silly or strange, and we work seamlessly together to achieve the final product.

For the mantel, I told him I wanted simple, easy, clean lines. No fuss…

Did you also notice I painted the inside of my fireplace black? It used to be gray (well it was originally orange when we first bought this place), then I painted it gray, then I realized…ooops! I used regular latex paint, not special heat resistant paint. What was I thinking. So I bought a great product specially for high heat areas, and I’m so loving the black!

A few of my favorite flea market finds: a vintage suitcase, an old clam basket, and a bundle of old document ledgers rolled up inside…

The thick black frame above the mantel was something I’d found at a flea market several years ago and just had lying around somewhere in the back of a closet. So my friend Laurie took one of my old french documents from the late 1800’s and had it blown up and printed right onto canvas. I carefully placed it inside the black frame…

I so love the strike-through at the very bottom…

I can honestly say that for the first time I’m truly happy with the look of the bookshelves on the right side…

I found a huge collection of vintage encyclopedias, but wasn’t thrilled with the gold writing on the spines. So I simply turned the books around, and it gives off a great looking black and white vertical striped vibe which I’m completely loving…

It’s really hard to pull me out of this chair sometimes. I love sitting in this very spot more now than ever!

Okay, quick funny thing….see the silver champagne bucket on the right, which I bought at an estate sale…   

Well, if look closely at the engraving…it says “Happiness Forever. Love, Burt Reynolds”. I highly doubt it’s Cannonball Run’s very own Burt Reynolds, but every time I look at this silver bucket it makes me chuckle…

This is an old photo of our dining room. Since we already had a chalkboard on the right side our dining room, we decided having a chalkboard and a painted chalk board wall was just too much. So we recently decided to ditch the chalkboard and we redid this wall, which I am totally loving! I just have to take some pics and show you what we did in here…

A note about chalk board paint:

I did a lot of research about chalk board painted walls, and how you are supposed to “condition” them before use, and clean them afterwards. There was a lot of different information out there, but I met a friendly blogger named Kristin who worked at a coffeehouse and regularly had to clean the black boards. She changed my entire school of thought on the subject. It’s simple: if you want to keep your chalk board black and clean (not hazy with eraser swirls) simply wet a towel (wet enough so it’s soaked through but not dripping) wipe over chalk and let air dry. She recommended a chamois, but a wet towel worked just fine for me. And I didn’t condition the painted chalk board wall either! (Conditioning is when you rub the entire surface with the side of the chalk before you start using it, thus creating instant haze). And for those of you worrying about the dust, I used dust-free chalk and there was hardly any mess at all.

.     .     .     .     .

I took a bunch of pictures before and after the drywall installation, how we built out the wall around the sides of the fireplace opening, the mantel before I painted it and stained it, and how it all came together. Since this was such a big post, I’ll share all the before’s and during's in my next post. Plus I will also share the changes on our dining room wall. Whew! Stay tuned!

I’m joining Jennifer Rizzo’s “Refreshing our Rooms” Party:

Hope you’ll join me over there!