I Need to Decorate the Upstairs of a Cape Cod...

[hholli11]

does anyone have any ideas or experience with this? Right now, the place is unfinished and I want to move my room/office up there. But I've never had to deal with the slanted walls and dormered windows.

I'm on a budget, so all the do it yourself advice I can get would be appreciated.

[XemaSab]

1. The strategy for slanted walls

Is to put up little pictures in groups, instead of BIG pictures.

I have had to deal with this, and I know how frustrating it can be. :hug:

[MissB]

2. Are you painting?

If so, you'll probably find it easier to paint the walls and ceiling the same color - that joint where the slanted wall and the ceiling meet is sometimes a pain to transition to another color.

I put beadboard up to get a contrasting color - the beadboard is painted a creamy off white and the walls/ceiling are painted a very light tan.

Try to avoid dark colors - they'll close the room in pretty significantly with the slanted walls.

If you're not painting, ignore everything I've just said. :)

[hholli11]

3. Oh...I'm painting...

I'll even have to build some walls!!! But I am not in a big hurry at all. So the ceiling is getting both recessed lighting and speakers. I will also have a hard wood floor installed. My father says that I have to tear the existing walls out (something about needing styrofoam between the now exposed ceiling and the wall? I have no idea...I just think he wanted to come up with a reason not to help me)

[politicat]

8. Oh, yes, you want styro between the ceiling and the wall...

Insulation from sound, cold, heat. If you don't put the styro in, you'll lose most of your heat dollars out your roof during the winter, and the room will be unbearably hot during the summer... and every noise you make will be heard all over the house. Insulate everything - floor, walls, ceiling. Styro is cheap and easy to install, so don't scrimp. Just cut it so it fits between the joists and pack it in. Use construction adhesive to keep it in place till you get the drywall up.

My family's big house has these sort of rooms, and we have been slowly renovating the upstairs for the last few years - pulling down dead plaster, replacing wiring (the house was wired for power in 1914... and it shows when you see the wiring...), insulating and replacing flooring.

We learned with the first room that a) insulation is your bestest buddy of a friend, b) that slanted walls cannot be a different color than the straight walls or the ceiling, c) that windows make a huge difference in the feel of the room, and d) that white does not make the room feel bigger.

When my sister and her husband (newly back from Iraq at the time) got ... ahem... carried away... while painting up there, everyone in the house knew. After we got the styro between the upstairs floor and the downstairs ceiling, that problem went away.

[politicat]

4. Is it floored? Is it drywalled?

Can the joists support the weight of furniture and people? Is there easy access, or do you need to install stairs or a spiral? Does it have dormer windows, or are the walls something like this:


So assuming you answered yes to all of the above, here's how it works: Paint it a bold color you love. Use light colored furniture and fabrics, and paint the whole a bright, bold color you love. (You can also use wallpaper, but paint is easier for decorating novices.) For reference, reds are the hardest to paint, the hardest to maintain and the first to fade. Blues and greens are calming, but may be too calming for an office space. Yellows, oranges and yellow based greens (sage, lime, celery) are more invigorating, but may make you look sallow. White is actually hard on the eyes (glare, and we don't associate it with anything natural), and cream looks dirty in some lights. However, use a light color for the trim. Color is critical, as is placement of furniture.

Trim back any plants (ivy, trees, wisteria) that interfere with natural light, and add track lighting sources - halogen and LED bulbs shed a really clean, white light. This is not the place for incandescent lighting or table lighting because the former is more yellow and the latter is too low. You can make good use of the angled ceilings by installing lights on them. If you don't have plaster on the walls, this is not at all hard to do (running the lines are the hard part) but if it is, and if you're not comfortable rewiring your attic, there are track systems that have cords, and cord guards can be basically stapled/glued to the wall. Look for a Firefly or Valo instant track lighting system. (http://www.westinghouselighting.com/litesnow/lighting-firefly.html or http://www.smarthome.com/4624f.html) You might want to budget for a skylight on a south facing roof, but that's pricey. Fireflies are much cheaper.

Use built-ins or semi-built-ins as much as possible (bookcases, desks, etc.) One of the greatest desks I ever saw was made out of some 2x4, some sheets of chipboard and a can of polyurethane (or fiberglass epoxy resin). The owner converted a walk-in closet to an office so he ran 2x4 around the edge of the room at desk height, screwed the chipboard into the 2x4s, then coated the whole thing in polyurethane a few dozen times. Pics and descrip are here: http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2004/03/25/particle_board_desk.html Here's a pic:

You could also use a door, an old window, or a piece of rescued countertop and some filing cabinets for workspace. Remember to put them under the slant, and leave the middle, headroom area as clear as possible.

If you must buy furniture, get the smallest furniture you will be comfortable with - this is a place for a rolling laptop stand or an escritoire, not the huge honkin' Mile O' Mahogany. It's easier to adjust the height on a desk than the square footage, and it's easier to stash papers and desk stuff in drawers and files than to get a big desk up the stairs or through the window.

Go to the library and look at design books that are geared toward small spaces. Don't forget art, either - there are hangers to mount pictures on slanted walls, and a couple of pieces can give a lot of visual interest.

[hholli11]

5. you are amazing!!!

There is a stairwell (that does not need to be replaced) that comes upstairs directly in between the two dormer windows. This is a typical, two dormer cape cod house. The ceiling in the space is much like your pciture describes, but the walls are not. I was thinking of just putting 1/4 in drywall up to smooth the old plaster edges, but would have some lighting (I was thinking sconces on the walls and recessed lighting in the ceiling)

Thank you for all of your suggestions.

[radwriter0555]

6. Go cottage white, with taupe accents. Clean, simple, cheap.

Google "cottage decor colors" etc. You should like the colors. Soothing.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Ever consider magnetic paint?

http://www.kling.com/magneticpaintindex.html

It's not magnetic, but has metal in it, to create a surface that magnets will stick to. Especially fun for kids' rooms!