How To Make A Panelled Wall

I've had a few folks ask how we made the panelled wall in our master bedroom so here's a video tutorial for you all! This is one project I highly recommend... it was fairly easy to do, required only a few tools, and really made a huge impact.

We learned a few things while doing this project:

Show your space who's boss!

Before we started, we had a bit of an obstacleto deal with. The bump-out on the wall limited placement of the bed. The easy solution would have been to put the bed on the opposite wall but I really wanted to see the bed when you came in the room; it just visually would look better. So we decided to frame out the wall and make it flat. To avoid having to deal with matching the seams of the existing wall and the new walls to either side, we built the new wall in front of the old bump-out. That meant we lost 4 inches from the room but it was a much easier way to go about it. Lesson learned: don't be limited by the layout. Think creatively and find a way around it!

Sleep on it.

Just like we did when we were deciding on the size of the new laundry room, we wanted to visualize the design before we committed to it. So we drew our pattern on the wall and 'lived with it' for a few days. This gave us a chance to see if we liked the pattern, if we wanted to make it more of a regular grid pattern, if we wanted more or fewer strips. We did make some changes (like adding the platforms on which the bedside swing arm lamps sit) so sleeping on it for a bit helped us come up with a better design.

If any of you decide to make a panelled wall of your own, do send me pics. I'd love to see your handiwork!

Lessons Learned: The Bathroom

With the bathroom renovation almost done, its time to reflect on some of our Lessons Learned. There’s not much I would have done differently with this project as all in all it went fairly smoothly. But here are some tips which you may find useful in planning your own bathroom renovation:

Space planning is key. The more rooms we renovate, the more important I find this aspect to be. With renovating, its very easy to get caught up in the décor and frills, but really, all the luxe fabrics and stellar finishings in the world can’t cover up a poorly planned space. Focus on function first. Think about traffic flow, sightlines, efficient use of the space. How can you lay out a space to make it feel bigger? How can you make it feel open and airy without resorting to taking out a wall? What do you want to stand out in a space (the awesome view out the window?) and what do you want to hide and minimize (the toilet?)? The answer to these questions can greatly impact the design and layout.

For our bathroom, I wanted it to feel light and open. This meant emphasizing the window; using open-legged furniture; not ‘blocking’ the view from the entry door; and keeping to a simple, clean cohesive palette. We tucked the toilet in the back corner, and put glass above the half-wall so light bounces around the room. We’re also putting in a half frosted door so light spills from the bathroom out into the hallway.

Don’t be afraid to bring in the pros. HandyMan and I are DIYers, always eager to tackle things on our own. But for this job, I’m glad we called in the pros. Yes, we were motivated by a tight timeline, but even we had to admit there were things in the room that even we had no idea how to do. The plumbing was a bit tricky and installation of the new dual-flush toilet was a pain in the butt. We’ve never installed a tub or hooked up a tub drain either. We even had a tile guy do the floor – the room wasn’t square, we were dealing with expensive large marble and basketweave tiles requiring lots of cutting – so yeah, best to get the pro in!

Tile design is harder than the installation. Even though HandyMan has tiled bathrooms, entryways, kitchen floors, and walls before, we approached this tiling job much more differently. Because we were using a very simple white subway tile, the challenge was to keep it interesting. I learned from the pros that mixing sizes, shapes, and a little bit of colour would do the trick. We spent time putting together a mockup board. We figured out the tile carpet design (again, another key feature in the space) and wall tile options. In the end, I think we ended up with something much more thought out, interesting, in keeping with the period look, but still simple.

One other thing to think about before you grab that first piece of tile: determine your starting point. For us, it was the tile that sat right above the tub. We wanted it to be a full piece of tile (we didn’t want any rough cut and possibly uneven edges visible right from the door) so that determined where our rows fell horizontally around the room. To space things vertically, HandyMan took a bit of trial and error to make sure we didn’t ended up with small slivers of tile at the corners. Because this first row of tile determined all the rows around the whole room, it was important to get it right! Funnily enough, we ended up with a problem where the wall tile meets the floor tile – we planned for just one 1/2x6 grey strip atop a 6x8 tile, but that left a whole 1.5” gap to fill. We solved it by adding two additional rows of 1/2x6 white strips… using the white instead of grey kept the bottom from feeling too heavy, and provided a nice change in texture. With tiling, sometimes you have to plan on the fly!

Not everything is a showstopper. This is especially true in a small space. Pick a few highlights and spend money on them! For us, this was the window and the floor. So we tore out the old ledge from the window and replaced the trim. We’re also going to prettify it with a new roman blind. For the floor, we splurged on marble tile and marble basketweave. They’re sure to grab your attention now!

And that’s the bathroom in a nutshell. It’s a small space where so many things can go wrong and small changes can have a big impact so take the time to plan and end up with the bathroom of your dreams :)

Lessons Learned

The appliance installer is in today to move the gas line for the stove and install the microwave and dishwasher. As we sit here almost at the finish line, I’m pretty surprised actually at how much of this reno we were able to do on our own. All it took was a little bit of effort, some Googling, and leaps of faith. I’ll admit that I’m the one in the relationship to say “Call in the professionals!” at the first sign of trouble, but HandyMan is a bit more adventurous and we’ve benefited from that. Despite previous renovation experience, there was a whole bunch of things that we tackled for the first time. If you’re contemplating going DIY on some of your own kitchen renos, here’s some of my thoughts on what can be easily attempted:

- kitchen planning: yes, you’ll want to sit down with a professional who can help you determine what size of cabinets you need, finishes, and optimal placement, but there are many things only you can figure out. Like how many small appliances you have, which ones do you want readily accessible, and where ideally in the layout would you like them. Do you want an abundance of deep pot drawers or open shelves? Would you rather have more room for a wide fridge, or a double-bowl sink? Do you want extra drawers so you can store your fine china that’s currently sitting in the dining room hutch? Think about view lines too... are there any rooms that look into the kitchen? What will be the view with the new layout? How do you enter the kitchen typically – side door? Hallway? What do you want to see as a first impression? Taking the extra time to really think about how you live and how you will use the space really makes for a better design in the end. Kitchen designers can design what you ask them to... but if you don’t have a clear understanding of what your needs or wants are and don’t articulate them, then you can end up with a design that is good but not tailored to you specifically.
- demolition: it’s a tough job physically but one of the best places to save some money. Don’t be afraid to do it yourself. Best tip: use a tarp zipper (available at Home Depot) to help contain the dust.
- tiling: with a little know how, laying the floor tile is not a difficult job. You’ll need to ensure your subfloor is even, and decide on whether you want any sort of underlayment first (we used Ditra) But picking your tile, asking the pros what type of mortar and trowel to use, and doing the laying is a job a novice can do. Same goes for the backsplash. It’s a fairly easy job if you take the time and use the proper tools.
- door and window trims: Chances are you’ve bought some pre-made trim at your local big box home supply store. However, if you venture out to your local lumberyard, you’ll probably find more intriguing options. We didn’t know what backband was until we visited our lumber store. Now, we have much more substantial and attractive trims in the kitchen that are in keeping with the rest of the house. All it took was looking at places out of our norm for supply.
- plumbing: surprised? I am too. HandyMan had experience with small plumbing jobs like changing washers and such but for this reno, he added shut-off valves, extended and connected the water supply line for the fridge, and installed the faucet. As he put it, “I’ll try it myself because the worst that can happen is I get wet”. And wet he got... but all is good now ;)

There’s a few things I would let the pros handle:
- drywall: this may look easy but I think it’s a surprisingly hard skill to learn. The boards are heavy to lift, taping and mudding is messy and it takes a real experienced hand to patch seams so they’re invisible. I’ve wasted buckets of drywall compound trying and trying to get small patches just right.
- electrical: call me crazy, but I think anything that can kill you is best left to someone who knows what they are doing

So those are just my thoughts. If we had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t change a thing. I would still bring in the pros where we did and DIY where we did. Now if I could only hire a pro to show me how to cook like a Michelin-starred chef in my fancy new kitchen...