January 15, 2011

Master Bath Make over

This is my latest project. Thanx goes out to Rosanna Aquino for all her help.

This is our Master Bath upstairs which used to be for the kids. They didn't quit like being upstairs to well so we traded spaces. I did what I could with the way it was for a short time. However, I couldn't stand how dirty it looked no matter what I did. So the warn out oak vanity, mirror, and light fixture was the first thing to work on.



Good ol white paint sure cleans things up quickly. We painted the Vanity, mirror, and light fixture with a left over gallon of White paint. Replaced the brass(1980's) knobs with some nice glass knobs.






















Took a couple days off to figure out what color for the walls .For $25.00 I found my color at Menard's, a soft Grey.
And of course, fresh white trim and door. In the end I like the Clean, Soft look of an old master bath.



 
 




For a total of $25.00 I have a new master bath.

Floating breakfast bar

Ok, I think you know by now how much I really like the dark woods.

This next project is of an Idea i had for my kitchen. That nice dinning room table doesn't look so nice with all that clutter on! And I would really like the dinning table to look elegant at all time. Soooo, I thought that the idea of a breakfast nook in the kitchen (which was originally there before last owners refinished kitchen). The last owners replaced the kitchen nook with cabinets... To me, they filled space that now looks out of place.
Instead of a small table (no room for chairs and table) I wanted a floating breakfast Bar. I have never built anything like this at all so I took very small steps at going about this project.
I went to Lowell's and found the perfect wood, 1.5x1.5x8', and had them cut it down to small 2' long boards. The wood cost me about $10.00 all together. I played around with different designs for a hour or so and out came the wood glue. I glued and I glued until my little heart was content. One of the pictures show the beginning stages of the wood glue drying, set on top of the counters we will rip out.




After it was all glued and solid, I began to sand to make the surface as flat as possible. Dark mahogany stain (left over from fire place) and three coats of clear coat. Bought 1/2 round from Menard's for about $7.00,  for the face and mounted the bar to a 2x4 which was screwed into the wall. With three bar stools I purchased a year before at a garage sale for $20.00 These pics are a bit fuzzy...bad phone pics




My kids have a brand new breakfast bar for a total of around $40.00. Can't beat that! And it looks great.

Dinning Room Table

After finishing the fire place, I seen how much I really liked the dark tones for wood. This sent me on a rampage...lol I wanted everything in the house made of wood- Dark!
Which brings me to my next project. The dinning room table.
I purchased this table from an old friend ready to move out of State for $200.00. The table had quit a few stain and dings in it. And the Chairs didn't look so good either.
I do not have any before pictures because i was just to excited to get er done. Stripped the top of the table and sanded it. The legs and chairs I left alone until the end. This time I had to go with the color of the stain on the legs and chairs, which was a red mahogany. The table stained great, it was a perfect match. I also stained over the already stained legs and chairs for touch up.

This project took me about 3 weeks to complete. However, it could have been finished in two-three days if I would have done things correctly! When it was time for the clear coat, I went the easy way out and bought the spay clear coat..... Never again! It left dust particles in the top coat which looked very bad! Sooo, I had to sand off the top coat, place another coat of stain over top and then brush on the top coat. With three layer of clear coat over everything she is complete.

Fire place make over





The very first project I took on in our new home was the fire place. The last owner painted the fire place to look like black marble. Me personally, I did not like it at all. It had black shinny bathroom tile on the face and floor, that also had chips in it. With a brass face with glass doors and  a blower.
I personally like the natural wood look to fire places, sooo,I removed the brass face and blower, smashed the tiles, and I stripped it down, sanded, replaced the trim to my liking, and stain with a deep mahogany wood stain and a top coat. This process took me about three weeks (about 1 hour a day). The ending result is exactly what I was looking for!
The tile on the other hand, took some time to search for.









 I let the fire place stand the way it was for about a year while i was searching for the perfect tile to fit my ideal scheme. The final tile selection was, believe it or not, our very first choice. However, I am very happy that we took the time to really search. The tile we chose is a dessert sand stone. LOVE IT!


Between the cost of the stripper ( did not do my homework on this part), the new trim, stain, top coat and tools, tile, and grout, we spent about $175.00.  I spent more on buying bad strippers than anything! I learned my lesson on this project!