Hitting a Stone Wall Can Open Up Possibilities

Hit­ting a Stone Wall Can Open Up Pos­si­bil­i­tiesWe want every space in our home to have the WOW fac­tor. Just like my clients, I want to zero in on get­ting the biggest bang for the buck and in this case the home and the bud­get was small. For this one bed­room cab­in, the fam­i­ly room was the first impres­sion and need­ed to make an impact.

Start­ing with the focal stone wall gave moti­va­tion and “demo­li­tion ther­a­py”. The first of many DIY projects, this one was messy, cre­ative and economical.
Yes, we removed the mauve car­pet­ing. Let’s just say it made clean up easier.

Now that the slate was clean, the key fea­tures iden­ti­fied: man­tel, a stone/natural ele­ment, fire source and accessorizing.
Mea­sure­ments in hand, we made a trip to the lum­ber yard to select a man­tel. Traips­ing through a yard of cut, unhoned trees was fun. It’s like the pride you feel when find­ing the per­fect Christ­mas tree. Once you select a tree, they will cut the tree to your spec­i­fi­ca­tions. Cost: free – $100.
Next step: Stone selec­tion. We opt­ed for the real deal although the pre­fab­ri­cat­ed stone looks great and is much lighter and eas­i­er to install. Again, hit the stone yard for the best deals. Cheap­er pric­ing and they deliv­er. We installed the stone our­selves, we are not experts, but we made it a fam­i­ly affair.
Warmth was impor­tant. We opt­ed to keep the pel­let stove. It puts out great heat and since it was a cab­in the stove fit with the décor. No cost and the pel­lets are cheap.
$2/ bag Plan for Add On Projects. While design­ing the focal wall we con­tin­ued the same design to the bar area. Incor­po­rat­ing the same stone and the same logs (cut thin­ner) pro­vide con­ti­nu­ity and style to an oth­er­wise bor­ing area.

Acces­soriz­ing put the fin­ish­ing touch­es on the focal wall. Bring­ing nature inside with the art­work, tex­ture and rus­tic acces­sories made the inte­ri­or an exten­sion of the view. Now we can sit back and relax.