Post #556483 by TabooDan on Mon, Sep 27, 2010 4:45 PM

Okay, as you can see in this older picture, there is a space that is framed inside the wall on the left:

A little later you can see both spaces in the walls:

This is at the entrance to the room. These are going to house velvet paintings which I will frame, surround and add some lighting. I am kind of doing this by knowing what I would like it to look like and then seeing how it turns out as I go along.

Since I am trying to do different things throughout the room and have the Lounge as unique as possible, each in-wall display will be different. The outside frame and whatever I do on the inside will be different. I figured since they are different sizes, different pictures and on different walls, I don't need to match anything. I also put the small one in this wall as I really wouldn't be able to do anything else on this small wall as the door opens into the room and restricts me from putting anything to thick on the wall.

With the one on the small wall, I am having a small velvet go inside. This is opposite the doorway which comes into the room on the right. I am saying this as I have a future plan here which I will fill you in on as I get a little further ahead!

Here's a view coming down stairs into the room:

You can see what I mean now about how tight it is there with the door swinging in.

I have installed a electrical box right in the frame so I can add lighting later on. The velvet painting is a vintage 1960's one that I have. The detail in it is very very good.

I first started cutting some pine wood and making an internal frame:

I started to think about what I was doing and how I wanted this to look and put the wood idea on the back burner for now. I wanted to have fabric (well, actually velvet) on the inside around the art piece.
The Waldorf Hotel has it's original Leeteg velvets in the Tahitian Lounge recessed with fabric in them and they look great. If I can do something along those lines but change it a bit I would be happy. Now mine is not going to look like theirs:

But you can kind of see where I got the idea from. They used a lite-brown velvet which goes all around the inside around the velvet. Geez, look at the color of their walls!! That's what 50+ years of smokin will do to you!! What a great color though!!

I went and found some brown velvet I liked and decided to attach the velvet either side of the art like this:

Just stapled on with no frills or gimmicks! Don't worry about the staples. They will be covered up. This is really just for the side sections.

I then decided I wanted to angle the top and bottom inside edges towards the velvet art. I could do it out of wood but I had some Styrofoam in these small blocks and figured if I cut that it should be quick and easy to use.

Once I cut the foam to size and with the angle/slope I wanted, I put red tuct tape around the edges to help keep the foams edge true and stiffen it up a bit.

I then removed the foam and attached more brown velvet:

We then folded the velvet over the foam and attached velvet with staples to the outside edge. It is much easier to get an extra set of hands for this sort of thing.

We used a thin pry bar to tuck in the edges which worked great.

We had to make sure we wouldn't get any creases as we stapled. Just tight enough so it didn't go anywhere.

Here it is tucked in on the sides and ready for staples:

The velvet has been pulled tight and stapled down:

I wanted to use rope lite to go around the inside of the velvet because it let's off a nice warm glow (perfect for velvets) and also because of the low heat, ease and flexibility.

I cut off the extra velvet and then attached the rope lite to the outside edge of the recess:

Once the external frame is done, the plan would be to not have the light visible at all when viewing the art or from inside the room. The cord itself will be hidden under the top piece of foam and go straight to the electrical box. No wires and no mess!

To finish off this piece I will have two pieces of Bamboo running vertical down either side of the velvet and then have a dark wood frame mounted to the wall. I haven't decided on the frame style yet but it will be pine stained dark and may have bamboo or matting attached to it. Don't know yet.

More to come. Mahalo!!!
TabooDan

[ Edited by: TabooDan 2010-09-27 16:47 ]