Before and After Photos

Figured it was time to give a little background as to what I’m working with in my “not-so-new” house. Some of these rooms have already been transformed, but many have not.

BEFORE…

As you can see, in the early 90’s BLUE and PINK were popular colors.

Living room – Before

Kitchen – Before

Master Bedroom – Before

Loft Bedroom – Before

Loft Stairwell- Before

Bathroom – Before

Bathroom – Before

AFTER…

As of October 2013 (2 years since we moved in), all carpet has been replaced, all wallpaper removed, all walls painted, bathroom halfway remodeled, and there is still SO MUCH to do! At least we can say that we no longer live in a pink and blue floral asylum. Here are a few “after” photos:

Living Room – After

Living Room After Paint and Floors

Kitchen – After Faux Granite and Painted Cabinets

Dining Room After New paint and floors

Master Bedroom – After (Still no window treatments!)

Loft Bedroom – After

Bathroom Shower – After

DIY Laminate Wood Flooring Installation

The living room of my new home looked like this on move-in day:

And as much as I love the Smurfs, I’m not a fan of Smurf-Blue carpet in my house. So I decided to enlist the help of two very important people.

1) Brandi: My cousin Brandi is an amazing interior designer and has an incredible eye for color and spacial design.

2) Todd: My best friend Todd played an important role in this job because someone had to teach me how to use the saws and lend a little muscle.

Todd came over and dutifully ripped up every piece of blue carpet he could find (Note: we did find little pieces of pink carpet beneath the blue in some places. So apparently not even the second owner could stand a COMPLETELY pink house!)

Brandi flew in from Pittsburgh and we went on a laminate floor-finding mission. After narrowing it down to two different places, Lomax Tile & Carpet and Lumber Liquidators, we ended up finding a great clearance deal on some charcoal-colored laminate at Lumber Liquidators.

(Dream Home – St. James  12mm Chimney Rock Charcoal Laminate $2.64/sq ft )

I thought this was going to be a piece of cake. A piece of hard, dark, wooden, click-n-lock, cake. Turns out it was easier than installing REAL hardwood flooring, but then again what do I know, I’ve never done that either.

<— Awww, isn’t that sweet? This guy makes the experience look so pleasant and so clean. Why the hell is he wearing a hard hat anyway – looks like a pretty simple job, right? Simple enough to wear a collared shirt and jeans at least…

WRONG! Looks more like this…and that’s not including all of the sawdust that ended up in the nooks and crannies of my house.

TIPS:

Use spacers: Or fashion some yourself. We used the old tack strips from the carpet by hammering the tacks down and they ended up being the perfect width to use as spacers (you can see them against the white molding in the photo above). This will compensate for any expansion of the flooring.

Check your seams: You cannot just grab a plank and click-n-lock it into the next plank without checking your layout first. It’s important that the seams don’t line up or you could compromise the durability of the floor once it’s finished (a large seam can create buckling or separation.)

Know how to measure! Not only did I learn how to use a chop saw during this project, but I learned how to properly measure before I cut. A quick square (triangle square) and tape measure sure came in handy!

Always have a spotter: Never work alone in an environment where you’re using saws, hammers, crowbars and the like. Can you imagine if I had been alone when I took that crowbar to the head!?

I would have thought I was dying, when in all reality it wasn’t even stitch-worthy. But if something worse were to happen, you’ll want someone by your side to assess the damage.

Anyway, we did get most of it done in a weekend, but some of the final cuts took a little longer than expected (and with life delays), we completed the flooring project in 1 week’s time. The final outcome:

Faux Granite Countertops

When I moved into my home in October 2011, the previous owner had lived for years with not only pink walls, pink wallpaper, pink trim, and pink carpet in 80% of the house, but also at no point in this home’s 18-year tenure did anyone attempt to replace the PINK LAMINATE kitchen counters.

 

That’s where I come in.

Lucky for me, the main floor of the house had virtually no pink other than that countertop. Sure, there were some hideous vinyl floors, ugly blue carpet and 18 years of cigarette smoke stain on the walls, but at least there was very little pink. Still…I HAD to get rid of it with a quickness. So, within 1 week of moving in I decided to head to my local A.C. Moore and pick up some acrylic paints, then stop off at Home Depot for some Martha Stewart specialty glazes and textured paint and some varnish/lacquer. I was on a mission.

Thanks to Pinterest and Remodelaholic I had some direction to follow before I jumped right in. My kids consider me an “artist” and I think after this project I now also consider myself one. Let me show you how I did it.

Here are the supplies that I used:

Acrylic Paints:

• 16 oz Black
• 2 oz Beige
• 2 oz Med Brown

Other Paints:

• Martha Stewart textured metallic paint – Lampblack
• Martha Stewart metallic paint – Bronze
• Gripper primer/sealer – tinted gray

Other supplies:

• Sea sponge
• Drop cloth (you’ll REALLY want to have this)
• 1 box of High Gloss Finish/Lacquer (EnviroTex works great)
• Large plastic putty knife (to spread the lacquer)
• Disposable bowl to mix lacquer
• Painters tape

STEP 1: I started by painting a coat of the primer on the counters. The particular primer that I used worked as a sealant as well as primer which prevented me from having to sand the pink laminate before I painted (it allowed the paint to stick better to the surface). I’m not a sander.

STEP 2: I mixed together the black acrylic paint with the Lampblack Martha Stewart textured metallic paint to use as my base coat. I figured this would give the base a bit of a glimmer to it as well as a texture. It was PERRRRFECT! I then used a paint brush to apply the black mixture to the counters, and went over the paint with the sea sponge for texture purposes.

STEP 3: This was the tricky part. It was all guessing, dabbing and blotting. I had no idea what it was going to look like, even though I had a granite sample sitting next to me as inspiration the entire time.

I took the sea sponge and ripped it into pieces. Each piece was used for a different color. I began with the medium brown color and applied liberal dabs all over the section (working in sections is a lot easier than dabbing all over the entire surface). Then I went to the lightest color, the beige. I lightly dabbed the beige in various spots, being careful not to over do it. I realized by putting it on second, I could paint right over the beige with the darker brown afterward if I screwed up, which I did.

Finally, I moved on to the bronze metallic color. And there it was, my pot of gold…er…bronze at the end of the rainbow!!! The bronze made the whole thing come together.

But the best part is yet to come…

I took pictures after I finished dabbing my little heart out for hours, thinking “Damn this looks like a different kitchen! I might just leave it like this. Screw the lacquer.” Boy was I wrong. Lacquer = fabulous.

STEP 4: I figured why not attempt a little bit of clear coat/lacquer on the first small section I painted. Note: be sure to adhere the drop cloth/plastic before you pour the clear coat. Otherwise you will be extremely sticky and you could definitely ruin your floors and cabinets.

I mixed the lacquer according to the instructions, which it says are VERY important to follow exactly as they are written – otherwise you will end up with…well….I don’t know because I followed the instructions.

And then I poured. I used the plastic putty knife to even it out, but for the most part, the liquid is self-leveling and settled right into place where needed.

 

LOOK AT IT SHINE!!!

It’s difficult to see from the photo, but when the clear coat went on, all of the glitter, shimmer and gleam of the metallic paints that I used POPPED in to bright and shining view. MY counters were shining like stars, and I could see my reflection in them. Little did I know, when they dried, the shine stayed.

I now have beautiful, shiny, glossy, glittery, metallic-yet-classy counters! GOODBYE PINK! Here’s the final result:

Revlon Renovation

What exactly is a ‘Revlon Renovation’ you ask?

One could consider any renovation done by a woman, a Revlon Renovation. The brand Revlon is generally associated with women, hence the tie-in to the female gender. But personally I call some of my renovations ‘Revlon Renovations’ because historically, most of my reno’s have been used as makeup to cover a blemish…just enough to make it look pretty for a short period of time.

Revlon renovations aren’t necessarily easy however. Heck, does looking like this every day appear easy?

Sometimes it takes a lot of sweat equity to create a masterful Revlon renovation. Here are a few examples of my own RR’s:

• Painted light switch plates
• Home made sofa cover
• Adhesive Vinyl Tile (over top of current ugly vinyl tile)
• Chalkboard paint (to cover anything and everything)
• Painted counter tops to cover hideous laminate.

What are some of yours?