Say hi to Meatball. Meaty, for short. His physique matches his name more perfectly than anyone I know. This handsome dude welcomed us into his house for a few days to change up the look of his owners’ living room, kitchen, dining room, and foyer.
We really enjoyed choosing all of the beautiful items to refresh this house, but even more fun than that… we got to do some demo!!! Here’s how it all started…
During our initial consultation, we noticed that the main focal point of the open floor plan was really lackluster. It was painted a dark teal accent color and had some outdated built-ins where the TV was plopped at an angle. Not ideal.
I could tell by the look in JJ’s eyes that her wheels were turning. She played it cool in front of the client, asking questions like “how attached are you to this setup?” And, “how would you feel about moving the TV to a different location?” The owners were fabulous and flexible about anything we wanted to do. (Ideal clients!!!!!) They told us to do whatever we thought would look best!
We didn’t even make it out of the driveway before she informed me that we were going to completely remove the built-ins, add some floating shelves, paint the accent wall, create a plank wood wall surrounding the fireplace, and rewire the TV to go above the mantle. You guys. Her brain. I can’t explain it. I don’t even know how she sees these things so clearly at first glance! I, personally, need to mull over things for a time. I need to look at several options before I’m content. And yet, JJ knew at first glance exactly what would happen. That’s why we pay her the big bucks!
So, naturally I started talking about who we could contract out to do the demo. But no, she had other thoughts about that, too. I thought she had lost her ever-loving mind when she told me we were going to do it ourselves! After all, we are professional decorators, not general contractors! BUT- here’s the thing. We are actually pretty handy chicks! Neither of us will shy away from a good DIY project and we are both very comfortable around power tools. So, we did our research and away we went!
I walked in on demo day feeling very Chip Gaines-ish with excitement! It was no surprise that I found my partner already at the top of a ladder with a sledgehammer and crowbar ready to go!
We got a workout for sure because this unit was well made and well attached! That sucker was not. going. anywhere. We took turns taking out our aggression on it. One of the shelves was particularly stubborn. We slammed it with the sledgehammer. We did pull-ups in unison from it. At one point I even climbed in and tried to push it down. (Please note that I was later reprimanded by my husband for not taking proper safety precautions. Next time I will wear a helmet.) Eventually we got it!!
Then, we got to work painting, installing the wood plank wall, repairing the necessary damage we had done to the wall behind the built-ins and preparing to hang the floating shelves.
Speaking of the floating shelves… even professionals make mistakes!! We had measured these beauties to fit the space between the walls while the built-ins were still intact. It wasn’t until they were removed that we realized there were false walls inside it that we didn’t account for. Luckily the vendor for those was quick to ship the new, larger shelves!
We were so pleased with the end result. The owners loved it and told us their teenage daughter said it felt like Christmas when she saw it all complete! What a compliment!! You can see more pics in our portfolio, but here’s how it all turned out:
HUGE shout out to JJ’s cousin Wayne for coming to our rescue!! Wayne is an incredibly talented handy man, and we would not have been able to pull this off without his help!
xoxo
Sarah
