Decorations Montage

Happy Holidays!
(Too busy enjoying some yuletide cheer for a real update. Hope you like the way we decked the halls.)

It begins (almost)

We had our final "pre-tear-down consultation" yesterday and are ready to begin the bathroom remodel. Our designer, Francisco, did a whole mock-up of our bathroom on the computer, down to the littlest details of exactly where our decorative tile will go in relation to our soap dish and tub faucet. We approved the drawings and our team is going to start on Tuesday! Meanwhile, we've been finalizing the little details like what kind of toilet paper holder/towel hook/wall plate to get, what grout tint we want, and what color to paint the walls.

I'll spare you the tiny details but I thought our paint swatch lay-out looked pretty neat.

D and I took turns pulling colors that we didn't like until we were left with two sheets. We decided to try the Blue Fox (the bottom on the left swatch) and Russian Blue (the top on the right swatch).

It's hard to tell in the evening light, but we are pretty sure that Russian Blue, the rightmost of the two wall splotches, is our final decision. Plus it will keep with the theme of the Samovar Silver from our guest bedroom (not that names matter, but it's fun when they are quirky enough to stick in my head). You can see that the crew already had a little fun in the bathroom. Our foreman, Antonio, asked if he could check whether or not we could recess the medicine cabinet. Turns out there is space back there, but also a stud, so we'll see what happens...

Stay tuned! We'll do our best to "live-blog" the remodel. Wish us luck!

From Gold to Blue to Gray (part 2)

When last we left our story, we had a gray dresser. You'd think that would be the whole story. But I was only just beginning. The next step was to transform the hardware. I rubbed all six handles down with steel wool, washed them in non-TSP cleaner, and mounted them to cardboard, a trick I learned in some handy man magazine or other. It helps to get the spray paint exactly where it's needed without having to rest the handles on something. It's a great trick!

After several coats of a shiny white all-in-one spray paint, I had pretty, glossy hardware. Also a white, sore finger. Spray painting is hard! I see why spray can triggers exist.

The hardware got some time to dry and cure while I went back to the dresser itself. You may remember that my inspiration was two-toned. The original yellow and gold piece was actually tri-tone (two tints of the gold metal paints around the edges).

I wanted to stick to that effect. After a lot of research, I decided to buy Modern Masters metallic paint. After a little hunting, I found it at an independent hardware shop not too far away and bought pewter and platinum (I actually could have sworn I bought silver but when I got home, lo and behold, I had grabbed platinum. I doubt anyone would ever notice--I'm not sure I even could.)

It didn't take long to realize that this was HARD! Tiny paint brush, controlled hand, and slow, patient brush strokes. I abandoned the tri-tone idea and stuck to just going over the scroll-work in platinum. I say "just" going over the scroll-work but actually the final result took three pain-staking coats over a week. Each coat took about an hour or more. It was hard, but I think it was worth it.

Next should be the big reveal but first let's take a detour and discuss protective coatings. I had considered using Minwax polycrylic or wax on the whole thing but finally decided just to do the top surface, since that was the most likely to get wet, stained, etc. Before I could start, I had to wait two whole weeks for the paint to cure before starting (if you cover it while it's still wet, it can bubble and do all sorts of horrible things). It was a tough wait--as long as the process had taken up until that point.

Finally, after 14 days, I whipped out my trusty sponges and started applying a super thin layer of polycrylic. I waited two hours and then, as the instructions suggested, got out my super-fine sand paper to just barely rough up the surface for the second coat to adhere better. And that's when it happened...

Despite using 300 grit sand paper and a very light touch AND despite having put down three nice coats of gray, the surface started turning white! I actually had chipped and sanded the gray off in a few places with no effort at all! I guess that layer of polycrylic was a little TOO thin.

Pause for a short temper tantrum and some weeping.

The next step was to wipe off all the sand paper dust, wipe the whole thing down, and do the surface in gray AGAIN! Three more coats (plus a few touch ups to the platinum around the edges where I accidentally got some gray paint) and then ANOTHER two weeks. And then finally, FINALLY, I carefully tried the polycrylic again. This time though, there was no sanding. It adhered, layer after thin layer, just fine. I debated sanding the very last coat, just for some sheen. And then gave myself a stern talking to and decided that it was really truly done and to just STOP TOUCHING IT!

If it seems like I'm using an awful lot of caps, it's so that you can begin to understand my frustration of having spent more than 6 weeks on this project (1 week prep, prime, paint + 1 week platinum trim + 2 weeks curing + .25 weeks of paint + 2 weeks curing + .25 weeks polycrylic). Fortunately, I learned some valuable lessons (trim is hard, sanding is bad) and LOVE the final results. So here, at last, is the big reveal:

And one more time, the before and after side-by-side, just for kicks. Because I earned it!

From Gold to Blue to Gray (part 1)

This project has been a long time in project and I'm so glad to finally present it to you. So glad, in fact, that I'm spilling all the minute, gory details and splitting this into to posts!

Remember this guy? I fell in love with the style and shape but found the color hideous in our gray, blue, and brick red living room.

With the help of photoshop, we decided to see what it would be like to paint him turquoise:

I even came close to hiring someone to do it. I'm sure she would have done an amazing job, but the price was a little too high and my sense of pride made me think that I could do it myself and then have something to really show off.

After considering what shade of blue to use, I came across a few inspirational photos that made me think that gray was the way to go:

Found here (original source unknown)

Design by Primitive and Proper

Aren't they just amazing? I decided to use Sherwin William's Duration in a satin finish in Peppercorn--the same color as the darker dresser above. I really liked the dark gray with the white hardware. I took another recommendation from the wonderful Primitive and Proper blog and decided to start with Kilz Clean Start. Both are relatively environmentally friendly and give off less noxious fumes. This was also a perk because I decided that I was going to complete the whole project indoors.

Well, except for this first step--roughing up the glossy surface to make sure the primer adheres.

I may have gone a little overboard on the protection (yes, that's ear covers, glasses, and a face mask, as well as a hoody to protect myself from the last of the mosquitoes). But after last time I sanded something and noticed colored, snotty sawdust in the tissue every time I blew my nose the rest of the day, I decided to play it safe.

From there we moved everything into the house so that I could work "round the clock." I scrubbed off the debris with non-TSP cleaner, laid everything out on a drop cloth, and got to work.

Round 1: thin coat of primer (you can still see the color underneath a little):

Round 2: another thin coat of primer (it looks totally white now). Round 2.5: One extra coat of primer on the top for good measure, because I could see some color just barely peeking through.

Round 3: Peppercorn! A thin coat of paint.

Round 4: A second coat of paint (this would look a lot less dramatic if I took these pictures at the same time of day, but the evening lighting exaggerates the color). Still, a beautiful and rich finish. Round 4.5: A third coat of paint for the top, just in case.

I'll leave you with that for now with a hint of what is to come: the hardware! (I read somewhere that it was easiest to handle the hardware by screwing it into a piece of cardboard and let me tell you--that is a good trick to know because it really works!)

December? Really?

It's December on the calendar and the leaves have finally fallen. (Remember this post about being done raking? Yeah, that was overly optimistic...we had to rake/mow/mulch twice more after that. But now it's really truly done for the year.) You'd never know from the temperatures though. Even though there has been an occasional frosty morning, days have climbed into the 50s. All those new bulbs have been tricked into thinking it's spring!!!

Even our established camellias, which I think should really know better by now, are sporting tiny buds.

I wish I could warn these little guys to stay in hiding for a few more months! Do you think that this will mess things up come spring by killing them off too soon?

Despite the warmth, it's getting to be that time of year again where I go crazy and decorate everything. If you're a very loyal reader, you may remember that last year, we put lights up outside by tossing them haphazardly in the wild shrubbery.

But that shrubbery is now history, thanks to our new landscaping. So I went a little crazy and decided to outline the house. Thankfully, even though D thinks I've gone totally holiday-bonkers, he agreed to help, since this was a two-man operation.

I'm hoping the little lights stay up until January and don't do any damage. We slid them under the slates, which is where the gutter guards fit in. They seem pretty secure and don't seem to be putting any pressure on the slates. Let's all keep our collective fingers crossed!

Wait, no "after" pictures?

Nope, not yet. That's something I'm saving for my Christmas montage post. Stay tuned!

How We Spent Our Saturday

Unlike years past, we've been diligently raking up the leaves this fall, to keep our grass from dying. We noticed that if we removed the leaves weekly, the task didn't seem quite so onerous. That and we have a fancy, new, battery-powered lawnmower that's super quiet and does a pretty good job of scooping up, mulching, and bagging the leaves, making the huge backyard seem a lot easier to handle (oh, and it also cuts grass).

Black and Decker CM1936

We especially wanted to make sure the new grass coming up on the newly defined borders of our flower beds had every opportunity to grow. See that nice pretty green hidden under the leaves?

(Oh, and on a side note, we decided to "mulch" our garden with chopped up leaves, which are supposedly a handy free way to keep bulbs and baby plants warm all winter. Easier than hauling mulch, that's for sure...)

So after all this raking, imagine our dismay to wake up to this on Saturday morning:

You would never guess that we had raked 6 days earlier. But after 2.5 hours of intense raking, mowing, and hauling:

 And just to prove that we did the whole yard and not just the half in the photo:

(We did the back too, but since I didn't get a before photo, I didn't see much point in getting an after one.)

The better news comes from these views:

Not too many more leaves left to fall!!! Hopefully we got the bulk of it and won't have to spend another whole day doing clean up again until spring.

Oh, and for anyone keeping track, after FOUR WEEKS of regular yard waste pick up, we still have a hefty amount of liriope sitting in our driveway waiting for its turn on the curb. But I'm happy to report that now, on the fifth week, it's finally GONE!!!!! Next we just have to bundle up the compose from under the tarp and we'll have our driveway back!

Let in the Breeze

This post is a little overdue because of all the major landscaping and bathroom changes that I wanted to write about, but back in late summer/early fall, we finally decided to build shelves into the bedroom that could hold our window fan, so that we could turn off the A/C pull in some cool outside air and lower the temperature inside. (Yes, I realize now that it's November, this post isn't very relevant.)

Months before that, we bought a 6' by 8'' ash board that would make two equal size shelves with only one cut. D made the slice and the rest was up to me. I sanded everything with medium fine to fine sand paper, wiped them down, and then got ready to coat them with Minwax Polycrylic. I haven't tried many other protective coats but from doing a lot of reading online, I decided a while back that this was probably the best bet for coating light or painted wood because it doesn't yellow. I've also had good luck with wax, but these shelves would rubbing up against our curtains and wax could potentially rub off.

We don't have cable but on the few occasions a year that I visit my parents, I try to pick up lots of home repair techniques. One that I learned last year (discussing how to paint a door) was to put a nail into each side and prop the shelves up on it between two saw horses. This way I could stain both sides at once by carefully spinning the shelf around. The nail holes were barely noticeable when I pulled the nails out.

I put on three coats of polycrylic over the course of a few days. I sanded each layer with very fine sandpaper but was disappointed in the end at the overall finish, which felt very course. After a little research on the Internet, I learned that ash is porous and so its actually impossible to get a fine, glassy finish no matter how much you sand. Oh well--this is one of those things that no one besides me will ever notice. In any case, the wood is protected in case we leave a window open one rainy night and it gets a little wet.

Next came installation. The hardest part was getting the !@#%^%$ stickers off the Ikea brackets. A lot of baby oil and elbow grease!

Unfortunately and despite multiple tries with our stud finder, we couldn't find a place to put the brackets that hit any studs. So we used molly bolts and said a little prayer that our 13 pound cats wouldn't take an interest in hanging out on the shelves. At least not both at once.  In the end, they look pretty good and offer an easy way to pull back the curtains as well.

Most important, it's a perfect fit for the fan! Come spring, we'll be able to circulate some cool air around the room without having to build a tower out of boxes and books (seriously--that was our previous makeshift solution).

Now I just have to find some things to store on the lower shelf to make everything look more complete.  Both shelves are totally hidden when the curtains are closed, so it's a nice place to quickly hide clutter as well.