SPRING 2020 ONE ROOM CHALLENGE WEEK 3

This week our vision became a bit more clear and real. All of the dust, the piles upon piles of mess, the strategy that went into rewiring nearly an entire home to legally function and give ourselves more light than we’ve ever had finally led us to an incredible moment. 

Drumroll please…

If you’re finding us for the first time from the One Room Challenge, welcome! We’re Danielle and Michael Gutelli! And together, we’re Clark + Aldine.

Clark + Aldine is named after the Chicago streets where we first met, and was born out of a love for purposeful design and everyday functionality. What we didn’t know then was that our passion and design influence would continue to grow, and we would soon leave our established careers to pursue Clark + Aldine full time. But like they say, when you know, you know! Learn more about us.

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If you aren’t caught up with our full project yet make sure to get all caught up!

Week 1 – Space plan, Design Board and over all inspiration

Week 2 – Demo and electrical

Insulation

Well this isn’t really “the” big exciting moment, but it certainly made for a quick celebration. The insulation in our 1950 bungalow was bad. Like, shiver in the middle of the day on a beautiful Fall afternoon bad. The fireplace we installed as part of our Fall 2019 One Room Challenge certainly helped but it was still bad. So when we began installing the insulation it was cause for excitement. 

Nothing really fancy here, just us knowing our home’s climate will be in much better standing.

Drywall

This is the big moment we’ve been waiting for. There is nothing quite like that satisfaction of covering all the internal components of a house with fresh sheets of drywall. 

We started with the ceilings which required drywall at ⅝ inch thickness for fire protection. And those things are incredibly heavy, but we did it without a lift. The trickiest part of installing drywall on a ceiling is nailing the exact location for your overhead lighting. Whether it be recessed or pendant boxes you need to find the center of each light. To do so we mark a center line by measuring from two sides inward. But we don’t cut the holes out before we hang. We actually hang it first, then once we have enough screws holding the drywall sheet to the joists we start cutting our holes. Using a Drywall Cut-out Tool with a drywall rotozip bit we start in the center and work our way out until the bit touches the box. From there we follow the box until our circle is cut out. This is easiest with recessed metal boxes but can be easily done with sconce boxes as well.

Pro tip: You never want to stack one sheet on top of the other, but rather stagger them center on seam. This allows for a better, more smooth and seamless finish once all is taped, mudded and sanded. 

Once the ceiling and beam was complete we moved on to the walls. To cut out the switch and outlet boxes we followed the same process as the light boxes, just on the wall. You want to start running your first sheet on the ground and stack the second board on top in a staggered manner, if space allows for that. If you are using 4’ x 8’ sheets you should be able to gl floor to ceiling with 2 rows as 8’ ceilings are most common. 

One thing we always receive questions on is why we glue the drywall versus just screw. We do it to get a better bond and hold more secure over time, which limits potential flexing and cracks over time.

Mud + Tape + Sand

Now that all of the drywall was up the oh-so-not-fun process of mud and tape needed to begin. We were dreading it. Neither Michael or Matt likes to do it, and while they are both good at it, it would take them far too long to get it done right. So for the first time ever in our ORC history we decided to subcontract that work out. And we are so happy we did. Not only did the result turn out to be stunning but we have found a solid subcontractor for all of our client drywall needs. It was a win win and the best money to spend.

Paint

It took 5 days to get all of the drywall finish work completed before we could move on to paint. But before we painted we needed a solid coat of primer on all of the new drywall. We use Sherwin Williams Multi-Purpose Interior/Exterior Latex Primer for all of our projects, and trust us when we say it is the absolute best! Looking for tips and tricks with painting here’s our approach to interior paints! We also have to mention how incredible our go to supplies are for all of our paint projects. We have been using HANDy Paint Products for years now, and they are the best in the game when it comes to paint pails and trays. Their line of liners for paint pails and trays makes cleanup so incredibly easy! We highly recommend anyone in need of really good supplies for their home to check them out here.

Now that the walls were primed it was time for paint!!! I know, you are all as excited as we were to finally put paint on these walls. After much deliberation we are pleased to announce that we went with Sherwin Williams Alabaster.  

Alabaster has a beautiful warm undertone to the white giving us the exact look we wanted. While we started the paint process thinking we were going to land on a more bright white color such as Pure White or Extra White once we had the paint samples on the drywall it became apparent those white colors were reading just too white and bright. We wanted the space to feel bright and open while warm, cozy and inviting all at the same time. Alabaster does just that. Here’s a full list of my go to white paints if you’re on the struggle bus with white paints too!

We have also landed on trim paint, which is so exciting. This process became more challenging than we had anticipated. Like white there are so many different beige colors out there. Each beige has its own undertone that provides the overall look and feel of the color. In the end we picked Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige for the trim throughout the entire space including the crown molding and into the hallway and even our home gym. Around the two window casings in the kitchen and dining room we landed on Sherwin Williams Green Black.  

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Don’t forget to check out all the other Feature Designers!

A Glass of Bovino | Beginning in the Middle | Beth Diana Smith | Clark + Aldine | Coco & Jack

Deeply Southern Home| Design Maze | Dwell by Cheryl | Erika Ward | Home Made by Carmona

House of Hipsters | Hunted Interior | Kandrac & Kole | Kate Pearce | Katrina Blair | Liz Kamarul

Veneer Designs | Rambling Renovators | Renovation Husbands | Studio Plumb | Media BH&G

Be sure to check back into the ORC tomorrow with all the amazing Guest Bloggers participating this Spring, it’s the biggest guest participation yet, it’s going to be epic, I just know it! And I have a few awesome friends participating this year and they are absolutely killer at what they do!!!

A huge thank you to Sherwin Williams and HANDy Paint Products for sponsoring this post! 

Much love –