Just before Christmas Luke came to fit the wardrobes in our bedroom - a year earlier, he had removed them to create the corridor to the bathroom so we have an en-suite (which he fitted out and I decorated:
http://nbwakahuia.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/bathroom-renovations-work-in-progress.html and http://nbwakahuia.blogspot.co.nz/2016/03/productivity-is-up.html), and not a long walk through to the toilet. He'd put back hanging space for us both, but we had no doors on them. We'd got used to the open plan wardrobe look but it was rather messy.
December was Luke's first opportunity to come back to us - the man has been really busy all year!
Back in June we had decided with him what we wanted in terms of hanging space, shelving, drawers, etc; and he had drawn it in his diary (that's how I know it was June ...). So the last thing to decide was what doors to have. We had already decided on bi-folds, but what style? Plain solid (hollow core, really) doors would create an overwhelming white mass along that wall so I suggested louvred doors. Luke baulked at the cost of them but I blithely said 'no worries' or 'hakuna matata' or somesuch.
Luke set to work, fitted everything beautifully, and did several other jobs (wires along the trellises so plants can be espaliered, more shelves in the hall cupboard, attaching the chinese cabinet to the wall to stop it falling over in an earthquake, et al).
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| My wardrobe on the left, David's on the right, and the corridor through to the family/en-suite bathroom in the middle (well, right of centre, to be truthful). Don't the louvre doors look lovely? And I love the combination of the wallpaper and dark grey paint in the bathroom. Note that the wallpaper is the same pattern as the bedroom paper. You can't see it, but the other walls in the bathroom, above the dark grey and the black dado, are the same colour as the bedroom walls - it's a colour called Sandfly Point, but don't ask me why, as sandflies are pesky little black biting basta*ds. |
I have a set of drawers to keep scarves and shoes in, two rows of hanging space with a shelf above (for things I hardly use, seeing as it is well above my reach). David has set of shelves that go right across his wardrobe (which goes to the end wall, in case you are thinking he only has the louvre door width of space) and one hanging space. His long coat will live in my wardrobe. See, I
do share!
And I was on painting duty. All poles, shelves, drawers were removed by David, so I could paint inside and out (have to be thorough, if a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well, ...
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| Sanding first. Those clothes are familiar - I wore them when painting and wallpapering the bedroom, the bathroom, painting the toilet and wallpapering the lounge. Plenty of paint on the front of shorts and T-shirt where I wipe my hands and the brush as required... My lovely sister Dee has a matching set. I should have got her down here this time - she is a dab hand at fiddly paint jobs! |
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| Concentrating |
Undercoating the walls was easy and quick, even doing the ceilings inside the wardrobes and in the little corridor was quick. But those doors! What a pain in the proverbial!
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| Insides of both wardrobes undercoated, corridor walls primed/undercoated and one set of doors primed/undercoated - exhaustion had set in and it was 6pm so I stopped, had a shower and got into my PJs. No chardonnay - too tired! |
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| We were heading to Turangi for our friend John's birthday celebrations, so I had to finish the remaining four doors in the morning before we left. Took two hours. This is the view from inside the wardrobe. Luckily I was allowed out of that particular closet. You can see that the bed was used as a workbench/storage area, as you do when a large flat space presents itself. |
There are 3 sets of bi-folds, i.e. six doors, which equates to twelve sides. Each door has 65 louvre blades, each blade has two slots it fits into (130), the gaps between each slot have to be painted from both the outside and the inside of the door (260). Then there's the 65 louvre blades on each door which have to be painted from the inside and the outside. That doesn't count sanding before painting started and then between each coat! AAARRRGGGHHH!!!
David sensibly suggested getting them spray painted, and when I had spent one hour doing one bi-fold (both sides), I not so sensibly said I'd be fine. However, I do learn eventually, and after I'd done 5 out of the 6 (both sides) and worn out a brush doing the gaps between slots (the bristles curled with being poked end on in the gaps), I agreed. So there was a phone call with Luke that morning as we headed on our way to Turangi during which I told him that I'd lost the will to live over painting them. Oh, how he laughed.
The dear man is going to get the guy who does his painting to spray paint them. So the doors aren't finished but all other painting is done and the doors are undercoated. They will be taken off and away to be made beautiful - it'll be back to no doors for a while, but we can cope!
We are now reconstructing the wardrobes, and we will put the clothes in too.
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| David looks suspiciously like he is caged, but really he's lining up the frame of my set of drawers to screw it back in. |
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| See, he can back out any time he wants - honest! As I type this, he is trying to remember the levels his shelves were at ... |
So whose idea was it to have louvre doors? Mine.
Do I regret that decision? No, because even with just primer/undercoat, I can see they are going to be lovely. 👆👆😄
