Revamping the backsplash – Part I

We’ve been thinking about updating our kitchen backsplash for a long time.  It was one of the things that stuck out to us before we’d even closed on the house, as something that would Have To Go:

We’ve been putting it off largely because of indecision.  There were a couple of limiting factors on the facelift:

1.  For reasons unknown to us, the kitchen was done with a snow white tile backsplash, but a bisque enamel sink, counters, and appliances (of which the range and microwave are still standing).  That meant that we couldn’t make the white backsplash ALL white, like I’d originally thought of.  I was envisioning white embossed seashell 6×6 tiles substituted in for the flowers, and gray-green cabinets.  Not with all that bisque, though:

Yeah, I know. I can hear Bowling for Soup's "1985" playing in the background too.

2.  Because of where the flowers are positioned, I didn’t want anything too dark/contrasting, because it would look too blocky.

3.  Since we plan to renovate the kitchen in a few years, we didn’t want to spend much on a “short term” backsplash.  That meant that we would likely only replace the flower tiles, leaving the white.

Yikes.  Picky.

Because of the mounting number of criteria, we’d considered just leaving the flowers alone for a few years, but they just weren’t fitting into the otherwise coastal and earth toned kitchen-and-surrounding-rooms that I’d been working so hard to cultivate.  It was worth the effort and modest expense to change it, since a new kitchen is still quite a few years off (more if I don’t have to look at the flowers between now and then!).

We started shopping at Best Tile, and left when they closed at 4pm on Saturday feeling defeated.  It was like a playground for kitchen redesign, but it was no fun going into a place like that (too many choices!) with such limiting criteria.  It had to be 6×6, look good next to white, look good next to bisque, not be too “square” looking, preferably make my coffee for me and do the dishes…

We ended up at Lowe’s after that, and surprisingly found ceramic tiles there that we’re pretty excited about seeing in place.  But first, surgical demolition.

We had the counters cleared and cleaned and were ready to start around 9:45am, Sunday:

Drilling through the tiles with a masonry bit

Chiseling from hole to hole to crack the tiles

Using a pry bar to break the pieces out. As an aside, the raised features of the flowers are pretty visible here. But for that, we would have tried to reglaze instead of remove, but the raised flowers left us few options that didn't involve shattering.

It was a shop vac kind of project.

There were 16 flowered tiles, plus 2 white ones that we were taking out because we thought they’d look better as accents than as white ones.  From about 10am until about 2:30, were were demolishing.

until finally, we were done:

Glue lines. D'oh.

There’s no way it should’ve taken 4.5 hours for two people to remove eighteen 6×6 tiles — but unfortunately for us, the installers didn’t use thinset mortar like they probably should have.  They just glued them to the wall!  Ooft.  That made them much harder to break off.  But finally, and with no major casualties among the neighboring white tiles to speak of (our biggest concern), we were ready to install the new tiles.

Stirring the thinset was probably the least fun 10 minutes of the day.  It’s like making bread, or cookies without a Kitchen Aid.  With multiple batches.  In one bowl.  And somebody was heavy handed with the flour.

Smearing the thinset was pretty messy. The trowel was cumbersomely large for the space.

But up went the tiles!   Ta da!

1/8" spacers between the tiles

Thinset mortar, but no grout yet - curing overnight

Looking at it installed, I think I’m pleased.  I like the colors.  It’s warmer and more earthy than the flowers were, and the cream colored ceramic squares and rectangles tie the backsplash in with the bisque fixtures better than before.  The larger, patina ceramic squares have a glossy finish that works with the glossy white tiles.

It’s not perfect — the bars of accent color against the white don’t blend quite as well as I’d pick in an ideal world.  But for redoing only part of the backsplash (and only buying ~25% of the tile it would take to do the entire backsplash), I think it’s a pretty good 5-year plan result.  I also think the white grout that will go in tomorrow will help lighten up the blocks of accent ceramic, which will help it flow better.

It also helps to just zoom the camera out a little.  Once the coffee pot, bean grinder, toaster oven, drain board, canisters, etc. return to their usual homes, the backsplash will blend behind them.  Under those normal, every day circumstances, I think I’m going to really love the change.

Tomorrow we’ll plan to grout, seal, put back together, and then post the before’s with completed after’s.  Here’s to hoping we like it!

Future project – armoire update

On the heels of the painted vanity project, and before I’ve completely worked up the courage to turn the kitchen cabinets gray…

What to do with this armoire:

It’s an art deco monstrosity, inherited from my great grandmother, about 5 feet tall and perhaps best suited to my parents’ interim use for it:  inside a walk-in closet, holding out of season clothes and winter sports gear.  They offered it to us when we bought the house.  The price (free) was right, and we’ve been using it for well over a year.

I use the monster to hold all of my clothes, since we haven’t invested in a real bedroom set yet.  (It’s on The List, but… we’ve been prioritizing the areas of the house where we spend more awake time, and that more people see.)

Even after we get a new bedroom set for our room, we probably won’t get rid of the monster.  The deep drawers have great storage, and the armoire portion has cedar panels, so it’s great for sweaters.  I could see it ending up in a guest room, full of out of season clothes, or as furniture in a kid room.

Since it is still long for this world, and art deco is so far from our style, I’ve been trying to think of what I can do to update it.

Other than a water mark (I think) along one side, it’s in remarkably good condition.  I just can’t get past the inlaid art deco triangle pattern on the door and bottom drawers, and the triangular pulls:

The pulls are screwed on:

so they should be easy enough to remove and replace with updated hardware.  The front surfaces may be more problematic.

If I could figure out how to even out the seams between wood pieces to hide the triangles, I could paint it white (or black, or any other color), replace the hardware, and call it a day.  I’m not sure how best to do that, though.  Suggestions appreciated!

The finished painted vanity

Without further ado:

1 coat of adhesion primer, 3 coats of water based enamel, four new 89 mm center-to-center chrome drawer pulls, and two mirror knobs later, the bathroom vanity project that I started last month is finished!

(I may consider adding new hinges to the list, but it’s good for now!)

It took WEEKS of drying time for the enamel to lose the slightly sticky finish and dry hard enough to screw the new hardware on, but the satin finish looks and feels really nice.

Cabinet finish and hardware, now and then:

and medicine cabinet/mirror frame and knob, now and then:

Goodbye, honey oak!

Conventional wisdom and most advice may not have been on the side of painting it blue, but now that it’s done, I like it every bit as much as I’d hoped to.  The first shot at shade was bad, but the additional black tint made a great difference.  Besides, a bathroom with a floor as loud as this one didn’t beg me for conventional wisdom on the vanity.

I wish I could say that this project has solidified my decision about the kitchen cabinets, because this was the trial run for that (much larger) cabinet painting project.  I learned a fair amount in the process, though.  First and foremost, I’m really happy with how the paint covered the oak fronts and laminate side panels of the cabinet equally well.  That was important to ensure before going ahead with the kitchen cabinets.  I’m not as sure as I want to be about color, though, so I think I may give it some time living with the finish and seeing how it wears before moving on to the kitchen.

Three cheers for finished projects, though!

Merry Christmas from Guin’s Yard to Yours

Snow - the ultimate Christmas decoration. December 5, 2009.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

Adventures in spray painting: two table lamps for under $40

My mom recently bought a new pair of lamps for their master bedroom, and offered the old pair to us.  Being new homeowners, offers like that are almost always accepted.

The only problem is that they’re brass, unlike anything else in our house.  Everything else we’ve chosen (or inherited) has had a satin nickel or wrought iron finish, and we’re in the process of replacing all the brass cabinet hardware in the house.  So off we went, for materials to personalize our new brass lamps.

I came home with spray primer and Rustoleum “hammered metal” finish spray paint in dark bronze.  The cap looked almost black – I was hoping for something vaguely wrought iron in finish.  I also bought two new shades, for a grand total ducking under $40 — $30 for two shades, and less than $10 in paint.

Weapons of choice

First, I wrapped the end of the cord and the top “candlestick” part of the lamp in newspaper and tape to keep them the original cream.

I sprayed one coat of primer, followed by two coats of dark bronze, plus a few touch ups here and there.  The dark bronze paint went on a lot less smoothly than the primer.  It almost beaded up a little bit, to create the pocks of the hammered look.  I almost wondered if I’d have been better off not priming first, because the white primer flecks showed through much more than the original brass would have.  The paint can did say that priming wasn’t necessary.  Ah well.

After a lot more coats than I expected, the finished product came out pretty well:

Then and Now

A slightly larger shade might be in order, but other than that, not bad!   Especially compared to this lamp, available for $83 (for one!) at overstock.com:

Total savings:  About $140.  Nice!

For more Rustoleum spray paint ideas, check out:

A first foray into cabinet painting: Full bath vanity

I’ve long been considering painting the cabinets and replacing the hardware in our kitchen to update the existing honey oak, but was a little overwhelmed by the project, choosing materials, and how it would turn out.  So, I decided to try it out on a smaller scale – the upstairs bathroom vanity.  I figured if it turned out badly, no big deal!   We have the same honey oak cabinet fronts with laminated plastic/fake wood grain end panels (next to the trash can) in both bathrooms and the kitchen, right down to the same brass pulls all around (also on the chopping block).

I also wanted to paint the frame around the medicine cabinet/mirror.  It is also plastic fake wood grain, with a gold painted inner edge and worn chrome-painted plastic knobs.  Not anyone’s finest decorating hour…

I bought primer and water-based satin finish enamel at Sherwin Williams, since priming sounded like a better option than sanding cabinets with a laminate panel.  They tinted the primer for me to make it easier to cover with a really deep color.

Rainstorm (SW6230)

I chose “Rainstorm” for the vanity and mirror frame — it’s the darkest of the 7 colors on the same paint chip as the walls, which are Mountain Air, the lightest color.

I wiped down the cabinets and frame to remove any dirt and grime, removed all the hardware/hinges, and took the doors and drawer faces down to the basement to work there.

The primer went on pretty easily, and actually looked pretty good!

Primer only

It looked awfully blue, though, for only being tinted with black!  That should’ve been a tipoff that the blue paint might come out less dark and more bright than intended.

One coat of Rainstorm

So… yeah.  That’s a lot bluer than I had anticipated.  Two thumbs down.  In smaller, less well lit doses it might almost be tolerable…

but up close, under the glare of a flash, it’s an epic ‘no.’   It makes me think of circus performers.  :(  Unfortunately, the warm tones that made Sleepy Blue (see family room and powder room; also on the same paint chip) so watery and non-snowy, made this blue too bright and gave it almost a mallard bluish green look.

As an aside, at left is the first coat, now dry.  The enamel goes on very thick, almost like an oil based paint.  I’m not sure whether a 2nd coat will get all the brush stroke marks down, or whether a third coat will be necessary.  It’s a little difficult to work with because of the thickness, particularly keeping the brush dry enough to avoid paint pooling in the corners on the cabinet door fronts, but you get the hang of it.

Tomorrow, I’m going to take the quart (of which I’ve used… a sixteenth?) back to Sherwin Williams to see if they can re-tint it for me.  Upon re-visitation of the paint chip fan, I’m thinking of trying Dark Night (SW 6237), which is a little darker and grayer.  If they can’t do that, I’m just going to ask them to add enough black to turn the current paint navy.  The nice thing about this project is that it doesn’t have to match anything (except coordinate with the floor), so the paint color doesn’t have to be a reproducible formula.

While the bad news is self evident, the good news is that while this paint job is clearly a flop, it’s easily redeemed with subsequent coats (which it would’ve needed anyway), and the painting process is nowhere near as hard as I thought.  I am totally on board to paint the kitchen cabinets after I correct this.  The paint and primer covered the laminate so well that you can’t really tell that the material under the paint isn’t the same.

The only thing I need to figure out (besides what color) is how to set up a big enough station to paint and dry all the cabinet doors efficiently.  Hmm.

Jewelry holder – Awesome Etsy find!

One of my organizational challenges has always been my jewelry.  I like wearing colorful pieces, but storing my jewelry in a way that allows me to easily find what I have in a given color has been a bust.  The end result is that on a day to day basis I wear the same three or so pairs of earrings and accessorize minimally, and the rest of my stuff gathers tarnish and/or dust.  The road is paved with good intentions, and all that.

I’ve tried a series of jewelry boxes, containers, stands, etc., sometimes all on my dresser at once, with only mild success.  I needed something to prevent tangled necklace chains, keep matched necklace and bracelet sets together, and pairs of earring together, so that at a-quarter-to-I’m-late-thirty in the morning, I can grab, go, and come out looking relatively polished.  (It’s aspirational, I admit.)

I looked at dresser-top trees, they didn’t look like they’d hold both earrings and necklaces, or large pieces very well.  I also looked at some commercially available wall mounted versions (urbanoutfitters.com had several), but everything either lacked enough hooks, or looked too stodgy, heavy, and solid (like wall mounted jewelry armoires).

After significant searching online, I found and ordered this wall-mounted jewelry holder from melissawoods‘ Etsy shop:

30 hook jewelry hanger

It arrived this week, and I love it!

The top row of hooks holds my earrings, and the bottom row holds my necklaces:

It sticks out pretty far from the wall, but it fits really well in a corner next to my closet, in a space that wasn’t being used.  I made sure that the place I planned to hang it wasn’t over a forced air heat vent (because how could that end badly?), and being right next to my clothes is a bonus!

Pins, post earrings, and rings don’t fit very well, but all of those things are pretty resistant to tangling, easy to pair when necessary, and relatively small.  A single jewelry box will hold those, no problem.  Problem solved!

The $100 couch makeover: Sure Fit slip cover review

Our living room couch was an awesome buy:  it was free.  It was my brother’s ex girlfriend’s next door neighbor’s (got all that?), and they were getting ready to chuck it because it was tired and stained, and their cat’s claws had been evil to it.  It was originally going to go into my brother’s then-college apartment, but the full size couch didn’t fit through the doorway (plus it was a bear to carry, since it’s a sofa bed).  So it came to live at our new house.

I’m all for free furniture.  At least 80% of our house is furnished with things we’ve accumulated along the way, in grad school, early in our marriage, and when we bought a house and suddenly had almost 1900 sq. ft. of … space for Guinness to run the Puppyapolis 500 completely unobstructed.

So the couch.

Credit where due, my mom did a really good job with upholstery cleaner and patches – but the fact remains that it’s a really worn couch in an unforgiving color.

For the past year, we’ve just kept a blanket thrown over the patches on the back and employed selective vision.  The couch is actually really comfortable, which is very redeeming.

Because of that, and because we don’t sit in the living room often (except at Christmas), we decided that in the grand scheme of our furniture budget, this couch was pretty far down on the list of purchases/replacements.  So while I was all about an update, it had to be inexpensive.

After too many hours of research online and measuring different couch dimensions, I bought the three piece cotton duck slip cover in linen from Sure Fit (with a 20% off promotion code for Labor Day!).  The ad looked thusly:

Image courtesy of SureFit.net

I know what you’re thinking, because I was too.  What army of irons and starch accomplished that, and what happens when someone breathes, much less sits on it?

I was pleasantly surprised.

Since we had loose back and seat cushions, I went 3-piece over 1 or 2, figuring it would allow more movement and less reliance on tucking. When the cover arrived (on Thurs., after ordering on Mon. night!), I tried it on to make sure it fit.  It was then off to the ironing board.  End result:

Not bad!

Despite color options being thin, it’s almost exactly what I was going for.  Relatively neutral (not “look at me!” bright), will hide at least some of the puppy fluff, contrasts with the wall more, and works with, without catering to the green carpet.  It may require some tucking from time to time, and some awesome throw pillows will be a huge asset, but it seems to fit and stay in place better than I’d expected.  Color me impressed.  Having it in 3 pieces seems to help.

There are a few places where you can still really tell it’s a slip cover – the back corners, for instance, where the elastic gathers, and where they never show in the ads.  The pluses far outweigh the minuses, though:  the material is machine washable, the price was right, and with a bright throw and pretty pillows, I think it’ll fit in our living room for quite a while.  Win.

Off topic:  while I have you here, I’d love suggestions on how to frame the new print above the couch.  I put it in a too-big poster frame for the short term so I could stare at it, but I’m still undecided.

Furnishing the deck

Firstly, Happy Labor Day!  Appropriately, on the last day of “summer,” we finally have our patio furniture out!  Ah well – I expect to enjoy a few fall evenings outside before it turns irretrievably cold.

When we were house shopping, a deck ranked as a serious plus in my book.  We were lucky enough to find a house that had one, but in our first summer here, we didn’t make much use of it.  Part of it was the rainy summer (and consequent mosquitoes), but the other part was that we didn’t have any furniture out there yet.  We used our few white plastic chairs a few times, and the grill constantly, but didn’t spend much total time on the deck.

We knew we wanted patio furniture, but figured we’d be able to do much better if we were patient, and waited to hit the end of season sales.  We were not disappointed – but we probably should have started looking a little sooner.  By the time we started, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and most of the other places we’d have comparison shopped had sold out.  We did fine anyway, but that was mostly luck.

It’s here, so come on over!

We found our set last weekend at Hewitt’s, our local garden center chain.  We happened into their end of summer clearance sale on patio furniture when we went to buy grass seed for our fall overseeding.  (Depressingly, they already had Christmas stuff out!)  We gave it a couple of days’ thought and a little comparison research online.  In the end, the set was comfortable, the color was good for our house, and our patience paid off:  we got it for 46% of the retail price they were asking in early- and mid-summer.  Easy decision!

So come on over for fall ciders, and bring your dog to play in Guin’s yard!  It feels like it’s coming together.

Half bath finishing touches

9 months after we started Operation:  Half Bath, we’re finally finished!  Of course, I make no guarantees that we won’t make changes going forward, but we finally have it to a place where I’m comfortable leaving it and moving on to other rooms.  Here’s the progression:

2008 – As sold to us

Winter 2009 – Walls finished, but Vanity light/mirror issues still to resolve

August 2009 – Finished!

Ta-da!

I’m so pleased!  It was an unexpectedly long-lived project, but worth it.  And for under $200 start to finish, it’s a huge change for the better.

January 2009 - Houston, we have a problem.

One of the big stumbling blocks to finishing the room was, surprisingly, the mirror.  The honey oak finish medicine cabinet came down for good when the new vanity light fixture went in.  There just wasn’t room for both of them.  It was just as well in the long run, because honey oak isn’t high on my list of favorite finishes.  We had trouble finding a mirror that was the right size, though.  The sink top is less than 26 inches wide, and so many mirrors are 24×36.  That size would have fit, but would have been shoved so far into the corner of the room that it didn’t look properly proportioned.  Anything smaller, and we were into 12×24 territory – not at all big enough.  Having cruised Lowe’s, Marshall’s, TJ Maxx, Target, etc., and found nothing, we gave up for a few months, and just hung a picture over the sink.

While we were in Lowe’s for something else this weekend, we swung through the bath fixtures to check to see if any new mirrors had arrived.  Lo!

August '09 - Problem, meet solution.

20×32 inches, and no wood on the frame!  The only thing worse than all 80’s honey oak is honey oak with clashing wood tones in the same small space.  This mirror skirted the issue entirely by being frameless – the frosted edge is clear, so the blue of the walls shows through – it actually looks great!

When we took the old brass toilet paper holder and hand towel ring out of the walls (part of the painting project), we decided not to put new ones up.  There are almost no studs in the bathroom walls, and we didn’t want anything to pull out of the drywall.  We’d had entirely enough of that game installing the vanity light.  Years of wet hand towels hanging from the old towel ring had also left a lovely purplish black mold stain on the wallpaper (which bled through to the drywall), which was gross enough not to inspire a repeat performance.  Free standing holders admittedly aren’t the best use of space in this approximately 20 square foot powder room, so it’s possible that we may revisit that decision in the future.  For now, at least everything has a place.

I’m still considering putting a few more photos up – maybe a small grouping of two or three over the toilet.  I took some while on vacation with this purpose in mind, although with the mirror pattern, more may not be necessary.  If any go up, I’ll stick with a beach theme, to go with Guinness’ picture and paw print (which I’ve been told looks like a sand dollar).

Either way, it’s so good to have it finished!