Well it’s officially week 2 of the New Year New Room Challenge and while we are off to a great start, we still have a very long, long way to go. So if you’re stopping by to check out a post full of amazing before and afters with completed projects, let me just stop you riiiiggghhhttt there. While I do have some cool befores and afters, but what I don’t have for you is a completed project.

As much as I would love to tell you that when removed all the old paneling off both floors and all the way around the second floor landing that we found the most pristine perfect plaster walls underneath, SADLY we did not.

But before we get into all that I want to remind you where we started with this crazy room makeover.

Dark, dingy and dated. Seriously, this photo was taken in the middle of a bright day, WITH THE LIGHT ON! That is how dark and depressing this space was.

Once we starting pulling off all that awful red we were greeted by tons of natural light…

…and a whole lot of glue and nails.

…and then… yes, you guessed it, even more glue and nails.

So my father in law and I spent the day scraping glue and pulling out thousands of nails.

Next we had to cut out all the cracks that were left from removing the old paneling. Believe it or not, if it hadn’t been for the addition of the paneling all those years ago, these walls would have been in dang near pristine condition. Unfortunately with each one of the thousands of nails that were hammered into it, it left cracks that spiderweb-ed together creating messes like these.

To remove each and every one of these fun little buggers we had to cut out the crack using a utility knife. Than we used a plaster restoration system called Big Wally’s Plaster Magic to pull it all back together and reattach all the old plaster back to the lath. Its seriously amazing stuff and I would highly recommend it to anyone needing to fix saggy or broken plaster. I would however, definitely recommend ordering an extra bottle of the conditioner and at least one extra pack, if not two of the special washers depending on how big your project is. Since the glue needs about 48 hours to dry it can add a lot of extra time to the process just waiting around for the washers to be free again.

Finally all the cracks and scabs can be filled in with patching plaster sanded and finished off with a coat of drywall compound followed by more sanding and eventually paint. I would love to tell you that all of those steps have been completed. But they haven’t. I’m actually only about 1/3 of the way through post Plaster Magic patching and about 2/3 of the way through all the Plaster Magic reattaching. But tomorrow is a new day, and it will be a productive one! My next batch of washers is ready to be moved and the two areas that were in the worst condition are already done! High five!

So while I busy over here getting covered in plaster bits don’t forget to stop by and check out everyone else’s New Year New Room Week 2 Progress! There are some seriously stunning designs in here!

Casa Watkins Living // Domicile 37 // House Homemade // Iris Nacole // Monica Wants It //

Jeweled Interiors // Pocketful of Posies // This Is Our Bliss // Up To Date Interiors