Interior renos

We had a bit of a crazy summer so I'm way behind in posting progress. This summer, after the kitchen, we tackled the ceiling and painting. We are still desperately in need of art but we will get to that next year. 

We sourced the v-groove pine from the Home Hardware building centre in Westport. Those guys are great. I was told I would have to live with random lengths (which is only fair) but when it arrived I had a nice selection of mostly 12-16 foot boards. Pulling down the ceiling was a messy job - shingle residue everywhere and about a million staples and small nails. 

We were a bit torn on which way to run the ceiling. Our natural inclination was to have the ceiling run parallel to the floor. The concern was that the kitchen dining room area is already extremely long and fairly narrow and we were worried we would get a bowling alley effect. Also the furring for the previous ceiling ran in a way that to do it the other way would have required completely re-furring the ceiling...

The before shots...

The after shots...

Benjamin Moore Cloud White on the walls.

Notice the hutch is now a sideboard. Opens the space up nicely. Also, painting out the trim around the windows and removing the blinds opened the space visually. You now focus on the lake, not the window...

Munch in a rare at rest moment

We were at a bit of a loss to come up with a way to light the bedrooms. We decided the best visually would be ceiling fans. We like the look but more importantly it allows us to control airflow. Cross ventilation is pretty good already but the fans help when there's no wind (pretty rare on Crosby lake) but in the spring and fall the fans really help move the air around when heating with the wood stove. 

Before... 

After...

Our neighbour Dawn came up with the great idea of taking the upper portion of the hutch that came to the cottage as a bookshelf in the second bedroom. Sheila painted the both portions using Benjamin Moore Aura self priming paint.