Interior designer Nan Sloan of Sloan & Associates Design re-creates the breakfast area of a modernized 1920s farmhouse to fit its original era. She meets with Joan Steffend, host of HGTV's Decorating Cents, to redo the entire room for less than $500. White walls and a northern exposure gave the breakfast room of this 1920s farmhouse a cold, uninviting feeling. The homeowners wanted to re-create a warm, country feeling in their 70-year-old home, inspired by the aged look of an antique dry sink with peeling paint (figure A). Deep barn-red paint dramatically warms the walls, and white crackle-glazed bead-board wainscoting lightens the room and offsets the red walls. Painting and crackle glazing are both simple and inexpensive do-it-yourself projects. The dining room set was made over with the chairs and table base painted white and an antique wagon wheel for a new tabletop. The hub of the wagon wheel was sawed off to make a level surface and topped with a round of glass that extends 4" from the edge of the wheel (figure B). Inexpensive tab-topped curtain valances, with rubber-stamped fruit motifs in red and yellow, hang from scrap-metal welded-iron curtain rods (figure C). This simple window treatment is pretty and decorative, frames the great view and lets in lots of natural light. Accessories including brightly colored oversized roosters, two inexpensive fruit-motif prints framed in white and colorful chair pads and place mats at the dining table complete the country farmhouse theme. Crackle-Glazed Wainscot Panels Get the weathered look of peeling paint with a crackle finish applied to wainscot panels. Materials:
Wainscot panels
Crackle undercoat
Paintbrush
White latex interior paint
Paint tray and roller
Drop cloth
Hammer
Finishing nails
Chair rail to use as wainscot cap
Interior designer Nan Sloan recommends buying an extra wainscot panel to use as a sample board for practice and experimentation (figure D). After experimenting on her sample board, she decided to apply the white crackle glaze right to the wood, without an undercoat of red paint. - Protect your work surface with a drop cloth.
- Place the first wainscot panel face up on a level work surface.
- Brush the crackle undercoat evenly on the wainscot panel (figure E). Let the undercoat dry for 1 to 4 hours but not overnight.
- Load the paint roller with paint, and very slowly roll one heavy layer of paint onto the crackle-undercoated panel (figure F). The undercoated panel can't be repainted -- all the paint has to go on in one application for the crackle effect to work. As the paint dries, the crackle effect takes place (figure G).
- To install the wainscot panels, set in place and attach to the wall with small finishing nails (figure H).
- Use a chair rail as a wainscot cap. Hold it in place at the top of the wainscot panels, and tack to the wall with finishing nails (figure I).
Itemized Design Elements Paint, 1 gallon barn red for upper half of walls ($22)
Wainscot panels, eight at $6 each($48)
Wainscot cap (chair rail)($17)
Crackle paint, white paint, primer, 1 gallon each($67)
Wagon wheel($10)
Glass top to fit wagon wheel($128)
Tab-top muslin valances, three at $16 each, to be hand-stamped ($48)
Old dry sink($85)
Fruit prints, two at $9 each($18)
Miscellaneous accessories ($55)
Total cost of makeover:$498
RESOURCES :
Nan Sloan, Interior Designer
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