Virginia Media Room
The project begins... Wires everywhere.
Mounting the heavy duty TV bracket to the wall studs.
TV and speakers are mounted to the wall, and the wires have been run through and around the perimeter of the room near the ceiling. I'm ready to start installing the crown moulding!
And here I go!
Putting up the crown moulding with my handy dandy nail gun.
Wires? What wires? Now to paint, replace the drapes, replace the carpet, etc., etc... Fun!
So this is where things got challenging. Once the room was wired for sound/video and the wiring was tucked away behind the crown moulding... I had no idea how to design the space. It was a room with beige carpet, white walls, old white drapes, and an orange/red brick fireplace. Since painting the fireplace was out of the question, I was kind of at a loss as to how to proceed. Also, I wanted the design to have meaning to my client--cowboys, Indians, Colorado, etc. How to tie all of that together with an orange/red & beige color scheme--and ALSO have it look good? That was a tough one. The one positive was that the existing cabinetry was beautifully crafted, and was a classic design. I could work with that.
Then a few days later I went to J. Crew, and saw this box for Chippewa brand boots--and it all started to come together in my brain. Now... if only they had a version of this box like 4' x 5'--that would be a great "graphic art" starting point.
So, I bought the boots, took the box home, used my new camera to take an ultra high definition pic. I then took that file to Kinkos, and they enlarged it to a 4' x 5' print--for relatively cheap. Then to Michael's to frame the new print--and they were having a 60% off sale on all mounting/framing. Good luck, I guess!
Also found a store to replace the gold fireplace surround, as well as all of the switch plates, outlet covers, gold doorknobs, and hinges. And got to work changing them out while also painting away...
I chose the darkest chocolate brown paint for the front wall. First, because matching that paint color to the very darkest elements in the grain of the walnut console to be placed in front of that wall made for a striking contrast. And second, because having a dark wall for the plasma TV makes the image "pop" that much more when viewing it.
And there's the framed print, looking better than I had hoped. I used an "oilify" setting on my photo editing program to make it look like an oil painting.
In addition to painting, I also busied myself changing doorknobs and hinges, adding dimmer switches, swapping out switchplates, reconnecting the speakers, and connecting all of the A/V components. Suffice to say, it took a while to get it all done.
Very high quality Audio/Video components, hand selected by me. :)
But I am very pleased with the finished product!
The piece that inspired the room design.
There's the new iron fireplace surround--much better for this room than the gold one that it replaced!
An actual antique family photo album I found while cleaning up the bookcases prior to starting the project. Very cool!
Cowboy and Indian...
...LOL I knew I could make it work!
Done! And ready to enjoy a glass of wine and a movie by the fire. :)