What's old is new again for St. Helena Island homeowner

DIY’ers: Sue Cheatham

Project: Architectural update

Sue Cheatham of St. Helena Island used two large walls in her foyer as a blank canvas to showcase her love for old architecture. 

My house has a two-story foyer with stairs and two large, blank walls. I have always enjoyed old architectural pieces. I’ve collected a few favorites through the years and I also keep a look out for pieces at antique stores and the Habitat ReStore.

To liven the stairway wall, I hung three old ceiling tins. I turned the tins sideways and used upholstery tacks to hold them in place. The tins have original paint, but they needed something more. Framing them with traditional frames looked too heavy, so I decided to add a stencil boarder around the tins. I used paint that was about four shades darker than the wall paint. 

I also put car wax on the tins to preserve the original paint and to keep them from rusting. The hardest part of this project was figuring out how far to space them apart and at what height to hang them. 

Across from the steps sits the dining room with a large entry wall. I came up with the idea to make the doorway look like the entry to an old building. I drew an outline of the doorway on the garage floor and cut boards to create a pointed top. I adorned the new top with wood, iron and plastic accents that I painted white. I filled in the space with popcorn paint. 

There are lights on either side of the doorway and to make them match the theme, I accented them with white oval picture frames, nailed them to the wall, and painted the inside of the frames with more popcorn paint. The hardest part was attaching the trim to the wall above the doorway. So I asked a few contractors who were working in the neighborhood to help. They had everything up in a few minutes. 

This story was originally published May 31, 2015 at 12:01 AM with the headline "What's old is new again for St. Helena Island homeowner."