Kitchen Crashing

After redoing our kitchen when we first moved in (which you can see here and here), my dad began to covet my beautiful white cabinets. Wanna see why?

Yeah. That's why. Allow me to introduce you to the kitchen in my childhood home. Ready for a flashback?

A lovely shot of me and my best friend, Sharon, getting ready to hit the All Night Grad Party, circa 2002. 


Needless to say, it was time for an upgrade. So I cleared a few weekends in my schedule, and I hit up the Benjamin Moore store for another gallon of White Dove in a high gloss finish. I got all the doors off and gave them a real good sanding - not only to rough up the wood, but to take off 20+ years of dirt.

I did my standard two coats of primer...

and followed it up with three coats of the White Dove. 


My original plan had been to change out the hardware completely, to give it a more modern feel. Here's a closeup of the original handles:

Unfortunately, there was not a single handle to be found that had the same hole-spacing as these guys, and a special request from my dad was not drilling any new holes in the doors. So, instead, I found the exact same handles in a different finish. (I can't believe they still make these bad boys!) 


And so, without further ado, here's a look at what will be the first part of this kitchen crash. 

And here's a closeup of the lovely new handles I found.

So, now that the cabinets are updated, my dad is all pumped about getting new countertops, flooring, and a new stove to replace the 1960's brown double oven. He's left me in charge - I'm thinking of running the hardwood floors that are throughout the house into the kitchen, adding a light, neutral granite, and getting a stainless steel stove with a microwave mounted under the cabinets. And then maybe doing a blue on the walls. 
Sort of like this inspiration picture, originally seen here via Pinterest. 

My dad is making some noise about wanting black countertops, so we'll see which direction it ends up going. For now, I'm happy to have the first (and in my opinion, most labor intensive) step finished. 

No-Sew Roman Shades

Holy moly, where did November go?? I've been super dilatory in my posting, so there is much to say. But, one thing at a time.

I decided that I needed to spruce up my kitchen window...

because it was looking a little sad. Now, when we first moved in...

...it's a little hard to see, but there wasn't even any framing around the window edge. A quick trip to Home Depot and some construction glue solved that problem. (Alas, that was in the pre-blog days, or I'd surely share photos.)

After living with the window as it was for a few months, I decided that I wanted some sort of window treatment. You know, give the place a little class. The problem though, is that I love all the light that comes through that window, and I like being able to see the backyard. Plus, I didn't want to do traditional blinds because then I'd have a cord hanging down right around the sink. No thanks.

So, I stumbled across some different variations of no-sew roman shades, on Pinterest of course. 

Originally found here

Originally found here

The first one used mini-blinds as a base, which didn't solve my not-wanting-blinds-because-of-the-cord issue. The second one was more of a "faux" roman shade, which is exactly what I was looking for.

I went to Target, hoping to find a tablecloth or window curtain that I liked and could use. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing there that struck my fancy. As I was walking away from that department, feeling dejected, I happened past the bathroom aisle. And I said to myself, I said "Self, who says a shower curtain has to be used in the bathroom?"

So clearly, this is what I came home with:

I love the pattern and the various blue colors - they really compliment the Glidden Stone White that's on the walls. Into the cart it went, along with three tension rods and some fabric glue.

Once all my supplies were ready, I got down to measuring. The window was about 42" across, so I laid the shower curtain out and set about hemming and folding until I had a rectangle that was the right width. The fabric glue was a big win - just make sure you have wax paper or aluminum foil between it and the floor/carpet.

Once I had the width all squared away, I folded down the top part and fabric glued that, leaving a tube at the top to slide the first tension rod through.

I let all the glue set for about 45 minutes to make sure it was good and dry, and then moved on to the fun part. I lengthened all the tension rods to fit in the window frame, and I slid the first one through the opening at the top of the shower curtain. I stuck that up in the window frame, and then put the other two tension rods in the frame as well, putting them in front of the fabric. I spaced them about 3 or 4 inches from each other, but this can vary depending on how big you want the folds at the top to be.

Then, I just looped the fabric over the next two rods to create the roman shade effect.

No matter how much I fidgeted with it, it still looked crooked to me. I took it all down, made sure the rods were good and straight, and I did a quick hem on the bottom.


And voila! Easy to make, under $20, no-sew (and sort of faux) roman shades!
 



Old Tables, New Look

Remember these guys?

They were given to us by a friend, and I knew I wanted to incorporate them into the living room in some way. I did a preliminary setup of the furniture after I finished painting the room gray, and they ended up behind the sofa.

They're actually the perfect height and length for a good console table. However, the wood finish they were sportin' really wasn't doing it for me and I knew they had to be changed up. I decided to try giving them a distressed finish (but mainly keeping them white to tie in the newly painted bookcases.)

So, into the family room they went for a good sanding...

...followed by a coat of Kilz Primer.

For the base color, or the color I hoped would eventually show through my purposefully-inflicted distress marks, I chose a blue color that I had left over from a brief project in the laundry room when we first moved in.

I was actually really liking the blue color, but I didn't think it would look as good in the finished room when all was said and done. But I did give some serious thought to just leaving them as they were.

Instead, I waited for them to dry and then I gave them a thin coat of white paint that I already had on hand from the staircase project.

They look pretty much exactly as they did when they were primed, but you can see in the second picture that the white paint is very thin, and you can see a little of the blue showing through.

Once the white paint was dry, I moved the tables into the garage and started sanding. The key is to sand very lightly, so you only take off the top coat. I just wanted the blue to show though in places where tables would naturally get dinged, and I had to be careful not to sand hard enough to take all the paint off and expose the wood.

After I felt like I had enough spots of blue showing through (and was scared that any more sanding would take all three layers of paint off), I gave them a quick coat of Valspar Clear Gloss and moved them back inside.

You can see some of the distress marks if you look closely, but all in all, it's not quite where I wanted it to be. I'm hoping that over time the actual use of the tables will continue to chip away at the white paint and reveal the blue, but if not, I can live with them being white.

And yes...for those of you that were paying attention...that is, in fact, my new wingback chair in the background. Another gift from my furniture-downsizing-friend from work. Win!

So the updated to-do list looks a little something like this:

Paint the walls
Paint the bookcases white
Work out some sort of coffee table solution
Figure out a solution for the trunk (and yes, I've already tried it as a coffee table. Too tall.)
Do something with the wooden tablesGet some blue curtains
Get some fun lamps
Get a wingback chairMake newly acquired wingback chair white
Accessorize
Figure out a solution/home for Rocker #1
Figure out a solution/home for Rocker #2

One step at a time!

Door Knob Makeover

Recently, a friend of mine was contemplating purchasing new cabinet knobs for his kitchen, to replace the gold, brassy, builder-grade ones. But, because of the amount that he needed, he was looking at dropping over $60 on it. And that's where I stepped in. Why spend $60 when you can buy a can of spray paint for $4?

So, he brought them all over and I set to work. I soaked them in Liquid Deglosser, which I already had, and wiped them all down. The bottle says to let them dry for 30 minutes, but I let them sit overnight.

I got an old styrofoam cooler and some toothpicks, and I set up my work area.

Clever, huh? The toothpicks really helped me get to all the angles. A few coats of Krylon Silver Nickel paint...

...and a few more coats of Valspar Clear Gloss and they were good as new. Check out his kitchen sporting the new look:

So, that little project got me inspired to finally tackle all the brassy, golden doorknobs throughout the interior of my house.

I'd been meaning to do this project for awhile, after falling in love with these guys on Pinterest. 

Originally seen here

Originally seen here

 I love white doors with oil rubbed broze fixtures. I think they're simply stunning, and they bring back fond memories of spending summers in my grandma's house - her house was full of original, early 1900's doors and knobs. (It still is, as a matter of fact.)

So I got those bad boys off...

 
and did the same process with the Liquid Deglosser that I did with the cabinet knobs. For this project though, I stuck the doorknobs through the styrofoam for easier spray painting. 
 

Into the garage they went, where they got 3 or 4 coats of my favorite ORB spray (which is also the same one I used on the storm door.)

I finished them off with a top coat of Valspar Clear Satin. My best piece of advice for a project like this? Be patient. I let each coat dry, sit and cure for at least 4 hours before putting anymore on there. I usually don't need to do that, but doorknobs get so much wear and tear, and are touched so much that I really wanted the paint to set. So yes, this project took between 4 and 5 days to finish...

 

...but well worth it. Originally, I didn't take the innards of the doorknobs off to paint. But, after looking back at my inspiration pictures, I decided I needed too. But first, I tried to just tape them off and use a cardboard backing to spray them in the house. 

It worked okay, but the lines weren't as clean as I wanted. So, I bit the bullet and took them out, stuck them through the styrofoam, and sprayed them as well. 

Every time I look down the front hallway, or go to get something out of the kitchen pantry...

...I smile at the sight of the new ORB finishes everywhere. I still have more to do in the future - I didn't do any of the exterior doors or any of the upstairs doors - but I figure it will give me a chance to see how these last with the wear and tear of everyday use. So far, so good!