Attic before & after pictures

One of the very last rooms we finished, just a few days before we left France, was the attic bedroom where Zari, Dio, and Inga slept.

This is the "oldest" room in the house; you can see the original beamed ceiling and stone walls. In contrast, everything has been plastered over downstairs.

Before

The attic was definitely the ugliest area of the house with peeling plaster and paint, no lights (just one outlet for the entire room), and a crumbling painted floor. The main room is a large rectangle with an area for a big bed and built-in shelves.

The ceiling painted was cracked and peeling. See the single outlet? That powered everything in the entire room.

In the middle of the floor is the access hatch with a very steep staircase--almost a ladder--leading down. The circuit breaker is on the left behind the pile of bedding. The little "room" on the right, above the downstairs hallway, had no floor and was criss-crossed with electrical conduits.

Renovations included....

• Scraping, sealing, & repainting the ceiling beams
• Building an elevated wooden plank floor over the little hallway room (where Inga sleeps)
• Wiring the entire attic,adding 3 light fixtures and about 16 outlets
• Scraping, replastering, wallpapering, and painting the walls
• Repainting the bookshelves
• Leveling the floors, then laying the same flooring that's in the rest of the house (Amtico Spacia in Warm Teak)
• Installing guard rails on the attic window (it's an 8-foot drop to the staircase below!)
• Renovating the staircase (you can't see it much in the pictures, but it was old painted staircase with lots of chipping paint. We painted the sides white and put the matching wooden flooring on the treads.)
• Making sea glass art with pieces we'd found on the beach
• Sewing curtains & decorative cushions

After!

See Inga's little room? I made two curtains for it: one in the far back to hide some shelves and another in the front that was see-through. Just for fun!

Here's a wide-angle view of the room. The window of the right leads to a storage room above the back bedroom. We also wired that room with a light fixture. Let there be light!



We also built a wood hatch that completely covers the attic opening (not pictured). It can be folded in half or removed completely. It's strong enough for adults to walk on.

And that is the attic!