Entry Room Re-Do Part Five–China Cabinet Makeover

Whew, this china cabinet has been in the works for months it seems. It just kept getting pushed to the side to work on something else so it’s been sitting there being neglected for so long. It’s time has come finally! She’s been patient long enough!!!! So, I started with this:

You can see a reflection of me taking the picture in the glass if you look. I got this china cabinet many years ago. It was a hand me down from Hot Rod’s great aunt when she was being moved to the nursing home. It was originally a blonde wood (very 70’s!). It was much shorter than this with really squatty legs so I replaced the legs with these slightly taller ones and then painted it the hunter green about 10 years ago when that was the color I was going for in my living room/dining room. Needless to say it was tired and needed an update.

The first step was to empty it out, remove the glass, take the drawer out and then I flipped it over so it was sitting on the top. I wanted to work from the bottom up. So, once it was upside down, I was ready to get started.

I started first by painting the inside of the shelves. I went to Lowes and had them match the Rustoleum Painter’s Touch spray paint Heritage White and the Rustoleum Turquoise spray paints to a satin latex canned paint. I wanted to paint this using rollers and brushes instead of spray paint. My reason behind that is a couple of reasons actually. First of all, this is a rather large piece so if I used spray paint it would take A LOT of paint!!!! Also, it would be very hard to keep the spray paint where I wanted it and not where I didn’t want it since the inside and the outside were going to be 2 drastic different colors.

So, I started on the inside and painted the shelves the heritage white. Charlie had to supervise. ha ha ha

Once I finished the white, I let it dry and then moved on to the outside. I am painting it the same turquoise as the lamp on the table. I used a roller for most of this. I bought the roller for cabinet painting. It was perfect sized and worked great.

I did a couple of coats on both the white and the turquoise while it was upside down and let it dry completely. Then it was time to flip it over to right side up.

I painted all of the top surfaces, touched up a lot of the sides and then let it all dry. I didn’t paint the inside of the cabinets because they won’t be seen and hey…I’m lazy like that!

The next step was to age and distress it up a little. What I did first was grab my sander with 220 grit sand paper and just randomly started sanding things. I did sand the edges everywhere and then just touched the sander here and there on the flat surfaces. I only did this on the turquoise part. I left the white part alone. Then I rubbed a dark walnut stain over the entire piece (outside only, not the shelves) and then rubbed it mostly off. I ended up with a toned down turquoise, distressed piece. I love it!

I let it all dry over night (actually a couple of nights.) Then I decided to try and use a rub on wax to finish it up. Luckily I thought ahead here and decided to try it on the back of the piece first to see how it would look and if I liked the final look. Thank Goodness for small favors! Turns out the wax did not work at all. It was a total failure. I rubbed it on and all it did was completely remove the stain I had put on. I really don’t know what I did wrong here and I’m still trying to figure it out but needless to say the wax was not going to work. I just left it out. I’m just so glad I tried it on a small part of the back so there is only one small square on the back that is no longer stained.

So, if you happen to know what I did wrong here I’m dying to know. I know I’ve seen lots of projects that have been done exactly like this but apparently I just didn’t do something right.

So, now it was time to finish it up. I got the hardware for it at Hobby Lobby. I liked the look of it even though the white doesn’t really match the white of the shelves. I still think it’s ok.

Now it was time to put things back in the shelves and decorate it a little. I’ll admit this is still a work in progress. I’m not quite happy with everything yet but it’s coming along. Here are my first couple of tries…

OK…so I like the second shelf…sort of. I really don’t like the top or the bottom one and the top is really not right. Back to the drawing board…

OK, this is a little better on the top shelf. Still not feeling it completely though. Oh, you may have noticed it is now missing one of the bottom cabinet pulls. It just didn’t work, so I had to replace it. I waited until they put the knobs on sale at Hobby Lobby again so don’t worry, it is back in place now.

I finally decided that the blue Ball jars just weren’t going to work on the top, so once I took them down, everything else just sort of fell into place. I changed out the flowers in the vase at the top instead of my wedding bouquet I put some of the branches with blooms on them in it. I really like it so much better. So, what do you think? I’m still not feeling the large goblets on the bottom shelf. What do you think? Should I paint that middle one? It’s sort of an old gold which kind of goes with the maroon, gold, turquoise, and white color scheme but it just doesn’t seem to belong. What do you think I should do? Here is the final look (for now anyway). I do love “most” of it, but I’m still on the look out for some other things to put on display. My absolute favorite thing in the entire cabinet is the matching plate, cup, and saucer in the middle of the second shelf. I got those when my husband’s grandmother died. It was our only inheritance from her and I just love it so much. I found out later that there was an entire set and they split it all up and gave one place setting to each grand child. I wish I could just buy everyone’s from them but I bet many of them don’t even have it anymore. Not everyone loves old things as much as I do I think!

So, what do you think? Do you like how it turned out? I welcome any and all feedback, both positive and negative!

My DIY Door Wreath

I continue to work on my front porch, front door, and entry room so this is another post regarding that transformation in the making.  I’ve already shared my new front door paint (which I’m totally in LOVE with!)  But, even as much as I love the newly painted door I wanted to give it some pizazz too.  I’ve seen tons of beautiful door wreaths around the Internet and Pinterest so I took a few of the designs I’ve seen and liked and combined them into my own creation for my front door.  Behold…

I started with a green floral foam wreath from Hobby Lobby.  Simple and relatively inexpensive…

The 14” wreath was $7.99 and I’m sure it will most likely go on sale at some point so if you want to copy my idea (which I’m totally cool with by the way!) you might keep checking to see if they put it on sale anytime.  I didn’t want to wait so I paid full price for it.

The next step was to cover the wreath form with burlap.  I used these potato sacks that I had purchased online for this part.  It took almost 2 of the sacks and I had bought 3 of them for a total cost of $2.99 so the total cost of the burlap was less than $3.00.  I just cut the back of the sack off and then cut it into strips.  Then I wrapped the strips around the wreath form, overlapping the end of one strip with the beginning of the next until it was completely covered.

Once the wreath was covered, it was time to work on the décor part.  My first step was to cover the letter “F” (for our last name) in the sheet moss from Hobby Lobby.  I bought the wooden letter from Hobby Lobby as well.  I think it was a couple of dollars and the sheet moss is $4.99.  So, being all clever like I am I carefully laid out the F on the moss sheet and cut out the F leaving a fairly wide margin so I could wrap it around the edge.  Behold…

Um, does anyone see what I did here?  I made a HUGE mistake…epic fail even!  Do you see it yet?  Well, if I covered the letter like I show it here what would I have?  A backwards F that’s what!  Silly me!  I needed to turn the F upside down and then cut it out!  Duh!!!!  OK, redo!  Luckily there was just enough fabric left to do it the second time.  There are some parts that are kind of skimpy because it was so tight a fit but I did manage to get it covered…correctly this time!  (see we all make mistakes from time to time, so you are not alone if you think you are the only one that makes mistakes like this!)

I started wrapping the moss around the letter and stapling it with my staple gun as I went along until it was completely covered.

OK, the F is complete now.  It is going in the center of the wreath.  Around the edges I wanted to add some flowers and our address.  So, I bought 2 bunches of silk flowers from Hobby Lobby.  They WERE on sale!  50% off so they cost a total of $4.99 for both bunches.

I took off several of the flowers from the stems and tried to attach them to the wreath.  I tried a couple of different ideas, hot glue, sticking them into the foam, trying to slip them into the burlap…but none of that worked.  So, instead I got out my hemp twine and I just tied them all to the wreath with the knots in the back.

OK, so the flowers are done, now to work on the address.  I had a hard time finding the numbers I wanted to use for this part.  All of the wooden letters at Hobby Lobby were either too big or too small for what I envisioned.  So, on to plan B.  I went to the Scrapbooking section and I bought a box of chipboard letters that also came with numbers.  Since I’m a scrapbooker I didn’t mind buying the entire box because I will most definitely use them eventually.  The numbers were the perfect size!  The first step was to paint them.  I just used a brush and my scrapbook paint which is just basically the same thing as acrylic paint you buy in the art department at Hobby Lobby. 

One note of advice here, I used the wooden stick to gently move the numbers after I painted them so they wouldn’t get stuck to the cardboard underneath them.  I wanted to make sure they would be easily removed and if I left them as is the paint would dry and most likely stick the letters to the surface under them. 

Once the paint was dry I wanted to give them a coat of clear covering.  I used Stampin’ Up’s Crystal Effects for this.  I just squeezed it on each number covering it completely with the Crystal Effects.  Then I let them dry.

After they dried completely (this part I let dry for several hours to make sure they were set firmly) I attached them to the wreath also tying them on using the hemp twine.

I took a black magic marker and just colored the twine on the parts that were covering parts of the numbers.  Then I took a simple grosgrain black ribbon and tied the F in place.  The F actually fits pretty snug in the center of the wreath but I still wanted it tied on.  I contemplated adding a big bow but decided against it.  I like the simple bow instead.

So, that is my wreath!  Here it is on the front door…

I really love how it turned out.  What I don’t love though is the unevenness of it.  I think I need another wreath on the other door.  I’m going to do a second one but instead of the address and the initial, I’m just going to do the flowers on 2 sides of the wreath and call it done.  What do you think?  Do you think that will look ok?  Or should I do another F in it?  Should I just leave the one wreath? 

The Entry Room Re-Do Part 4 or Our Front Door Re-Do

Technically this isn’t really part of the entry room re-do, but it sort of qualifies so it is going to be Part 4 of this series.  Our front door is actually something I really love about our house.  When we remodeled our house in 1996 we took out a non-working sliding glass door that served as our front door from 1985 until 1996 and replaced it with a double door.  The doors themselves are actually fiberglass with glass half windows.  I’ve really enjoyed these doors.  Normally one side opens but we are able to open the other side when needed which is super helpful if we need to move big items in or out of the house.  Even though the doors are fiberglass they have a wood grain in them.  Initially we stained the doors a dark reddish walnut stain and then put several coats of poly on them.  Over the years though they have really taken a beating and they were looking pretty sad.  The poly just can’t stand up to our harsh sun, heat, wind, and blowing sand.  It was actually really wild the difference between the inside and the outside of the doors considering they started out looking the same.

So, as we I started revamping the entry we decided we really needed to start with the outside of the house which meant doing something about those doors.  I didn’t get a before picture…YET AGAIN!  But, I do have several pictures of my house from before so you can see how the doors looked from the outside.  This was actually at Christmas time though so try to pretend that the wreaths and trees are not there right now.  I promise, they really haven’t been up since the week after Christmas!  I really promise!!!!!

Well, the first thing we had to do was decide what we wanted on the doors.  I just didn’t want to go the stained door again because quite frankly it just won’t hold up.  Hot Rod did what he does best, he started the research.  He looked online and found the best paint to use on doors.  It is called Hollandlac paint.  It is a paint made in Holland that is used on all of the doors there.  Apparently it is supposed to hold up to extreme weather for 15 years!  Now, it is not readily available though, and there are just a few places that carry it here in the states.  We actually had to order it from a place in Houston as there was no place in town that had it. 

Now to say this paint is expensive is a huge understatement!  It actually costs $48 a quart!!!!  Yep, you read that right.  Almost $50 a quart.  Not only that but we also bought the entire kit for painting the door which included 2 different kinds of primer, a brush, mineral spirits, and tack cloths.  I know that may seem extreme but I wanted to do it RIGHT!  I followed their instructions to the letter even. 

The first step was to take down the doors.  Yes, you got that right too, we actually took the doors off the hinges to do this process.  I have to give my hubs some credit though, he is a GENIOUS!  He thought of the perfect solution for this little “big hole in the house” dilemma.  Man, my man is so smart sometimes!  He went to the hardware store and bought a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood.  We already had one sheet but needed 2.  He also got 3 – 8 foot 2X4’s and some 10” bolts with nuts.  What he did was lay each piece of plywood sideways against the outside of the door.  Then he put the 2X4’s on the inside of the doors.  He drilled holes through both the plywood and the 2X4’s and put the bolts through them.  Basically what this did was bolt the plywood to the house without putting a single nail hole or mark on the trim of the door on either the front or outside of the door.  This is what it looked like when it was done.  It worked like a charm! 

I think our temporary fix was actually more secure than the doors.  It would have taken some brute strength to break into that!  So, time to work on the doors.  First thing was to clean and sand them.  I used my power sander and 100 grit sandpaper to get off all of the old dirt and peeling poly.  They started like this:

 

And after sanding they looked like this:

OK, first step down, next step is to apply the first coat of primer.  Since we had fiberglass doors we had this extra step.  Wood or steel doors only needed the one kind of primer but the fiberglass said to use 2 different types.  The first one was a water based primer made especially for fiber glass.  It was white, easy to clean up, and covered very well.  The instructions said to apply this primer with a foam brush.  Silly me, I thought I had TONS of them.  Well turns out I did have tons of them but they were all the same size, a whole 1 inch wide.  We decided to use them anyway.  They wore out quickly so it took about 6 or 8 of them before we finished both doors.  Oh well, saved me a trip to the store one more time.  ha ha ha

I taped off the glass with painters tape but I had decided to do the trim around the window in the same paint as the door so it got the same treatment that the door did throughout the entire process.  We let this primer dry over night. 

Next we sanded the doors again using 220 grit sandpaper.  I used my electric sander again but didn’t apply much pressure at all.  This step is to just remove any particles that dried in the paint and to give the previous primer some tooth for the next coat to hang on to.  Then it was time for the next primer.  This one was an oil based primer and it said to apply it using a brush.  I really don’t care much for oil based paints because they are so hard to clean up so I decided to use an older brush that I would just throw away afterwards. 

We let this coat of primer dry a couple of days actually.  Since it is oil based it needed a little more time to dry.  The instructions said to dry overnight but due to scheduling it was actually a couple of days before I resumed the process.

I sanded it again with 220 grit sand paper, lightly again.  Then it was time for the color.  We had decided to use the black high gloss paint from Hollandlac.  The Hubs and I were actually in a little disagreement over this.  I wanted to paint the doors in the same red that the house is trimmed in but he thought it would look bad to have the doors and the trim the same color so we opted for the black.  The Hollandlac paint is extremely thick, much thicker than any other paint I’ve ever used.  It supposedly has a lot more color particles in it than any other American paint which is why it will last so much longer.  American paints have more liquid in them than paint particles.  The black went on very well and covered better than I could have imagined especially since the primer was such a stark white compared to the black. 

We did 2 coats of the black with sanding in between the coats.  I seem to have not gotten a picture of the black paint when the doors were still on the saw horses, but fear not…I got pictures after we hung them back up.  The only downside I can tell to the high gloss is it does show every imperfection and we do have a few dings and dents in our doors so they do show up.  Still, even with the dents and dings the doors look fabulous!

Hot Rod used this opportunity to replace all of the seals on the doors too, so every part of them got new rubber all the way around.  They seal VERY well now.  Almost too well actually.  It’s kind of hard to open the door now but I’m sure as the bottom seal gets a little more broken in that will ease up.

After hanging them back up it was time to re-install the hardware.  Another slight problem there.  Our doors have been not working for some time.  The doors were actually not “catching” so unless we had the dead bolt engaged the doors would blow open anytime there was any wind.  Hot Rod worked on them a month or so ago and got them fixed, but when he did the dead bolt no longer matched up exactly to the whole so there was not a metal plate, it was just going into the wood.  During our 4th of July party my mom pushed open the door thinking it was unlocked and it tore out the wood completely.  So, we needed to get the wood part that is between the doors replaced and we also replaced the hardware at the same time since the hardware was not working great anyway. 

We replaced the hardware about a month before we decided to paint them and at the time I really thought we were going to go with the red paint, but as you can see we didn’t.  However, I really wanted the oil rubbed bronze look for the hardware so that is what we bought.  Now, the doors are black and the oil rubbed bronze for all intents and purposes is black too.  We were really worrying how they would look together.  Unfortunately I had thrown away the box the hardware came in so I couldn’t just take it back and get the brushed nickel or some other color.  We decided to go ahead and try it and see how it looked.  I actually don’t mind it either.  I mean it does kind of blend in to the door but it looks ok to me.  So, here are the newly painted doors!  I’m very happy with them.

So, my review of the Hollandlac paint is it is wonderful!  I love how it covered and it looks great now.  Now we just have to wait and see if it will indeed hold up to the West Texas wind and heat and dirt for many more years to come!

Now for a little history lesson.  While Hot Rod was researching the paint for the doors he discovered some interesting trivia on the history of painting doors black.  It actually started in the early 1900’s I believe (or it may be the late 1800’s).  Anyway, when King Albert died in England, many of the people in England painted their doors and frames black as a sign of mourning for the loss of their king.  Queen Victoria actually wore only black for the rest of her life in mourning until her death in the 1930’s.  So, if you are ever on Cash Cab or something and they ask how the practice of painting doors black was started you will know! 

Entry Room Re-Do, Part 3

Well, the entry room is really coming along. I’ve lost almost a month of project time because I’ve just had so much going on and we’ve been enjoying the summer. Well, for the next 2 weekends I will be home so I really hope to accomplish quite a bit in the next 2 weeks. I got a head start on it last week though. We have an annual 4th of July bash at our house every year so I did a few things and finished up a couple of things to make my entry more inviting for the guests. It is still not complete but it’s getting better!

So, the next project I want to share with you is a lamp re-do. I started this with a lamp I bought at Goodwill for $3.50. I really thought I took a picture of it when I bought it but apparently I didn’t. Dang it! I swear from now on I will take tons of before pictures. But this time once again you will have to use a little imagination. The lamp was painted in an Indian Southwest design with a pueblo and an Indian woman on it. Definitely not my style at all. But I really loved the shape of it so I got it with plans to change it with paint.

The first step was to tape off the light fixture and the cord. Then I spray painted the entire thing with Primer

I let that dry completely (overnight). Next I painted the base of the lamp with the color I wanted it to end up…Heirloom White from Rustoleum Painter’s Touch. By far my favorite paint lately.

My plan is to have the bottom be a contrasting color from the rest of the lamp. After I let the white dry, I taped off the bottom of the lamp using painters tape. Turns out I don’t think I let the white dry long enough. When I peeled off the tape later, some of the brown wood color was showing through where the paint came off with the tape. I actually like how it looks though so I’m not going to fix it.

So, after taping off the bottom I painted the rest of the lamp with the color I wanted…

A HOT Turquoise blue! This is the accent color I’m putting in the entry. It looks amazing with the gold, burgundy, and white. I painted the lamp with 2 coats of the turquoise paint and then let it dry. In retrospect I should have removed the tape from the bottom immediately after painting if I wanted to keep it pristine. Oh well, I still like the outcome…

Tada! It is done and I love it. I used the shade that I bought at Ikea last year. I’ve been struggling with this stupid shade since last year because it just wouldn’t work for any known lamp! I have no idea what this shade was supposed to be used for but I had to do some creative engineering to make it work. Oh well, work it did! So, the lamp is finished!

While I was doing the lamp I did another project as well. I made my own display stacking trays. I started with this: 2 glass plates and 2 glass candle sticks bought at the Thrift store for 50 cents each.

The first step I did was to glue it all together. I used E6000 glue and just eyed it for “centerness”. I glued one candle stick to the bottom of each plate. I put them upside down and set a paint of can on each to weigh it down. Then I let them dry.

Next, I put the 2 pieces together by glueing the bottom of the candle stick on the smaller plate to the top of the center of the larger plate. I weighed it down again with the paint can and let it dry.

Now, it’s time to paint. Although, you could just call it done at this point. My husband actually preferred it when it was just the glass but I wanted it a color to coordinate with the entry. So, step one for painting glass is to first spray it with frosted glass spray. This will create a textured surface so the paint has something to cling to.

I had the frosted glass spray in my stash of tools so I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t have to buy it. I have no idea how old this stuff was but it worked perfectly!

I allowed the frosted glass spray to dry and then painted the entire thing with primer first. I’ve finally learned after 49 years that it’s just best to go ahead and prime things before you paint them. I may be a slow learner…but I can be taught!

Once the primer dried, I painted the entire thing once again with the Heirloom White. I painted it right side up first, let it dry for awhile, then flipped it upside down and painted it again from that direction. This allowed me to get to all the hard to reach places.

The final outcome…

So, with both projects now done I started to play with the arrangement. Both items are going on an antique table I have sitting in my entry between 2 chairs. It is actually a drop leaf table but the drops don’t really work all that well so I just use the table as a side table really. I started with adding some balls to the display trays.

Um…ok…it looks alright but just not quite right. Next I experimented with putting something else on the top tray but leaving the balls on the bottom.

Ah, yes…I like this much better. Now to put it all together!

I used a small frame I got at the Salvation Army to “even” things out. Actually it’s really “odding” things out. You know that design rule right, things should be done in odd numbers because they are more pleasing to the eye. So, my table is complete and I’m digging it. Here is a sneak preview of the entire gallery wall now with the table and chairs in front of it. I know, I know…the chairs are just horrible, but they are a future project I promise! I want to get them recovered or to actually try my hand at re-upholstery. But, that will come later. In the meantime, I’m really liking how it’s coming along. Oh, you also are getting a sneak preview of the china cabinet which is currently undergoing a makeover too. (I hope to finish it this weekend so I’ll hopefully have a full post dedicated to it next week)

Now to break down the costs. The cost of the lamp was $3.50. The cost of the plates and candle sticks was $2.00. The cost of the mini frame was $2.00 (kinda pricey actually for a used frame but it was from Pier One and it looks brand new and it matches the décor in the room!). The cost of the primer and paint was about $9.00 (1 can of primer, 1 can of Heirloom White, 1 can of turquoise). The cost of the frosted glass spray was free! (if I needed to buy it though it still had the price tag from Hobby Lobby on it and it was $4.99). I already had the flower arrangement, vase, and cross. So total cost of the table redo was $16.50 and I love it!

What do you think? My sister wasn’t so jazzed about the turquoise color in the room but I actually love the unexpected splash of a different color. I think it just gives the room the added pop it needed.

There is so much more to come…I’m not nearly done with the gallery wall, not by a long shot!