The Sexiest Before and After. Like Ever.
March 1, 2011
Ooooh big promises with that title! I’m gonna bring it!
My friends, as I was installing the board and batten in my boy’s room I realized that the bottom shelf of the two $5 dollar shelves I installed a few months back had to get outta town to make room for the big bad B&B.
The shelf had to be moved to make room for the wall treatment. What’s sad was not the removal of the shelf, but the ensuing gaping horrible hole that removing it left in my wall. Why such a ghastly hole? Well, I insisted six months ago that those shelves were muy permanente. Like, they weren’t going to be moved for years baby years so go right ahead darling husband and use some big bad nails to secure it to the wall. Big! Bad! Nails! Into the Studs! Do it baby do it !!!!
I imagined that if ever I needed to move those shelves, I could simply pop them off, no prob, right?
Ooops.
What’s a girl to to? Repair it pronto. It might have made sense to repair the hole before installing the top rail, but since the hole starts right there, I’m rollin’ with it.
Just like the patch job on my kitchen backsplash, the hole needed to be repaired with some drywall mesh tape and patching compound. When I went searching for the mesh tape, I found this dusty kit in my garage, circa 2005, left over from our house remodel. Same ingredients found within, woot!
Technically this kit is for wall cracks, but the instructions also allow for holes too. Basically, anything you can cover with the mesh tape counts. Have you accidentally punched a hole in your wall lately? Here’s how to fix it my friends.
First, apply adhesive tape to your wall, allowing for at least an inch around the problem spot.
Next, prepare your patching compound. Premixed pouches come in quite handy.
Apply a small amount to your spreader and start a spreadin.
And yes, that is R2-D2’s leg in the background. Sexy!
Good eye you Star Wars fanatics.
A swipe here, a swipe there, and the patching compound will do its job.
Next comes time to retexture the wall. Please allow me to step on my soap box for a brief moment. It should be an infraction punishable by serious fine to spray a sheetrocked wall with orange peel texture. I am not a fan. Never have been, never will be. When we remodeled a few years back, we retextured most of the downstairs walls with a smooth finish, but in two of the upstairs bedrooms the orange peel remains. However, with no time or dinero to resurface these painted walls (other than the B&B below), we’re rolling with it.
To retexture, I had to purchase this delightful product.
It was painful, but necessary.
Make sure you test it out first on a piece of stray cardboard or paneling.
Spray it on your patched wall, then repaint.
Naturally, fixing a hole in my wall had this song running through my mind the entire time. {Sidenote: what is wrong with these kids on American Idol who have never heard nor sang a Beatles tune in their life? That should be cause for immediate dismissal IMHO.}
So here’s the dramatic Before and After you’ve all been waiting for!
Totally haawwt.
The sexiest Before and After. Like ever!
I told you I would bring it.
Punched any accidental holes in your walls lately?
.P
Tags: repairing hole in wall
Very funny post! I’m with you with the AI contestants not knowing Beatles tunes….immediate dismissal in order!
And Justin thinks HE brought sexy back!
Fabulous, Kate! I noticed we have a hole in one of our walls and I have no idea how it got there. I will be patching tomorrow! Thank you!
You ALWAYS bring it babe! We removed the wall unit air conditioner from the living room and as you could imagine that left a whopping big hole that had to be filled with bricks. Trouble was the had the wrong bricks so had to block it with wood until we could find the right ones! Check out my post for a laugh http://jarrahjungle.blogspot.com/2010/11/hole-in-wall.html
Very sexy! I have to admit that thanks to my boys (when they were younger), I am all to familiar with drywall mesh tape and patching compound.
I know how hard it is to match existing texture … that stuff sprays out of that can in a hurry! Great job!
Whoa! That is HOT! Lol! I love the tutorial!
It’s been brought! LOL
I DO have a hole I need to patch! I’ve had the supplies for a while, but I was afraid to make the repair. Thanks!!
ha! well you definitely drew me in! BUT, knowing the pain (and potential marriage therapy required following such a hole incident) I am very proud of you and understand your pain! Great work.
You are kick a– awesome! I made the mistake of putting double sided tape stuff on the walls to hang letters and when I pulled it off, wall to the drywall came down, will be hunting for a kit like yours! Thanks!
That WOULD have come in handy about 10 years ago in high school when my brother really did punch a hole in the wall. He’s a cage fighter now, no lie. I should have known…
excellent before and after. that is a big OH YEAH for you!!! Doesn’t it feel good to look at? I did that to a giant hole in my kitchen wall and after I fixed it i could not stop staring at that blank space on the wall. Pure satisfaction!!!!!
You have me examining my walls now. Yup, orange peel. Now I know how to fix them!
So impressive! Thanks for sharing your secret – you probably saved my marriage. Gonna go patch me some holes!
Whoa. That was totally badass!
That IS a sexy b&a! You did an amazing job. If I hadn’t seen it, I would never know there had been BIG nails there that required this amount of work. Indy was sitting next to me while I read through and immediately caught the R2-D2 leg. Boys! BTW, our awesome military housing (oh, I’m sorry, did I drip sarcasm on you there?) has CONCRETE walls. Hanging anything on them is a major undertaking that involves a drill with a special bit that vibrates or hammers or something like that. James Bond gets scared when I pull out the drill. :)
BTW, we did NOT watch AI for Beatles night because James Bond is such a huge Beatles fan I was afraid we would have to rush to the ER with him in cardiac arrest. I did hear about how many of them had never sung or HEARD of the Beatles though. Really? NEVER HEARD OF THE BEATLES???? Have they been living on Mars, under a rock with their eyes closed, their fingers in their ears and singing la-la-la-la their whole lives? I fear for the future! And what is wrong with their parents that they never played the Beatles around the house????? Indy has about 15-20 Beatles songs on his iPod and he’s 8. BTW, Han Solo’s (due in 8 weeks) real name has “something” to do with the Beatles. James Bond picked it.
Wow, I am impressed! Great job!
You are funny. That’s a great patch job. I guess the textured walls make it easier to hide.
Very sexy…need a cold shower for that one! :) Unfortunately, I have that technique down pat! Ugh.
Fantastic job! Never guess there was a hole there.
You ARE awesome, and yes, we do happen to have a large hole in our bathroom because my son ripped the towel circle thingy off the wall. It’s stayed there covered by a plastic bag for about a month now, because I had no idea how to fix it! THANK YOU!
Girl, that is totally sexy! You did NOT disappoint!!
HOT!
You had me crackin’ up this hole time … get it? Ha. You’re such a handy (wo)man, Centsational Girl, and I love it! DIY Girl Power!
Ooooo…nothing says sexy like pathed dry wall.
patched…yeah. Type-o’s are sexy, too.
Practicality is ALWAYS sexy in my book! BTW did I miss the air gun winner announcement? I have every crossable part of my body crossed for this one!! ;)
I kid you not…repairing a few gaping holes in our home was on my to-do list today! You can imagine how welcome your little post was to my now-confident heart b/c I have never done it before, and was only going to try to do it based on what the guys @ Lowe’s told me to do! thanks, sista!!!
I love the wall color, what is it?!
and I thought I was hilarious on my blog…..
Wow, Kate, that was an amazing fix! I cannot even find it in the after shot. Excellent job!
We don’t have any holes in our house, but what we do have is even more annoying. Our house was brand new when we purchased it 6 years ago. So, understandably, there are quite bit of settling. Now there are some long stress lines at corners of window or door frames, where they jointed drywalls, and some nails started popping. Guess the builder didn’t do such a good job. =( Do you know whether your kit will fix these types of problems? Thanks,
Great patch job! I was faced with the same dilemma while tackling my fireplace remodel. Removing the tile caused major drywall damage that I had to repair. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the spray on texture because I HATE IT. I ended up troweling on Joint Compound to the whole room. It was inexpensive and worth the effort. It turned out beautiful.
I will definitely be buying a few of these kits to fix some cracks and gaps in our second story. I was at a loss as to how to do it simply. Thanks for the tip!
Of course. they’ve probably changed the packing since 2005 and I’ll be wandering around the hardware store like a total girl because I don’t see that exact. same. packaging. lol
Where was this post last summer?! We moved into a darling apartment, and hung this shelf in the living room. I was really excited, and put all the stuff on it that I wanted up there. Well, about 20 minutes later, we heard this huge CRRASSHHHH, and ran into the living room to find that it had pulled out of the wall and dropped, landing on the tv. Luckily, nothing was broken except the tv unit (which the store replaced for free actually), but there were some gaping holes in the wall. It was a nightmare! I am going to save this post, it’s a handy thing to know!
Love your design on Simplified Bee!
Mary Ann
Great job! Love your blog! Just thought I’d let you in on a method to prevent wall damage when removing nails from studs/sheet rock over studs. Place a broad (5 inch or so) clean putty knife between your wall and the hammer or pry bar when pullin the nails out. The knife will diffuse the pressure so the wall board wont dent or rip.
I know, I know….Next time!
I’ll have to find that kind with the adhesive mesh tape. We used one with metal mesh, and could never get it to sand down enough to not look like there was something there. Oh, and I never knew there was such a thing as orange peel texture! What in the world??? And I agree with another post… you always bring it, CG!
Congratulations, you have officially brought sexy back! LOL However, pardon my random and slightly perverted mind, but I just about died when I read this on the crack repair kit package: “for cracks up to 4′ long”! My mind immediately went to a part of the body that we normally associate with cracks… HAHAHA!! :) Immature, I know. But funny!
lol..this post made me laugh.. I am notorious for creating holes in my walls..
Your too funny!!!! And might I add Im super jealous of your super fabulous results. Lets just say I patched up a hold in the wall and it looks a bit like abstract art. Currently we have a picture covering it =)
Wow, thanks Kate! I have a couple of enormous wall holes left by Prince Charming’s insistence on surround sound with THE BIGGEST SPEAKERS AVAILABLE. They required super heavy duty anchor-y things, blech. And of course, the mounting bracket broke on one of them, thank you China for another fine product. I will have to get on that patchwork!
Great job! There are also those metal patch covers that can help on really large holes too. Don’t know what I would do without that tape.
Debbie
Your timing for this is PRICELESS!!! Thank you!! :)
Great patch job! thanks for the tute. Question: where is the wainscotting in the first picture with the shelf? totally perplexed. All I see is plain wall under the shelf, but in the repair photos, there is wainscotting? Just wondering? Love, love your blog. Sat here for hours looking at all the revamps. You rock!
OH GOD YES. My daughter accidentally put a hole in the wall upstairs trying to kung-fu kick her brother. Now I can fix it. Yay!
We had some kids over for dinner that almost did last night. I think my hubby almost had a heart attack watching the kid pound the wall with his foot like 6 times before his mom grabbed him.