Back from my Hiatus

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted anything, but I've been working my butt off and I finally have time to load all the pictures and projects!  We are done with the remodeling downstairs!  Well, we are done with 90% of the remodeling downstairs!  We have a few walls to take out and openings to rearrange yet and paint touch ups here and there but we are done for the most part!
Let's get on with the pictures....

This is the photo taken from the first time we saw the house.  Again, these are not our decorations!

This is supposed to say"this is how our kitchen looked the first day we moved in" but I'm lazy and was in a hurry typing it!

This picture is from this Summer after we replaced the island:

AND THIS, is the kitchen as is today!!!

This is the only photo I could find that shows the pantry door, the guest bedroom door and the basement door together.  Let me tell you how confusing this was for me!!!  So many times I would walk into the guest room when I wanted to get in the pantry and vice versa.  We decided that a guest room right off the kitchen was dumb and we already had enough guest rooms in this house so we turned in into a formal dining area.

Here is the area now.  J did an amazing job adding a second archway and I no longer mix up my doors and guest aren't puzzled when they are trying to find the bathroom!

Here's the breakfast nook before we moved in:

 Here's the breakfast nook while we were trying to clean this disater up!

And here is the kitchen to date!

Ten months later, we finally got the kitchen painted!  We had some hang ups along the way that slowed us down but at last.... the kitchen is painted!  We had to buy a new oven unexpectedly right before Thanksgiving so you might notice that is different.  And if you go back and follow the progress of the kitchen, you will remember we replaced the island this summer and the fridge was the first thing I changed for an energy efficient one in the first few weeks of moving in.  All we did was repaint the cabinets and I still have new hardware to get for them.  I'm taking my sweet time getting hardware because J and I plan to buy all new cabinets in the next few years.  We hate the existing cabinets but can live with these now that they are white.  The paint color we chose for this area is Behr dolphin fin and the accent color is Behr wet cement.  We already purchased tin tiles for a back splash behind the stove.  Not sure when J will feel like installing them but hopefully soon.  Both of us are pretty burnt out right now.  Oh, and all we did to paint the cabinets was use J's spray painter.  I had previously stripped them all down with an amazing liquid sandpaper and he just sprayed on two coats of gripper followed by two coats of white.

It's been awhile... oh how I've missed working

I know, I know.... I haven't posted on here in quite some time but that doesn't mean I haven't been working my ass off! In fact, this is what I've done: I got caught up on the last bit of laundry from the time we moved in. Ladies and gentlemen, I did 10 loads of laundry in 2 days to get rid of the piles of clothes strew about in the sitting room. I also managed to get all the book unpacked and shelved on two new bookcases in the sitting room and the desk was finally assembled and moved to the sitting room as well. We repaired the roof before we lost our home owner's insurance and we have been assembling the new island in the kitchen. I finally unpacked my craft room so I could start sewing those famous little dressed I whip up for my girls all summer long. I located Christmas presents that got tucked away and lost in the move. Oops... And that wasn't all... I finally hung pictures in the family room and worked on the yard picking up my second case of poison ivy. And here is a project I've actually taken pictures of thus far: For my craft room, I needed a place to sit. (I'll share pics of my awesome creative space when I finally have ALL the boxes unpacked in there!) I made it a point to buy a desk or build one yesterday and I did just that with this $10 Craigslist find.

The middle drawer was busted and I fixed it along with taking wood putty and filling in any holes from the original hardware that the previous owner didn't bother to do when they added the new hardware. I also sanded it slightly and whipped out my good old friend, Zinsser Cover Stain and slapped a half ass job of primer with a sponge brush on the old thing. Now, I did all of this work outside in the sun and I used solar energy to speed this process along. Basically, I didn't want a piece of shiny new furniture; I wanted something fun and distressed that I could be creative with in my craft room. I was too cheap lazy tired busy to go to the store for a turquoise colored paint so I rummaged through my acrylic stuff. It took about 5 minutes for the primer to dry so I grabbed a new sponge brush and painted the desk blue with acrylic paint right out of the bottle.

And right before the sun set, the sky itself gave me the idea to smear a little bright red acrylic paint here and there on the desk.

This afternoon, I started in on my desk again with some white paint I used to paint the dressers I did a few months ago. I was bummed though; it was too clean and smooth and thick and covered up all the brush marks I'd left earlier. Also, it was such good quality paint, it didn't do anything for me when I tried sanding it.

Oh well, I sat there mixing red, blue, green, yellow and purple acrylic paint because I didn't have any stain at the house and I was too cheap lazy tired excited to drive to the store to get stain. I had a nice brown color but dumped in too much greed at the end and wound up with a dirty gray color. Shit happens and I just went with it. Oh well! I dipped in my sponge brush and grabbed a dirty rag off the garage floor and wiped the gray on like it was a stain. I'm plenty imaginative and just pretended I bought what I actually needed.

I liked it! I ALMOST left it this gray color but I'm so happy I had taken a picture of the desk when it was blue. I figured the best way to get a light wash was to go back to my original blue color but add a little water to the acrylic paint. I did just that and used the same dirty rag to rub it off in some areas. I finished my project by distressing it with sandpaper. I had to really scrub hard to get the look I wanted. What ended up happening was the red and blue and gray from earlier peeked through in some places. I'm really happy with how the desk turned out. Better yet, the project was so stress free. Basically, I just kept layering and sanding until I got the look I wanted. Better yet, the sun dried the paint so fast!

One last thing I HAVE got to add too it that the finish on this piece is so SMOOTH!!! Sanding the desk top a little bit made the desk so sleek and shiny. I almost like the finish on this better than the dresser I did before. The acrylic paint also added a little bit of shine to it. I'm sure if you wanted a glossy finish, you could top this with a wax or polyurethane coat. However, I'm much too cheap lazy tired satisfied with how this piece turned out!

The Truth About Painting Furniture

I did A LOT of research before attempting to paint my furniture. I grew up in a house where that was taboo and you did not put color on wood and veneer was absolutely not paintable. I guess that's why I kept waiting for someone to walk in and yell at me while I was doing this whole project! Anyhow, this is what I learned through trial and error and trying a few different things:
First, Zinsser cover stain is your best friend for this project! Note, this is oil based and doesn't just wash right off your hands and brush when you are done. In fact, make it easy on yourself and just buy a cheap pan to toss afterwards and you use cheap brushes for this project too so plan on throwing them away as well. And buy this baby in the gallon size because you will use it a lot once you see how easy this project is!

The other crucial items you need are FOAM brushes... I repeat FOAM!!! Zinsser picks up all and every fiber off a regular rolling brush. I also feel you need a small foam roller, a large foam roller and the giant bag of craft foam brushes for those hard to reach places and cracks. By the way, these are really inexpensive at Walmart. As much as I detest Walmart, it's worth the trip for the pan to throw away to the brushes.


Okay, next item you need is sand paper and wood putty. Here is the truth behind sanding... you don't even need to unless the piece is damaged. I know this because I tested this theory out. The bed I painted had been chewed by a dog and I sanded the crap out of the headboard. But, the foot board I left untouched except where the dog ate it. All I did was fill the holes and sand it after it dried for a smooth look.
CHEWED UP SECTION:

WOOD PUTTY BEFORE SANDING IT SMOOTH:


Now that you know the basics, one it comes to your final top coat of paint here's another tip. I went to Benjamin Moore and bought the paint all the websites recommended. It was $20 for a pint!!! I flirted with the paint man and that was even an employee discount! (Shhh.. don't tell J!) So I painted one dresser with this special expensive paint and one with the Behr Ultra Premium paint which runs $30 a gallon. You do need two coats of paint so the gallon is what you will end up buying. BUT... as long as you use TWO coats of Zinsser and 2 coats of the top paint... it doesn't matter! I had to use two coats of both types of paint and they look identical. This goes for the furniture I sanded like mad and the ones I was too tired to sand and just said "Eff it"! AS LONG AS YOU YOU A FOAM ROLLER, YOU DON'T NEED EXPENSIVE PAINT!!!! I ONLY USE FOAM ROLLERS!!!!

My last tip before you get started with this entire project is cleaning the furniture before you paint. Many people said to go with TSP. It's waaaay more expensive than my homemade version. I just put equal parts of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle and wiped it down with that. It took so much crap out of the wood! I did wipe it down before and after sanding too. You will be grossed out by the dirt it pulls out!! For the TSP... this is non toxic and works amazingly!

So here's the run down one more time:
1) clean
2) sand if you must
3) clean if you sand
4) 2 coats primer
5) 2 coats of paint
AND PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... wait at least 8 hours between coats so you don't get a tacky piece of furniture. This parts sucks the most!!!

Here are my before and after pictures: (eventually I want to replace the hardware but I'm keeping it as is for now)
BED BEFORE:


BED AFTER:


DRESSER BEFORE:


DRESSER AFTER:



OTHER DRESSER AND TEASER OF E's ROOM: