Flippin' My House
October has been an interesting and exciting month for me. Along with participating in the CATS musical at Strauss Theatre (see previous posts), I have also been involved in some pretty huge personal decisions and plans. My husband and I are in the beginning phase of home renovations. And boy, how I love a project! Well, I don't much like the work involved, but I do love the creativity aspect of it all, and the feeling I get when I am able to look back on a job I've done well. So as long as things turn out as planned, then I'm a happy little camper!
In a couple of weeks we will be tearing out the old, nasty carpet in our living room, dining room, hall and main bathroom, and the tile out of the kitchen, and replacing it all with this:
So the logical place for me to start with any paint-related projects would be where the carpet/old floors will be torn out anyway. I decided to begin with the hall bathroom. Here's what it looked like as of last Friday.
It wasn't horrible, but I prefer more warmth and color. Plus, the paint was old and chipping and needed to be redone. I began by taking down all the pictures, filling up all the holes in the wall, and cleaned the cabinets and walls and taped up the trim with painter's tape. I did all this on Friday evening after work. It took me about 6 hours.
Since I got everything prepped Friday, I was able to start on the cabinets Saturday morning. Now, I've never painted cabinets before, so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. This was a HUGE job. Obviously, the first thing you have to do is remove all the doors. Lucky for me, I am pretty skilled with a drill.
That's a good thing, because removing all the hinges and handles is time consuming. A drill makes it a much quicker and easier task. After taking the doors off, I had to move them to an alternate location to paint them since there was no floor room in the bathroom itself. Since Teddy was out of town for a game (he is the color commentator for the LA Tech football radio program... proud!) I decided to paint the cabinet doors on the kitchen floor. I lay them on a canvas tarp, which is less likely to stick than a plastic one.
I am thrilled I did a little research on cabinet refinishing, because had I not, I wouldn't have known to mark each door and its hardware. If you skip this part, you'll end up not knowing which door goes where, and the handles and hinges would get all jumbled, too! So I marked each door with a pencil under where the hinges attach, and put each door's hardware in a separate, marked plastic baggie. I used BIN shellac primer, which requires no deglossing or sanding. After a coat of primer, then I used two coats of Kitchen/Bath acrylic latex paint in a chocolate brown.
I know what you're thinking... yuck, right? Wait! I'm not finished! I prefer the look of stained wood on cabinets, rather than paint, but I didn't want to completely sand them down. I wanted to paint-protect them since they'll be in the humidity-filled bathroom. So I glazed them instead. I've never done this before, but I did some research and found several different techniques to try. Most of what I read involved antiquing the cabinets, but I was going for more of a wood-grain look. So I ended up ditching most of what I read, and instead used a very stiff, small paint brush to actually paint the "wood grain" onto the cabinets with the glaze (4 parts glaze to 1 part black latex paint). And this is how it turned out.
I LOVE them! The cabinets turned out exactly how I had hoped. I started them on Saturday morning, and finished with the glaze on Monday. It took a lot of time and patience, but it was worth it.
Now, on to the walls!
I have always wanted to try faux painting, and I figured it would be great in the bathroom since the walls are so uneven and bumpy. Faux painting is not only pretty, but it disguises imperfections. I chose a dark red and a light taupe color. The big wall was easy and quick and I was able to do them with a two-color roller. But the corners and edges and the small pieces of wall over the bathtub, the vanity and the door were all a bit tricky, and I ended up doing most of those spots with a small paint brush. So it took me most of Sunday to do the walls. This is what the process looked like.
The entire process took from Friday through Monday to complete. Here is the finished product!
Well, the floors won't be finished for a couple of weeks, and I still have to do some tile work in the bathtub/shower, but I'm pretty pleased with how the cabinets and painting turned out.
Next up is the kitchen. I'll keep you posted!
In a couple of weeks we will be tearing out the old, nasty carpet in our living room, dining room, hall and main bathroom, and the tile out of the kitchen, and replacing it all with this:
So the logical place for me to start with any paint-related projects would be where the carpet/old floors will be torn out anyway. I decided to begin with the hall bathroom. Here's what it looked like as of last Friday.
It wasn't horrible, but I prefer more warmth and color. Plus, the paint was old and chipping and needed to be redone. I began by taking down all the pictures, filling up all the holes in the wall, and cleaned the cabinets and walls and taped up the trim with painter's tape. I did all this on Friday evening after work. It took me about 6 hours.
Since I got everything prepped Friday, I was able to start on the cabinets Saturday morning. Now, I've never painted cabinets before, so I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. This was a HUGE job. Obviously, the first thing you have to do is remove all the doors. Lucky for me, I am pretty skilled with a drill.
That's a good thing, because removing all the hinges and handles is time consuming. A drill makes it a much quicker and easier task. After taking the doors off, I had to move them to an alternate location to paint them since there was no floor room in the bathroom itself. Since Teddy was out of town for a game (he is the color commentator for the LA Tech football radio program... proud!) I decided to paint the cabinet doors on the kitchen floor. I lay them on a canvas tarp, which is less likely to stick than a plastic one.
I know what you're thinking... yuck, right? Wait! I'm not finished! I prefer the look of stained wood on cabinets, rather than paint, but I didn't want to completely sand them down. I wanted to paint-protect them since they'll be in the humidity-filled bathroom. So I glazed them instead. I've never done this before, but I did some research and found several different techniques to try. Most of what I read involved antiquing the cabinets, but I was going for more of a wood-grain look. So I ended up ditching most of what I read, and instead used a very stiff, small paint brush to actually paint the "wood grain" onto the cabinets with the glaze (4 parts glaze to 1 part black latex paint). And this is how it turned out.
Now, on to the walls!
I have always wanted to try faux painting, and I figured it would be great in the bathroom since the walls are so uneven and bumpy. Faux painting is not only pretty, but it disguises imperfections. I chose a dark red and a light taupe color. The big wall was easy and quick and I was able to do them with a two-color roller. But the corners and edges and the small pieces of wall over the bathtub, the vanity and the door were all a bit tricky, and I ended up doing most of those spots with a small paint brush. So it took me most of Sunday to do the walls. This is what the process looked like.
The entire process took from Friday through Monday to complete. Here is the finished product!
Next up is the kitchen. I'll keep you posted!
Comments
Thanks! It is a LOT of work, and I'm still right in the middle of it. I started my kitchen re-do this past weekend, and did not even get halfway through it. I'll work again this weekend, and hopefully finish before the floor is laid next week. I'm having to give some concessions to age, though. My knees and back can only take so much these days!