PARLOR
Day 1
The plaster in this room is the worst than anywhere else in the house. We believe that this room was actually the original kitchen. There is plumbing that runs to it, so that makes sense. The amount of remodeling that was done in this room, over a 100 year period, made the walls look terrible. People just patched over patches and spackled haphazardly.
You can see what the plaster in this room looks like in the below photo.
A ton of the original plaster is crumbling at the base boards, probably because the baseboards were installed with carpenter nails and a hammer. This, along with neglect, caused all of the plaster to shatter.
The only way to fix this without removing all of the plaster is to skim coat the entire room, including the ceiling. In the end, all of the walls & ceiling will be perfectly smooth.
The first step is to patch all of the holes and remove all of the broken plaster pieces. Then, I mix drywall compound and water making it the consistency of a milkshake you could drink through a straw. I use a 14" drywall knife for most of it which allows the mud to go on smooth and thin. After it dries I scrape any raised lines that were created from the drywall knife. I then mix another batch of mud and water and reapply.
I also have to replace all of the broken plaster with new pieces of drywall. Luckily most of this broken area will be behind the 11" baseboards, but drywall still needs to be installed so the baseboards remain flush to the wall.
At this point the wall is 85% smooth. After it dries, a light sanding will be needed. After the sanding it will be easy to see where the inconsistencies are and I can quickly fill any areas with mud that need it.
This original window looks bad, but is actually in great working condition. The rope and pulley mechanism works great, but it has a lot of wear and tear on the molding. I got the hardware off after a lot of scraping. Usually I like to use the original hardware, but in this case it's just too far gone, so I will replace it all with new brass pieces. I continued to scrape and sand getting it as smooth as possible before paint.
After the first coat of new paint it was easy to see what still needed fixing. I used wood putty where it was needed then I sanded it again. Lastly I got the final coat of paint on, attached the new brass lock and pull and replaced the electric outlet. The window looks great and opens and locks easily.
PAINT - WALLS
BENJAMIN MOORE
Millstone Gray - Regal Flat Finish
This color is part of the Classic Color Collection. We wanted a gray that flowed well with the green in the Library and the wood tones in the Florida Room. Since there aren't any doors separating the rooms and the only way to get to the Parlor is through one of them, it was important that the colors flowed together while still standing independently of each other.
PAINT - TRIM
SHERWIN WILLIAMS
Greenblack - Satin Finish
We repainted all of the windows, doors and trim, along with the bar this beautiful black from Sherwin Williams. It also matches any of the other painted molding in the house.
The next step was to scrape the old paint off the other windows, sand and paint. I also wanted to make the skylight one of the focal points of the room, so instead of the original white, I painted it to match the windows. It's also easier to see inconsistencies after the paint goes on, so some minor fixes were needed.
I've got some minor details to finish up and electrical outlets to change out, but the room is really starting to come together.
Rug and decor is needed to finish off the room, but Phase 1 is pretty much complete.
