It’s happening! The framed out TV wall is finally receiving some much needed attention. We have purposefully left this portion of wall open for two reasons:
1) At first, we thought it would be cool to add a motorized pulley system within the wall to raise / lower artwork to reveal / hide the TV. But the more I thought about it the more that plan started to feel forced. Like we were trying too hard to do something different just for the sake of doing something different. I wasn’t convinced it was the right choice – even though it was cool – and wondered how the wall would look when the TV was on with the artwork hovering above. Odd. That’s how I thought it would look. We left the wall the way it was while we finalized plans.
2) We recently discovered a minor leak around the chimney and wanted to resolve it before closing up the wall. It turns out, the flashing around the chimney wasn’t installed properly. Luckily, the roof is under warranty so the repair was easy and “free” on our end.
With all lights “go!”, we chose to install horizontal tongue and groove planks. They are the same planks we used on the vaulted ceiling. {For locals, we bought the pine tongue and groove at Home Emporium in Cincinnati.} We debated whether to continue the planking around the sides of the wall or to use trim instead. As you can see, we opted to wrap the wall with tongue and groove. It feels more cohesive, more custom. Don’t mind the bottom plank on the side…it’s a placeholder until HH devises a plan for the boob speakers under the TV. Eventually, it will be cut to size. As is, we can slide out the bottom plank below the TV while HH brainstorms. The plan is to add minimal trim to the outside corners and around the TV cutout. Then we have to shellac those pine knots, prime and paint.
We were really hoping to knock out the plank installation this past weekend but we ran out of tongue and groove. With this being a holiday week, we’re not sure when we’ll be able to slip out for more supplies but at least it’s a start. Sometimes that’s the hardest part for us. The starting.
Even though it’s far from finished, I’m just happy to have progressed from stained red brick + cinder block wall to fresh white brick + planked wall. No more “NO FOAM!” yelling at us while we watch TV. I’ll take it.
I’m looking forward to having a legit mantel to decorate for the holidays this year. It’s going to be so much fun! Can’t you just picture a live Christmas tree standing off to the right of the hearth?!
images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
budget decor, DIY, renovation