The Room
Some rooms have potential you can feel the moment you walk in. High ceilings, a sliding glass door, and three large windows spanning the whole wall where a garage door used to be — this room was practically begging to be something special. On any sunny afternoon, it’s flooded with light. It’s the kind of room that deserves a name. So we’re calling it the solarium.
The only problem? The previous owners painted it brown. Not a rich, warm, intentional brown. Just… brown. The kind of color that’s so aggressively inoffensive it almost sneaks past you — until one day you really look at it and think, “why does this feel so sad in here?”
That day came for me in October 2024.
The Paint
Fast forward to today, and I’m finally — finally — rolling the last coat of a deep, gorgeous blue onto these walls. It’s the kind of color that does something unexpected in direct sunlight: it pops. It feels alive. It makes the room feel like it was always supposed to look this way, which I think is the mark of a good paint choice.
I keep thinking about what this room is going to look like once I get plants in here. Against this deep blue, they’re going to stand out beautifully — all that green popping against the color, lit up by afternoon sun pouring through those windows. I genuinely cannot wait.
Sixteen months from “I should really paint this” to actually painting it. Very on brand for me.
The Stairs
But paint is just the beginning. The room has a bigger problem, and it’s one I’ve known about since the day I moved in: the stairs.
Picture an octagon-shaped landing, steps radiating off it at slightly different angles, and — here’s the fun part — absolutely no railing of any kind. It’s a design choice that I can only describe as bold. Boldly wrong. Scotty is an old dog now, and those stairs make the room effectively entirely inaccessible to him. And that’s before I even think about any guests who might need a little extra support.
The stairs have to go. Or at least, they have to be rebuilt properly.
Here’s where it gets interesting: the tile floor in this room is actually really nice, and I want to keep it. So before I can figure out what the new landing looks like, I need to find out how far the tile runs under the existing stairs. It might change everything about the redesign.
That’s the next task — some careful detective work before I can commit to a plan.
What’s Next
The solarium is coming together, one decision at a time. Slowly, imperfectly, but it’s happening. And honestly? That’s kind of the whole point of this blog.
More updates soon.
— Shai Guy