Videos and more content at www.ludingtondailynews.com. Click on Room Redo in the black bar at the top of the website.

By PATTI KLEVORNNews editor

Tim and Kelli Smith asked for a “beachy” feel for their upstairs bedroom.

What they received — and helped work for — surpassed their expectations.

The two said they are “over the moon” about the outcome of the Ludington Daily News Room Redo.

Julie Ann McDonald of Old McDonald’s Farm Finds pro-vided the design (and several 12-hour days of physical labor) and Stephen and Keri Sipes of Benchmark Homes (with help from employee Chris Bevier) provided the construction work.

Together with the help of the Smiths, the room was trans-formed from a 1960s/’70s-era lime green-walled, brown-sculptured carpeting room into a fresh, calming-blue/white/tan “lake house retreat,” as Tim calls it now.

Everything was removed from the room and the Smiths took it upon themselves to re-

finish the floor before the ren-ovations began. In one 13-hour work marathon, Tim and Kelli pulled up the rubber-backed carpeting, scraped the hard, dry glue from the floor and sanded it to reveal the natural

red oak the way it was intend-ed to look when the home was built in the 1940s.

“We love it,” Tim said. “We just didn’t want to hold

anyone up,” Kelli said. “We hoped it would be OK.”

OK? It was amazing. The outcome was stunning,

and McDonald decided that with all their hard work — and with more coats of polyurethane to come — she would help get the walls and ceiling primed and painted early so that when the furniture was moved in, it could stay in place and not have to be moved back out and then in again.

So, while the project originally was intended to last only two days, March 6 and 7, Julie, Kelli and Tim’s father, Gary, started at the room first thing Monday morning, March 2.

They worked 12-plus-hour days to prime and paint.

“Because it was lime green, we had to prime everything,” Julie said.

It took two coats of ceiling paint to cover the bright color, even with the initial coat of primer.

“The lime green was just hid-eous,” she said.

They worked into Tuesday night, then Tim’s brother, Scott, came over and added coats of finish to the floor, meaning the

work crew had to leave the room alone for two full days.

The project included lots of learning experiences, from the floor to the decor.

“It gave us the confidence to do it ourselves,” Tim said.

Julie taught Tim and Kelli how to repurpose the furniture for the room, the original bed and dresser, and the extra pieces she’d brought in the for the project.

They sanded, painted, sanded and stained.

Here’s the process for a side table she had purchased from a second-hand store:

• sand with rough sandpaper to get the polyurethane off

• paint with spray paint•sand again to give that shab-

by chic look• use a rag to put stain over

the white, giving it more vintage look

• apply wax over the top of it and buff it off to give the fur-niture a water barrier without changing the look

“By about Day 2 I had to real-ize I just had to shut up and trust her,” Kelli said.

1

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Homeowners ‘over the moon’ about redesign

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy NewsJulie Ann McDonald, homeowners Kelli and Tim Smith (front and center) and Stephen and Keri Sipes show off the room they renovated together.

Tim and Kelli Smith shared this “before” picture with their application for the Room Redo. They were selected as one of four finalists for a home visit in the project, which drew more than 75 applications. After visiting the homes, the designer and builders decided the Smiths’ room was best for the project.

2

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2 | LUdiNgtoN daiLy News/rooM re-do resULts | satUrday March 14, 2015www.ludingtondailynews.com

BEAch Vs. BEAchThe Smiths’ hope for a beach

theme resonated with Julie Ann McDonald right away.

“A lot of what I do is beach-re-lated,” she said.

“Once I saw the room and un-derstood what they were looking for — a cottage-y feel — I went back to what I had done last year.”

There are several ways to go with a beach theme, but for Tim, in particular, it would mean a more nautical flair. His friends would be coming up to fish when they stayed in the room.

“That’s why we pulled in the oar, the rope, the lures,” Julie said.

The Smiths made decisions ev-ery step of the way, at Julie’s urg-ing, but they also learned to trust her.

“It’s got to be workable, livable,” she said.”I felt it was really impor-tant that they be a part of it.”

PROjEcT dAysBuilders Stephen and Keri Sipes

arrived early Friday morning and started right away working on the closet, their signature section of

the room. “The doors were removed and

the track that was on the inside was moved outside,” Keri said. “It gave it that barn-door style that’s very in.”

Then Keri used the saw to cut slats of lathe and Stephen adhered them to the exterior of the closet.

“Due to the thinness of the clos-et doors, we had to use a spray adhesive,” she said. “It was more time-consuming, but it turned out very strong.”

Staples could have destroyed the door and “it would have looked like a porcupine on the other side,” she said.

All part of Julie’s design, they purposefully gave the lathe a jag-ged look.

They fastened a long piece of driftwood atop the doors as a cor-nerstone piece in the room.

It’s Tim’s favorite, now. His ini-tial reaction, though, was “No!”

He saw the weighty piece of wood Julie had brought for the cause and instantly remembered a similar piece of wood that seri-ously damaged his family’s boat during the Ludington Offshore Fishing Classic, took the team out

of competition and meant a call to the Coast Guard for help.

Tim warmed up to the use of the wood in the room when he saw what it would look like above the closet.

“Julie brought in this large beam that came out of Lake Michi-gan that absolutely looked won-derful with it because it kind of set it off,” he said. “With the closet space organizers the Sipes made really kind of brought it together, and that is my favorite part of the room.”

Closet makeover a crew favorite

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy NewsStephen Sipes sprays contact cement on a piece of lathe to place on the closet doors as part of a plan to make the doors look weathered and fit into the relaxed, nautical space.

Tim admires the wood beam Julie salvaged from a friend’s Lake Michigan home in the Whitehall area. His first reaction to the beam in the home was no, given a previous run-in he’d had on the

lake with a similar piece of wood that caused trouble for his family’s boat. Now, it’s his favorite part of the room, along with the overall closet renovation. This photo was taken before the door pulls were in place.

jEFF KIEssEL | daiLy News

Keri Sipes cuts the slats of lathe while Stephen places them.

Julie Ann McDonald talks to Stephen and Keri Sipes about the vision for the closet.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News

sOmEThINg NEwIt was after 6 p.m. Friday

— official project Day 1 — when Stephen and Keri fin-ished the slats on the clos-et, held up by the cement adhesive, first in finding enough of it in Ludington — it took trips to multiple stores — then in the sec-ondary type taking longer to dry than expected.

“The low point was when we discovered the contact cement that we liked to use was unavailable anymore so we had to go with a differ-ent brand, and that brand took longer to set up so it extended the job longer than we thought it would, which cut into the time of everyone else being able to complete their portion of it, too,” Stephen said.

Keri agreed, but said, “it turned out great.”

Kelli, Tim and Julie ended their Friday night by paint-ing the whole closet exte-rior.

On Saturday, the closet was sanded and stained to give it a weathered look.

Tim assembled the repur-posed bed and the rest of the furniture was brought in for staging.

Stephen and Keri Sipes used their precision mea-surements in the project and “our cuts were accu-rate,” but Keri said she liked the ideas they took from Julie, who is more freehand about her work. The Sipeses enjoyed doing some pur-posefully unaligned lathe slats for a casual look.

“That was just very free-ing,” Keri said. “It was nice to do something off what we usually do. We climbed out of the box and we liked it.”

Keri’s favorite piece in the room is the dresser, sanded, painted, sanded and stained.

“With (Julie’s) special technique, it looks awe-some,” Keri said.

For the closet shelving, Keri and Stephen used pal-let wood — finished with tung oil and they made an end-of-the-bed bench from a piece of laminated veneer lumber Julie brought over and 4x 6s for the legs.

ThE cOsTThe project was given a

$2,000 budget, and it came in at a cost of $1,170.

The two biggest costs were $200 for floor-project supplies, plus the cost of the bedspread. The rest of the pieces were recycled, many from second-hand stores — a $4 table from the Salvation Army — and a few new pieces, including a shelf from Walmart.

The project required four

cans of cement adhesive, three bottles at $16.99 and one at $28, and about $25 in lathe.

Julie wanted the Smiths to select the bedspread early on.

“That will be the focal point of the room,” Julie said.

Tim found three and the Smiths let Julie select from them.

“They took a breath of relief when I picked their fa-vorite,” Julie said. “We were right on board with each other.”

FINIshINg ThE PROjEcT

The only portion of the space not completely fin-ished was the final coat or two of finish on the stairs.

“Other than that, they said they’re not touching a thing,” Julie said.

“This has been fun,” Tim said.

His idea of a renovation would have been to paint the walls and ceiling, he said.

The total transformation of the room was more than he could have hoped for, he said.

Next, the Smiths will tack-le the other dated rooms in the home that had belonged to Kelli’s grandparents Amil and Helen Laird. Tim and Kelli bought the home after Helen died last summer. It is just a couple of blocks from Tim’s parents’ home, and it became especially im-portant to be close by when his mother, Jeanne, was ill. She died Jan. 12.

Now Tim and Kelli want to remain near Tim’s father, Gary, so it’s easy to get to-gether and spend time with

one another, picking each other up for fishing trips.

sTAyINg cLOsEAlready, as

the project was coming to a close, the crew talked about their newfound friendships being lasting relationships.

Julie said she thought her truck might au-tomatically drive to the Smiths’ home each morning

as it had been used to doing each day.

“We had a great time,” Keri said. “We started build-ing relationships and we’re going to stay connected to Kelli and Tim and Julie.”

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Stephen and Keri fashioned shelving out of pallet wood. It was finished with tung oil.Rope — stained for character —was used for closet door pulls.

Learning lessons along the way

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy NewsKeri Sipes holds a shelf up to the wall for spacing. Julie Ann McDonald found the shelf at Walmart, then through the proj-ect the crew sanded it, painted it, sanded it again and stained it. The repurposed dresser, at left, is Keri’s favorite part of the room. She is thinking aloud about doing a similar project to a dresser in her own home.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy NewsKelli Smith, on the stairway, shows Julie Ann McDonald, left, along with Shelley Kovar and Julie Payment of the Daily News the upstairs guest bedroom in need of a makeover.

‘we were right on board with each other.’

julie Ann mcdonald

jEFF KIEssEL | daiLy NewsKelli Smith paints the closet, protecting the floor after she and Tim refinished it just in time for the Room Redo to begin. The paint and primer were a gift from Sherwin-Williams.

KELLI smITh | coUrtesy photoThe entrance corner to the room features the same dresser that was there originally, but now it’s repurposed, sanded, painted, sanded, stained and waxed. The large mirror that had adorned the top of the dresser was removed and a simpler mirror — unattached — is in its place. The decora-tions include a photo found in the dresser behind the shelves that was part of a promotion for something called a Sea Scooter. Below the picture is a frame from a honey bee hive that now is used to display old fishing lures. A vintage tackle box and wooden cherry crate top the dresser.

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KELLI smITh | coUrtesy photo

Tim Smith makes his way down the stairs, past a new BEACH sign, made from a cabinet door. This corner features refurbished chairs and bench, with the bench now covered with a burlap coffee sack. Kelli (Bly) Smith, owner of Le Serving Spoon restaurant in downtown Ludington, loves a good cup of coffee, and designer Julie Ann McDonald enjoys using the fabric. “If I had a kindred fabric, it would be burlap,” Kelli said. Also in this corner, hanging from the shelf hooks, are a barn pulley and a small buoy. The shelf also holds a hurricane candle holder that houses buoys.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News

Julie Ann McDonald worked with the homeowners and builders to create this look, including a bench made of a laminated veneer lumber piece for the top and 4 x 6s for the legs. In addition to the new comforter, the bed/bench are adorned with a new natural-colored afghan and nautical blue pillow. Below the bench is a vintage Mason County cherry box labeled from its origin, Houk farms.The rug, a sand color, was a gift from Lowe’s.

sTEVE BEgNOchE | daiLy NewsKeri Sipes admires the dresser as Tim Smith and Julie Ann Mc-Donald look over the work they did.

Tim Smith paints the head-board to give the dated bed a fresh look.

KELLI smITh | coUrtesy photos

Bamboo blinds match the natural feel the room now offers.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News

Julie Ann McDonald sands the dresser after its fresh coat of blue paint.

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jEFF KIEssEL | daiLy NewsTim Smith and Julie Ann McDonald look over options for placement of a captain’s wheel. It ended up in the closet, perched on the shelving by the end of the day. If they decided not to use it, that would be just fine. She has a list of people waiting for it through her business Old McDonald’s Farm Finds.

A wooden table purchased at a secondhand store for a few dollars was sanded, painted, sanded, stained and waxed before it was ready for use in the room.

Below, the First Street home’s living room was one of the work spaces in the house, here used to let the refurbished chairs, table and bench have a place to to rest.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy NewsBenchmark Homes employee Chris Bevier installs newly painted baseboard for the project.

Gary Smith and Julie Ann McDonald paint the room together. The walls are the col-or Jubilee from Sherwin-Williams. Gary is painting the exterior of the closet, which eventually is covered in lathe.

KELLI smITh | coUrtesy photo

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News

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jEFF KIEssEL | daiLy News The room is nearing completion. Above the headboard are a paddle and an oar. On the headboard/bookshelf are blue Ball jars, which Julie Ann McDonald “harvested” from a dilapidated building space she had to jump down into and climb out of, working with the property owner to make use of some of the abandoned items found. The bookshelf top also features a repainted, sanded buoy and a painted, sanded plastic duck made to look like a vintage wooden decoy.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News Kelli Smith and Julie Ann McDonald talk about ideas for the room during the room selection process.

PATTI KLEVORN | daiLy News Keri Sipes talks about her favorite piece in the room, the refurbished dresser. The walls down the stairwell show the signs Julie and Tim created from discarded cabi-net doors. Keri and Stephen hung the signs once the room was ready for them.

Nikon, the Smiths’ yellow Lab, was there through ev-ery step of the project. Her

favorite part of the project? It would probably be a

tossup between the extra attention or the crumbs the

crew would leave as they stopped for snacks.

jEFF KIEssEL | daiLy News

Kelli Smith places items Julie Ann McDonald brought over, mostly from her Old McDonald’s Farm Finds stock, placing them on the ledge heading up the stairwell. Among the items is an architectural piece, one of four legs for a massive wooden king-sized bed frame, which Julie pulled apart to use as separate pieces.

sTEVE BEgNOchE | daiLy NewsKay Howell was the Room Redo’s first runner-up. Her room was already an attractive space, and she has plenty of vintage decor to work with, but Kay was looking for help overcoming her fear of doing her own projects. The whole Room Redo crew was interested in helping Kay. Julie Ann McDonald will work with her on her first piece of furniture, and Stephen and Keri Sipes offered to frame her chimney and hang the window she has hanging from the ceiling on a wall as Julie suggested. Kay was thrilled to hear about the offer to work with Julie and will be surprised to learn here about the offer to have some help from Benchmark Homes as well. We’ll follow the progress.