Everyone else is excited about the holidays. I am, too, but I have to confess that as I’m gift shopping I’m also looking ahead to another project. Very soon, I will get to help a friend with one of my favorite things: decorating. Anil is opening his home to me for a couple of weeks so that I can transform it into the living space that he desires.
I’m especially excited about Anil’s apartment for one main reason: He’s got brick walls throughout. They were painted over when he moved in, but I think if we can manage to strip them down to the exposed brick, they will really be modern and provide an awesome backdrop for the condo design. He has a great space and I can’t wait to help him update it. Does anyone have any experience stripping paint from brick? Any tips to share? (And yes, the title is referring to stripping brick. Sorry if you’re disappointed!)
Here are a couple of pictures of his living room now:
Here’s a mock up of what I’m thinking, so far, to modernize his place:
You can click on the photo and zoom in to read the descriptions of the items and why I like them for his space. He wants modern, masculine, minimalist. What do you think so far?
Comments
11 responses to “Friends, shopping, and stripping”
Needs a stripper pole
I don’t remember the name of the product, but we used some orange goop that came in big jugs and smelled VERY strongly of orange jolly ranchers (like, sickeningly sweet, gaggingly orange) when we stripped a friend’s wall down to the brick. There were several layers of paint (really old house). The stuff was so nasty we had to throw out the clothes and shoes we wore after using it, because it just got everywhere, but it worked and got every last trace of paint out.
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I love your ideas, and I loveeeee brick on the inside! it’s going to be awesome when you finish. Can’t wait to see it!
I second the striper pole idea.
I may need to find live-in stripper too.
Strip the brick = yes.
Stripper pole = yes.
Live in stripper = no. Just rent one when you need it. Cheaper that way.
[…] Friends, shopping, and stripping […]
My uncle’s friend had an apartment once that he refinished to leave the exposed brick on one wall… it looks awesome! And I think (though I don’t remember) that our rental property in Ohio has the same thing. It looks very urban decay chic. Works exceedingly well with modern furniture and minimalist stuff.
My uncle’s friend decorated with architectural drawings (actually old ones of his building when it was being built – but that’s not necessary to dredge up if you can’t find them). It really added to the ambiance of featuring an architectural element as an interior design concept.
[…] were still finalizing the “look” we wanted to go for. If you recall, I gave a proposal here as to what I thought we should go for. The biggest piece to this propsal was the brick stripping, […]
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[…] come from the ceiling. They are from IKEA and the curtains are from World Market. More updates of Anil’s apartment to […]