Thursday, June 30, 2011

Cabinet Transformation

I started working on the next part of the kitchen make over! Here's a hint:


The color we chose is Cocoa.


I think it will bring a richness to the kitchen while sticking with the wood tones of the rest of the house.

The ceiling and lights are pretty much done. I just have to attach one more fixture and touch  up a couple smudges from installing the recessed lights. I'll work on those between steps in the cabinet transformation! I hope to post the finished ceiling and lights by tomorrow.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Kitchen Make Over! [drywall repair and texture]

When we left off, we had taken down the old fluorescent box light and removed the popcorn ceiling. You can read about that here.

Once all of the popcorn texture was removed, it was time to finish the ceiling.This involved patching old holes, cutting new holes and applying a new texture to the ceiling. Our plan was to remove the four fluorescent tube lights, and install recessed lights instead. However, none of the recessed lights would be using any of the holes from the original light fixture :( So we had four holes to patch and five new holes to cut (in addition to the four recessed lights we ordered an awesome light fixture/fan combo for the center of the room). Since I had so many holes to patch I decided to apply a subtle texture to the ceiling to help mask the patches.


Todd removed the old light fixtures and I set to work patching the holes they left behind. I used a self-adhesive drywall patch I found at Lowes. These work great! It's as easy as it says on the package - stick it on, cover with compound, sand and paint.

The product:

Patch in place!

It was only after we removed the light fixtures that I realized there were a number of smaller holes as well. For these I just used a small square of drywall tape.



Once patched, I neatly applied drywall compound to cover the mesh. Once dry, it was time to lightly sand it, prime the walls and ceiling and then apply texture.

To create a texture similar to that found in other parts of our house, I found this product made by Homax. Texture in a can! I have to say that overall I was very happy with this product. Very easy to apply and I was happy with the way it looked. The one drawback (and it's a pretty big one) is that it didn't cover anywhere close to the amount of space it says on the can. It says it should cover at least 25 square feet and for me it was covering maybe 15 square feet. Quite a big difference, but I didn't want to switch techniques in the middle of my project, so I just bit the bullet and bought more cans. I would definitely use this product again, but probably not for such a big area. What the product lost in coverage area, it made up for in ease of use and a pretty finish!

Picture of the can:

Spray it on in a circular motion:

Let it set up for a few minutes (the can says 2, but in our heat I found that 5 worked better for me). Then, holding a paint scraper/mud knife parrallel to the wall, lightly swipe the knife over the area.


Tada!


Once it's fully dry, it's ready to paint!

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Saturday, June 25, 2011

Kitchen Make Over! [part 1]

Todd and I decided to spend the summer giving our kitchen a make over. The first part involved tearing down the fluorescent light box that took up the majority of the ceiling.

The official before pic:

After removing the plastic covers/diffusers  


After we removed the wooden structure

Assessing the damage

The next step was to remove the popcorn from the bottom part of the soffit. I read a lot of tips on removing popcorn ceiling. I found that ours was more difficult than most of the ones I saw on "how to" videos because ours had been painted [with seemingly impenetrable paint!]. 

What worked for me:


  • A garden sprayer and household spray bottle - I used both depending on the space I was working in. It was hard to get the garden sprayer in some areas. I filled both of these with WARM water and a little dish soap. I found that the warm water really made a difference. I also liked that this garden sprayer had a continuous spray option. 
  • Metal paint scraper
  • Utility Knift
  • Razor blade scraper
I had read that if you moistened the popcorn with a sprayer it would just scrape right off. This didn't work for me because the mist couldn't penetrate the layers of paint on the ceiling. So I ended up using a utility knife to score the ceiling (being careful not to go too deep). After I scored the popcorn texture, I then moistened it using the sprayer. After letting the warm water/soap mixture soak in, the majority of the texture scraped off easily. It did create quite the mess though! There were a few parts that were especially hard to scrape completely off. I found that if removed all of the loose parts and then sprayed again, it was easily removed with the razor blade scraper.

Thanks Todd for taking this bad picture of me picture of me looking hot in my safety gear. Not flattering. But what you do see is safety glasses and a mask. I left these out of my picture above but they are definitely a must. Dampening the texture keeps the dust at a  minimum but there is still A LOT of dust and you don't want to breathe it in!


Popcorn ceiling removed!

Stay tuned for the rest of the ceiling transformation and new lighting


 UndertheTableandDreaming 
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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Cedar chest to cushioned storage bench

Years ago (when I was in middle school or high school) my grandfather brought me a cedar chest he got at a garage sale. I kept it in my room. My mom thought we could use it for a hope chest but all I managed to gather for it was a used george forman grill and some old prom pictures. Now that I've been living out of my parents house for a while and Todd and I have a place of our own, we went over to my parents to clean out even more stuff from my old room. It's amazing the things that you think you must keep when you're 19 :)

One of the things we brought back was the old chest, but I had big plans for it. Todd and I had been wanting an upholstered storage bench for the front of our bed to put extra pillows/linens (stuff I only use when I make the bed special - like if someone might actually see it!). Here is how my makeover turned out!

Before picture (see I'm getting better about the before picture!)

After I sanded it, I painted it brown, using Valspar spray paint in "Brown Velvet" - satin finish. Then I went shopping for foam for the top. My plan was to make a nice cushion for the top and upholster it with an extra curtain panel we had from the house we rented. As soon as I went to the fabric store I came down with a huge case of sticker shock! I could not believe how expensive foam could be - even on sale! So my project was put on hold, because I knew their had to be a cheaper  better way to complete my vision.

Luckily we are in prime garage sale season! I searched garages sales for foam and finally came across just what I was looking for - a full sized egg crate foam mattress topper. My plan was to put two pieces together egg crate side in so I would end up with the smooth sides for the top and bottom. The best part about this story is when I asked the lady in charge of the sale how much she wanted for the topper - she said she'd give it to me for free. FOR FREEEEEEEE. Free is much better than store bought foam $$. I told her I loved her. And I do.



So I removed the top of the chest, covered it in batting using my staple gun to secure it. Then I added my my pieces of foam and upholstered the whole thing using my extra curtain material and a staple gun!


Here is the final result!






 And it only cost me a can of spray paint!

Linking up:

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