Firstt Lounge - Eco-Wall & Upper Lighting

Just before the beginning of Golden week Arnie moved onto his next job - creating a spiral staircase with storage below, so I was left to eco-wall and fit the spotlights. Final decoration is the most fun for me, as I get to see how the room's turning out as it completes.

Funny enough, the plaster I used is the same colour as the bedroom, but it doesn't look yellow in these pictures.

I started off by cleaning all the overhead beams a 3rd time to make sure then was no black dust remnants from the fitting of the ceiling, then masked off all the wood surrounding the new walls.




Eco-wall is fairly easy to work with. As the walls are so high, they're less likely to come under scrutiny but by this stage I find I'm getting better at doing a good job of it. The hardest parts were around the wooden rectangles & the tiny sports where two beams converged and I couldn't get the trowel in there. For those corners I used a small end of a plastic spatula.



There are a few small holes where the beams come through the walls, so I'll mask again & fill those with black Silicone sealant next week.

To keep dust from entering the bedroom whilst I was varnishing Arnie made up some plastic sheet windows but between the bedroom and first lounge there are some intricate wooden lattice frames to be re-fitted which will allow for air-flow. These will be fitted later.

I fitted 8 spotlights so far. 4 pointing to the ceiling (Soft mood) and 4 pointing down (Much brighter). These will be controlled by pre-set dimmers and in addition there will be 2 more switches controlling corner (table) lights and a couple of picture frame overhead lights.



There are still some facades to go up around the lowest beams where slats used to sit for the original ceiling and of course wiring and wall sockets as well as one floor socket in the middle (A good way to provide power for a small coffee table or centrally positioned floor light next to a sofa. Next week the electrics will be completed, so we'll be able to dismantle the scaffolding and begin fitting the oak flooring.

The ceilings are very high of course, which gives this room a grander feel but makes it difficult to photograph without use of a very wide angle lenz.

Before Spring we hope to replace the wooden doors direct to the garden with full width aluminium framed sliding glass doors with insect nets for summer (& the same modification for all the garden facing doors).