Project Time, Part 1

At our house, we've been working on a few projects.  (And by "we" I mean Bionic Man.)  The one I'm showing you today is almost complete.  So, I don't have an "after" shot for you, yet, but I do have a before and a during.  The change is so nice that I couldn't wait.

Here's the before:

What you need to look at is the funky shelf, up high above the dresser.  We have a vaulted ceiling in this room, and I guess that shelf was the builder's idea of "architectural interest."  Huh.  It took me years to stick stuff up there.  The thought of getting up on a ladder to dust.....{shudder}.  Finally, Bionic Man promised me he'd do the dusting, and we threw a few things up there.  But still, it's just kind of blah, and I never could quite figure out why.



Then the Bionic Man made a discovery.  It needed some lighting.  There was a concealed plug up there, so adding lighting was a cinch.  Concealing the lighting....since we chose light bars.....was a little trickier.  After some thinking, we decided to stick some moulding up there.  We don't have moulding anywhere else in this room--the angles are so wonky, it just wouldn't look good--but a bit of crown moulding seemed like it would be just the thing to hide our light bars and add some genuine architectural interest to the shelf.

Now, we're talkin'.

Here's another look at the whole shelf, during the installation.  Hello, Bionic Man!

It's a little hard to tell from these pictures, but that lighting adds a whole new dimension to our bedroom.  It definitely showcases the vaulted ceiling, yet the soft light keeps the open space from looking cavernous.  It's a quick, inexpensive project that has done a lot for a formerly unappreciated space.

FYI...the picture and star on top are just there so we can see how stuff looked with the lights.  I'll do better than that once we've finished painting!

Read about Part 2 here.