Cabinet Makeover: Chalk Paint with Antique Wax

As you may know if you've read some of my recent posts, I'm no stranger to chalk paint. I've painted all our kitchen cabinets, plus a coffee table and a couple other small pieces of furniture with various brands of chalk paint (aka miracle paint). However, up until now I've only used clear wax to protect said pieces. 

This past weekend, however, that all changed. *cue dramatic music* On a whim, I decided to paint a small cabinet in our dining room which holds all our kitchen towels and such. Several years ago I had actually re-stained the cabinet a dark espresso brown. But since then we've installed new flooring (also very dark brown), so this little corner was feeling pretty heavy and monotone. And to be honest, I was feeling antsy and in need of a smallish, weekend DIY project to feel productive.

For those of you that need immediate gratification (trust me, I get it), I'm just going to show a "before & after" right now. Of course, hopefully you'll still read the rest of this post to see the whole process and more pictures of the final result!

Initially I thought of painting the cabinet Annie Sloan Graphite to match our lower kitchen cabinets. But that just seemed too matchy-matchy, plus we just have a lot of gray shades happening in our house already. No, it needed to be a color with a bit more punch — yet still tie in to our other decor. Digging through my stash of chalk paint, I pulled out a bottle called Teal Lagoon, which seemed like a solid choice given we have some other teal accents. 

Dining Table Chalk Paint Transformation: Part II

Did you catch my last blog post about painting our dining table? If not, go check that out now. I'll just wait right here. 
...........................................

K. Now that we're all caught up, it's time to share the full reveal of the table transformation, including our new chairs!

While I had been fairly confident about the look of the table (two-tone; distressed legs), the chair selection was a different story. We weren't trying to find something to match the table, but rather just "go" with it. I'm all about the mix-and-match approach these days. But it was bit overwhelming to sift through all the options and make a decision on style, material and color.

At first we were thinking of some metal chairs like these, or these, but Luke wanted something with a higher back and a more formal look. The next path we explored was looking at fabric chairs along these lines. I was almost sold on this style, but then decided I wanted something with more of an open back rather than a solid one. It just seemed like it would make our small dining space feel bigger somehow, but maybe I'm weird about things like that. 

Dining Table Chalk Paint Transformation: Part I

We've had our dining room table ever since we moved into our house, which has been about 9 years now. It's nothing too special really, but a solid piece of furniture nonetheless. The finish is black with a bit of subtle distressing, and it has a hidden butterfly leaf allowing it to expand to 54x54" (although we usually keep it to the smaller 36x54"). 

The table is also counter-height (36"), which worked out really well back when we had a wall separating our dining and living room as seen above. We had initially cut out this window opening in the wall in order to connect the two spaces a bit more (and let's be honest, in order to be able to watch TV while we ate). Anyway, the counter-height table allowed us to easily see through the window into the living room and have conversations with anyone else sitting in there.

Main Floor Renovation: The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Where do I even start... Somehow, it's already been more than three months since my last post. But really, is anyone surprised by that? It's kind of been my track record for the past couple years.

By golly though, I'm determined to get this blog caught back up with all our ongoing home remodeling projects. Let's backtrack to something I've skipped over until now, but it's actually been one of the most integral parts of our entire main floor renovation.

It actually started last May. As in, May of 2016. This is when we took down some [non-load-bearing] walls. Actually, my husband and my father-in-law did most of this demo work one weekend while I was out of town (and I was okay with that). 

First, here are a few before pictures of the space with walls. As you can see, our living room and dining room were disjointed and a bit claustrophobic. (Although, we did do our best to improve the situation by creating this window opening when we moved into the house.)

Gray Matters: A Gray Paint Transformation (Part II)

So it occurred to me that I teased about my new gray paint job way back in November, and then never blogged about it again. Whoops. Bad blogger, bad! I'm sure you were all losing sleep over it, right? Not to worry, my friends. Seven months later, here is the full reveal!

You can visit Part I to see the 'before' pictures, but here's a little collage as a quick reminder. Our walls used to be a very warm beige (almost gold?), with a dark reddish hallway and stairwell. Those were the colors the interior was painted when we bought the house as the first owners. 

Ten gallons of paint later, the transformation was complete. I loved it then, and I'm still really happy with it. It feels fresh, modern, and airy. Because I've already drug this out long enough, here are the after pictures!

Thrifty Thanksgiving Tablescape

While I'm not hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year (I haven't achieved that status in the family hierarchy yet), that doesn't mean I can't pretend! As part of the Dare to...Entertain blog party over at Newly Woodwards, I got in the Thanksgiving spirit this weekend and staged my own tablescape. Therefore, keep in mind it's only for looks and not necessarily function.  :)

With that said, if I were a holiday hostess this year, my Turkey Day table might look a little like this...

Rather than using all the same plates, I mixed it up with two different styles (which were conveniently perfect colors for fall). It's a little more fun that way. I think the stemless wine glasses add to the casual feel, too.

You might notice that one important thing I'm missing is some fancy cloth napkins. Well, I don't own any, and a roll of paper towels on the table just wouldn't have had the same effect.

To dress up the silverware, I got a little creative. *pats self on back* I took some wide ribbon I had just bought on sale at Wal-Mart ($2.50), rolled it around the silverware, and tied a piece of raffia around it. Voila!

I didn't feel like using spoons. Remember... pretty, not practical.

The leaves scattered on my no-sew table runner were plucked off of a clearance garland (also from Wal-Mart). For $1.50, they look realistic enough for me!

My centerpiece consists of elements from various stores (Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart, Z Gallerie) that I managed to assemble into something pretty decent. All in all, I think it cost around $10.

Finally, I had to get my $12 wreath from Home Goods in the background. We added a small hook on the top of our mirror, and I just hung it with raffia. It's perfect for fall!

I have to admit, it was pretty fun to set my Thanksgiving table, even though it won't be put to use. Thanks for the idea, Kim! So I might leave it like this for the next few days, just because I can.

More gratuitous "ambience" photos:

 Are you hosting Thanksgiving this year?



The difficult way to make a mirror

Remember my last post when I teased you about out latest project?  Well, by now I've obviously given away what it is. 

I've been dying to get something on our blank dining room wall, but it's been taking a backseat to other priorities for the past two years. Even when I did shop around, trying to find some inexpensive artwork, mirror, or wall decor was proving difficult. Plus, I just didn't know how the heck to fill that big space. Let's remind ourselves what I was dealing with:

Well, that was before I started blogging and getting all these great ideas from you creative peeps! Enter the Pottery Barn Mirror Knock-off over at Starter Home to Dream Home. Love at first sight. It's a substantial piece, but I like how the mirror is visually broken up with the framework for added interest. So immediately I put it on my list of DIY projects to copy someday. And eventually, I mentioned it to Luke enough times that he agreed to help me make it so I'd shut up about it. :)

Our version, however, differs quite a bit from Mikael's version, but the end result is similar. The main reason is because we wanted to make it weigh less instead of mounting the mirrors to a big piece of heavy particle board. But it still needed to be sturdy. I kind of left the logistics of this design to Luke, with some sprinkles of input here and there. Basically, the idea was to cut a groove into our framework so the mirror tiles could slide into said grooves. Then simply piece the framework together with some wood glue and angle brackets. But would it all turn out as we envisioned it?

First, here's the materials list (all from Lowe's):

Poplar board

12" x 12" mirror tiles with plain edge (9)

Minwax Stain - Ebony 2718

2 1/2" zinc plated corner brackets (4)

Eye hooks (2)

E-Z wall anchors (2)
2 1/2" screws (2)

I wish I could tell you how the exact measurements for all of the framework and cut-outs were determined, but I think these drawings by Luke sum it up best:

Clear as mud? That's what I thought. Again, I put my trust in Luke to figure the mathematics - that's not my forte.

We borrowed his dad's table saw to make all the cuts, including the channels in the inside edge of what would be the four outer pieces of the frame (which were eventually mitered for a cleaner finished look).

Then, we cut a groove in both sides of the four inner framework pieces (and when I say "we," I mean Luke). The architect in him also decided it would look cooler to make the four inner corners of the framework overlap so the mirror would technically have no top or bottom (or something to that effect... I took his word for it). This made things a little tricky, but essentially we (Luke) ended up cutting out sections of the four inner pieces so that they would lock together into a square.

When we had completed all the cuts, we laid everything out on our handy worktable ping-pong table in the basement to dry fit the pieces together. This is when we hit our first little hiccup. How in the world were we going to get the center mirror in those grooves? The way the pieces locked into each other and overlapped wouldn't allow for us to slip it in.

Oops.

Solution: Cut two of the pieces so that we could pull the center square apart to insert the mirror. Because of the location of the cuts, they would only be visible from the backside anyway. Crisis averted!

So here's the mirror after the practice assembly:

I was very excited to see it all coming together!

Next step? Staining. That part I could handle. Conveniently enough, I already had some Minwax Ebony stain from a previous project. I sanded down the boards, and after three coats of stain, finally achieved the desired darkness (or close enough anyway; I was getting impatient). A coat of poly, and we were good to go. The rest would be cake, right?

Not quite. When we slipped a mirror tile into one of the grooves, we realized the edge of the mirror reflected the light part inside the groove that I hadn't seen the need to stain. Oops again. A black Sharpie could have solved this problem, if only we could get it to fit inside that narrow groove. Then my resourceful hubby had an epiphany:

A syringe!

It was a little tedious, but it did the job without making a huge mess around the parts I had already stained. Crisis #2 averted.

So after a few more hours of drying, it was finally time for assembly. This time we put it together face-down, since we had to add the angle brackets on the backside. We started in one corner, making sure it was square and securing it with a bracket, then worked our way out.

By the way, here are those four inner corners I was telling you about earlier, if you can see how they fit together:

 It took a little (ok, maybe a lot of) tweaking here and there to get everything to fit, but eventually this is what it looked like on the backside:

We added an angle bracket to the four outer corners of the frame and that seemed to be enough to keep it all held together tightly. We might go back in eventually and add more brackets or other cross-bracing if we think it needs extra stability, but it should be fine just hanging on the wall. Well, as long as no one bumps the frame, nothing hits those mirrors, and we don't have an earthquake here (not likely in KS).

Two eye bolts and two wall anchors later, and this is the end result: 

This project had its frustrating moments (as usual), but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! It's roughly a 38" square.  So what do you think? Do we still need something else to jazz up that big wall?

Let's recap:

32 feet of 1x2 poplar board - $25.60
Mirror tiles - $17.96 (still have three left)
Corner brackets - $2.97
E-Z wall anchors - (already had on hand)
2 1/2" screws - $1.25
Eye hooks - $1.18
Total cost - Under $50

So there you have it. Another DIY project, another lengthy post. Hope it was worth the wait for the reveal! :) Thanks again to Mikael (and Pottery Barn, of course) for the inspiration!

UPDATE: Some of you have suggested to put a console table underneath the mirror. I think this is a terrific idea; however, our dining room is pretty small and I'm afraid it would make for a tight squeeze when the chair at the table is pulled out (especially if we pull the table out to its 8-person size). But I am going to keep exploring my options!

Flashback: Our Hole in the Wall

I've already shared with you some of the major tasks we've taken on outside our house (sprinkler system and sod). Now I'm going to reveal the most drastic change we've made inside our house since we moved here. So get comfy and settle in for a long (but hopefully interesting) read!

First of all, our house does not have what you would call an "open" floor plan. The rooms are small and divided for the most part. However, the walls that separate our entryway, living room, dining room, and kitchen don't go all the way up to the ceiling, so that makes it feel a little less claustrophobic.

Even so, we knew right away that someday we'd end up doing something to open up the living room and dining room to each other. ("Someday" happened about 6 months after we moved in.) These are the few pictures I took shortly after we moved in. As you can see, the wall behind the couch made these two rooms feel very enclosed and very disconnected. It was pretty much impossible to have people over and be able to utilize both the living room and dining room at once, which was kind of frustrating.  Oh, and we couldn't watch TV from the dinner table, either... we love our Wheel of Fortune :)

 

 

It would have taken some major renovation to remove the wall completely, because it's also connected to the archway between the dining room and entryway, which is connected to the archway between our entryway and living room. Confusing. So anyway, we decided the easiest way to open up the space would be to make a window opening in the wall. 

The whole idea made me a little nervous, and I wanted to know exactly what it would look like. Luckily for me, Luke is an architect, so he has access to a sweet design program called Revit. He was able to draw up a rendering of our rooms with a window opening, and this is what ended up sealing the deal for me:

Cool, huh?

We didn't want a wimpy window, so we settled on an opening that was 5' wide by 3' tall. Rather than centering it in the wall, we decided to center it with the light fixture in the dining room. I pretty much let Luke take over the details of measuring and determining the exact placement of the opening, because he’s just really good at that stuff.

Once the outline (and placement of wall studs) was determined by a pencil line and some painters tape, there was nothing left to do but bite the bullet and CUT A FREAKING HOLE IN OUR WALL. Can you tell this is when I started getting really nervous? If we screwed this up, it wasn't going to be an easy fix. Needless to say, I let Luke handle this part too, because I had no experience with such things and didn’t want this to be my practice. Here he is, cutting out the drywall by scoring it several times with a utility knife and a straightedge.

Then, it was time to do cut the drywall on the dining room side. This is when we really started to get the full effect. Just look how excited Luke is!

Once the sheets of drywall were finally removed from both sides of the wall, this is what remained:

While it was tempting to just stop there with the "jail cell" look, we thought it best to get rid of those studs. :) But first, we infilled between the studs with 2x4 blocking at the head and sill. Then we created the jambs by building out from the closest stud still inside the wall cavity. THEN, it was time to cut the studs out with a reciprocating saw. (Using a hand saw would have created too much torque and taken much longer.)  I was in charge of holding the stud from vibrating so much while Luke sawed away until his arms were sore. This was probably the scariest part because of the potential for the drywall around the opening to crack -- and we did NOT want to have to replace/patch that, especially because of our textured walls. Anyway, after a lot of swearing sawing and breath-holding, this was the result:

 

You probably can't see it in the picture, but there are three holes cut in the 2x4's up in the head. We ran allthread through these holes up through the top plate of the wall and secured them with nuts, in order to create tension and prevent the head from sagging (because we didn't have a true header).

Finally it was time to frame it out. We used oak veneer for the head and jambs because it was free from Luke's dad (yes, we're cheap and will take any breaks we can get). But we used 3/4" solid oak for the sill because we wanted to create a sturdy ledge. 

We found trim and decorative corner blocks at Home Depot to match the existing trimwork in the rest of the house. We also lucked out by finding a can of stain in the basement that the builders used for the trimwork. Score!

In the midst of all this, we were also planning an open house, so we were on a tight deadline to get the window done. All in all, it took about a week from start to finish, since we mostly only worked on it during the evenings. We managed to get everything done just in time for the open house except for setting the nails and filling in the holes (which we didn't get around to until weeks later, for some reason).

I'm sure you're ready to see the end result now, so without further ado, I present to you our window opening (which we affectionately call our hole in the wall):

 

 

Not too shabby, eh? Notice how Phoebe manages to get into the pictures...

I'm really happy we decided to do this -- it's made a huge difference in many ways:
- Opening up the space and letting more natural light through
- Allowing people to hang out in both rooms and still have a conversation
- Leading us to utilize the dinner table much more now that we can watch TV while we eat (such a bad habit, I know)
- Creating more functional space as a leaning ledge that's wide enough to sit drinks or decorative accents on
- Increasing the appeal of the house if and when we sell it someday. I have a feeling the wall initially turned off potential buyers (before we came along) because of how small it made the rooms seem. 

Well, I think I've patted myself on the back enough. (Luke actually deserves a lot of the credit for doing most of the hard work while I "supervised" and handed him tools). Now I need to give YOU kudos for making it to the end of this post! I'd love to know what you think of the transformation. I left out a lot of details (and yet this still turned into a novel somehow), but if you have any specific questions about how we did something, ask away!