- This is really important because
if you do not start level,
then the whole wallpaper roll comes down crooked.
[upbeat music]
Hi, are you Helena?
I'm Mandy Cheng.
I'm an interior designer,
and I'm going to help Helena reclaim
her dining room nook
from her kids.
I have one afternoon to transform this space.
- Yeah, are you Mandy?
Hi, my name's Helena Bermingham.
We used to have this space as a bar nook area
and it has quickly turned into a kids area.
Now we're trying to reclaim this space as a bar again.
Come on in.
- Thank you.
Oh, wow.
Wow, you were right about the bubbling.
- [Helena] It was a little challenging.
The wall isn't all that straight.
- Yeah, it's also hard to get the patterns
to line up perfectly.
Tell me about this space.
- Yeah, so it used to be a bar.
- [Mandy] Fun.
- Then we had our first daughter
and it quickly evolved into a Lego stand,
and that has completely taken over.
Everything overflowing everywhere.
So now we're looking to turn it back into a bar space
where we can enjoy our drinks while we're having dinner.
So very functional but definitely not a kid's space anymore.
- So a kid friendly bar
but not one where they can also drink.
- Yes.
- Got it.
I'm gonna try to get this all done in one day.
I'd love to get started.
I think we're gonna try to wallpaper now.
How do you feel about that?
Helena had a patterned wallpaper
where you could really see the texture
of the walls as well as the bubbling of the paper.
I've chosen a wallpaper that has a very small pattern on it
and not very much white.
With this, you really can't see any bubbling,
any texturing of the walls at all.
I'm pulling this kind of slowly and evenly because if not,
it might pull the drywall off like this right here.
Like this, it's a really, really thin layer.
It's basically just this last coat of paint.
So we can sand it and you won't notice it
when we repaint the wall.
But I don't want to pull off a giant chunk of drywall.
So we're doing it a little bit slow.
[fast rhythmic music]
I'll use this painter's tape to tape down the plastic
and then you want to FrogTape the baseboards?
FrogTape is the best painter's tape.
It helps with painting really clean lines.
Blue tape is also painter's tape.
But when you put it on the wall,
you have to press really hard
to keep the paint from bleeding.
But the FrogTape,
it has really good adhesive
so it just gives you a cleaner line with less effort.
That looks so good.
- It's a nice color.
- What I'd like to do is run one roll down the center
and then split it so that there's a portion on this side
and a portion on this side,
so that when you walk in and you look,
you don't see a seam running down the center of the wall.
This is really important because if you do not start level,
then the whole wallpaper roll comes down crooked.
[upbeat music]
[clock ticking]
[upbeat music]
We are getting ready to install this toe kick.
This is gonna serve as the platform
for our cabinet that we purchased.
Then we'll attach the cabinet
to the wall on top of this platform
and then it'll look like a custom built-in.
[multi-tool buzzing]
It's a multi-tool.
You can make it sand as well.
It's really nice for like very precise,
tiny measurements like that.
So we're hoping that the walls are straight enough
that when we drop this in, everything fits perfectly.
It doesn't always happen on the first go.
So if we need to,
we will cut more of the baseboard,
but we're trying to cut as little as possible
so that when we fit this in,
it looks like a custom built-in.
These are just, you know, standard pieces of pine plywood.
You can cut them according to the size of your opening.
If you take a look at them,
it's very simple construction,
but this is basically how any custom cabinet maker
builds a toe kick.
The key to this is once you build it,
you then need to level it.
So we have some shims that help with leveling.
Once it's level, you screw it into the wall
and that makes this part stable.
So you can see already along the back wall,
how the wall is concave.
So that's why all of these shims and leveling
is really important so that when we build on top of it,
everything is straight from this point forward.
Cool.
Toe kick's in.
I chose this walnut color for the toe kick
because I felt like it fit really well
with the colors in this space.
The common thread is that the undertone is the same.
It has the same reddish brown hues to it.
It's just intensity is different.
I've separated these into two different rows,
just to give you a better idea.
These would all work really well in this space
with the tone of the floors and of the table.
This row would not work well,
just because there is too much color variation
and they don't really work with the undertones
that we have in this house.
[mellow jazz music]
We definitely don't want this to tip forward
so we've put screws in the back
that we can just put a little melamine sticker over
that hides it.
That way, you know,
if kids are climbing up this cabinet
or there's an earthquake,
it doesn't fall over.
[clock ticking]
Okay, floating shelves.
So this right now is the only surface for making a drink,
and I just felt like it would be nice to have a second one,
but one that's not always out and always in the way.
So I got this little collapsible table.
All you have to do is pull this down
and she has an extra tabletop surface.
Then when she needs to access stuff on the shelf,
all she has to do is push this back up.
Okay, let's get these shelves up.
[mellow jazz music]
I'm doing floating shelves here
that do not span the full width.
Because if you leave a little bit of space,
they give you a little bit of flexibility
in case your walls aren't perfectly straight.
[drill whirring]
I grabbed a wine rack.
It's a good spot to just hang wine glasses
where they don't really obstruct
what you place on this bottom shelf.
It's high enough that a kid can't reach it.
It's also, you know,
kind of at your eye level so it makes sense to have it here.
You can grab it,
use this surface or the flip down table surface
to pour yourself a glass of wine.
I'm not tall enough to do this.
Patrick is getting ready to install the highest shelf.
It's actually gonna span the entire wall.
I chose to add this one particular shelf just
to keep your eye moving upwards,
because otherwise it would stop right here
and it would make this space feel a little squattier.
I want it to feel taller and bigger,
so we're going all the way up to the ceiling.
[upbeat music]
[clock ticking]
[upbeat music]
This is earthquake putty.
I use it when I put stuff on shelves
where it might fall over onto you.
You just put it in a ball, stick it,
and then put whatever you want on top of it.
It holds it down in the event of an earthquake.
[upbeat music ends]
[relaxing music]
All right, so the space is ready.
You wanna go check it out?
- Yes, I do.
[Helena gasping]
Oh my gosh, it looks amazing!
I love it!
- [Mandy] I'm glad you like it.
- [Helena] Thank you so much.
- You're so welcome.
- I can't wait to have a drink.
[Mandy laughing]
- [Mandy] Does it feel adult once again?
- [Helena] It does, it looks absolutely amazing.
It just is completely transformed
and there's no more bubbles on the wall.
- [Mandy] There's no more bubbles on the wall.
- [Helena] Yes, and I love how it's just clean lines.
Even the color tone of it is perfect.
- Agreed, it feels very grown up
and it feels like a cohesive,
entertaining space now.
But also down here,
I made it kid/baby friendly.
So even if they do pull things off the shelf,
it's not gonna top along to their heads.
- [Helena] Yeah, I love it.
- We have it done.
I was originally actually going
to put brass knobs on this cabinet.
But I decided for kid-friendly reasons,
I didn't,
because little kids are really good at pulling knobs.
- Yes, they are.
- So I kept them off.
If you do want to open them.
[Helena gasping]
- [Helena] How gorgeous, I love it.
Yeah, I love how it's just really clean.
- The nice thing about this is when you're not entertaining,
this could be like a hazard, I guess,
if you're walking into this space
and you're not really expecting it.
So the nice thing is that these are magnets
and all you have to do is pop it up.
- [Helena] Oh, that's so cool.
I love it.
- [Mandy] You have so much more accessibility
to your shelves.
- It's really safe, it's perfect.
- When you have friends over, I mean,
how do you see yourself using this space?
- Normally we have small gatherings
and so we just sit here at the table,
gather around,
and we'll be able to have our drinks just right here.
- [Mandy] I love that.
I love that I've centralized everything to one area.
- I'm so excited!
We'll have to have everyone over again.
- We're doing it again.
- [Helena] Yes.
[Mandy laughing]