Shortly after we moved to Cottonwood Row we noticed how dark the family room was during the day. The farmhouse has a 10 foot deep back porch running the length of the home. That is great for shade in the summer but it doesn't really help with keeping the living spaces bright and airy.
The family room was built with golden oak bookshelves and deep red paint on the walls. It was warm but very dark and dated. I'm sure this worked for the previous owners but our TV wouldn't even fit in the little cubby in the shelves (which was left unpainted).
The fireplace tiles were a bit... odd. I called them fruit loop tiles as they were a variety of shades - blue, green, yellow, red. Not our taste at all. The fireplace was only as tall as the cabinets on either side, which didn't allow a mantel for decorating. It was only 3 1/2 feet tall and looked like something stuck in an office and not a home.
The last issue - yes there were many - was the height of the bookshelves made the ceiling feel short. Here are a couple of before photos of the room. I can hardly remember it looking like that!
So I decided to change it. Or rather, Farmer D and I worked to change it. We waited all of 1 month after moving in before we started to dismantle it.
To combat the low ceiling we took the shelving all the way to the ceiling. To do this Farmer D had to build new boxes with Oak plywood to match the grain of the existing cabinets. I planned to paint them a creamy white to match the trim in the room so we didn't need to worry about matching the stain.
Another problem presented itself. The firebox was not set back into the wall so when exposed after pulling down the shelf unit, the top of the fireplace was over 2 feet deep.
To correct this, and so our tv was not tucked back from the shelving, Farmer D built out a false wall to hang the TV on. The allowed the shelves to look recessed and the mantle to have a normal depth. We also raised the height of the mantle so it would look more like a traditional fireplace.
In this next photo we've primed the wall to the left to remove the red paint and the room already looked so much brighter, even at night! The cabinet doors are off as I was busy painting them.
The next phase was to add the trim, paint and get the mantle and fireplace tiles installed. I'll spare you the messy house photos and show the after. Farmer D couldn't wait to get a TV hung! Please ignore the cable hanging down - we've since routed the DVD player cables.
A comparison before and after what a difference!
Here is a side by side of the fireplace improvement and the dangling cables on the DVD player, again.
I hope you enjoyed this project. It was pretty big and made such an improvement to the feel of the farm house. Though it took about 3 months to complete (we were also doing the kitchen update at the same time) it was well worth living with the mess!
The family room was built with golden oak bookshelves and deep red paint on the walls. It was warm but very dark and dated. I'm sure this worked for the previous owners but our TV wouldn't even fit in the little cubby in the shelves (which was left unpainted).
The fireplace tiles were a bit... odd. I called them fruit loop tiles as they were a variety of shades - blue, green, yellow, red. Not our taste at all. The fireplace was only as tall as the cabinets on either side, which didn't allow a mantel for decorating. It was only 3 1/2 feet tall and looked like something stuck in an office and not a home.
The last issue - yes there were many - was the height of the bookshelves made the ceiling feel short. Here are a couple of before photos of the room. I can hardly remember it looking like that!
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| Dark and dated with colorful tiles! |
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| Seriously - multi-colored tile. |
So I decided to change it. Or rather, Farmer D and I worked to change it. We waited all of 1 month after moving in before we started to dismantle it.
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| All the upper cabinets were removed in order to build up the new fireplace surround and change the shelving. |
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| I had the fun of removing the lovely tiles. Very satisfying! |
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| Placing the new shelving boxes on the right side. |
To correct this, and so our tv was not tucked back from the shelving, Farmer D built out a false wall to hang the TV on. The allowed the shelves to look recessed and the mantle to have a normal depth. We also raised the height of the mantle so it would look more like a traditional fireplace.
In this next photo we've primed the wall to the left to remove the red paint and the room already looked so much brighter, even at night! The cabinet doors are off as I was busy painting them.
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| Getting there! Fireplace height raise, false wall in place with connections for the TV. |
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| AH! Much better! |
A comparison before and after what a difference!
Here is a side by side of the fireplace improvement and the dangling cables on the DVD player, again. 