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Living & Family Room Makeover

This is a great project, my client would like to make over 2 adjoining rooms, a living and family room. The house was built in the 1970’s and when I first saw it, still had the original mouldings from the builder…..very small, uninteresting and minimal.
Nonetheless, the house has some nice features to build on. It has large rooms, a fireplace, a large bay window, and a wide opening between the two rooms.

Before & After Photos

This outdated and monolithic brick facade will be removed and replaced with built-in cabinetry
Clean lines and rich detail combine to make this cabinetry the focal point of the room.
A large bay window, 12' wide, It looks pretty stark now but it has great possibilities.
The bay window now has a window seat with trunk storage, and is finished with recessed panels, fluted pilasters, a ceiling panel, and nicely proportioned mouldings. Existing baseboard heat is vented out the top of the seat in front of the window.
One of the walls in the living room which will receive paneled wainscot.
This is a long wall running 24', most of it has baseboard heat which will be concealed behind the wainscot panel, the heat will vent out the front of the panel.
This is the common wall between the Family room and the Living room. A nice blank canvas to start with.
2 paneled columns tie in nicely with the wainscot and frame the opening. Now the two rooms flow together.

Wainscot and Mouldings

Most of my projects begin by meeting my clients in their home, discussing their wishes and measuring and photographing the the space. Then I draw the space to scale in CAD and begin the design process. Scale drawings are made and when the project is approved I use these drawings to make shop drawings which will enable it all to be fabricated. This is the plan for the work in the Living room. The cabinetry plans for the work at the fireplace in the Family room are involved and need their own drawing.
When making work for odd shaped spaces such as the bay window area I make a template, it is risky to use measurements only for this kind of work. This template was made on site and each piece was fitted and assembled in place against the walls. There is no doubt that it is accurate.
From my shop drawings I assemble all the wainscot panels. Here is the start, the basic frame for one of the panels.
These wainscot panels have recessed panels. Each panel is inset 3/4" and has a moulding fitted into it that makes the transition beautiful.
Here is one of the panels assembled and ready for primer. this panel will conceal some baseboard heat and has vents on the front.
This project has many parts, all are made in my shop, and primed before delivery and installation.
All loaded up and ready to go!
I began the installation with the window seat, and the trim detail for the bay window.
Lots of storage.
Some of the details in the bay window include beautiful ceiling moulding.
Here are some of the moulding details used in the columns and wainscot paneling.

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