Recently I grew addicted to the
game Design Home – probably my closest experience to "Mass" interior design. I
think I am developing a strategy regarding the surfaces whereby I decide first
on the large ones, and then on details, and this strategy puts the floors to
the top of the list.
I am well aware that this story
steps on the side of the interior design, but let's be realistic – in order to
do it well it is good when there is understanding of the trades. So – here
follows a story on the trade of floor rectification – more specifically
sanding, polishing, lacquer and varnish.
First of all, I am very proud
to show you my finished floor pictures. It was a long way getting there, to a
surprisingly good result.
Initially, as you can see on
the photos that follow, I was not a 100% sure I should do something, anything
about this floor. It was far superior compared to my other floor.
Than I did my works and gradually started noticing damages, big and small, to
this glorious surface. Some of those damages I had inflicted myself.
I avoided those works for a
number of reasons:
- Room
is this glorious dark (is it Prussian?) blue, and I was happy with the colour,
and also the way it matched the existing floor – so why leave for destination
unknown?
- Works
exactly on the borderline between what I want to have done by others, and what
I think I can do myself – see musings from my previous post
- Works
extremely dusty – and by now it is nearly a drill – make the apartment dirty
with works, and then clean the apartment.
But thanks to my painting –
again see previous post, I managed to have the room neatly empty. A part of my
"things" were compacted, another part sold, and yet another part
discarded permanently. So I had this glorious empty room with a floor waiting
to be refurbished.
I was an optimist – given that
there is an equipment renting shop in the vicinity, and that the said equipment
rolls on its own wheels, I had a crash course on sanding in the shop, and
dedicated a full Saturday attempting to do the job all by myself. The results
of 5 hours sanding plus 3 hours cleaning the resulting dust were pathetic.
Thereafter I happily left for
holiday, filing the whole issue to the back of my mind. I had left the equipment rent shop with 2 telephones of local "specialist".
So, to my greatest surprise,
the first guy I called was available for the weekend after my holidays! He gave
me a quick and honest price, but again the one big problem I have with services
in Belgium: no reference to what the result would be, other than – "you will
love it"!
Here I should probably open a
parenthesis – I was warned that the guy might be having a drinking problem,
which in no way prevents him from doing a great job. Turned out to be the case
– so I'd call it drinking lifestyle. He only broke the plastic telephone outlet
socket – an item not in use in principle, which I will have to find a way to
replace.
Work started on a crisp
Saturday morning – with a machine completely different from the one I had
rented. I am guessing a more "into the research" type of a person
would have known. So, the contractor showed up with full equipment and ran the
first grinder – approximately 4 times throughout the day. Work was regularly
interrupted for a cigarette and a drink – but also to invite me to take
pictures of progress, which I share with you.
When this was done, he
hand-scraped the corners, and if you are familiar by now with project 2, in
this room there are a plenty. Then he thoroughly vacuumed the room and ran the
next machine which is just for polishing. Just the type the shop had given to
me for the main work.
More vacuuming, and the base
lacquer was done. An hour later, the first layer of varnish was also put in
place and the room was positively glowing. For the subsequent layers he chose 2
other days and the whole thing was completed in under a week, barely 10 days
after my holidays. I was able to sigh.
The dust remained settling for
a number of days thereafter, so it was not possible to proceed with furnishing.
The best part of the exercise,
other than the remarkable speed and the surprising quality? I like the colour.
It matches a great deal better the door colour, and the (Prussian?) blue stands
out in a far better way.
With this I can close the
chapter of hard furnishings and dig deeper in the soft ones. So, watch out for:
- Choosing
curtains
- Upholstering
- Learning
to do tufted items …. And so much more
Before that I may have to
revisit project 2 to be sure about the floor plan and the measurements. Share
your thoughts and stay tuned!
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