Debbie Travis' Facelift - Episodes

After

This young family required a multi-functional room centered around children, but also a place where Shauna and Rico could relax and watch TV. With kids in mind, the Facelift team designed a visually stimulating area filled with cheerful colours, tactile textures, moving shapes and figures.

There are self stick letters of the alphabet on the freshly painted parquet floor, and shelves cleverly designed with geometric shapes to look like running men in different poses.

Cheerful raspberry and polka dot walls and a wavy ceiling are irrepressibly fun. The old bar was ripped out and a wall of storage cabinets was built to hide Rico's wide-screen TV, and also provide lots of space for toys. Strips of old wainscoting taken down from the walls were lightened up and reused to face the front and sides of the plain laminate cabinets.

A three piece play table and comfy sofas finish off the family room where nothing is too precious to explore and enjoy.

Click on the small photographs on the right to view each of the different angles of the room.

To view pop-up info about Shauna's Basement, move your mouse over and around the image below.

Click here to view all the photographs and pop-up info.

Colours & Polka Dots

Rose red is a glorious colour, happy and full of promise. The white wall and whitewashed cabinets keep the room light and airy, and the red polka dots add another playful dimension behind the running men shelving.

When painting a dark colour, begin with a tinted primer to make coverage easier. You will need three coats of paint. To make the polka dots measure and mark off a grid to position the dots. Look for sticky-back dots at dollar, craft or business stores. Press the dots onto the wall and then apply the white topcoat. Remove the stickers to reveal the red base coat.

Floor

You will need stickers of letters; choose different sizes and fonts for variety. Scatter the letters randomly over the floor and press down firmly. If the floor is varnished, sand around the letters to help the paint bond. Apply epoxy finish oil-based floor paint and let dry for 12 hours. Repeat with second coat. Remove stickers. It helps to slide the blade of a utility knife underneath the sticker to get it started. Wipe with methyl hydrate to remove any sticky residue.

Play Tables

Three 30-inch squares were cut from hollow core doors, with a rectangle cut in the centre of one square and the others cut into U-shapes. The table bottoms are covered with plywood and the tops laminated with dry-erase board cut to fit around the shapes. The sides of the centre openings are faced with aluminum strips. Broken pieces of ceramic tiles are set into tile adhesive and when dry, grout is applied.

Running Man Shelving

Both whimsical and practical, these shelves are geometry in motion. Squares, triangles and diamonds are built from 3/4" plywood, 12-inch widths. Each shape is primed and painted, then organize the position of the shapes to look like the figure of a man running. Each figure is in a different pose but uses the same basic shapes.

TV/Storage Cabinets

Custom cabinets were built with plain white laminate boards. The doors and sides were faced with wainscoting taken from the old basement walls. The back of each strip was scraped and sanded to remove old glue. We used a wire brush to make grooves on the wood's front face, then mixed a paint wash of equal parts white paint, glazing liquid and water. The wash was brushed onto the board getting into all the grooves and scratches, and then wiped back with a rag exposing some of the original surface.

Wave Ceiling Tiles

These decorative ceiling panels hide the unwanted stucco and are another playful feature in the kids' basement. The waves are cut from 3/4" plywood, painted and nailed to a panel. The panels are glued and screwed into the existing ceiling. (Plywood is recommended as fiberboard is too heavy for a ceiling design.)