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!

Souvenirs from vacation

We recently came home from the 2009 edition of our annual vacation to the 7 mile island, Stone Harbor/Avalon, NJ (ahhhhh).  I looked at the souvenirs we brought back with us this year, and thought about where we were a year ago (as documented by last year’s souvenirs).

In 2008, we bought a Christmas ornament for our tree marking our first Christmas in “Our New House.”  I remember feeling like I was totally jumping the gun.  We vacationed in August, having been in contract since May, still anticipating our September closing.  Mortgage rates, down payment requirements, and requirements for various other indicia of creditworthiness were a little tazmanian devil of changes, and most weren’t pro-first time homebuyer.  We were locking our mortgage for the 3rd time (because the previous two commitments had expired while we waited for our sellers to be ready), and had gotten the worst rate of the 4 commitments we would ultimately go through.  We had paint chips hanging in our rental house, but were too afraid of jinxing it to buy anything.

Fast forward to this year:  We browsed the Christmas shop, bought a “baby’s first” ornament for our new little niece/goddaughter, and went on to the art galleries for our own souvenirs.

Crabs in a Basket - (C) Elaine Hahn

The crabs are already off to Michael’s to be matted narrowly and framed.  They will go in the kitchen above the light switches.

Boardwalk Through the Dunes - (C) Barbara Hails

The dune grass print (which is actually much larger than the crabs) will require a bit more thought; it’ll be a tough one to mat and frame just right.  It’s destined for the living room, over the couch (where the wreath is now).

As we brought the two prints home, I thought about how much has changed in the last year.  Very happily, I might add.  We’ve gone from wondering if Guin’s yard would be a reality to decorating the walls!  Whee!

Contemplating Painted Kitchen Cabinets

Inspiration Photo: Courtesy of 'House Beautiful'

When we moved into our house, our kitchen was absolutely 100% serviceable.  That was both awesome and a real design setback.  It’s hard to figure out how to fix what isn’t broken.

After living with it for a while, we’ve decided that on the plus side, the layout seems to work just fine, and the cabinets are in pretty good shape.  On the minus side, the honey oak color is pretty quintessentially the 1985 take on “colonial” (which by definition is more 1985 than colonial).  For the square footage of our kitchen, a lot of it is bounded by cabinet face:

As decorated by the previous owners - still looks similar, minus the plates and with a stainless steel dishwasher

This is a more current photo of the opposite wall

In other words, whatever we do with the cabinets will have a BIG impact.  My latest brainstorm is a superficial kitchen surface makeover involving at the very least, getting rid of the flowered accent tiles on the backsplash, and painting the cabinets blue.  I have to admit it’s a big leap for me.  I’ve always been told that if you have wood that’s in good shape, it’s always better to stain than to paint; always better to leave the grain showing than to hide it.  In our case, though, the huge grain and the color of the wood are part of what I don’t like.  We know we’ll probably want to buy new cabinets someday (but definitely not now), so why not take a chance and try it?

Again, as decorated by the previous owners

Because the kitchen looks into the family room through the cutout, the blue cabinets will need to coordinate with the shade of blue that we’ve already painted the family room (which we love, by the way).  I’m thinking of something that’s on the same paint chip, just a few shades darker.

The cabinets’ blue will also need to coordinate, or at least not clash with, the dining room.  The kitchen itself is pretty open, since it’s almost entirely in neutrals so far.

Sleepy Blue (SW6225)

Creamy (SW7012)

Privilege Green (SW6193)

We painted the family room “sleepy blue,” and the kitchen, halls, and upper dining room walls “creamy” this year.  Privilege green is probably the current front runner for the lower dining room walls, when we finally rip out the carpet and wallpaper.

As for cabinet options, on the same paint chip as sleepy blue, we have:

Languid Blue (SW6226)

Meditative (SW6227)

Refuge (SW6228)

Tempe Star (SW6229)

Rain Storm (SW6230)

Something like Meditative or Refuge is closest to what I have in mind.  My only concern is whether it would be gray and muted enough.  Sleepy Blue is a little more blue and a little less gray on the wall than I had anticipated.

Sleepy Blue Family Room

Finish is going to be important to this working, and I have a lot to learn before I’d be ready to undertake the project.  I think the texture is part of why these two look so great:

Inspiration photo: Courtesy of HGTV

Photo courtesy of Hooked on Houses

Done right, it could be a great way to update the kitchen without spending a fortune.  It’s definitely worth giving some thought to.

August tomatoes

It looks like we can expect a pretty good tomato harvest this August here in Guin’s Yard!

Hard to believe it’s peach season in NJ, and we still only have small green tomatoes here!

A new basement dweller: replacing the dryer

Our totally rad circa 1985 dryer

The next project was (yet another) unplanned appliance purchase – this time, the clothes dryer died on us.  Now on our fourth appliance in 10 months of homeownership, we’re getting to be old hands at this.  In fact, we’re getting to know the guys at Marcella’s Appliances on a first name basis, particularly the ones who work in the scratch & dent section.  [Marcella's has had way better deals than the big box stores in our (growing) experience.]

We tried the borrow-a-truck-and-retrieve-it-ourselves method with the chest freezer, but it’s much easier and more cost effective to get appliances delivered when there’s an old appliance carcass to be removed and appropriately disposed of at the same time.  Plus, when it has to be lugged to the basement, there’s added incentive to hire some muscle.

We considered briefly whether to see about fixing the old dryer instead, but we estimate the old Kenmore could be original to the house (24 years old).   It had a good life.

So meet its successor.  We went with a pretty basic GE Profile gas dryer, model DPSE810GGWT for anyone in the market.  It has all the utilitarian features we were looking for (super 7.0 cubic ft. capacity, stainless steel drum, a moisture sensor drying cycle), but none of the fancy “extras” (like steam cycles) currently available in dryers twice as expensive.  I just couldn’t get on board with a luxury dryer, of all things.

We’re completely happy with it, but a word to the wise:  this model is LOUD.  Consumer Reports had indicated that the model was reliable but noisy, but I didn’t expect it to be even louder than the dinosaur it replaced.  You can separately hear what sounds like the blower, and the laundry thumping.  It doesn’t bother me at all, because you can’t really hear it upstairs, but I wouldn’t buy this model to go into a hallway or closet laundry room located near areas in the house where people spend time.

It’s taking up residence in the unfinished half of the basement, with the furnace, sump pump, aging-but-chugging washer, and the affectionately dubbed “plastic snowbank” (the chest freezer).  You can see why scratch & dent was a good deal for us here — who cares what it looks like in the basement? — and it saved us $300 off MSRP.  Nice.

Dining room ideas (and poll!)

Twist basket with 6 arms - 17" h. x 23" d.

Ball basket with 5 arms - 18" h. x 24" d.

We’ve narrowed down the dining room chandelier to two options from Hubbardton Forge, and are feeling indecisive.

As between the two, I prefer the s-curve of the 5-arm, but I’d rather have 6 arms (mostly, I’d rather have 6 light bulbs) than 5.

Hmm. Help?

Faux wood, etched glass, and brass. Hot.

Most of the rest of the chandeliers that I posted earlier have been discounted as “gorgeous but too big.”  The existing dining room light (at right) is only 21″ in dia — both of the lights we’re considering are a little bigger, but by an acceptable margin (about 3″).  Some of the other lights were upwards of 6″ wider, and I don’t think the room is big enough.

Speaking of the room, I’ve been collecting ideas for furniture, window treatments, paint, wall hangings, all kinds of stuff.  Here’s where the dining room currently stands (I discovered that the etched glass globes could come off the light – I think it’s an improvement!):

Roses of sharon from Guin's Yard

The most frustrating part about idea hunting is that photos are always taken of dining rooms that are huge, spacious, have 9+ foot ceilings and huge windows on multiple walls.  Photos like that are almost not even helpful!  Our dining room is very square, has one double window, and is small enough that hosting large groups would be hard if it weren’t for the wide doorway into the living room that lets us run extra tables into the next room.

I would love to put a china hutch in the dining room, but I’m afraid there isn’t really room, without making it look cramped.  (The old owners had a tall china cabinet that necessitated not centering their table under the light.  Net effect:  it looked stuffed in.)

Here are a few photos that have caught my eye as I’ve been browsing, though…

Finally, one about the same size as ours! – I’m looking to put a much bigger table in, but I liked the paint and the overall look.  I’ve been thinking of doing something similar, with shades of green.

I also wonder if we could find a short cabinet like the one under the mirrors to keep our china handy – I’d put it under the windows, to similar effect – to keep the room feeling open.  Our china is currently being stored in basement shelving, which is really inconvenient and inaccessible for entertaining, but I haven’t found the right solution just yet.

The other thing I liked about the bottom photo was the mirrors – the make it seem a lot bigger.  I’m thinking the far wall (the longer one) would be the best choice for it, because they’d be visible from the kitchen.