brush – A Smith of All Trades

Laundry Room Cabinet Reveal

March 23, 2013March 24, 2013 Jessica Smith

Well, spring break is coming to an end and what do I have to show for myself? We have a purdy lookin’ laundry room!

I started this project last Sunday with this beauty of a laundry room.

We are pretty sure when Fannie Mae got a hold of our home that these cabinets were in our kitchen and they plopped them into the basement instead of tossing them to the curb when they replaced them. Your guess is as good as ours, but it doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

Anyway, no matter how you slice it, they are ugly. And dirty. Ga-ross. What you might not be able to tell from the photo is that the countertop was in pretty bad shape, too. It is caved in the middle from who knows what and is chipping at the edges. It’s also just dirty and gross as well.

So, for on the cheap, I devoted the majority of my break to beautifying this space.

First, the doors all had to go.

Once I had all of the doors off to the side, I started to paint the base of my cabinet with Kilz primer. I lightly scuffed the base with sand paper first. Since there are no cabinet doors for the cabinets on the upper left side (the vent make it impossible for any doors to actually open), I painted the inside and underneath with primer as well. Two coats later and the whole thing was already looking better.

That where I stopped on day one or two (can’t remember which now).

Here’s a helpful tip if your project goes on for a while and you don’t want to clean your brushes — if you wrap your paint brush and/or roller in a wet paper towel and saran wrap, then put it someplace cold, you can pick up right where you left off the day before with a moist brush! Awesome, huh?

Next up, charcoal gray paint for the cabinet bases. I got this gallon of paint a few months ago from the leftover paint section — I think I paid $6! Score.

I painted two to three coats on each set of cabinets — if you do this, make sure you buy a cabinet roller! They are made of foam and won’t leave little hairs all over your cabinets and doors. I learned that the hard way.

Once my bases were painted, I started on the doors. I think they came into the picture on day three. I did the same process: scuff, prime, paint.

The last thing I did was put two coats of polycrylic onto all of the painted areas. In theory, this should help the paint from pulling up. I have my doubts, as I’ve already knicked one area. The unfortunate part about this project is at the end of the day, I painted over laminate. I don’t know how well it will hold up in the long run, but I’ll just have some gray paint near by for necessary touch ups. Anyway, polycrylic should help a little.

Once everything was dry, I added knobs and rehung the cabinets doors. I also put vinyl dots underneath each door so the painted sides won’t stick together and pull one another up. That and they make closing the doors a lot quieter!

I think we’re onto day four here — countertop day! If you look closely at the photo above, you’ll see two painted 2×3 blocks under the center of the cabinets. I wedged these underneath so the cabinet would have more support and the top would be more level. We also laid a thin sheet of wood and a few shims under the cabinet (after installing it once and not being able to open either drawer) to raise it up to a proper height.

In case you are wondering, the countertop came from my parents’ laundry room — when they did their recent remodel, I asked them to set it aside for us because it happened to be the exact same length as ours. How perfect is that!?

Tadaaaa!

And for the full reveal….

and again….

Even if the paint does chip over time, this looks a heck of a lot better than before! And even though he hates when I an knee-deep in paint and rooms are a hot mess, I know the hubby thinks our laundry room is way more bangin’ now.

Project cost:

$6 – 1 gallon gray paint (I still have 3/4 of the can left, too!)
$8- pack of cabinet rollers
$2- small roller paint tray
$0- new countertop
$20- 10 knobs (contractor pack)
$17- polycrylic (I still have 3/4 of the can left of this as well!)
$3- vinyl cabinet stoppers

Total: $56 — not too bad!

Next up — a faux backsplash. I just need to decide what pattern I want to do!

Thanks for stopping by today!

-Jess

Craft Projects

Mod Podge Jewelry Box

September 23, 2012March 8, 2013 Jessica Smith

I picked up this mini chest of drawers months ago when I went to the local art store closing. Originally $9, I paid $2.25 because the whole store was 75 percent off.

It’s been sitting in my craft room for months. MONTHS. And I’ve been so good at getting rid of things and tidying up my space down there — I’m so close — that each time I looked at it I wondered why I bought it in the first place and if I should just donate it to Good Will.

Well, I’m glad I kept it around because I was finally inspired to tackle this project and I love how it turned out.

1. Buy a little wooden chest of drawers at any craft store.

2. Remove the drawers and paint the outer structure of your box. I painted mine with chalk board paint.

3. Remove the little wooden knobs to prep the surface for Mod Podge.

4. Mod Podge paper or fabric onto each drawer face. I used sheets from a dictionary, making sure to choose pages with illustrations on each one. Place a layer of Mod Podge (I used glossy) on each drawer, then the dictionary page (already cut to size), and then one last layer of Mod Podge. Smooth out the bubbles (I used my fingers) and let dry. Then do one last coat of Mod Podge to give each drawer face a nice seal.

5. If you’d like to, paint the rest of your box. This probably should have gone with step 2, but whatever. For my box, I lightly brushed on my black paint so you could still see the wood grain through it. I also painted the edges of each drawer face so the black carried through and it looked a bit distressed. Paint your knobs as well, then re-attach with wood glue and a small hammer. They should fit right back into place.

6. Let everything dry overnight, then put your chest of drawers back together!

Craft Projects

Stenciled tray

June 13, 2012June 11, 2012 Jessica Smith

I was so pumped by my first craft project involving a simple tray that I picked up at a thrift store, so when I saw another tray at a yard sale I of course had to have it. (I know I keep talking about yard sales… I totally stocked up when Beth and I went yard sale shopping in May. It was awesome.)

Unfortunately, I don’t think this project turned out all that great. You’ll have to let me know what you think. The main reason I’m even sharing this with you is so if you use a stencil you know the trick that I decided NOT to do. Big mistake.

Anyway, instead of turning this tray into something else completely, I just wanted to make the into a prettier tray. I figured the hubby and I could use a tray on our coffee table to collect our remotes since we now have three floating around.

I didn’t take a before picture, but the tray was a dirty white and needed a fresh coat of paint. I stuck with white because it will pop off the coffee table, which will eventually be stained black. I also recently picked up a few stencils at Michaels, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try them out. I chose a stencil of a bird (I love birds) for the tray.

Using two different shades of bluish green, I painted over the leaves and over the bird. I didn’t use stencil adhesive, but I really wish I had because the stencil definitely moved around a little.

Once I had two coats of paint on my stencil, I peeled it back to reveal the stenciled design on my tray.

As you can see around the edges, the paint spread a bit — especially close to the base of the branch. I knew it was going to be messed up even before I peeled the stencil up because part of the small leaves came up underneath my brush (Crap! The worst part is I even bought stencil adhesive, but with all the craziness in my craft room I couldn’t find it. Oh well!). So, I improvised. I took an artist’s brush and some silver paint and traced the edges of the stencil.

To finish it off, I added silver dots along parts of the stencil and around the edges of the tray.

I think it was a good save, but here’s where you come in. Should I sand it down and try it again with no silver paint? I can’t decide if I like it or not (which probably means I don’t like it…). I kind of like the silver paint, and I think it needed something extra in addition to the stencil… but I’m not sure what.

I’m open to suggestions!

Moral of this project: Use stencil adhesive!

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