Four and a half years in the making

Since we moved into our house almost 5 years ago we have wanted to lighten up the house. Anyone that has been in our house has noticed the wonderful railroad ties that have adorned the entry way, kitchen and completely enclosed the main room in our house. At first, we tried working with what we had and went for a bold look with a dark teal wall color in the main room and pretty much left the kitchen alone, wallpaper and gold-flecked popcorn ceiling and all. Both rooms are large but are separated by a large built in bookshelf with the same hideous railroad tie finish. Here is what we are working with...

Brian showing off the lovely wallpaper

View of our kitchen...don't mind the mess, we live here

Here's the view of the main room...don't you love those railroad ties?

We have enjoyed the size of the kitchen because it has allowed us to host several parties and holiday dinners, however there is very little counter space and we've had to bring in a fold up table every time we made meals with more than a couple of ingredients. Sara has dreamed of a large kitchen island for years, but we knew that before we could install something we would need to figure out what to do with the bookshelf room divider. 

Lot of space....little countertops

Another view...look at that trim :)

The first thing to come down was the wallpaper. We hate wallpaper and will never put the stuff up in our house, however if you need to get it down, the best trick is to spray some vinegar and water (1/2 and 1/2) on the paper and it comes right off (Thanks Pinterest!). Now for all the railroad ties. After our first run with the railroad ties in our front room entryway, we knew the beams weren't too heavy and we could take down the ones in between the kitchen and main room. It's kind of like a reverse jigsaw puzzle because they are wedged in pretty tight and have more nails in them than necessary, so you have to find the best place to start and work you're way back. This took quite a while because we had to disassemble the bookshelf so we could save some of the wood for another project (which we'll reveal on a later post). It came down pretty fast and without too much damage.

Look at how open it is now!

I'm pretty sure that Brian thought that I would be happy with just getting this piece done, but since it was my birthday weekend we decided to go for it and take down all of the beams in the main room (Best Birthday Present Ever!). Check out the main room now...

I already love it!

Oh yeah, did I mention we scraped the popcorn ceiling?

It's a little hard to see the difference between the before and afters right now because we quickly discovered that the previous owners had dark wood paneling behind the walls that they decided to cover with drywall and then add the railroad ties. But one of my favorite updates is that we scraped all of the gold sparkly popcorn ceiling off in both the kitchen and main room. It was super dusty and tiring, but well worth it!

We have so much more work to do, including lots of drywall and painting, but at least the demo is done. I can't wait to show off our progress over the next few weeks. A huge thank you to Sara's parents for letting us borrow their truck and tools while they are lounging in Maui this week (so jealous). And another big thank you to these two handsome men for making this birthday weekend one to remember...

Safety is important...even for the little ones :)

Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila