I can’t believe it was just a few weeks ago I was working in this gorgeous home, surrounded by some of the nicest things I’ve ever seen, including a personal favorite, central air. As I write this now I am continually being swarmed by ants and mosquitos, surrounded by tools in a house with no running water, no toilet, no tub, no sink, and nowhere to sit except the very chair I am sitting on. So you can see why it seems like a distant dream. A dream that I am very happy to sink into.
We knew this was going to be a great job when we walked in and were greeted with lemon squares, crumb cake and freshly pressed coffee. Future clients, take note. Kristian (names have not been changed to protect the fabulous) has spectacular taste, so his house already looked amazing, but we needed to bring in some warmth and texture to soften up the new construction-ness of it. The whole place is open and clean and filled with light, so we knew it was going to look great, but we didn’t know it was going to look THIS great.
We used wood from Lowe’s, and washed it with Farrow & Ball’s Cornforth White. (0kay, okay, we just color matched a sample of the color. Sue me.) A few days of cutting and nailing and sanding and caulking and touching up and voila! Best darn looking living room north of Spring Garden.
It just goes to show that shiplap, like baked goods, makes everything a little bit better.
Beautiful !!! I can see why you are so happy. Job Well Done!!
perfection. seriously.
I love your work! Beautiful simplicity.
Aww thanks so much, everyone!
This shiplap is beautifully done. Any tips on whitewashing technique?
Thanks, Clint! Hmm let’s see, the best tip we can offer is this: before you start, test, test, TEST! Make sure you nail down the perfect color and perfect paint-to-water ratio for your particular project, since you won’t be able to redo it. You could obviously just paint over it if you weren’t happy, but you’ll have trouble altering a washed look after the fact, you know? If it’s in a high-traffic area, you might want to seal it with a matte polyurethane a couple days later–Varathane’s is so flat you barely see it, but again test it out first! And with whitewashing, you need to know that knots will show through over time. Plus, if you’re whitewashing pine, it’ll have a tendency to go a little pink over time as well.
Hope that helps!