The Kitchen Renovation, Part 2 - Floors and Ceiling

Today I am going to share a long overdue post about our kitchen renovation.  If my delinquency has you asking, "What kitchen renovation?" you can read about phase one of the project here. 

The main living areas at our house are divided into two long rooms.  A sunken living and dining room at the front and the den and kitchen at the back.  My hubby likes carpet in the living areas (it's a comfort and noise thing).  As we began planning this project we knew we wanted to install the same flooring in the kitchen and dining room. 

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In our original floor plan, there was a standard doorway between the kitchen and dining room.  The hubby and I had always talked about opening up that wall and knew that this kitchen renovation would provide the perfect opportunity. We had our contractor cut an eight-foot opening.

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All of our bedrooms have gorgeous old oak floors.  We debated trying to find flooring that would match but quickly abandoned that idea when we realized what a difficult and costly prospect it would be.

We ended up installing a hand-hewn, wide-plank oak flooring that had been stained a dark chocolate brown.  The shorter board lengths do a great job of making the long rooms of our sixties ranch feel more cozy.       

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We also love the rustic and casual vibe of the hand-hewn boards.  Best of all, the flooring was on sale for $4/foot at a near-by Lumber Liquidators.  Score!

Now for the ceiling…

Living in an older house has it's benefits and drawbacks.  One of the positive things is the first-rate construction.  That has been true of our house with one big exception.  The drywall on our ceilings was originally hung with nails.  Nails!  Even I know that is a big no-no. 

That tiny oversight, combined with the mountains of blown cellulose insulation (twenty bags of the stuff dropped to the floor once the old soffit above the cabinets was removed), had caused a slight warp in the drywall.  While most people never noticed, it drove the hubby and I crazy.  

We had talked about ripping out the existing ceilings and having new drywall hung but there were two huge drawbacks to that plan.  First, was what to do with all that cellulose.  Second, was the insane amount of dust that would result from drywalling an entire house.  

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Our solution...  Tongue and groove boards covering the ceiling.  My local True Value store had the best price on 5" x 12' tongue and groove spruce boards.  

I had the wood delivered and slapped a quick coat of BEHR Premium flat white ceiling paint on all eighty boards prior to installation.  Our contractor cut the boards into 4, 6 and 8 foot lengths to ensure that the seams would be random.    

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We love the cottage feel and plan to install wood on the ceilings in the rest of the house.  Now, if I can only get around to adding that second coat of paint…

More on the kitchen next week.  Stay tuned!

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To read all of our kitchen renovation posts click here.  

Part 1 - Demolition
Part 3 - The Cabinets
Part 4 - The Island
Part 5 - The Lighting

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*** The opinions expressed are my own.  The fine folks at Lumber Liquidators, True Value and Home Depot have no clue I exist. I purchased the flooring, spruce boards and paint with my own hard-earned cash and have not been compensated in any way for my review.