Ikea Hack- Upbeat Aztec Stool

Stools are a requirement in my house. Due to the fact that I can't reach anything. We have two cheap Ikea stools, one in the master bedroom closet and one in the kitchen. The one that was in the closet is the Ikea Bekvam stool which is solid wood and only $17! Besides the great price and sturdy structure, this stool is great because it is a blank canvas that you can make it your own. Ours sat untouched for two years but I finally got around to it this last week. I also decided that once I painted it I would move it to the kitchen instead of hiding it in the bedroom.

I didn't really have any plan at the beginning. At first I just picked one color. I did not buy any paint for this- just picked from our paint sample collection. I decided to use Valspar's Pitch Cobalt in Satin which we bought to test out on our shed (In process! The weather sorta halted the painting process though...). 

I lightly sanded the stool and then just painted it with a small brush. Normally I use oil based primer first on my wood projects. However...this is a stool. So I didn't care that much. And the raw wood soaked up the paint fine. It only took two coats for complete coverage and there was no bleed through from the wood. 

I thought the stool looked good as is but I wanted to add something else. Some type of stencil. I thought about it for a couple of days. I thought about just doing stripes or tracing a stencil like I did with this dresser. Finally, I remembered a side table that the amazing Emily Henderson had posted. I love the Aztec style and the simplicity of the triangles. I figured that was something I could manage! 

I taped off a pattern on the top with triangles. I did not measure or anything since it doesn't have to be perfect. I then taped off random triangles on the rest of the stool. 

I picked three other colors from my paint stash that coordinated. All Valspar in Satin. The dark blue-gray is Cobalt Cannon (another shed option). The gray is Wet Cement which I used in our office and on our credenza (and also in the upstairs bathroom, almost done!). Finally, the light blue/gray is Barely Blue from the upstairs bathroom-almost done with that project! 

I rotated colors and did two coats of each. Once I was done the second coat, I pulled the tape off right away. I always want to let the paint dry first but then the lines are not as crisp...

After painting, I added two coats of Polycrylic in semi-gloss to protect my stencil. I only did it on the two steps. I worried that this would make the stool too slippery but it feels fine and I want the paint to last. But if this stool was for actual children and not just a child sized adult then I probably would skip that step. 

I am so happy with the finished product! It is much better than the plastic stool that I have now moved into the bedroom. Hmm, I may have to replace that one as well. 

Now we just need to replace those floors so my stool will look better on them. :)

Refurbished Table and Chairs

This was my first official furniture renovation! I started this last summer and after that was inspired to do this 

dresser and a coffee table.

My grandma had this table up in her attic that had been in her family for a long time. It was a beautiful table, particularly the legs, but the table was in rough shape and I didn't love the color. We lived with it as is for almost a year.

 I did a lot of research before starting and bought the following products.

I read good reviews on the CitriStrip and I decided to get it because it is supposed to be safer than other strippers and you can even use it indoors. Which I didn't but the fact that you can says a lot.
I thought it worked well. The bottle says that you can leave it on for up to 24 hours but you need to wipe it off before it drys so I found that after 30 minutes was a good time for me. I stripped the chairs and table legs twice. I used a combination of steel wool and just plain paper towels.

Bunny helping me

These are the chairs after I stripped them. Note that one of them is different. My grandma has no idea when that happened! After stripping them I decided that I liked the color of the wood and didn't want to stain them. So instead I just sealed the wood on the chairs, and table legs, with polyurethane. I decided to be a little lazy and I spent the extra money to get the spray can version. It was definitely a time saver! I think I bought 6 bottles and did two coats.

I decided to paint the table top since the wood was in worse shape and I wanted a two toned look. This picture is after primer and paint.

Instead of leaving the table top as is I roughed it up some so it matched the antique table legs better. I sanded the edges, sometimes down to the white primer and sometimes down to the wood.

I also added a brown glaze on the edges. I just bought this small bottle at A.C. Moore. A little goes a long way and I have used this on several projects! After glazing I added the polycrylic to protect the paint. 

 Next up I reupholstered the seats! I am not sure why I took off the old covers instead of just reupholstering over top...I think I just wanted to see what was inside. Which was very interesting. So that's what antique cushions look like! I did save a piece of one of the covers, maybe I will frame it one day?

I put batting over top the cushions to make them more comfortable. My handy staple gun from my mom with flowers on it. The screws sticking out in the corners were so I didn't cover up the screw holes...I made that mistake before I realized I should do this.

Done! I used some Scotch Guard on the cushion covers to protect the fabric. 

So after we made the cushions nice and comfy we realized that the chairs were now too tall for the table. As in your legs scraped the bottom of the table. So we bought the below table legs. Which made the table too tall. So we took off part of the original table legs and THEN added these. Kinda a mess for a minute there.
You can see on the below table legs the before and after of glazing them. I just rubbed a bit of the glaze on and then wiped it off quickly so it wasn't too much.

And finally the finished product!

And so you don't have to scroll to the top here is the before again.

The table was free and my total budget for renovating it was $100 between the fabric and all the supplies. This was still cheaper then buying a table this size even at Ikea!
It took me about a week to do but that was working on it a bit each day after work. The wood stripping was the most labor intensive part.
This was kinda  a big project to take on for my first furniture renovation but it was good because I learned a lot of different things- stripping wood, painting wood, and reupholstering cushions. All of which have come in handy!

Kitchen Renovation on a Budget

Kitchen before and after pictures are my favorite! In my own home and in other homes. Kitchens are such a key part of a home and a family so any updates can go a long way. We finished our kitchen renovation in February 2012 and I love it so much. It is exactly what we wanted and I am happy with all of the decisions that we made. See these posts for the full kitchen progress details: Demo, Cabinets, Appliances, Counters, and Backsplash.

We bought the door knobs for $3 each. We used the same ones on the doors and drawers. We donated the old green ones.

Those ceiling lights are nothing fancy but they were $20 for both at Lowes!!!

We bought those white stools at Ikea. We weren't planning on getting them but saw them on sale for $20 each because they were being discontinued. Except they were bright red! A little spray paint fixed that.

That blue cart is also from Ikea and I LOVE it. I asked for it for my birthday this past year HA. Note my stool so I can reach the upper shelves...

My husband picked out this faucet from Ikea. At $230 it was not my first choice but he is great about doing the dishes so I let him have it. I got to pick out the sink which was only $106 at Ikea.

I love this ceiling fan! I couldn't find it online but it is a Harbor Breeze and was $150 from Lowe's. We gave the old white one to a friend who helped us install the new one.

And here is the eat-in side of the kitchen. The table and chairs are antiques from my dad's side of the family that I refurbished.

We do still have the original floors... I don't love them but they are in okay shape and I like the color now that all the other green is out of the kitchen. I have Pinned a couple grout cleaning ideas but haven't been motivated to tackle that yet...

We (my husband) with some help from friends and family did everything in this kitchen except for plumbing. We did hire a plumber to put in a new garbage disposal and connect the dishwasher. We thought about DIYing this but since this was the beginning of our renovation projects I was nervous about tackling that ourselves.

The total amount we spent on the kitchen, including hiring the plumber, was $3500! I think it looks a lot different for that amount! And of course $2000 of that was on the appliances. I know kitchen renovations run a lot of people $30k so I am glad we were able to do ours for 10% of that. Keeping our original cabinets definitely helped!

Now if only I would spend more time in my lovely kitchen cooking...

Glass Tile Backsplash- It Makes a Room

Here is a picture of our kitchen before we installed the backsplash....It is very white. It needs something!

 Picking out a backsplash was exciting. It is so easy now with so many options and the small tiles usually come in 12x12 sheets already connected. We liked a lot of them and bought a couple to bring home before we decided. We ended up choosing an all glass option from The Home Depot that was only $5 a square foot! With tile and all the supplies we spent about $130. It made a big impact for a small price.

A staff member at The Home Depot was very helpful and told us everything we needed to buy: Trowel, Grout Float, Microfiber Sponge, Tile Nipper, Thin-Set Morter, and Non-Sanded Grout.

Pascal was able to complete this project in one weekend and this was his first time tiling anything so it is a project that a beginner can do! The first day he cut the tile that needed to be cut, used the trowel to put up the thin-set and laid the tile. The second day he applied the grout.

Here are step by step instructions for installing a backsplash from The Home Depot.

A couple of things about backsplashes. Getting this sponge with the microfiber side was really helpful for wiping the grout film off. Another thing, we bought the thin set and grout that you had to mix yourselves but if you want a quicker job you can get the pre-mixed kind for a bit more money.

One thing we had a bit of trouble with was cutting down the tile. Since we were using the small glass tiles the tile guy at The Home Depot recommend tile nippers over a wet saw. And also it was cheaper (I think the ones we bought were even less then the ones I linked to). For the price I recommend giving it a go but they were kind of hard to use. Basically you are just scoring a line on the tile and then snapping it. Sometimes the tiles did not always break evenly but as long as you have a couple extras you will be fine.

Pascal made the small sheet metal pieces for the end for a nice even edge

So beautiful!

Butcher Block Counters

When we moved into our house we knew we wanted to change out the dark green faux marble laminate counters. My husband suggested butcher block counters which he thought would look good with the white cabinets. We bought them from Ikea.
We finished painting our cabinets in September 2011 and then took a break from the kitchen renovation. We bought the counters in February 2012.
I wanted to have a breakfast bar so we measured out what we needed for the counters to include that and brought a sketch to Ikea. For some reason I thought the counters came custom sized. But of course this is Ikea so you have to do some work. They sell the butcher block pieces in set sizes and then you have to cut them down to size.

These are the counters that we picked out:

We bought three pieces of butcher block. One was a thinner piece because my husband wanted to use it for a small back splash. We spent around $350 total! You don't need to buy the back splash piece if you want to save some extra money- I don't think I have seen anyone else do that.

If you have to cut the butcher block down you need to sand the edges but otherwise its ready to go.

This is my lone picture of the installation... (That's our old dishwasher on the left we didn't replace it until we put the new counters in.)

After you install and caulk the cracks you need to oil the wood to protect it. And then do it again every 6 months. We bought the Behandla oil right from Ikea.

After a year and a half I can say that our counters are still holding up great and I have no regrets! We use Clorox wipes to clean them and try to clean up any spills right away. We do NOT cut on them. I did have a rogue blueberry leave a stain but you can lightly sand the wood and re-oil it for any hard to get out spots. The only spot where I see some wear is around the sink. We clean any spilled water up right away but I think if we oiled it there extra that would help.

Full counter after pictures coming with the tile back splash post and kitchen afters.

Buying Appliances Online

When we bought our house there was no fridge which wasn't surprising for a foreclosure. There was a veryyy old looking dishwasher, an old huge microwave that sat on the counter, and a white stove which was in decent shape. I really wanted to get all new appliances but I wasn't sure if we would be able to afford them right away.

But then my coworker told me about US Appliance. She got all four of her stainless steel kitchen appliances on there for $2000! They have special builder packages that you can choose from. We got the Frigidaire package (Looks like it went up $50 in price). Besides being a good deal, since it is online there is no sales tax! And they deliver for free! It was very easy to order and the appliances came in about a week. They actually came faster than I thought and we weren't ready to put them in as we were still painting the kitchen.

These are pretty basic appliances. So not for everyone but they meet our needs! It has been two years since we got them and I have no complaints. Our glass stove top did inexplicably get a crack in it right after we took it out of the box. So I am not sure if that happened during delivery. But the appliances came with the standard Frigidaire one year warranty so once I called Frigidaire they sent a mechanic out right away and fixed it for free.

This was the majority of the budget for our kitchen but I think it was worth it. We had to buy everything but a stove anyway and buying through this website with no sales tax we saved enough money to afford all four. We did give our stove to someone else so it did not go to waste.

Updating Kitchen Cabinets

I was excited about this kitchen when we moved in because it had white cabinets which I wanted. Until we realized that the white on the cabinets was actually some sort of vinyl coating. And it was cracking and peeling in some spots.

At first I was trying to figure out how to move the doors/drawers around so the peeling ones were less visible. And then spur of the moment at about 8 pm one night my husband and I thought, why not just peel the vinyl off? We did one really quickly without thinking about it and then there was no turning back. Thankfully they all came off pretty easily. 

The bases of the cabinets were painted so we only had to peel the doors/drawers. In about an hour we had finished all of them. 

Now there are a lot of tutorials on the internet about how to paint cabinets like this at Young House Love or this at East Coast Creative. So I am not going to do a full tutorial...especially because apparently I took no pictures???

So despite all the nice tutorials out there at this point in September 2011 A. I did not know what Pinterest was and B. I did not read blogs. Thankfully this is not that hard of a project. Basically we just went to Home Depot and told the guy at the paint counter that we wanted to paint wood cabinets. He told us to get oil based primer, small white foam rollers and semi-gloss paint. See, this is easy! 

I primed and Pascal sanded and painted because he is more of a perfectionist then me.

Part of the reason everything was covered up in the above picture is because for a hot second we were going to use a spray painter on the cabinets from my father-in-law. But we gave up on that quickly. For one thing it was an old spray painter that did not work as well as the new ones and second it was too early in our DIY career to take that on...Pascal did some of the base cabinets with the sprayer but then decided it was easier to use the small foam roller and that used less paint. 

I failed at taking pictures during the painting process. But it went pretty well especially since we had never done anything like this before. I use "we" liberally because I didn't actually do that much. The hardest step was definitely sanding after using the primer to insure that it was smooth with no brush strokes. I was even fired from this job because I give up too quickly on sanding.

Kitchen after pictures coming soon! The next steps were new light fixtures, appliances, back splash, and counters!

Kitchen Demo

So this is our kitchen when we moved in...it had a lot of green. One of my favorite colors in the right usage...Not on the floor, trim, counters, and hardware.

But all the  green was fine because we had big plans! We started this project during our bedroom renovation... Um maybe not the best idea but we weren't doing most of the work in the bedroom anyway.

The first thing we knew we HAD to do was take down the cabinet in the middle of the room over the counter. Even with my shortness it obstructed the view!

My husband, with myself helping to hold up the cabinet, unscrewed the cabinets and with a little bit of pulling it came right down. Looks so much better already!

The next step in "Project Open the Kitchen Up" was taking down the bulk head. Now on the DIY Network's Renovation Realities it always seems like this doesn't turn out well because there happens to be something important inside. Thankfully ours was not important. 

This was all my husband with me supervising. (Don't mind the cabinets we were prepping for paint. That's another post!) 

(You should probably protect your counters if they are important to you)

Uh Oh, where did the safety glasses go?

So much better! And you may notice we put one of the extra cabinets we took down and put in on the wall on the right.

We also had to move the cabinets on the left over to make room for our new larger fridge that was coming. My husband unscrewed the cabinets and counter and then screwed them back in the new position. Well not the counter because we didn't need that.

When we moved the cabinets over we had to take off the chair rail and we found this old wallpaper! Ahh more green! I can't believe this used to be up in this kitchen...

On the opposite end of opening the kitchen up we also did some work closing the kitchen up...Meaning the doorway that leads to what is now our master bathroom.

My husband and father-in-law put up some 2x4's and then drywalled it in.

Here I am supervising. Or just watching HGTV happen in my very own kitchen.

So now the kitchen is opened up and closed up in all the right places.