Virtual Tour-Starting in the Dining Room
I think I will give you a little before and after tour of each room as I update them in the new house. Besides the bathroom, the dining room was one of the first rooms I refinished. I decided not to mess with the beaded board walls or drop ceiling at this time, and the carpet may someday come out to reveal the… hardwood floors! But for now… the before:
Yeah, not much for a dining room, right? And After…
I really wanted initially to get rid of the blue ceiling fan. However, family and friends convinced me to work around it. The fan was new and it had a remote and a dimmer. They swore it would be handy. Turns out, they are right! So, I covered a large lamp shade in silky black ribbon and attached it to the fan over the light bulbs. I also hung a crystal from the pull. I think the set-up helps a lot!
On this wall will eventually be a buffet I am refinishing. Stay tuned for that project soon.
And remember the armuoir I turned into a mini bar? So, what do you think so far?
Budget Bathroom Redmodel
I recently bought my first home and armed with a tight budget and a big dream I set out to fix the place up. The house was built in the 20’s and plumbing was not originally indoors. The bathroom is large, but appears to be in an old bedroom or closet. There was a bathtub, but because of the slope of the roof, there was no room for a stand up shower without hitting your head. I had to get creative in order to stay within my means and also make the place functional for everyday living…
Here are a few before shots of the old retro bathroom:
Not only was there no shower, but this baby also had carpet, dingy tile board walls, no outlets, and only one tiny light. I had my work cut out for me.
I decided to refinish a clawfoot tub and move it away from the wall a couple of feet in order to add a diverter faucet where the ceiling was high enough to stand to shower. The rest fell into place after that. All was done for under $1000. Check it out:
Yea, that’s right, it’s the same bathroom. Clean, functional, bright, and a bit glamorous. My own personal dressing room!
Bathroom Facelift
I got the shower curtain in the mail… and I love it! I ran out the next day to get a new curtain rod that is curved (I hate the curtain touching me, and we hated the gold!). I also picked up a couple white and black towels and a new rug. The new toothbrush holder is actually an old jar. What a huge difference these touches made!
Here is the before:
And here is the updated bathroom:
A bit more sophisticated?
Of course there are still changes we would like to make, but it was a great start for such a small budget! With the new curved rod we are thinking about getting a second curtain, as it is a tight fit. We would also like to paint the walls. Next year we are getting a new shower, and would still like to try the corrugated metal idea. Its getting there! What do you think?
Kitchen Lights
We found the cutest vintage lights for the kitchen! I had been scouring ebay for a set of school house lights- the hanging kind. I found a few, but was always outbid and they went to high in price for me to stick with it. The other day Tony was in our local hardware store and spotted a set of milk glass lights, although not hanging, but still super cute. The lights even came out of a local library in a recent remodel! So, here is a peak at how they go so well with our newly remodeled kitchen!
Aren’t they much better than the old burnt up stip lights? Also, we did a hole lot of yard work this weekend… so stay tuned to see how the yard is coming along! 😉
Counter-Tops!
They are in, and it’s official- I love ’em! Here is a dark before to remind you:
What an improvement, don’t you think!? It is all coming together so nicely. We do have a few more projects in the works. See that vent pipe above the stove? That is getting boxed in, no more tacky-ness. We also have a great set of lights that are being installed which I will reveal later. A few creative touches are in the process as well.
Notice the old microwave is gone and a hood was installed in its palce as well…
What do you think? Suggestions?
One More Sneak Peak- Countertops
So, I guess I should have, but I didn’t plan for the unexpected road blocks when finishing the kitchen. Like, accidentally buying a couple too few hinges! It is done, but not picture ready. So I have one more sneak peak for you until then. Here is the sample card for the counter-tops we are getting. I originally wanted pure black, but there is no standard laminate in pure black. I picked black because it was to look like slate. Laminate is, unfortunately, what we can afford right now. So, this was the most black laminate we could get. It is probably going to look like marble. This may be great to some, but I am concerned it is too far from my original vision. Will it look to country? It does tie in the browns from the floor and the white from the cabinets. It will take about two weeks to get them in since they are extra long… so please, ease my mind until then! No, really, give me your true opinions!
Progress- The Kitchen!
We have been hard at work painting those kitchen cabinets. Not finished yet, but getting close. I just thought that we would update you on some of the process and the progress.
Here are some before shots of the dark, mismatched, and very worn cabinets:
I started by using a palm sander to sand the stain off of all showing cabinet surfaces. They then looked like this:
Next, I removed all of the old hardware and filled the existing holes with wood putty. I did not need to fill the holes from the hinges, however, because we were lucky enough to purchase new hinges that fit in the old holes. But the handles are completely different sizes and shapes, so these holes and to be filled. I also swiped some of the putty across any cracks and dents I found. By the way, the new wood putty they have out there is more of a foam than putty. It is super easy to use. I sanded the putty spots down once they were dry. For the larger holes I puttied and sanded a second time so that they came out very flat with the wood. Here’s a shot of that step before sanding (after sanding they look much smoother):
I then started the painting process (the lengthy part!). I decided to start with only the bottom cabinets. There would not be enough floor space to paint all of the doors at the same time. I taped off walls, trim and floors with painter’s tape. I also taped down papers on the floor. (Actually, this is kind of weird, but I taped down puppy pee pads. We had a bunch left from when the puppy was still having accidents. She never liked to use them, but instead of throwing them out they made great drop clothes!) I then applied to coats of Kilz primer.
You can see that the first coat goes on kind of streak-y, but the second coat covers much more evenly. We now have the bottom cabinets painted with two coats of white semi-gloss paint, and we are hanging the hardware and doors tonight. More updates to come… but isn’t it starting to look gooood?! 🙂
Kitchen Inspiration
We are currently preparing to do a bit of kitchen renovation in our house. While I have a pretty clear picture in my head of what I would like to do I have also been scouring the blog world for some inspiration and creative ideas. We are trying to do this on a very tiny budget, so I am also searching ideas in that area. Today on Apartment Therapy I found one of my favorite kitchen pictures.
I just love the little swinging door. It reminds me of old western saloon doors. I am wanting one for our kitchen. I’m just not sure that every kitchen could pull this off. Maybe that will have to go on my “someday” dream list. For now we are thinking more basic remodel in the kitchen. I would like to sand and paint all of the dark wood cabinetry a glossy white. The cabinets are outdated and mismatched. This will also allow us to fill the holes from the old hardware and add new pulls. These are the pulls I am thinking of, bin pulls:
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_wmc3cgAjw0k/SHeOWPk3S3I/AAAAAAAAAOc/sp4juB_wHwA/s400/IMG_6026_bin%2Bpull.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theletteredcottage.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html&h=266&w=400&sz=12&tbnid=1nyLQKGa76QSAM::&tbnh=82&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddresser%2Bwith%2Bbin%2Bpulls%2Bpicture&hl=en&usg=__noAFFwDt8FmB3VYpI7taTYFlhEQ=&ei=zCHRSb_kJMSInAfzwbhq&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=4&ct=image&cd=1
I have also been reading that it is possible to safely paint laminate countertops. Since paint is a much cheaper alternative to replacing the countertops at this point I would like to paint these black. Here is inspiration for a black and white kitchen with warm hardwood floors:
Next Comes The Bathroom and Master Bedroom
This is the bed. Matching side tables and lamps.
A close up view of the side table. This one happens to be Tony's.
This is the dresser facing the bed. An old full length miror stands against the wall and an Asian keepsake box sits on the floor next to it.The dresser is vintage from when my mom was a little girl. She used the room set and then I did when I was little. The black strips are removable, and flip over to change colors. We painted one side of each black.
The hand is a vintage glove mold, the box is an old Kodak box, which we keep our momentos in. The mirror is an antique medicine cabinet, which we painted black and added a chendelier crystal for a pull. Close up of sink and storage.
The view from the door into the tiny bathroom. It feels really bright and spa-ish because of the light blue walls and white curtains. We added a blue rug and blue curtain hooks.
The little shelf we hung across from the toilet with pretty perfume bottles on it. The only little "extra" that fits into the space!
Close up of sink and storage. Pretty much the entire bathroom.
Make Mine Eclectic 
