At Rock Bottom About a Dark Wall

Question: After 26 years in the business world, I am now retired and have decided to redecorate our home. There are many things we have closed our eyes to over the years and are now going to try to make our home a place to enjoy.

We have a long narrow living room with high ceiling of about 12 feet. The far end of the room has a floor-to-ceiling wall of rock. It is very dark-colored slate-type--or some say Palos Verde. Almost as dark as a blackboard. I find it overpowering as well as dark and gloomy. We are trying to figure a way to paint it or some way to make it a light color and still not destroy the fact that it is rock. We need suggestions.

Answer: Instead of running the risk of ruining the rock, be creative in decorating that wall and lighting that end of the room. The dark wall would serve nicely as background for a large, impressive, light-colored wall hanging in a motif that fits your decor.

If you don’t have something special and don’t want to spend a sizable amount of money right now, you can even stretch fabric in a striking pattern over a frame constructed of 1x2 boards. (Check drapery shops for suitable prints.)

Have the 1x2s custom cut at the lumberyard and put them together yourself with metal braces screwed into each corner.

After choosing and cutting your fabric, wet it and stretch it across the frame. It should dry taut. Tack the fabric on the reverse side or you can use tacks with fancy heads and tack it on the sides, top and bottom for a more decorative effect.

You might consider using a smaller wall decoration and putting up some shelves on which you could place books and/or glassware that would reflect light. And that’s the key word: light. Whatever you decide to do, install an overhead spotlight or track lights at the end of the room and focus them on the dark wall.

You’ll keep intact the rock wall that you no doubt found attractive when you bought the house--and a future buyer may like too.

Q: I bought an antique chest with about 20 small drawers in it. Each drawer has two brass pulls on it that someone has put on it recently. The style of the pulls is fine, but the problem is they are too new looking, making it obvious that they aren’t original. I hate to spend more money replacing the pulls with antique-looking ones. Any ideas?

A: Remove the pulls from the drawers and rub them with lacquer thinner. That should take the shine off.

Q: Our kitchen needs new cabinets, and I’d like to attempt to make them because I can’t afford to buy them. Do you have some suggestions on where I might get some free advice before I tackle the job? I don’t have much in the way of tools.

A: It’s not free, but it’s inexpensive. Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (see Los Angeles Community Colleges in the Los Angeles telephone directory) usually offers a course in cabinetmaking. You might check with the teacher of that course to see if you can choose your own project when you take the class. It’s mid-term now, but application for the summer session can be made shortly after mid-April.

Q: We’re having the exterior of our house repainted later this year, and I’d like to do something to change the very plain sash windows. I saw a model home once that had little strips attached to the window panes that made the windows look as if they had multiple panes. Are these strips readily available?

A: They’re called mullions, and they are readily available. Most of the big window manufacturers, such as Andersen, Marvin or Pella, can either send you literature or tell you where to get them. Check your Consumer Yellow Pages under Windows-Wood for a manufacturer who will tell you a retailer near you.

Dale Baldwin will answer remodeling questions of general interest on this page. Send your questions to Home Improvement, Real Estate Department, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. Baldwin cannot answer questions individually. Snapshots of successful do-it-yourself projects may be submitted but cannot be returned.