Half-Bath Striped Makeover, Part 2

A few days ago I wrote about the first steps I took to turn my half-bath from a boring beige box to an inspired, striped room.  You can read the first part here.

When I left you I had finished all my measuring and taping by Saturday evening.

Sunday: Take a credit card and smooth out all your tape to make sure there are no gaps or bubbles.  This will help ensure that no paint bleeds under the tape. Then, and this might be the key step of the whole process, with a mostly dry brush paint your base wall color (for me- white) along the edge of the tape that butts up against the stripes you are going to paint gray. Don't over do it, you just want a little paint on your brush. The reason this step is so important is because it helps to seal down the tape, and if any paint gets under the tape it will be your base wall color- which is the color already found under the tape!

Since you're not using much paint it should dry relatively quickly.  After that step was fully dry I used a small textured roller (and a brush when needed) to paint my stripes gray. I did two coats.  Here it is after one coat:

 Right after I finished the second coat, before it was fully dry, I slowly and carefully peeled off the tape.  And this is what I was left with:

   
Peeling off the tape is so fun. I seriously beamed every time I pulled off a new strip.  Because of the precautions I took I had very few touch-ups to do.  There were only a few spot where paint bled under the tape. I just used a tiny craft paintbrush to do some touch ups.

At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself.  Keep in mind that my only expense so far was a quart of paint for around $15.  But then I had to address the elephant in the (tiny) room.  The floor.

 It's like the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  Except this story is called "If you give a girl a new striped bathroom she's going to want a new floor".  I hear it's moving up the best seller list.

Tomorrow: A new floor for $18. 

UPDATE: View part three, the new floor, here.
 

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Half-Bath Striped Makeover, Part 1

Our house was built in 1952.  If you know much about older homes you know that they tend to have certain characteristics.  Some of those are great things like detailed woodwork and beautiful fireplaces.  Other thing are not so good, like limited closet space and small bathrooms. Fortunately we lucked out on the closet space. But when it comes to the bathrooms we didn't exactly hit the real estate jackpot.

We have three bathrooms- one connected to the master, one in the hall, and then a half-bath on the other side of the house. I'm saving pictures of the two full baths for another day because it's too much fabulous-ness for one post (please read that sentence in your best sarcastic voice).  Think lots of tile in colors like bright turquise and mustard yellow.  The half-bath however was a blank slate, which lent itself to an easier and cheaper update.  Here are the before pictures (after a little taping to start the project):

You can see that it was basically a 5 x 6 beige box.  Nothing too offensive, but nothing too exciting either.

My inspiration for this makeover was my long-time obsession with stripes.  Clothes, bags, art, you name it, if it's striped, I love it.  With Bobby on board I decided that I would do wide stripes in gray and white.  This was my main inspiration photo:

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So over a three day weekend in January we decided to tackle the bathroom once and for all.  I read a lot of stripe tutorials and found this one to be the most helpful: Lessons in Painting Stripes, from Emily A. Clark.

Supplies needed:
Base color paint (Totten's Inlet, Valspar Signature, eggshell- we had it on hand)
Stripe paint (Rocky Slope, in Valspar Signature, eggshell)
Trim paint- Not necessary, but my trim was cream and I wanted it white 
Painting tape
Long level
Short level (I used a level app on my iphone)
Tape measurer
Pencil
Paint brush (as always, I recommend this one by Wooster)
Paint roller

Here's the schedule of how our project worked out:

Friday evening: First things first- prep the area.  Take everything out the room.  For my room that consisted of two hand towels, a box of tissues, a trashcan, and a soap dispenser.  Back-breaking work, I tell ya.  I wiped down the walls and trim, and puttied (and later sanded) holes and dents in the trim.  I also taped along where the baseboards meet the floor to avoid getting paint on the floor.  Turns out I didn't need to do this since we ended up putting down new flooring, but I didn't know that at the time.  We also went to Lowes and bought our gray paint on Friday evening.  We had all the other supplies on hand. 

Saturday Morning:  Stop hitting snooze.  Have a few cups of coffee.  Get off Pinterest.  Then paint your walls your base color.  Or if they're already the color you want skip this step and consider yourself lucky.  I also painted my trim.  I used a semi-gloss paint/primer in one on the trim in a shade slightly whiter than the walls to make the trim stand out.  I did two coats on each the walls and trim, and it took all of Saturday morning and into the early afternoon.

Saturday Afternoon/ Evening:  Here's where the math comes into play.  Don't worry, it's relatively easy.  The first thing we did was decide how thick we wanted the stripes.  Try to be strategic when planning your stripes.  For example, you want your towel bar and toilet paper holder to be fully inside a stripe to make your life easier.  Otherwise you need to measure and paint around those objects.  I thought I wanted my stripes to be around a foot wide.  We ended up making them 10.5" to best work around those objects and so we could create an even amount of stripes.  Yours will depend on your ceiling height and how wide you want your stripes.  Drawing a diagram helped me.


Now, measuring from the ceiling, use your tape measurer to start marking down 10.5" (for example).  Make a mark in approximately the center of your wall, and then use your tape measurer and do a few more marks from wall to wall.  Connect the marks with your long level.  You should have a level, horizontal line all the way across the wall, 10.5" down from the ceiling at all points.  Now measure another 10.5" from that stripe and repeat the process, until your wall is completed lined.  It's OK if your bottom section isn't exactly 10.5", because people won't be looking at the bottom of your walls as much as they look at the top and middle.

Now do the rest of the walls.  Yes, this is tedious.  But you'll ask nicely and your husband will do it get in a rhythm and it will go relatively quickly.  The most important thing is to keep your lines level.  Because once you do walls one, two, and three you need to do wall four and have it join walls one and three.  If your lines aren't level on walls one through three, wall four is going to be a slanted mess.  So go slow and be accurate.

My room had some little walls that were too small for our level.  That's where the iPhone level app came in handy.  

Once you have your lines drawn with pencil use pieces of tape to mark the spaces that will not get painted. (the white stripes).  Looking at a room of stripes can be dizzying, so this step will help prevent you from painting a white strip gray.  I decide to keep my top stripe white so I didn't have to edge along the ceiling with the gray paint.

Next you want to use painters tape to create your lines.  Just go slow and keep the tape as straight and level as possible.  You will want the actual strip of tape to be inside the stripe that is staying white (or whatever you base color is).  It's sort of hard to explain, but you know what I mean, right? You need to keep your gray stripe completely open and free from tape so it ends up being the correct width.

Here is part of the room after taping:   

So the areas with tape pieces will stay white, and the blank areas will get painted gray.  The stripes staying white look narrower, but once the tape is removed they will be the same width as the stripes getting painted gray.

That was the end of day two!  Tomorrow: painting and - the best part- pulling off the tape to see those stripes!

Update: See part two here.

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Pinterest Challenge: Winter 2013

Have you seen the Pinterest Challenge project, start by Young House Love and Bower Power? If not, check out the newest challenge here and here. (How cute is that video of the kids?!)  The basic gist is to encourage bloggers to actually make something that they've pinned! Novel concept, right? :)  It's also a great time to go through all your boards and do some purging.  You know, from when you first got a Pinterest account and pinned anything and everything that looked remotely cute, pretty, or tasty?

I tend to be pretty good about making recipes I've tried on Pinterest (see my 'Accomplished' board here), so I wanted to try a craft project this time.  After some debating, I finally decided on my project- a DIY sunburst mirror! Woohoo!  I've wanted one for awhile to hang over our guest bed. I think a white mirror would look great on the new teal walls (which I still need to write about). But, along with most things I want in life (new jeans, a vacation, a master bathroom not designed in 1952), they're typically pretty expensive.  Thankfully there are a lot of great tutorials on Pinterest, and the Winter Challenge was just the motivation I needed.  I used this tutorial from House of Fifty.  Here's what her awesome mirror looks like (please pin directly from her site, not mine):

Supplies needed:
Mirror (Hobby Lobby, $3.00- I had a 40% coupon).
2 packs of faux bamboo sticks (Hobby Lobby $7.00- they were 50% off)
Glue gun and lots of extra glue (already owned)
White gloss spray paint (Hobby Lobby $4.80- It was 30% off)
Spray paint primer (already owned)
Newspaper and tape to protect the mirror while painting
Hanging kit (Hobby Lobby, $1.47- paid full price. Darn it.)
Scissors, to cut the bamboo

I was looking for a regular mirror, but I found this flower shaped one and I thought it would provide extra support for the bamboo sticks.  I found the bamboo sticks in the floral section and got two bunches- each of them had about 25 rods.  I used almost all of them, so if your mirror is larger I recommend getting three bunches.  They're somewhat fragile, which made moving the mirror tricky, however I could cut them easily with regular scissors instead of needing a saw.

I started by cutting my sticks in various sizes.  I didn't really measure anything because I wanted it to all look natural and not too planned.  My sticks were about 24" long.  I cut some of them into thirds, and others I cut into a 18" piece and a 6" piece.  I first glued the longer sticks evenly around the mirror. (Sorry for the dim pictures, I was working in the basement).

Then I used the shorter sticks to start filling in each section.  I tried to alternate shorter and longer sticks.  I would often place them on the mirror to see how they fit before I glued them since some sticks were thicker than others and I had to make sure they would all fit.  Try to fit them together as tight as possible and make sure they're lined up at the bottom along the mirror. Also, don't go crazy with the glue gun. I definitely overdid it in some areas and you can still see the hardened glue globs.

After it was all glued together and dry I taped a piece of scrap paper over the mirror to protect it from the paint.  Here it is all taped and ready to be primed and painted.

Because the spray paint I got at Hobby Lobby didn't have built-in primer I decided to use separate spray primer first.  I did one coat on each side of the mirror.  The next day I used white high gloss spray paint to do two coats on the front and one coat on the back.  Make sure you spray from all angles to fully cover the bamboo rods.

After it was dry and back inside the house I attached a picture-hanging bracket on the back of the mirror.  This would have been much easier to do before all the rods were glued on, so now you can learn from my mistake!  Although only two pieces of bamboo had to be glued back on, so not too shabby.

Here it is in all it's glory in the guest room!

(Bed, nightstand, and striped pillow from IKEA, bedding from Crate & Barrel, rug from RugsUSA.com)

I hope you liked my Pinterest-inspired project!  Check out the four founding blogs' projects here: Young House Love, Bower Power, The Remodeled Life, and Decor & The Dog.

*If you like this one, check out some of my other Pinterest-inspired projects:
Staining a kitchen table
DIY Chalkpaint (Dining room buffet)

Next week I'll be blogging about our $33 half-bath transformation, including painting thick horizontal stripes!

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Adventures with Chalk Paint, Part 2

Have you read part 1 about making your own chalk paint? If not, start there.

So last time I left you hanging on the edge of your seat with my 'before' picture:

Ugly, right? But great potential.  I bought this buffet off Craigslist for only $55 (plus the previous owner accidentally left some cute white napkin rings and Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers inside, so we'll call that a bonus).  It is a solid piece made of all real wood, but it needed some serious work. Obviously I wanted to change the color, and I needed to replace the glass in the front doors since one was missing and the other was cracked. 

I bought the buffet to go in this space in our dining room.  Since the room is very neutral I wanted the buffet to be a pop of color (the shelves and wallpaper were put up by the house's previous owner):

This picture was taken the day we moved in.  Can't wait to change that chandelier!

Here's what I used once I was ready to paint:
Homemade chalk paint (recipe)
80 and 150 grit sand paper
Rags & cleaning solution
Paint brushes (one small and one large)
Finishing wax (Minwax) & brush or rag (I used an old white undershirt)

For my chalk paint color I chose Eucalyptus Leaf by Behr.  If I'm being totally honest now it is a little brighter than I intended, but overall it looks great.

My first step was take out all the drawers and do some serious cleaning.  I wiped out all the crumbs, used my dust buster, and then cleaned it off with some Mrs. Meyers general purpose cleaner.  The reason I decided to use chalk paint on this piece is because I knew sanding it down first would be a huge pain.  The finish was really shiny, almost laquired, and who knows what was underneath it.  Since chalk paint requires no sanding I figured it would be much easier and still give me the slightly distressed look I was going for.

After everything was clean and dry I did two coats of my homemade chalk paint. It dries fairly quickly, so I didn't really let much time elapse between coats.  Make sure you do some light sanding between coats with a high grit sand paper.  Not enough to distress it yet, just enough to smooth out any bumps.  Here is the color after just one coat (with no distressing):

If I wanted a lot of the black to show through I would have stopped at one coat, but I only wanted to see the black on the edges where I sanded it, so I did two.  The next day after it was dry I sanded the edges and certain areas on the top and front with coarse sand paper.  Doesn't the distressing look awesome?  This part was so rewarding.

This picture shows a true color

For the shelves and inside I ended up making some white chalk paint with paint I had on hand, but honestly in retrospect I don't know why I did that.  I should have just used normal paint since I wasn't planning on distressing it.  Live and learn.

Since chalk paint does dry somewhat, well, chalky, you want to use a furniture wax to protect it from scratches. Many people recommend using a big round brush like this one to apply the wax, but I didn't have one.  I also read that a cloth or old t-shirt would work, so I cut apart one of Bobby's old undershirts that was otherwise getting thrown away.

I bunched up a section of the shirt, pressed it in the wax to get a good among on my cloth and then rubbed it onto my piece, using a good amount of pressure.  I worked in sections until it was all covered. I wiped off any excess, especially in the nooks and crannies of the legs.  Later that day (although I have since read that you should wait overnight) I used a piece of clean cloth to buff it (think 'wax on, wax off' motion). This step makes it amazingly shiny and hard.  The wax will be dry and hardened in a few days but not fully cured for 3-4 weeks, so try to be patient and not rest anything on top of your piece until then!

A note about this particular wax- Although it is labeled as 'clear' it has a slightly brownish tint to it.  In some of the small crevices on my buffet you can see where some excess wax dried and it is not clear.  So I wouldn't recommend using this particular brand on white or light colored furniture.  Get wax that is truly clear (Annie Sloan has one).

Here it is- the big after shot!

Ok, it's not a 100% after shot because I still need to replace the glass and put the side doors back on. So it's an 85% after shot.

(Top shelf, from left: Target vase, Ikea vase, Ikea plants and pots.
Bottom shelf, from left:  Marshall's candle, Marshall's hurricane jar, Target bowl,
Target ceramic urchin, Hershey Chocolate tin)

Ta da! See, chalk paint is easy and affordable!

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Adventures with Chalkpaint, Part 1

Have you caught the chalk paint fever yet?  I'm not talking about chalkboard paint, which you can use to write on.  I'm talking about chalk paint, which is used to redo furniture to give it a distressed, shabby chic or French country look.  Here are some examples:

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Chalk paint is easy to use because it requires no sanding beforehand.  It supposedly covers any surface, even something shiny or plastic.  Due to the chalky finish it's easy to distress the edges to get that worn look.

Although there are lots of 'pros' to using chalk paint, there are some cons: it's expensive and not readily available everywhere.  The only brand of chalk pain is Annie Sloan, which is only sold at specific approved retailers. So you can't just go pick it up at Lowes. There are only four retailers in the whole state of Indiana.  One of them isn't too far from me, so I may go check it out some time.  But again, the paint is expensive.  I bought a piece of furniture from Craigslist that I wanted to redo, so rather than make the trip to that one specific store and spend a lot of money on Annie Sloan paint, I decided to do what any normal DIYer on a budget would do- make my own.

There are several recipes floating around on Pinterest, but I went with this one from i heart nap time. (I do heart nap time!).  You can read her whole process on her site, but the basic recipe is:

2 cups latex paint (any color or brand. I got flat but I'm sure other sheens would work.)
5 tablespoons plaster of paris
2 tablespoons water
(I really eyeballed everything and it turned out fine.  I think it's one of those projects that's hard to mess up.)
You'll also want some furniture wax to finish the job

First mix up the plaster of paris and water in a bucket or leftover plastic container.  Try to get out any lumps.  Then stir in the paint, mix well, and adjust the ingredients as necessary.  It should feel like thicker, slightly gritty paint, but not so thick that it's difficult to use.  It also shouldn't be lumpy, so you want to mix the plaster and water really well before you add the paint. Add more water if it's too thick or more plaster if it's too watery. Voila!  You've made chalk paint!  Pat yourself on the back and buy those new shoes you've had your eye on.  OK, maybe just the pat on the back.  We're trying to save money here, remember?    

If you're not going to finish your project in one day, I recommend using a container with a lid to store your paint.  It should keep for a few days, but you might have to add a little water to loosen it up. Although another benefits of chalk paint is that it dries quickly, and you can can a second coat within an hour or so.

This was my paint on day two.  I stirred in some water and it was good as new.

Now you're probably wondering what I did with this homemade chalk paint!  Stayed tuned for tomorrow's post on the whole project.  Spoiler alert- this is the 'before'.  (Update- read part 2 here).

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New Lights & Short Fuses

After I finished staining our new table (read part 1 and part 2) and put it in our kitchen I was in love with the way it looked.  But then there was just one problem- the chandelier.

The previous owner of the house had great taste, but her style was definitely more feminine and formal than ours.  So I knew the original chandelier had to go. For our replacement I turned to my usual source of inspiration, Pottery Barn.  I knew I wanted something like their Calhoun Glass Pendant:

Then I looked at my usual go-to sources for actually buying things: Overstock, Amazon, Target, Homegoods, Lowes, etc.  I was all set to buy this light from Lowes to save $31:

But then the Pottery Barn light went on sale! And I had a 15% off coupon! And I had some money left on a gift card!  Talk about a money-saving trifecta.

Bobby and I figured we could install it ourselves, even though we had literally zero experience.  But after a few YouTube videos you can become an expert at anything, right?  So a few videos, half a day, and many curse words later (by Bobby, not me.  I was good this time) our new light was installed:

Gorgeous right?  The three pendant lights above the peninsula got a makeover too, but that's a post for another day.  (And yes, this was taken around Christmas, hence the table decor). And I have big plans for those blue IKEA chairs.

You may be wondering about the title of this post.  Well just a little piece of advice: if your spouse agrees to install a light fixture for you and is having a hard time getting the wires connected correctly, leading to a lot of frustration, it's not a good time to make the following pun "Wow, you really have a short fuse today".  (HILARIOUS, right?) He was not amused.  I still laugh about it to this day.

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Craigslist Kitchen Table, Part 2

If you missed part 1, read that here.

Once I was ready to begin refinishing the table I bought I gathered all my supplies.  Here's what I used:

1. Electric Sander with 80 grit and 200 grit discs (I love this one and highly recommend getting one if you plan on doing several projects). 
2. Sandpaper, 80 grit and 200 grit
3. Goggles & Mask to wear while you’re using the electric sander
4. Chemical stripper- I used Citrastrip (You might not need this, but I used it in the small rope detail where I couldn’t sand and it was a HUGE help! Plus it smells like oranges.)
5. Brush with stiff bristles, to scrape off the stripper
6. Wood conditioner- I used Minwax Wood Conditioner (not required but nice to have)
7. Stain- I used Minwax in Red Mahogany
8. Polycyclic top coat- I used Minwax Polycrylic in Clear Satin
9. Foam brushes (I got cheap ones and threw them away afterwards)
10. Tack cloths, or other rags

For my process I really followed Centsational Girl's tutorial found here.  I'm not going to type it all since it’s her tutorial, not mine, and I think she explains things really well.  Young House Love also has a helpful staining tutorial here. (I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post.  I redid the table before creating the blog, so I wasn't really thinking about taking step by step pictures).

Sanding it all down and getting it ready to stain was the most time-consuming part, especially since my table had that decorative rope detail.  That’s one of my favorite parts of the table now, but it certainly was not during this project!  So after sanding the top and legs as best I could, I used the chemical stripper as directed on the rope, let it sit for a while (about an hour?) to work its magic, and then used the brush to scrape it off.  It took multiple attempts but after a while the table looked like this and was ready for the wood conditioner:

I did two thin coats as directed.  The next day, after the wood conditioner had dried I did two super thin coats of the stain, allowing a few hours of drying time between coats.  You also want to use a clean rag to wipe off any excess stain so it doesn't turn out streaky. I liked the look after one coat, but I decided I wanted a richer, more even toned look so I did a second coat.  Here are some progress pictures:

After the stain dried for a day or two I did my first coat of the poly.  The directions state that after your first coat of poly is dry you should lightly sand it with fine grit sand paper (200 grit), wipe it off with a tack clot, and then apply the second coat.  Well, after I lightly sanded and wiped down my beautiful, gorgeous, newly stained table, it looked like...crap.  There was a weird chalky/milky look to the whole table, ruining the beautiful stain.  

I freaked out.  I may have shed a tear, and I definitely said some unladylike things.  (Bobby can attest to this).  I was convinced I ruined my table.  I didn't even take a picture because I was not thinking clearly. After calming down a bit, I decided I couldn't do much further damage and I would just do another coat of poly to see what happened.  Well miracle of miracles, it worked!  It looked perfect! I don't know why none of the other blogs addressed this, but let me just assure you that it will in fact work out in the end.  No need to freak out like I did.

And now lovely readers (aka my mom), here is the glorious before and after:

And how it looks in our kitchen:

Yes, we also changed out the light.  More on that here.

UPDATE! I sold four of the five original chairs on Craiglist this weekend for- get this- $45!  Meaning the table and one chair I kept only cost me $10, plus the cost of supplies.  Beautiful new kitchen table for under $40.  Beat that, Pottery Barn.

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