wingless’ Master Bedroom Remodeling Completed

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winglessMember since Nov 2017Aug 26, 2026 7:39 AM CT

When I purchased my gorgeous new-to-me 33 year old house I hadn’t planned on doing much / any remodeling until after I got into the house. One carpeted guest bedroom really needed some remodeling love, then after it was completed there was enough visual contrast to the other guest bedroom had to also need the same love.

It took a long time for my very slow brain to FINALLY realize that the reason I was unable to envision my furniture in the Master Bedroom is because someone long ago had permanently installed a row of amazing custom cabinets along the wall where the bed should be placed. The previous owner put the bed on the opposite wall, between the windows, but that’s not where the bed belongs.

My solution was to rip out and sell that wall of terrific custom cabinets, then restore the mess that was uncovered from that removal.

Once the cabinets were removed, many Sheetrock cuts were discovered, plenty of electrical weirdness existed and there was lots of missing baseboard w/ missing varnished red oak ¼ round molding.

Those Sheetrock cuts were expanded to align w/ the middle of the wooden studs, on interior walls and w/ the middle of firring strips, on exterior walls. Those larger, rectangular, Sheetrock cuts were fitted with new pieces, then taped and filled with joint compound.

The 120 VAC wiring was restored to proper / normal configuration, including adding a receptacle up high for the wall mount television.

My 15 year old (at the time) Panasonic TH42PZ80U 42 inch plasma television weighed 66.1 lbs, so I had already found and previously used the heaviest duty fully motion wall mount bracket possible. That bracket weighs more than most televisions. ZERO problem holding that very heavy TV. Recently that very heavy plasma TV got a permanent image defect, so it was discarded and replaced with a thin / light Samsung 48S90F 48 inch OLED television. The OLED televisions have a huge viewing angle, so this new TV now remains very close to the wall.

For electrical updates: all the ivory receptacles and Decora switches in the MBR have been replaced w/ white receptacles and toggle switches; all three bedrooms and the family room now have this Hunter CC5C26C02 70” white fan; all walk in closets and both hallways now have this ceiling light fixture and the painting above the MBR headboard now is illuminated by this wall-mounted spotlight, modified by me to have an on/off toggle switch, so it doesn’t have to always turn on w/ the overhead fan light. The dark colors in that particular painting REALLY benefit from having a directed spotlight.

The hook for that painting was located using my DeWALT DW03601 red beam 360° cross line laser level. The painting is just behind the bed’s headboard and I wanted / needed it to be dead center. My solution was to use a vertical laser beam line, aligned w/ a temporary blue painter’s tape Sharpie tick mark at the center of the footboard, also aligned w/ the center of the headboard. That red laser line on the wall was exactly centered, zero parallax error.

The MBR has a cool central raised ceiling. The truss roof has some unusual parts used to create that feature. There was some random age cracking that was repaired using finger-applied joint compound, followed by sanding after dry, when required, prior to painting. Now it looks great.

All of my house windows now have matching white interior shutters, replacing the cacophony of different interior window treatments.

My medium timeframe goal is ZERO messes and clutter in the house. Part of attaining that goal is a clutter-free office desk in the MBR. I’ve been working on getting rid of stuff / clutter between projects. One aspect of a clean desk is having the printer hidden on the shelf in the adjacent closet, next to the router / gateway.

My 45 year old super sturdy college desk was FINALLY replaced w/ the way nice 2003 Bombay Furniture Company desk and detached file cabinet shown in the image along w/ my new leather and wood executive chair, to coordinate w/ the rest of my gorgeous old wooden Bernhardt MBR furniture. That chair is rolling nicely on a Vitrazza 48”x48” glass mat, Luminoso color, to avoid damaging the wooden floor.

The two MBR walk-in closets also had that nice wood face trim w/ attached wood hanger bars. Those again had the pickled finish, now sanded down and varnished.

One closet has the old-school wired alarm system box. That was detached and pulled away from the wall for refinishing and painting, then reattached.

This reply shows the refinished MBR / MBA small hallway utility closet, now having the bamboo shelf tops and faces.

All three bedrooms and closets now have identical paint. I selected / used Sherwin-Williams SuperPaint Interior Acrylic Latex flat paint in Extra White on the ceiling. Sherwin-Williams Emerald Symmetry Interior Acrylic Latex satin paint in SW 7036 Accessible Beige color on the walls and Sherwin-Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Enamel semi-gloss paint in High Hide White on the trim. These are great paints. One thing I really like about the trim paint is the interior / exterior rating, making one less paint required to have on-hand. I like to paint the walls prior to attaching the trim and baseboard wood whenever possible.

All of the missing painted baseboard and missing varnished red oak ¼ round molding was replaced, attached using my DeWALT DCN660 16 gauge angled nailer and my DeWALT DCN623 23 gauge pinner.

The whole house now has matching satin nickel hinges, door stops and Schlage interior / exterior lever locksets, having changed from polished brass. The lever lockset is my strong preference, permitting opening / closing doors w/ full hands. I also swapped the double door flush bolt to this part, plugging and insetting wood into the prior opening for the discarded polished brass part.

This MBR project completion dragged on, as I delayed starting / finishing the walk-in closets to instead work on other projects. It is GREAT that the entire Master Bedroom, all three bedrooms are DONE!

wingless’ 33 Year Old House
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Original Custom Built / Installed Master Bedroom Wall Unit
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Wall Damage Exposed by Wall Unit Removal
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