Grain, Grain, Go Away...

Last Monday was Presidents' Day, which meant the kids and I were going to get to spend some quality time at home together.  My idea of quality time was my ipad, my comfy bed with flannel sheets and fuzzy covers, and an all day marathon of Pretty Little Liars.  Probably not what the kids had in mind, but lucky for them, all of our plans were put on hold.

On days off, sleeping in until 7am is the goal.  But at 5:30am, Brent is getting ready to leave for work and the power goes off, which happened to be Emma's cue to wake up.  Next thing I know, I'm getting a little red head to snuggle with and a kid size lantern next to my bed from Brent because of course we have no idea where the flashlights are!

Brent leaves for work, Emma and I fall asleep for exactly 10 minutes and then we hear crying.  Owen has woken up, he finds Emma missing from his bed and his bed light won't turn on because the electricity is out.  I retrieve my second little ginger and we retreat to my bed to cozy up.  Just as I'm drifting back to sleep...my eyes pop open.

No electricity means no hot coffee!!!!  I bolt out of bed to the coffee maker to see if it's still warm from when Brent brewed it at 430am...it's warm, but cooling off quickly.  I'm nearing panic mode.  No microwave to warm it up, can't go to one of the 5 coffee shops within 4 blocks of our house because they will be without power as well.  Survival instincts kicked in, I turned on the gas to the stove and lit the burner with a match.  I poured what was left of the coffee into a saucepan and took a deep breath.  Everything was going to be o.k.

With HOT coffee in hand and candles lit, Emma, Owen and I gathered in the dimly lit living room to wait for the power to come on.  Except it didn't.  As we neared 8 am, the house began to fill with light.  Still no power, so we cleaned some old junk toys out of Owens room.  9am...no power.  I was getting antsy, needing something to do.

At that point I walked into the bathroom and our poor cabinetry didn't stand a chance!  If I couldn't watch tv, I was going to paint!  My parents gave us this great big medicine cabinet out of their house not too long after we moved in.  There's a ton of storage in it and it's super functional for us, it's the finish that's been driving me a little crazy.

Now would be a good time to mention that I am oak-averse.  Meaning, I do not prefer oak and the grain that accompanies it.  I can appreciate it for its beauty when finished properly, but if I had to choose, I would pick a darker stained cherry, maple or painted cabinetry instead.  It should be noted that we do have original oak flooring with a natural stain, which I really like.  Oak cabinets are just not my favorite in our house.

The bathroom vanity has been a problem since we moved in 4 years ago.  For some reason it is disintegrating where it meets the floor....as it falls apart, I actually have to sweep the sawdust off of it or vacuum it.  Do you have to vacuum your cabinets?  Didn't think so.  But we are also too cheap to replace it until we've determined a long term plan for this bathroom.  It needs a full remodel but it's not at the top of our list.  Paint and some new trim would be the fastest easiest way to make it tolerable for a bit longer. 

My plan was to paint all of it white, to match the trim and doors in the rest of our house.  Knowing that I didn't want to dedicate a ton of time to this project, since it wasn't going to be a long term solution, I cut a few corners along the way.  Brent is shaking his head right now because he HATES cutting corners, he would rather do it right the first time.  Opposites attract, right?!

I found this little scrap of cherry out in our wood pile in the garage.  Tacking it to the side of the vanity would hide the disintegration (seriously, why is our cabinet disintegrating??  Oh yeah, because this is what happens when you buy cabinets that aren't made of WOOD!!!) and just look like a piece of base trim.

I lightly sanded everything, and I should emphasize "lightly".  My heart wasn't in the sanding step - even though I know it is the most crucial step to get the primer to stick really well.  You'll notice the electricity is back on - that happened just as I was finishing the coat of primer.  You know what else electricity means???  PRETTY LITTLE LIARS!!!  I set up my Ipad and got a few episodes in while I painted the afternoon away.

Brent helped tack on the piece of base trim and gave it a quick bead of caulk to fill in the gap.

And here we are, all done.  It's not a life shattering change by any means, but I do like that it matches the window trim and doors.

This is the best way I've found to store Emma's hair ribbons, bows and rubber bands.  If anyone else has a genius way that they do it at their house, I'd be open to suggestions.

This paint job isn't going to hold up long, since I didn't sand thoroughly enough, but hopefully it'll make it until remodel time.  The entire time I was painting, the phrase "putting lipstick on a pig" kept running through my head.  I guess you have to work with what you have!

Amazin' Glazin'

My other title was going to be "Amazing Glaze"....like the song "Amazing Grace" but I wasn't sure anyone would get that.

It should be no surprise that my hobbies differ than most gals.  Shopping does not appeal to me (ask anyone that truly knows me), getting my hair done is close to torture - my hairstylist friend can confirm that with the one haircut I get every 8 months, and getting my nails done is completely out of the question unless I happen to be getting married.

So what does get me excited?  More than budgeting, more than going for coffee and certainly more than organizing...glazing wood.  If I have a project that has reached the glazing phase, I become positively giddy.  Adding just a touch of glaze to a plain old painted project just makes it feel a little more "worn in".  Plus, it is super easy and it's impossible to screw up because if you don't like it, just wipe it off!

Here are just a few of the things in our house that I've already attacked.  No piece of wood is safe in our house.  

 

I'll walk you through this simple process.  Begin by prepping the piece you will be working with.  This is a box I built.  One coat of primer and two coats of antique white later, this is what it looked like.  

Here's an important tip: Glaze can look a little harsh over plain white paint.  Since glaze is usually brown, it just translates better on top of a cream colored base.  This is especially important to know if you have white kitchen cabinets.  Glazed kitchen cabinets are usually an off white of some sort.  When we did ours, we chose a very dark ivory.  For this particular project, I didn't have any cream colored paint, so I mixed some light brown with some white until I achieved the tone I was looking for.  The white needed to be dulled down just a little bit.

If you want your piece to look a little "worn", it is best to sand it before applying glaze.  Using a sanding sponge, rub as much of the existing paint off as you prefer.  Don't worry if you sand too much, you can always repaint it and start over.

Now that we've sanded a little off, it's time to add a little glaze to age it a bit.  Glaze simply extends the drying time of paint, giving you time to work with it before it dries.  I bought this gallon of clear glaze a few years ago for about $20 bucks and have used it on a bajillion projects (that is not an overestimate).

You simply mix a little of this glaze with any color of paint and stir it together.  The ratio of paint to glaze really depends on what you prefer.  Mess around with it in different strengths until you get the look you are going for.  I had some really dark chocolate brown for my son's room and have found that if I mix that with the glaze, it makes a perfect antiquing color over almost any base coat color.

So I took my mix of chocolate brown paint and glaze and spread it all over the top of my piece.  Doesn't have to look good, just slop it on.

As soon as you've got a section covered, in this case the whole piece, immediately wipe it off with a dry paper towel or cloth.  Keep wiping it off until you get the finish/color you are happy with.  I ALWAYS have a wet paper towel on hand so if it doesn't look good, the wet paper towel will remove all of the glaze.

Here is what it looks like after the excess glaze has been removed.  The glaze dries very quickly so if you just wait a couple minutes, you can flip it over and do the other side.

Much like my mind and sense of humor, I wanted this piece to be a little "dirtier".  I grabbed my trustee sidekick, Martha Stewart Coffee Glaze to put in the little divots and cracks to make them pop out even more.

This one dries super quick and is really dark, so I usually end up using my damp paper towel to wipe some of the excess off.

The next two photos are a nice example of this coffee glaze.  The first one just has my chocolate brown glaze, the second one has the additional coat of Martha Stewart Coffee Glaze applied.  See how it picks up the imperfections a little bit better?

Just for fun, I gave it a quick sand after finishing all the glazing to make it look a little more imperfect.  And the finished product:

If you stain the piece a dark color first, then paint it with your color of choice, skipping the primer step, you will get an effect called a "rub though" which looks amazing.

BEFORE

AFTER

As a side note - this glazing, especially for smaller pieces, is fast and easy.  I did this entire thing in less than 15 minutes in my business attire that I wore to work.