photo shoot

Update 2/6/2012 - welcome YHL readers!  Sources for items in these photos and additional information on the room can be found here.  Thanks for visiting!

This weekend, among other projects, I decided to tackle a contest entry that we've been meaning to do for awhile. This particular project category is a bedroom makeover, and since it's for an old house publication, and this is certainly an old house (134 years and counting), we thought it might fit the bill. This room has a lot of the components that they are looking for - a pretty incredible "before" story (think pigeon droppings...and well, the pigeon remains too...as well as a rotted floor, masonry walls with joints you could see daylight through, plywood in lieu of windows and a decrepit winding stair about two feet wide as the only access. Not only did we clean up, restore and replace the few features the attic had going for it, we took the modern day requirements for making the house livable (like a zoned furnace, hidden ductwork, and new plumbing) and created an enormous amount of custom built-ins to accommodate and disguise them. We reused material that we salvaged from the one existing wall, and we relocated an extra mantel from the kitchen down below. The entire front mansard roof was rebuilt on the inside and the outside, creating the great dormer window, sloped front wall, and activity ledge in the room that gives the space its character. Throw in a custom mural, some hand painted and glazed tiles, a plethora of colorful books and a kid that is always making her own personal mark on the space, and we think it's a great bedroom - prizes or no prizes.

But prizes are fun, so we spent the weekend cleaning, touching up caulk and paint and removing a lot of the "extra" stuff in the room so that we could photograph the space to its best advantage. This is the first go-around on the pictures. I'm going to shoot some more with the morning northern light tomorrow, and we'll work on the light levels a bit more in photoshop. But as a test run, these aren't too bad. Now we just need to figure out how to narrow it down to only four, plus a 1400 word essay on the project. I can handle the writing part - this room has a great story to tell - but the photo picking is tricky. E and I had a great time today staging them though, and I personally like the ones with her in them the best. Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below.

If you haven't seen the entire project from start to finish you can find the photos of this room and the rest of the house by clicking on the category "rehab slide shows" on the right. I'm putting a few before shots below as the cliff notes version.

The wall that now has the wardrobes and window seat.

The new mansard roof / sloped wall in the room.

Wardrobe installation.

Salvaged pine boards are installed on the back of the sloped wall.

Final woodwork is complete and ready for paint.

Beadboard and decorative beam covers are installed at the ceiling and painting is complete.

Wardrobe painting in progress.

New flooring goes down.