Vintage Showroom Makeover (PART 1) *New Floors, Paint & Shelving*

Previously on my channel, I shared that I got the keys to my brand new gallery slash showroom space, which is actually the space that I'm going to be using to curate, coordinate, and be able to show all of my vintage goods that are available over on my website, loanfox.com, because currently they're all in the lower unit of my duplex, just sitting around, waiting to be sold. And guess what? We need them out so we could start transforming the lower level of the duplex in 2025. Designing and creating an inspiring and ever-changing showroom is exactly what I'm trying to do in this space. So come along for the journey, and we have quite a bit to get done today. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to my channel. Drew here from Loan Fox, and we are back in the gallery. Let me give you guys a little wide angle view. Look at that. It looks so good. And I don't know if you can tell, you probably honestly can't tell, but I actually ended up having this space painted over Christmas, and it looks so, so good in here. So basically it was before always like a white, but it looked like the ceiling before was almost like a tinge of a grayish tone, and it also probably hadn't been painted in five, six, seven years. So I wanted to give it a fresh coat of paint just to make it nice and bright and airy. And this is a color I opted for. This is called Simply White by Benjamin Moore. It's a really nice creamy, not stark white, but it kind of has like some yellowy tones to it. And it looks great in here. But as you can see, we have kind of gone through a little bit today already and done a little bit of prep work to the floor here. And it is about time to start rolling on the paint on the floor in the gallery space, because I originally was considering redoing the floors actually. And as you guys saw in my first tour video, the black paint actually had wood underneath it. And so I was really happy about this finding in this site. But then upon further investigation, I found out that all of these duct tape spots, you can kind of see they're hiding gouges in the floor that were kind of like filled with putty and then just taped over the top of. And so essentially the floor underneath is not salvageable. So I am just going to give this a full coat of paint because honestly, that's what my painter told me to do. He said to not invest any on this floor and just get the coat of paint over the top. Don't really do any prep to the floor, but we have already gone in and cut in around the edges. And then we're also doing just like a preliminary coat on all of the areas where the floor is showing. So just going in with the brush and painting over all these spots. And then I'm going to be doing a full coat with rollers. For the paint in here, this is the product that I'm using. It's the Benjamin Moore floor and patio paint. Never used this before, but my painter said it's the best option. And this is the one he recommended. It's actually a low sheen floor enamel. And I got it in the color black. I literally Googled what is a blackish shade that Benjamin Moore offers and it's called black. So that's what we're doing. We're running on this little hook pouring paint. I think what I'm going to actually do is like pretend like I'm spinning and then the paint flies out of the can on accident. I don't know if that was good enough, you guys. Even though there's paint all over the floor and a little bit on the wall, but it ain't too bad. Hey, we're going to do a little bit closer. I'm scared. I think that's fine. We got something there. We got something. So to roll these floors, I actually broke out my long stick roller. And then I got this attachment that allows you to use these long roller heads. I think these are like 18 inches long. So we're going to be able to get a lot more surface area and both Justin and I have one. Hopefully that's all we'll need since it already has like a black base to it. I don't think we need too many coats to cover it. Oh my gosh, you guys, look how much better this is looking so far. We're literally just pouring the paint out of the bucket and just sweeping it along the floor and kind of rolling it, making sure it's nice and smooth. But I definitely am applying a little bit of a thicker layer because we're going to let it dry for like a week in here. So it will cure down fully. Honestly, you guys, this floor paint made this whole room feel so fresh. Look how this space is looking now. The sun's setting outside, so it's not too bright in here at the moment, but wow. Of course, the floor paint is still wet. We did a nice, good coat. We're gonna let this cure for a couple of days and then we can start bringing in some items, which is so exciting. We're gonna let this cure down and I will see you back when we are working in the showroom again. So today, am I painting clothes because I'm actually gonna be painting the wall here that's going to be our photo backdrop. I just had a meeting with good friends, Michael Clifford, who has shot a bunch of the spaces in my home. He's such a talented photographer and he's actually going to help me set up the photo studio space because I know nothing about artificial lighting and I know I want to be able to control the lighting in this space. I'm really excited also to have a proper set that I can shoot things in, whether it even be DIYs in the future. Basically, he was saying though that the light that we've ordered, I ordered a bunch of equipment and if any of you guys know about lighting equipment, filming equipment, it is just so expensive, you guys. And the thing is, is you can't get it cheaper. Like, it's like you either have to use this or you don't use it. So I splurged in some lighting equipment that I'm very excited about and he also said that we should make our backdrop wall here a bit darker so it doesn't feel too blown out in the photos. And I agree. So I'm actually going to be painting it the same color I've been using for all of my backdrops, which is Joah's White by Farrow and Ball. It's a beautiful kind of creamy, light, light, light taupey white color and I think it's just going to add a nice warmth, a wash of colors to the wall. And the other great thing is we're going to be covering all of this with wood flooring. So I don't really need to like mask off the floor because I'm going to be covering it regardless and it's pretty damaged anyway. So let's get started. I broke up my wide roller again because it really does make painting so quick and easy. I didn't get the 18 inch wide one for this one because when you do have textured walls, it is kind of hard to press the surface of an 18 inch wide roller across the entire wall. So I ended up getting the 12 or 14 inch one, which made it just so quick and easy to paint this wall with two coats of the Joah's White. I probably spent like two hours doing this. It was really not too bad. I'm currently at Lowe's to check out some of the vinyl floor options that they have because in the new studio space, I want to have a nice little photo section. So I kind of want to create like a mock wood floor on the ground, but it's nice because I only need like 120, 130 square feet of floor. So it shouldn't be too bad cost-wise and I think it's going to make a big impact for our photos. So let's see what options there are. Oh my goodness, here we are. Okay, so essentially for the set and for taking photos of furniture and vintage pieces, I kind of feel like we've been using a lighter wood floor, something like this, which is in the bottom of my house. And I really, really actually like that. I am also sort of open to going like a little warmer too, because I am just like very prone to loving anything warm toned. However, something neutral always lets the tones of the furniture really shine. Cause sometimes I feel like this floor can kind of compete. These are all too much variation, a lot of variation here. I'm not obsessed where you can see like the seam lines. I really thought these were quite pretty. Even this one here, but kind of leaning a bit more onto this one, which is Alpine Reserve Oak. I feel like that looks really nice. It has like a nice neutral tone. It has like some coolness, but then there's definitely warmness in there too. So it kind of like neutralizes itself. Okay, my cart was stolen, but I'm too nice. So I'm going to go find another one. I don't know if you guys are like that too. Like if your cart got taken, like would you tell the person it was your cart? I'm just like, oh well, I'm going to go get a new one. I'm the worst blogger. I forgot to share that I got five of these packs of wood here. This was the Alpine one. I believe it was like a second option. I looked them up online. I'll pop up the two that I was kind of leaning towards on the screen right here. One of them just had more like knots and variation. And then this one just seemed to be a little bit more streamlined, a little bit more cohesive. So opted for this and I got five boxes. So this will give us a nice large area to take photos. You guys, look, we have our first little showroom delivery, which is so exciting. It's actually a lot of pieces coming today. These have been in transit for a long, long, long time. So it's really exciting to get items like this because they're bundled up and packed. And then it's kind of like Christmas. You're going to see each piece and all of these are vintage, old from other countries. And I'm just so excited to unveil these and see them. Oh my gosh, this is a bench and it is way bigger than I thought it was. This is why days of delivery is fun because you get to see the actual scale of items that you just kind of were picturing in your head. So we have some chairs over here, a bench over here. There's a massive coffee table right here too. This was my first time ever installing vinyl plank flooring. And something I will say is it is very, very easy. I could so see myself doing this in a apartment in the future or like a space I'm transforming. It was not challenging whatsoever. Once you get a hang of it, it's kind of just like a little bit of a puzzle and you just work along with the entire process, snap them into place. And it actually goes pretty quick once you start kind of going. Good morning, everybody. It has been a crazy few days in Los Angeles. I'm sure everyone's probably aware of the fires that are happening here. And I kind of was laying low the past few days at home and just not going out. But today, as you can see, it's just a little better out. And I'm hoping that the fires, of course, are going to be contained soon. I think they're at 10% each, which is just honestly still nothing. But I do have a scheduled delivery today of some shelving that I want to have installed in the showroom space. So I figured we still need to accept that. It's going to be just like some pallet shelving that we're going to use for furniture. It has arrived. I actually love the color of the sides. Then we have gray bars and some wood for the shelves. The two lights I ordered for the space got delivered this morning. Look how big the boxes are. I mean, I'm six foot tall and they're massive. Just so, so big. But that's all we need. We honestly need two really big lights to kind of fill the open ceiling space. And I'm going to open one just to get an idea. And then I figured let's do it together while they're offloading the shelving right now. Oh my gosh, you guys, look. Look at how big this light is. It's 41 inches across. And it was like the largest light I was able to find. It also has a frosted glass that kind of like domes a bit over it. It has these big arms that hold it as well. This is going to be really, really pretty and add a nice bit of natural touch because our natural wood ceiling isn't painted. Okay, I got really lucky with sizing on this wall here because this is sort of like the main entry into our large showroom space. But this wall here, I didn't love because the drywall here, as you can see, is not really nicely done. It's the only wall in here that's like not the cleanest in terms of finish. So I thought we can add shelving here. So I went on Marketplace as I normally do. I found some warehouse shelving and a team that installs it as well. So basically there's going to be this long section here on the left. There's going to be one in the middle. There's going to be one on the right. And then these are the crossbars here. So it's going to be like one shelf here and then one more shelf like right here. And I can put chairs, lighter weight pieces up here just to utilize vertical space. The shelving is all done and it looks so good. Marie literally just asked me, she's like, are you renting this? Or like, what's the deal? And I was like, I bought the shelving and then I want to turn this kind of into a chair wall full of chairs and have sofas at the bottom. This for example, that we can easily pop on and off. See, we can just have like a little set of four and another one out there. I just have to get like a proper ladder. Things are shaping up here. It's looking so good. And tomorrow we are starting the photo set area. So I'll see you guys back here tomorrow. We're going to start taking photos and setting up the space for our photo set. Today is a very exciting day because something I will tell you guys is I am definitely a nerd when it comes to photos and lighting and being able to take beautiful images. And I have Michael Clifford, who is such an incredible photographer here today, helping out set up the photo set because I knew I wasn't going to be able to do this by myself. I genuinely didn't have any idea on how to do it. So he sent me over a list of all the supplies and tools he felt that I needed for the space. I ordered them and then he came and helped me set up the entire space. And something I found interesting about this setup compared to my previous one is we're actually using a continuous light, meaning that the light stays on as opposed to strobing. So you can actually shoot video on this. I could set it up as a set if I wanted to, and it's just going to be really ideal for future DIY projects, taking furniture images, photos of my projects, whatever it might be. All right, guys, we have set up the setup and look at this. Look how good. This is a literal dining table shoot. What are we shooting for today? Today we're shooting for... This picture. Yeah, we're shooting pictures. We're shooting other pictures. We're shooting little table tops. But you guys, essentially, this is our setup. It looks so good. I'm so, so, so happy with how this turned out. And Michael's like the king and master of this. So if you need any help, you know where to reach out to him. I'll pop his Instagram up right here for you guys. And he also shoots so many incredible, like interior spaces. So if you want your project shot, check him out. Look how good. Filming the actual screen doesn't show it how it actually looks, but I'll pop it up so you guys can take a look. And the lighting is complete. The lighting setup's all done. Thank you, Michael, so much. Looks so, so good. Yay. Hello. I don't even know where we left off with this video. I think it was the photo set because Justin and I, over the past couple of days, were actually gonna be completely honest with you guys. I got so sick for a full week. Like the sickest I have ever been in my life. I think the smoke may be from the LA fires or something associated with that because a lot of people in Los Angeles and around the area are sick at the moment. I'm still sick. You can probably tell I'm just a bit congested at the moment, but I'm really excited to share this first video of the gallery transformation because a lot of things has happened, even though they might not look like big changes, to me they are. Like painting the floor that we did, painting all of the walls in here, and then I thought I would give you guys kind of like a little mini tour of how it is looking currently because over the past about 10 days or so, we've gotten a couple of deliveries. We have gone shopping a bit as well. So there's been a few new items that we've brought into the space. We still don't have very much in here at the moment, and I'm having to transfer everything from my house over to here, but I wanted to get the whole space situated, all of our new items shot before bringing over the bulk of what's at the house because I just don't want to mix that up with pieces we need to still take photos of. And that's what we did on our set here. There's currently a dining table and some chairs. I actually don't know why we put them on top of the table, but that's not how it's going to be shot. And then Justin's over here on a couch. Say hey. I'm sick too. Justin's sick too. But guys, oh, I also shared that we got the lights and we are going to be installing those in the next video. Are we going to get a scissor lift and installing some lights in the next video, which is going to be pretty epic. And then you guys saw the shelves as well, which are right here. These are going to start adding furniture, which hopefully in the next video too, we're going to be able to start putting some pieces away. To give you a little rundown of what the showroom is currently looking like, here is the status, which I know it's a little crazy. We are currently shooting some items and just getting them ready to transfer over to our Arizona warehouse, which is going to be where they ship out of. That's where my parents live. And all of these furnitures we just shot the other day. So we kind of just moved them out of the way since we do have all this free space at the moment. And then as you can see out here, this room is pretty barren. We do need to go ahead and paint this space still. This here we still need to work on. The upstairs we still need to work on. And then through here, the other room, we have some pieces just kind of waiting at the moment. Lots of dining chairs, as you can see. You guys look how stunning these chairs are. I just think these are gorgeous. They're available online. French faux bois. It's like a carved wood. These leather ones. This stunning step-back hutch is available at the moment. So excited with how everything is looking. The wall color in here just looks incredible. The floors are also looking so great. Nothing is scraping up and scuffing. And we've probably been using it for about two, three weeks now since painting it. And it's going along great. The other thing too is it's nice that we can just do touch-ups if we want to. So that should be pretty good. And that, my friends, is the showroom update so far. Honestly, being sick took me out of it for a little bit. So hopefully this next week, we're gonna be able to get in here, get some lighting up, get some pieces put away, and start actually decorating and kind of transforming the showroom a little bit and turning it into a really beautiful space. So I will catch you guys in my next one. Bye.