The Closet Starts Coming Together with Trim, Stain, Wallpaper and Lighting!

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This is the point in the project where everything starts coming together and it’s so exciting! Especially when you’ve put so much work into it already!

Choosing a stain color wasn’t easy! But I grabbed 3 colors and put them on scrap pieces to test them out in this room and I put a poll up on what everyone thought. The colors looked slightly different on camera than in real life though. I tested out Rustic Brown, Special Walnut and Dark Walnut. Obviously Special Walnut was the favorite.

I ended up going with Rustic Brown water based stain and I 100% think it was the right choice! I’m in love with the color! I normally use oil based stain but I didn’t want the closet to smell bad so I went with water based stain this time and it was a pain to work with! I tried putting it on with a rag at first, that’s the way I usually apply oil based stain, but water based doesn’t spread as far as the oil based does so I ended up using my fave paint brush instead.

But the brush leaves brush marks with this kind of stain so I had to brush it on and then wipe the excess off with a rag.

The wooden beadboard soaked up the stain a lot and it was a pain to get into the indented lines. I did a few cabinets at a time because this was taking forever and I ran out of stain part of the way through and they didn’t have any more in store so I had to order it online and have it shipped to my house. Also, if you don’t seal it, the water based stain will get water marks on it way worse than oil based stain would.

The ceiling light wasn’t centered in the room so Tyler had to move it for me. Luckily the ceiling joists run left to right in our closet so it made it somewhat easy.

But since this is the edge of our house he had to get up in the attic and crawl through the insulation to get to where the light was. He’s seriously the best husband ever!

He got it moved, but didn’t put the light up immediately because we planned on wallpapering the ceiling and it would be easier to install the new light after the wallpaper was done. Plus I had to patch the old light hole. Next I taped and mudded the wall we built. I used this drywall tape and joint compound.

I taped the spot where the 2 pieces of drywall met and where it met the ceiling. I also filled all the screw holes with joint compound.

Next, I used spray texture to texture the whole wall like the rest of our house is.

Once the everything was dry I primed the wall with drywall primer.

But when it all dried it looked terrible where the 2 pieces of drywall met. I think I used the wrong tape, I believe that tape was meant for 90 degree spots and not flat areas.

So I ran to the hardware store to see what I could find and I found this drywall netting.

I removed the bubbled up tape and replaced it with the netting and then mudded over it again.

While we were waiting on the new mud to dry we started wallpapering the ceiling. I needed help with this one, there is no way I could have done this myself unless I had one of these ladders with a platform. Even then I’m not sure it would have been tall enough for me. Tyler wasn’t super excited about wallpapering, but because he’s awesome he helped me!

With this wallpaper, you don’t put the paste directly on the wallpaper and let it sit, you can just apply the paste to the wall, or in our case the ceiling. We got the first piece up and then realized this wasn’t regular wallpaper with a repeat pattern, it was a wall mural where we needed to start with roll 1 and go in order with the rest of the rolls!

So we had to take that first piece down and find the correct piece and start all over. Tyler was thrilled…

But we got it all up and it is gorgeous! Next he installed the light I picked out!

But it was at this time when he realized we were supposed to assemble the light first before putting it up on the ceiling, so we took a break to eat dinner and let our frustration settle before getting back to it.

After we weren’t hangry anymore, he got the light installed and it was PERFECT for this little room!

Between the days it took to mud and let everything dry I installed poplar boards to make the face frame and the top trim. I secured these using my amazing battery operated nail gun!

Here is the difference between it having a face frame and not.

More staining……

Tyler reluctantly helped me stain the places that I couldn’t reach well. Plus I needed a break!

I picked up some wooden crown moulding from Lowes to close the gap between the cabinets and ceiling. I was really excited about this part! I knew it would really transform the space!

I cut it to size and stained it before installing it because I didn’t want to risk getting stain on the wallpaper.

I mean, look what a difference that made! I also got my clothes back in here so we could free up the guest room.

I painted the walls Alabaster by SW. It’s the same white that is in the rest of our house.

Then it was time to work on the wall. I added primed pine pieces to create a casing for the door to the hidden room. I secured these with my brad nailer.