With the fireplace painted a deep charcoal grey, and the walls and ceiling a crisp white, the woodsy beam and gold-trimmed ceiling fan were next on the chopping block. My Mandelbaum Mom upped the ante, challenging her fear of heights and spending hours on the scaffolding, carefully applying wood filler, then sanding, priming and painting the beam in preparation for a shiny new ceiling fan.
I actually considered leaving the wood (or staining it a different colour), but once the white paint crept up the walls, the wood really stood out and actually made our tall ceiling seem really low.
Even once I decided to paint it white, I originally opted to leave the knots, hoping for a fresh textured look. Disappointingly, the knots pretty much disappeared under the paint except for a few cracks that looked like bugs from a distance.
With sweaty palms, my Mom filled in the cracks with wood filler
(essentially undoing her previous priming efforts), then sanded and
primed each knot again. I (so conveniently) aggravated a back injury
while this was being done, which is why I wasn’t Mandelbauming
it myself, but even once it healed she still soldiered on, applying
three coats of paint with a mini roller for a perfectly smooth finish.
With the beam white, the glitzy gold ceiling fan, with it’s wobbly light bulbs, also had to go.
While we still had scaffolding in our hot little hands (making installation a snap), we splurged on a new ceiling fan and I’m happy to report I’m two-for-two finding ceiling fans I actually like.
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I’ve always liked the idea of a white ceiling fan, but white can be a tricky finish because sometimes I find it looks really cheap – especially the blades. When I found the Kichler Ferron ceiling fan, with luminescent blades instead of plain melamine ones, I was sold.
They catch the light really nicely. No, dreamily, I want to say dreamily.
It also comes in an oil rubbed bronze and brushed nickel – both of which are just as modern and stylish.
This model doesn’t have a light kit, which is perfect for us. It works silently and efficiently, and will do wonders to force warm air back down, so we aren’t heating the 13 foot tall ceiling.
Eventually I want to replace the eyeball pot lights above the fireplace but we’re prioritizing the upgrades. For now, I’m enjoying the new fan!
Yes, you did do it again. I like this fan, too. It's too practical to remove a ceiling fan, altogether. We hope to be in the running stretch of our selling adventure. We have an offer coming in today that may allow us to make a firm offer on a house we like (someone else currently has a conditional offer on it). We may soon be the owners of a lovely home with 4 brand new, and very unappealing, ceiling fans (the boxes from the fans were still sitting on the front porch when we went to view it) Why oh why? Really like the look of this one and it should do the trick nicely in that room. Your room is coming together very well. It's going to be such a beautiful home.
Congrats on getting an offer!! That's so exciting!! I hope it all goes through for you, without a hitch. If the new place still has the boxes for the fans, you might be able to sell them easily in the classifieds as "like new," then put that money towards something you like. Surprisingly, I was able to sell the ancient white ones I replaced in the townhouse and that little bit of money helped.
personally i love ceiling fans..they keep me cool ;)this one looks rather stylish though, so it is a win win!
It was tricky to find a ceiling fan that would suit the space, so I'm so happy I stumbled across this one!! It doesn't normally get really hot in Thunder Bay and we're expecting breezes from the lake but without A/C, if it does get hot this will keep us cool too. I just have my eye on winter, seeing as it has already snowed, lol.
The beam looks so much better white
I barely notice it now, whereas before that was all my eye was drawn to. I'm so happy I decided to paint it white.
Do you know you have the best mom in the world? What a trooper. Love the fan and the white beam. How soon will you be moving furniture in? Can't wait to see the fireplace with your pops of color. Everything looks fabulous. Now I'm really hating the fan in our dining room….and the gold trimmed door on our pellet stove, but I refuse to spend money on another thing here because we have a house to build. I'll just look at your place and dream.
I definitely do have the best Mom!! I don't know yet when we move – problems with the sale of the townhouse, sadly. I'm planning a post about it. I hope we at least move before the snow flies! I understand about reaching a limit updating. A dream house is worth it 🙂
Love, love, love it.
I thought you'd like it's gleaminess.
Ceiling fans are a must in Texas (as you probably understand from your visit here), and finding modern ones can be tricky. I love your choice. I could never find a small, black two-blade, so I went with a three-blade, but I think yours looks much more modern.
The fans you chose are so pretty – I spotted them in your house tour right away because I'm always on the look out for attractive ones. They pair perfectly with your lighting scheme. It's good we didn't want a light in the fan also, because if we were committed to that it would have been even harder to find a sleek and modern style. But I saw more options now than a year ago, so I think the market is expanding. Yay!!
I normally hate the look of fans, but this one is nice. I've never seen a fan look so sleek & modern. Pretty!
Thanks! I definitely had to search through quite a few catalogs at a local lighting shop and I even had to special order this one but it was worth the effort because, as you say, it's sleek and I'm happy!
What a great transformation. I love what you have done with the brick and complimented it with the great modern ceiling fan.