How-To: Redo a Room Part 1

Hot Topics:

By Becky Stern
Posted 2011/12/06 @ 10:00 am
Category General, Home

Meg Allan Cole introduces you to some great home improvement tips in her three-part video series on CRAFT. Here’s part 1, where she paints and redoes the floors. Upcoming episodes will show you how to build your own floating illuminated headboard, and bedside cubbies.

My husband and I took our bedroom in our Brooklyn apartment and transformed it from an unfinished room into an urban oasis. In this first of three DIY Bedroom videos, we show you how to paint a room, lay down Ikea click-together floor, and add trim to a baseboard.

Subscribe to CRAFT on YouTube to catch parts 2 and 3 when they come out.

BY Becky Stern

Becky Stern is head of wearable electronics at Adafruit Industries. Her personal site: sternlab.org

In the Maker Shed

BeagleBoard BeagleBone Black

Makey Makey Standard Kit

Calculator Kit from Spikenzie Labs

MAKE Rovera 4WD Arduino Robot Kit

0 Responses to How-To: Redo a Room Part 1

J.A. Gort on December 6th, 2011 at 10:46 am said:

Ummm, not to complain, but if you ever do laminate floors again, you should know that the best way to lay them out is in a brick pattern, and not with all the seams lines up in rows. This will cause weak spots and eventually they could pop/break in these areas (trust me on this, I had to rip-up a whole bunch of crappy laminate in my upstairs. The only rooms where the laminate stayed together nice were the rooms done in a brick pattern.
sooth15 wrote this 3 dagen ago on youtube

Reply ↓
- William on December 6th, 2011 at 2:45 pm said:
  
  I was going to say the same thing. Staggering the joints so that no seam lines up for at least 3 courses is ideal. Also, they didn’t use a thin foam underlayment, which is advised. Plus they didn’t leave any gap of 1/4″ around the walls, which is also advised so the floating floor can actually float.
  
  Reply ↓
  
  Christian Restifo on December 6th, 2011 at 3:28 pm said:
  
  Definitely go with the foam as you advised. And I suggest going as thick as possible. I went cheap and used the thin stuff on my kitchen floor, and it wasn’t enough to overcome the hills and valleys of the existing floor. I should have gone for the thicker one or doubled up what I had. My floor would be a lot quieter.
  
  Reply ↓
KurtRoedeger on December 7th, 2011 at 4:44 am said:

I’m going to support the other three comments. The flooring should have had foam underneath, without seams being lined up. For the price of the Ikea flooring and the foam you probably could have found real hardwood from a surplus store for the same price. Did my old house with surplus 3/4″ bamboo flooring for about the $1.15/sq.ft. ikea listed her flooring as. Just built a new house and got unfinished wide plank pine for about $1.55. Little more work to sand, stain, and poly, but I have a one of a kind floor. I’m guessing the baseboards that were existing were painted over too many times to remove and that’s why they just added the quarter-round.
Some tips I want to add to expand Megan’s advice:
-When starting flooring, it’s not always best to go with the wall opposite the door. Depending on the room you generally want the longest straight stretch of wall. If it’s an older house (and even new ones) there is a good chance the room isn’t square and sometimes it’s best to start in the corner that’s most square. Also consider if you are doing more than one room and the flooring needs to go out the door and into a hallway. watch the tongue/groove orientation and consider if you want to keep the transition smooth or if you are okay with a transition piece.
-When painting a ceiling, taping off fixtures works, but check if it’s possible to just remove it. The ceiling fan cover that they taped is 99% of the time decorative and the fan SHOULD be held up by a bracket. Most times that cover is just held by one or two little screws or a quarter turn lock-on. It gives a much nicer finish if your paint goes under the cover. Also less worry about getting paint on the fan cover or leaving a gap showing the old paint.
-When cutting quarter round or anything at a 45 deg. angle, it’s pretty easy to pick up a plastic $5 miter box at any big box hardware store and make sure all your cuts are consistent. It’s just as easy to take some scrap wood and make your own.
-When installing quarter round like that, it’s not always best to nail at a 45 deg. angle. If you went with thicker flooring and depending on the length of the nail, it might not get to the sub-floor. A pneumatic brad nailer is ideal because you can angle it so you are attaching the quarter round to the molding behind it and then you don’t take a chance of pinning down the floating floor. It’s also much quicker (you could nail the whole room in the time it takes to drill and hand hammer 2 nails) and leaves smaller holes to paint over. I know it’s a pricier tool, but most hardware stores rent them.

Reply ↓