Cherry Blossom

The Cherry Blossom room before renovations

Upon purchasing this property, one of our owners lamented that, despite the large variety of the tree on the property, we did not have her favorite - the cherry blossom.  Much to our delight, spring revealed that we did have two small cherry blossoms blooming at the back of the house.  The main floor bedroom was then dubbed the Cherry Blossom room as it overlooks the hill where those trees grow as well as the stream, pond, and lower lawn.

Sadly, this much neglected room had nearly all of its potential hidden behind carpeting, fabric on the ceiling, random wood paneling,
and an inexplicable pink faux brick wall.

Revealing the wood floors beneath the carpet

An unexpected plumbing emergency had us pulling up the carpet and tearing down the fabric on the ceiling earlier that expected, but the gorgeous wood floor that was revealed gave us the motivation to keep working on this beautiful room.  Victor ripped out the old air conditioning unit and covered the faux brick with new drywall.  We then primed over the pink walls and repainted the whole room in a soft cream. Victor also used the chestnut paneling from a broken door to fill in the missing wall panels

          

Preparing to cover up the faux brick

Plumbing issues and a dated popcorn ceiling
sent us on the search for ceiling options

   

         Painting ceiling tiles in the main room -
          good thing we plan to replace the floor in there

      

                Installing drywall in the Cherry Blossom room

New paint throughout the room

         

Filling in the odd gaps in the wood paneling

We added a panel to the window to even out the frame

Although we were pleasantly surprised by the good condition of the wood floors when the carpet was pulled up, the ceiling was another story (would you like a movie with your popcorn?), so we purchased styrafoam ceiling tiles from antiqueceilings.com and painted them the same cream as the walls.  Once we get the ceiling tiles up, the floor just needs a little sanding and stain and this room will be ready for decorating. Now the bathroom...that's a whole other project.

We anticipate reopening the Red Leaf River Inn in the Spring of 2015 and hope you will follow along as we renovate and restore this beautiful property in Waynesville, NC.  Find us on Facebook and Google+, follow us on Twitter @RedLeafRiverInn, or visit us at our website.