I have just broken the golden rule of DIY projects/blogging. I lost the before pictures of a really big project. I sat down to write/edit/format/post the remodel of my parents den. As I went to edit the pictures I realized I was missing an SD card and the before pictures were not on my computer. In the span of 1.5 hours I have turned my house inside out and upside down trying to find these pictures! And in the end I sat down with a bowl of ice cream and wallowed in my sorrows.

The dramatic change of this room is unbelievable and I wish you could see the before and after for yourself. Instead you are going to have to use your imagination on the before part. Picture a dark room with fabulous wood paneling and a berber carpet. Everything about the room screams “I love wood”. There was a wood plank ceiling, wood paneling, and all the trim and molding was stained the same color.

Then layer in a rustic wood burning fireplace 2 deer heads, 4 “flying” ducks and some brass hardware. It was a very dark and manly room. The only source of natural light was the glass door to the deck and any light that poured in from the kitchen. But the room was great for napping, since a solid wood door also closed off the entrance to the deck.

The den was the family room. Where we watched TV, road out hurricanes, and spent the majority of our time growing up. It housed the gun cabinet and mom gave each of the deer bow ties to wear, when we decorated for Christmas. The wood burning stove was awesome to build a fire with in the winter. It would heat the whole house and kept it toasty!

The renovation of the den started the day after Christmas, this past year. All of the Christmas decorations were quickly taken down and put back in the attic. Then we started removing baseboards and the carpet. It was kind of fun. By the end of the day all of the baseboards were gone and hauled to the dump.

Next all of the paneling was removed. There was no sheet rock behind the paneling, so new sheet rock had to be installed, mudded and sanded.

Then the walls were painted before applying the board and batten detail. The top of the board and batten was even with the top of the fireplace mantel, about 5 feet tall. The wall space above the 5’ mark was painted Du Jour, a white Valspar Color, and everything below the 5’ mark was painted Indecision, a brown/gray Olympic Color (which is the same color I used in my living room, here). Here’s a picture of the progress:

My parents pre-painted the battens before securing them to the wall. But, after filling all the nail holes and calking the molding, one last coat of painted was needed. My parents ended up getting a nail gun for the drywall and molding installation. It definitely was a huge time saver. White crown molding went up next to the wood plank ceiling (the ceiling wasn’t changed for the renovation.) After all of the walls were completed, new doors were installed, leading out to the deck (Fiberglass door and glass storm door). Finally new carpet was installed. The fireplace didn’t change too much. The brass detail was changed to a pewter/silver color and the mantel went from stained wood to painted gray.

Here are the after pictures I have of the new room.

The transformation of the room is very nice. I wish we had done this sooner back when I was living at home!