Started to paint my built-in bench in my craft room white tonight so it matches the cabinetry. Say bug-bye to the pencil drawing left by previous owners!
Tag: cabinets
Chevron Accent Wall
Last night I was beyond hyper and spontaneously decided to tackle my faux backsplash/accent wall in my laundry room. I think my spontaneity was key in the project, otherwise I would have over thought everything from the design to the colors.
I have seen so many designs online lately for accent walls: quatrefoil, shell, stripes, chevron… you name it, it’s been done. In my cracked out state, I went with a segmented chevron pattern and I LOVE IT. Also, it was way easy. Way.
I was too into groovin’ to my sweet tunes last night to take a ton of photos (imagine a quality mix of Bohemian rhapsody, Baby got back and Beloved) but here’s the gist of what I did: I wanted the wall color to show through my pattern so it tied the accent wall into the rest of the space, so using 1″ tape I taped vertical stripes on my wall with no intention of filling them in. I spaced my lines out using a small level as my measurement. Honestly, I did this to avoid doing math. It’s about 9″ wide and was a perfect spacer. It also doubled as a level — go figure. I made sure my lines were pretty darn straight. They weren’t perfect, but they were mostly straight.
Then, I started to create my chevron pattern. I grabbed a pen and started marking my tape where other pieces of tape needed to intersect. Again, I used my level as a spacer. I placed it at the top of my cabinet and marked at the bottom, continuing until it wouldn’t fit anymore. I did this for all of the tape, then connected the dots.
Here’s a fun tip — if and when you run out of your painter’s tape, and if you just so happen to have masking tape or washi tape in the same width, you can use it as a substitute for painter’s tape. Yes, this happened. I was sad to paint over my mint tape, but didn’t want to lost my awesome energy and stamina with the project so I made the sacrifice.
With my pattern taped and ready to paint, I started to apply my paint colors: metallic gold (Thanks, Martha!) and ivory/manilla. I originally was going to do something with bolder pops of color, but went for the metallic paint as my bold choice. I also was going to add a third color, but my pattern only took up so much room and the third color probably wouldn’t have added anything to it.
I painted two coats of each color onto the stripes before removing all of the tape.
*Drumroll*
Love love love love love love love. Love. Had I thought this project out more, I probably would have gone with a mint or teal chevron stripe, but I am so glad I didn’t. I think the gold tones play off the countertop wonderfully, and make the gray cabinets pop even more.
I started this project after dinner at 5:30(ish) and was cleaning up at 7:30 p.m. — not to bad for the fabulous result!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Laundry Room Cabinet Reveal
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 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
A Smith of All Trades 