Dresser #2

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I love me a good antique dresser.  If you’re new to my blog… Well, I love antique dressers!  Now, that we are all caught up, let me tell you about my most recent find.This beaut was another Craigslist treasure.  That Craig and his crazy list sure have a some hidden gems.  I got this tall antique dresser from good old Craig for $40.  Sure, it needed some work, but the $40 was money well spent.  Here’s a side view, just in case you didn’t get enough of the lovely dull yellow paint…I went a different route this time, then the last dresser I tackled.  Instead of sanding the many old layers of paint off this old girl, I decided to use a paint stripper.  I have never used a stripper before, so I was pumped to give it a try.  I did some googling to find out which stripping agent had the best results.  It seemed that most DIYers out there are loving Citristrip Stripping Gel.  I had my winner, I picked up this bottle of Citristrip at Home Depot for $11.98.  I have heard some harsh things around the interweb about paint stripping agents.  Apparently, they can have some pretty rank smells, and be damaging to many materials, including skin.  This stuff was rated highly because it has a nice orange scent and it is safe enough to use indoors.  And, although, I had the option to work inside, I still chose to take this project out to the garage (thank goodness, it was a filthy job).  I, also, used a good pair of gloves because this stuff will still harm your skin.

Before I went to town slathering Citristrip everywhere, I removed all of the knobs and gave it a good wipe down, including inside of the drawers.Then, I just used an old paint brush to brush the Citrstrip on every painted surface of the dresser. It took me about 30 minutes to cover all of the surfaces.  After 15 minutes or so, the paint began to do this…See all that rippling and bubbling?  Typically, this is not considered a good look for a dresser but, I was happy to see it.  This meant it was working, and faster than I expected.

From there, I just used a metal spackle tool to scrape the paint off of the dresser.Here is what it was looking like after I had scraped all of the surfaces…It took about an hour of scraping to get it to this stage.Pretty good.  Don’t you think?  But, still not good enough.  There was still some paint and a layer of lacquer left.  So, I did another round of stripping.  All the same steps again.  And, I had this…Do you see that top center drawer?  Ya those are flowers.  Pretty inlaid fowers that were covered up by paint.  Oh people.  Why do you paint over things like this?I think it’s a pretty detail, so I was thrilled to find it.

From there, I just grabbed my palm sander and gave everything a good sanding, twice.I, then, stained the all surfaces with the same Minwax stain in English Chestnut that I used on the last dresser.  And, I had this…I know!  You are totally doing this right now…I get it.  I do.  I was doing the same thing.

I definitely wanted everything to stay as nice as it was turning out.  So, it was time to seal this puppy.  I used Minwax’s Water Based Polycrylic Protective Finish.  I ordered a quart off of amazon for $16 and some change (free shipping of course, thank you Amazon Prime!).I, also, bought a new higher quality paint brush, just to avoid any paint strokes.  When applying, I made sure to brush the sealer on in very thin coats.  I did two coats, some people suggest three, but since this piece wouldn’t get too much action, I figured two would be fine.  If I were working on an end table or coffee table I would probably go with three coats, since they would more likely have more traffic on their surfaces.  I let everything dry for a day, then added the knobs I had picked out.  I needed ten knobs!  TEN!  That’s a lot of knobs, and at the usual $5 a pop I was looking at $50, just on knobs!  Even though that would only bring the total cost of this dresser to about $100, I wasn’t digging that price.  So, being a cheapskate at heart, I googled around for some other options.  I knew I wanted them to be white and something that would look okay with the antique look of this dresser.  I came across these guys on Amazon (have I mentioned I love Amazon?)…And, at $22 for all 10, I was sold!

Last step, I just put all of the knobs in place and VOILA!!…The stain and polyacrylic really made a huge difference.  I am stoked about how it turned out.  And, in case you are wondering where this old girl is going to live.  I am happy to tell you it landed in my art/craft/office/extra guest room. See it?  Hanging out over there on the far right wall?  We tossed the old futon that was living on that wall and put the dresser in it’s place.  I was needing more storage in here and what better than this dresser?I totally dig it and am so excited to have these big drawers for added storage.  For fun here is slideshow of the process…

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Have your ever refinished an old piece of furniture?  What were your methods?  Any suggestions for future projects? Do tell!

Painting the Guest Bedroom

My blue dresser has a home!  Remember this guy?…

Well, his living arrangements were determined early on.  I knew I wanted him to live in our guest bedroom.  We desperately needed to kick our old entertainment center to the curb and find a better solution.  This little blue dresser was my solution!

So, I dragged the old entertainment center to the road and moved the blue dresser into it’s place.  I stepped back, and took at the room, and I thought booo.  I wasn’t digging all of the blue hues going on in this room.  It was blue overload.

So, I painted.

I went with Colorplace Autumn Haze.  It is a pretty neutral tan color. I figured with all the blue going on in here, it would help tone things down. P.S. I just throw everything in the center of the room when I paint, don’t mind my mess. Once I was finished painting, I brought the dresser back in.  And, what do you know? It looked much better with the neutral wall color!  Woot woot! Of course, Charlie helped keep an eye on my work.   And he also digs the new color. I think it looks bigger in here now, even with more furniture.  Weird how a color will do that. One last thing before you go.  A before and after…

 

Dresser Love

A while back (were talking months ago) my friend Gwen gave me a small antique dresser.  She told me it needed some love, and thankfully I always have extra love to share with an antique dresser.  Here she is…

I know, she’s a beaut! I got her home and guess what?  …  It sat in my garage for about 3 months.  Justin threatened to bring it to the curb multiple times.  Of course, I retaliated, that I would be moving out if he did. Gotta do, what you gotta do for an antique dresser.  Fast forward a few months, and I decided it was time to get to work.

There were a few things I wasn’t jazzed about.  First the color.  Don’t get me wrong, red can be amazing, but I have no place for a red dresser in my house.

Next up, this broken drawer…

All of the drawers were in great condition, except that lower one.  It had seen better days, and was missing the bottom.  Kind of defeats the purpose of a drawer when you can’t store anything in it.  Lastly, I wasn’t in love with the drawer pulls.

The first thing I did was give the whole piece a good scrub, inside and out.  I used a few old rags with some diluted vinegar.  Did the job perfectly, and I swear the vinegar smell wears off.

Next, I wanted to sand all of the surfaces down with my palm sander.  I have a Ryobi detail sander.Before starting, I removed all of the knobs from the drawers, then removed the drawers from the dresser completely.From there, I just made my way from right to left using the palm sander.  I started with the lowest grit sandpaper I had, which was 80.  With a little pressure on the palm sander, I was able to remove most of the paint in the first shot.  Some areas were harder to work with, like the slats in between the drawers.  But, overall the paint removed pretty easily. The palm sander wouldn’t quite fit in the top slots, where I had removed the top three drawers.  So, I used a low grit sand paper to get in those areas by hand.

Lastly, I had to get the paint off of the drawers.  This was pretty straight forward, just sanding some more flat surfaces.I gave all off the surfaces one more good sanding with 120 grit sand paper.  I made sure to work with the grain of the wood.  This last sanding removed any remaining paint, and evened out any scratches on the wood.  As I previously mentioned, I was not planning on reusing the same hardware that came with the dresser.  So, I needed to fill the holes in the drawers left from the old pulls.  I used DAP painter’s putty.  You just fill the hole with the spackle, then pull a trowel across the area to remove any access putty. Once I had all of the holes filled, I let them dry for a few hours.  I, then, gave the drawers one last sanding with my palm sander to remove any remaining putty around the (now filled) holes.  Here she is holes filled and free of paint…I had planned to give this dresser a painted distressed look, and I wanted to have some darker wood tones showing through.  In order to do so, my next step was to stain the wood to a darker tone.  I used Minwax stain in English Chestnut.  I just used a foam brush to paint the stain on, going with the grain of the wood.  I, then, took an old rag and wiped any access stain off of the surface.  This is one step where you have to move a little quicker, since you do not want the stain to dry.Please don’t judge my poor dresser at this stage, it looks a bit rough.  As you can see, I didn’t completely get the red paint off of the ledge where the top drawers sit.  It was a tight area to work with, but I made sure everything was smoothed out, even if there was still paint remaining.Also, the top of the dresser had been spackled by a previous owner and those spots did not take the stain.  I was not worried though because I knew I would be painting over all of these issues.  Perfection wasn’t what I was going for at this point.   Then, it was time for paint.  This is a make or break, color is a big choice, and I was thinking about going a little more bold than usual.  I decided on a blue, specifically Olympic’s Celestial Blue.  Once I had my paint, I got right too it…Let me tell you, I was really worried about my choice at this point.  I was not digging how bright this blue was turning out. I figured I made it this far, I might as well slap a second coat on and see how I feel about it.

Much better! Thank god for second coats.  Just check out the difference in these drawers.The top drawer is one coat and the bottom drawer has two coats, in case you can’t tell.

Here she is, in all her blue glory…Woo to the hoo people, I am stoked about how it turned out!

Now, this is where the distressing comes in to play.  I debated how I wanted to go about distressing this dresser, and I ended up deciding not to do anything at all.  I love it just as it is, and I figure if I want to distress it in the future, I can do so at anytime.

Since there would be no distressing, I just had to get some new hardware and this puppy is done!  So, I let the paint dry for a few days, and while I waited I came across a sale on these knobs at Pier One…$0.98 each!  Which is amazing considering I needed 8 of them!  The metal matches the antiqued gold key slots on the drawers and I love the hand painted leaves.  Before I drilled my new holes for the pulls, I measured and marked where I wanted them to go.  I measured twice, just to be sure. Then, I grabbed Justin’s Dewalt drill, and I found the drill bit that was just slightly larger than the screws that came with the knobs.  I placed a piece of painters tape over my marks (I saw somewhere that this will reduce the chances of splintering your wood or damaging your paint).  Then, I just drilled right into the tape.  Once I had all of my news holes, I plopped the new hardware in place and voila…If you are wondering, I did not forget about the broken drawer!  I brought the whole bottom drawer to Home Depot, and one of the guys in the lumber section cut me a piece of wood that fit the slot in the drawer perfectly (yes, they do that for FREE).  Once I got the wood home, I just nailed it in place, so it wouldn’t move around.  The wood piece only cost about $4, and this dresser now is in full working condition!

And just for fun, a slideshow of the process…

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There you have it, our new/old dresser.  Can’t wait to show you where it ended up, but that’s a different post for a different day.

Portrait of Home

I have not been painting a lot lately, and the other day I had an itch to make something.  I remember seeing a post on my fav blog, Young House Love, a couple fun little portraits done of their homes.  I liked this idea, and thought I would take a stab at a quick portrait of our home.  Nothing too detailed, just a quirky little painting.  I also thought, why not show you my process of making the portrait while I was at it?

I started with a generic 8×10 canvas from Michaels.

Then, I sketched out our house from a photo that I had on my computer…

Next, I just added the main background colors.

From there, I just slowly added some details…

I also was sure to paint all of the edges, since I don’t think this painting will be frame worthy.

What do you think?

It’s def not perfect, but it’s just the quirky little painting I was going for.

And for fun, here is a slideshow of the process…

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So Fresh and So Clean Clean

Thanks Outkast, for creating that song that is.  Because our house now feels so fresh and so clean clean.  Why you ask?  Well that would be because we got new carpet installed!

We currently have carpeting in both of the front rooms in our house aka the office and the use to be dining room(now second living room) and both guest rooms.  They have all seen better days, but the front two rooms seem to have taken more abuse.  The culprit of the abuse would be the previous owners cat.  I know grrross.  This change was something that probably should have happened a while ago.  We rarely even spend time in these two rooms, but when you sit on the floor or get close to the floor you get a nice cat urine smell.  I know it’s one of my fav smells too, but I had to part with it.

Before we started ripping carpet up, we thought it might be best to head over to Lowes and check out some options.  After talking with the flooring associate we decided to go with a Stainmaster carpet.

We narrowed it down to one of these three.  My vote was for the top choice and we actually took a sample piece home to place in the room and let it simmer with us.  Well it simmered and we thought it might be a bit too dark, so we ended up going with the one in the middle.

We knew it would be about a week before the installation could be done, but Justin had had enough of the cat pee carpet and decided to tear it up.  We also figured this way we could get the concrete below nice and clean before the installation happened.  Otherwise, we would be running around trying to clean while the installers wait on us. So, Justin went to town pulling up the old carpet….

Take a look at that right corner.  Pretty grotie right?

The carpet and pad were held down by some glue and tack strips.  You can usually leave the tack strip in place and reuse them with the new carpet, but we decided ours needed to come up.

See that corner that looks damp?  Ya, apparently that is just stained with urine.  I’ll vomit now.

Once the carpet was up, he worked on the padding underneath.  Most of it came right up, but a few spots took a little extra effort.

Char man supervised of course…

He looks just as thrilled as I am sure you are at this post.  Interesting stuff.

Once the carpet and padding were gone fo’ good there was still a faint urine smell.  Ugh!! Yuck.  We did what we normally do and googled our hearts out till Justin found that hydrogen peroxide might do the trick.  Once the floor was scrubbed with hydrogen peroxide, bleach and vinegar you could STILL smell it!  So our last resort was to seal the floor with an oil based sealant.  Justin picked some up at Lowe’s and rolled it on the floor in all the corners.  After two coats the smell is finally gone.  Thank goodness.  I apparently didn’t get any shots of this sealing action, but it pretty much looked like he was rolling white paint onto the concrete floor.  Also exciting stuff.

Since the smell was gone for good, we just had to wait for the installers to come so we could enjoy our new carpet, what what!  We would have considered doing the installation ourselves, but Lowe’s offered free installation if we were purchasing stainmaster carpeting and what-do-you-know that’s just what we had ordered.  We figured leave the job to the professionals since it’s free, amiright?

The installer was a one man show and he was quick!  He came and went in an instant and was super nice to boot.

Look at that fresh carpeting, I wish you could feel it under your feet!  So nice and comfy.  We decided to go with a tucking method next to the tile.  This way we didn’t have any seam covering, like the metal or wood ones that you see in some homes.

I can’t even tell you how happy I am that we did not go with the darker color.  This carpet is pretty dark itself and I think I would have hated our original choice.  Dodged a bullet there!

It looks very different in a lot of these photos due to the lighting situation(it’s not the best room for photos.)  The photo above is probably the best representation of the true color.

When we put our furniture back we decided to go with a different arrangement.  We felt a little cramped with our previous set up, this somehow makes it feel more open.

You may have also noticed that the art that used to be above our living room couch is now hanging out here.  I thought it popped a bit more on the green walls, it use to blend so much with the walls in the living room…

See how much the frame blended right into the paint color?  I think it’s much happier out here…

I think we are a far cry from what we started with…

Don’t you?

 

 

What Goes Where?

I left you on a cliff hanger in my art room, I know you want to know what I put in my new IKEA drawers!  Well I won’t leave you wondering any longer…

First up I pulled everything out of my closet which looked like this.

Most of my art supplies were in this guy.

and here is the madness that came out of those drawers…

Want a closer look?

Lots o’ stuff.  So basically I just got to sorting, as I went I tossed things that I no longer use and found new homes for some things that just didn’t belong.  Here is what went into the Helmer Drawers.

Paints in the top drawer, color coordinated of course(that won’t last).

Next up… more paint, exciting stuff!

Yarn and ribbon anyone?

More yarn.

And then some felt.  I’m beginning to feel like an 80 year old women or a preschool teacher with what went into these drawers.

Lastly, some random things like my hot glue gun and some other adhesives.  So there you have it, organization at it’s finest people!  Oh and of course I made labels…

The rolling cart also had a make over…

And in the words of Biggie uh, and if you don’t know, now ya know!

Let’s Get Some Paint on Those Cabinets, Wahoo!

As you know I have been making some changes to our master bathroom.  I decided that it was time to do something about these…

I am not a fan of these 90’s style maple cabinets.  I know we are going to eventually get some sort of free standing double sink vanity that we are in love with, but why can’t we like this one a little more in the meantime?  Amiright?  I have also been dying to give painting cabinets a shot.  I have never dabbled in this type of DIY project and I don’t think I am going to get a better opportunity.  Before I could get started I went to my good friend pinterest and asked her to find me some info on painting bathroom cabinets(yes I consider pinterest a girl).  From there I found this blog,  I chose this one because she goes into detail on the steps she took to make her cabinets have professional looking results.  Also she was taking her cabinets from a similar maple wood tone to white, which was also my goal.  Here is the list I went to Lowes with: 1. sanding wedge 2. deglosser or liquid sander 3. spray primer 4. white paint 5. foam roller.  This is what I came home with 1. sanding wedge 2. liquid primer 3. white paint 4. foam roller.   Do you see that I didn’t pick up the deglosser and my spray primer became regular liquid primer?  Well the guy at the paint counter at Lowes told me that if I rolled Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer on my cabinets first I can skip the deglossing step.  I was skeptical, but Lowes employees rarely steer me in the wrong direction, so I took his advice and skipped deglossing.  Once I got home I needed to take apart my cabinets…

I unscrewed all of the doors from the hinges, then took the hinges off the cabinet frames…

I put all of the hinges and screws in a baggie and set it aside for when I needed to reassemble the cabinets, didn’t wanna lose any of those suckers.  Then I was left with this…

It was now time to get to sanding.  I used a medium grit sanding wedge…

I sanded all sides of the doors including the edges, then I sanded all of the cabinet framing. I then wiped everything down with a wet cloth to get all of the sanding debri off.  This would be where the deglosser or liquid primer would have come into play if I had decided to take that step. This is what I was left with after sanding…

I know it looks the same to me too, just a little less shiny.

Then came priming, here is the Zinsser Bulls Eye Primer, which is basically like gold according to man behind the paint counter….

Looks like gold huh?  This is also when I grabbed all of my cabinet doors and brought them out to the patio, didn’t wanna let the fumes suffocate my little Charlie bean and Zack man!

I first used a 2 inch paint brush to brush the inside crease on my cabinet doors, then I rolled the remaining area with a foam roller…

The foam roller can’t get into all of the small creases on the cabinet doors, so I have to use the brush for those areas.  But I prefer the foam roller because it leaves a more even coat with less streaking that a brush would leave.  (You know I am all about painting, so of course I need to give you my preference of painting tools.)  I painted the back of the cabinets first, I did this so once I had painted both sides, the front of the doors would be able to dry over night facing upward.  Just in case some tackiness is still occurring when I flip them to paint the front, any possible problem areas will be on the back of the doors.  Here is the complete coat of primer on the doors…

That long skinny board is the front of the single drawer we have in the bathroom.   Next up I headed inside to put a coat of primer on the cabinet frames, unfortunately this has to be done indoors considering it’s attached to the walls, darn.

As you can see before I primed the cabinets I taped off the walls and floor where it meets the cabinets.  I let this dry for about 4 hours(the can recommended 2, better safe than sorry right?).  Then it was time for the paint…

I went with Valspar Signature in Ultra White.  I painted this on the exact same way as the primer.  Here is after the second coat…

I had to do one coat of primer and 3 coats of paint in total.  It took me about 3 days to finish since I really wanted to let each coat dry thoroughly, I really didn’t want to deal with any chipping issues.  Once everything was completely dry it was time to put it all back together!

I think I did a bang up job and these cabinets are now a little easier on the eyes.  Oh and in case your wondering about the inside…

That’s all painted too.

I also picked up some new hardware from Lowes while I was there and I attached those to the cabinets after measuring where each should go.  Want some before and afters? Okay!

Before:

and now…

Before…

yes, the cabinets had black kick boards.

and now…

Before:

and now…

Before:

and now…

I’m pretty jazzed about the outcome.  I think it was a success.  It makes the whole bathroom feel different, the shade of blue on the walls even feels like it has changed a shade or two.  I am thinking some darker decorations may help balance the lightness in here.  As for painting cabinets, it is quite the job but I think it is worth it in the end.  The only suggestion I have for a project like this is to wait a day in between each coat of paint and give it another day or two before reattaching the doors to the frame.  Do you have any preferences?

When in doubt… paint it.

I guess that’s how I think anyway. When we first moved in back in March our patio looked like this…

The ground was just cement that had been painted gray, but was chipping and stained in some areas. Since Justin had since screened and tiled the entire patio we only had little slivers of this old gray cement peaking through. Like here…

here…

and here…

We have left the gray cement as is for a while now and I am sure most people wouldn’t even notice it. But it bothers me, so it was time to paint it. I fortunately had some left over paint from when I painted all of the beams and outdoor walls in our patio…

Before painting I swept all of the areas that needed paint and cleaned them with a rag.

Once I started painting, the difference between the old gray and the new tan was quite a contrast…

The hardest part was getting the small sliver of cement behind the large plants that we had planted next to the screen…

And speaking of these plants look how big they have gotten…

I really can’t get over how large they have become. Anyway back to painting. I had to use a small artist paint brush to paint this area…

I survived and made my way around the patio painting any cement I could see. And of course I have before and afters(if you click the photos they get bigger)…

It may not be a huge change, but I like it.

Since it is finally cool enough to open up the doors we are loving our outdoor area even more!

Let’s Caulk it out

I think we all now know that I have a love for caulk. I just want to caulk everything! But that is not an option. I did however need to caulk a few more areas in the bathroom, yippee skippee right? That’s what I thought! As I last left off with the master bath, I had removed the counter splash guards…

The walls are now all painted blue so you cannot see any of that spackle hanging out anymore, but what you can see are some crazy gaps between the wall and the counter top….

Careful, don’t get too close, you may fall in! This was in need of some caulk! So, I happily made my way to the garage to get my caulking supplies…

Pretty extensive supplies huh?

From there I just went my normal route of taping off the areas that I wanted caulk, then I plopped some caulk down…

While I was at it I found a few other areas that I thought needed some caulk as well…

Wanna see the results? Good thing cause here they come…

BOOM! Look at that!

Much better!

Here is the back of the countertop…

This piece of trim just had a crack down the side, so I filled that right in.

I also did some of the trim near the floor that had some cracks. Fortunately we still have these beautiful laminate floors! blah!

And around the toilet…

And next to the shower…

How about a close up?

Here is how the bathroom looks today…

I decided to change out the countainers on the counter to something with less of a tealish tint.

We also took the door off of the “toilet room”, we really hate having a separate room for our toilet, just seems like a waste of space.

We cannot wait to renovate this entire room, as for now we are going to live with everything as is. We are saving our pennies and one day we will have a brand new bathroom! Can’t wait.

Here is one more before and after of this quick update on our bath…

Better? I hope so!

Paint it Blue

What are we painting blue now? Our front door! Woot woot! I have been dying to paint this door. It is so gross, boring and Black! Here it is…

It’s not horrible, but I really want to add some color. Our house is tan and our front door is black, how blah.

When I told Justin I wanted to paint the front door, he said we should do tan or black. He is so plain! I told him I wanted to do something bold and he was not thrilled with my idea. I thought about it and I figured the only compromise I think we could both live with would be blue. So blue it was. I then started my search for the right blue. I found a few photos on pinterest that I was really digging…

And how much do you love this guy….

And lastly…

I tried to find inspiration photos that had a similar tan colored home with white trim, just so I could really see how the blue would look with a tan color. Once I had some ideas I headed to Lowes to pick up some samples.

Once I got home I pried this guy off the door…

It’s some sort of hanger, we thought it was glued onto the door… turns out its a magnet.

and it’s disgusting. It took some serious prying, there was a lot of dirt holding that magnet on. Yuck.

While at Lowes I also picked up a sanding block…

I then sanded the door down really well…

Hey Zack! After the door was sanded down, I took some soapy water and a rag and cleaned the trim and the front door. I then gave the trim a fresh coat of paint in a white semi gloss.

We also changed out the old weather stripping on the door. The original weather stripping was brown…

We traded that out for white…

I also picked this up at Lowe’s for $5 a strip, we only needed 3. I think it looks much better with white…

Justin also screwed some new weather stripping to the bottom of the door…

There will be no air getting around this puppy!

From there I was ready to paint on my sample colors…

Let’s get closer…

These are the four samples I picked up from Lowes, they are all Valspar brand. We stepped back to take in the colors from the street…

Which one do you like? Well it doesn’t matter because… we went with the top left, which is Cornflower Blue! Hope that’s what you picked too. I ran back to Lowe’s and picked up a quart of the Cornflower Blue in a satin finish, I didn’t want it to be too shiny since the door has some small dents. The quart was about $15.

I started painting over each of the other three colors, then did the edges of the entire door…

Once a had a couple coats on the square panels and the edges, I rolled the rest of the area with a small roller…

Yay! Blue door! I had to leave the door propped open for a little while to let it dry. I didn’t want the edges to smear on the door frame.

Hey there blue door!

Since the door was all painted I felt it was necessary to get this fancy door some accessories. I ran over to Target and picked up this pretty wreath and a hanger…

I then hung her up and put our normal welcome mat back and we were in business…

Let’s take a quick look before…

and now…

Makes me wanna dance.