The Cherry Blossom Blooms

The Cherry Blossom room, as purchased

The Cherry Blossom room, so named because it overlooks the only (tiny) cherry tree on the property, is located on the ground floor of the Inn, over the pond and great lawn.  (At least, we think it is a cherry tree, and if it isn’t, well, don’t burst our bubble.)

 When we purchased the Inn, this room was outfitted with bland carpet, fabric draped across the ceiling, and an inexplicable pink faux brick wall.  Combined with random chestnut wall paneling, this room was truly a mystery.  Did someone try to make that one wall look like brick on purpose?  Why one cream colored wall and three dark pink (is that like the opposite of an impact wall)?  And, most importantly, what is under all that fabric?

Lining up drywall

Painting the cherry blossom room

Prepping to fill in gaps in the wood paneling

A pipe break in the ceiling of the Cherry Blossom forced us to both tear down the fabric and rip up the sodden carpet.  This revealed the first (only?) pleasant surprise in this room - hardwood floors lay underneath.  Turns out the fabric was hiding holes in the ceiling (so, this wasn’t the first plumbing issue).  Sadly, this meant we could not salvage the popcorn ceiling.

Putting together the bed (with a little help)

So, we drywalled over the faux brick, removed the ancient wall a/c unit, and filled out the patchy wood paneling using two doors that were covered in chestnut but which were too damaged to use as doors.  We also used the salvaged chestnut in a gorgeous handmade headboard for the room.  Each piece was hand cut and laid in a herringbone pattern to make up the headboard.

Matching the new pine

Next up was the floor, which was sanded, repaired since a few boards on one side of the room had gone soft, and then stained and sealed.  The hardest part?  Trying to match the new boards to the old.

The last major part of the remodel (since we’ve already done the floor and the walls, was the ceiling, which was a challenge between the popcorn and the holes.  We covered the ceiling and added a new ceiling fan/light fixture.

We used a styrofoam tile designed to look like pressed tin ceiling tiles in both the bedroom and ensuite bathroom.  Oh, what was wrong with the bathroom?  Just this.

The Cherry Blossom bathroom (mostly) before

Terrible?  No, not really, but the large glass panels that walled the bathroom were starting to crack, there were FOUR different building materials used in the shower, and more holes in the ceiling from those wonderful pipes.  Behind the glass sheets lay cement walls, so we set out drilling drywall into cement, laying a new tile floor, and re-tiling the shower with white tile.

Demo-ing the glass

Retile in process - all one color this time

The door to the bathroom, like the door to the bedroom, was also damaged, but the bathroom door was salvageable, so we did a quick repair and channeled our inner artist.

Another beautiful handmade vanity and etagere were constructed using pallet wood and the bathroom was finished off with all new fixtures

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.