Budget Mudroom

Our house was built in 1989.  We've replaced all the sinks and shut off valves in the house except for in the mudroom and laundry room. 

We found a cabinet on clearance for $40 at Lowe's.  It was discounted due to door damage.  The door damage happened to be 2 small red scuffs that I cleaned off with a Mr. Clean magic eraser.  We brought the cabinet home and hubby said he'd work on the sink in a few weeks.  Well the sink didn't want to wait the shut off valves started  leaking a week later!  So that led to us replacing the sink at 9pm at night.

Before:

The sink was the one we were originally going to use for our kitchen. It came from Lowe's 5 almost 6  years ago. Then hubby thought we should use an under mount sink and I'm so glad we did.  The counter top was discounted from Lowe's as was the faucet.

Now:

The upper cabinet came from Habitat Restore for under $10.  I used spray primer for plastic on the doors since they are thermofoil.  Then spray painted them white.  They had yellowed.   I do plan to add some trim to the cabinet.

Under the window I want to put a bench with baskets under it.

On the other wall I hung another cabinet I found at Habitat Restore for $10.  I did the same to the door because it had yellowed.  I added a 1/4" piece of plywood painted white to the side and some trim.

Before:

Now:

Now to just paint the walls, add the rest of the trim, put a bench in and add some bifold doors for the closet and it will be done.

Open Cabinets

I like the look of open cabinets but I'm never sure if I can keep them clean and organized all the time.   After looking at several pictures online I stained the inside of the 2 cabinets by the window.  Now I can display all my white dishes.  

All the other cabinets will eventually get doors and drawers.  And since we've been working on and off on this kitchen for 6 years now it gives you to much time to keep changing your mind!!

 Here's the other side that will get doors.  That's the crown we made for the cabinets sitting on top of there.

Here is what the white basket looked like........

 Some super glue and spray paint and now it looks like this:

Dresser Makeover

This was a free to us dresser from some friends of my inlaws.  2 of the drawers had come apart, the paint was flaking off and it wasn't pretty.

I stripped the drawer fronts and the top of the dresser.  Then filled the holes in the drawers.  The 2 top drawers do not match because one was rebuilt at some point in time and then painted.  Who ever painted it did not prime it first.    After sanding down the drawer fronts I sanded the entire dresser to get off all the paint that was flaking and get rid of the paint drips that were on it.   After priming the dresser really good I gave it 2 coats of satin black paint.   The dresser top and drawer fronts were stained with General Finishes Brown Mahogany gel stain and then topped with satin polyurethane.  Eventually I'd like to re-veneer the 2 top drawers.  The one has 7 drawer holes in it  and the other is just missing the veneer.

Here's all the before, during and after pics.

To strip the drawer fronts and tops I just painted on the stripper, let it sit for a few minutes then scraped it all off with a putty knife.  Make sure you wear gloves!

I filled all the drawer pull holes with some water based wood putty that was stainable.  This particular putty a cherry color.

I had to glue 2 of the drawers back together:

 Here's the after:

To make the drawers slide better I took some soap and rubbed it on the bottom rails of the drawers and also inside the dresser where the drawers slide in.  No more stuck drawers!

Here's the before and after again!

The frame, tray, and horse head all came from Home Goods.  The 3 books I already had and the barn star came from Lowe's a few years ago. Now to figure out what picture to put in the frame!

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Tatertots & Jello

Pieced Pastimes

Nifty Thrifty Sunday

Under the table and Dreaming

Funky Junk Interiors

The Scoop

Bathroom Shelf

My mother in law gave us this cute little shelf.  It fit right where I wanted to put some floating shelves or some sort of cabinet.

I gave it a light sanding and primed it.

Then I painted it with the same paint I used on the bathroom vanity.  It was paint I had color matched to the java gel stain that I used on our doors & trim.

 

Now to find a picture to put in the small frame on the shelf.

Still to do in the bathroom is trim out the closet door, replace the tub with a big tiled shower, redo the floor, finish the drywall repair, take out the soffits and put new crown moulding in.

Mirror Update

I found a wooden applique at Menards the other day and thought it would be the perfect size to add to our mirror in our bedroom.  The mirror did start out a very dark walnut color before a I painted it black a few years ago.

I used General Finishes gel stain in Brown Mahogany and then sprayed a sealer over it once it dried.  I used a quick setting glue called Titebond instant bond wood adhesive to apply it to the mirror. It sets up in 5 seconds so you don't have much time for alignment.

Mirror Before:

Mirror After:

You can see HERE how the desk/dresser started before I painted them.

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Nightstand

The other day my inlaws picked up a few pieces of furniture that a friend of theirs was giving away. So we ended up with a nightstand, a cedar chest and a dresser.  All need a little love and some repair.

I honestly can't wait to work on the dresser but I started with the little table.

It was very dirty and had peeling paint.  I scrubbed it really well, scraped the paint that was flaking and sanded it down really good after that.  Then gave it a good coat of primer and a coat of paint.  It needs a 2nd coat of paint but I ran out.  I spray painted the nightstand Ford Blue.

Here's the Before:

After:

Nathan loves his little table.  You can see more of his room HERE,

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Memorial Day

Yesterday we talked with the kids about what Memorial Day is and why we should honor those who lost their lives to give us the freedom we have.

My inlaws came over for dinner.  We grilled hotdogs & hamburgers and had a wonderful time sitting out on the deck.

The table center piece I sprayed only a few hours before it was time to eat. I had some old dried eucalyptus and thought it would look neat spray painted and used on the table.  I used white primer spray paint since I ran out of white spray paint, red and blue.

HERE is the post on how I made the table.

Entry Table

Over the years many things have changed.   When we first moved in our walls were a builder grade flat white paint.  Then I painted them an off white then the orange.  Now they are the tan color.

edited:  Look what I found today (5/8/14) going through some pictures!  This was at Christmas time a few years back.  Grandma & Grandpa Owen were over.  Goodness the boys look so small!! :)

 That was before we put in new doors & windows and before we refinished the hardwood floors and redid all the trim in the house.  The floors had a walnut color stain on them.  When we refinished them we just gave them a good sanding and clear coated them.

Here's what it looked like when it was orange.

Then I painted it all and redid the trim.  We put all the oak trim in after we moved in.  Hubby milled all the trim and we stained it the golden oak color.  Now I have it stained with the java gel.

I started to make a cabinet to go by the front door to hold shoes, gloves and hats.  The only problem is while I could get it to that point I have no idea how to make doors or drawers that I wanted.  That is all hubby's department!   So instead I took the top off that I made, bought some legs and put a table together with baskets underneath.  The unfinished cabinet will be used for something else eventually.

 

 

The table legs were from Lowe's  They were roughly $88.  The apron was left over poplar from our workshop. The table dimensions are 36" tall, 18" deep and 78" long.  For the aprons the short ends are 6"x 10 1/2" and the long ends are 6"x 70 1/2".  I used pocket screws to put it all together.  The stain color is Early American.

The baskets under the table are from Target.   They were $39.99 each.
The lamps were from Habitat Restore for like $5 each.  They were brass and I spray painted them ORB.

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