Design

Quirky Masculine Guest Bathroom

Our style in this house has definitely skewed towards the masculine side of the decorating spectrum and the guest bathroom is no exception. As with every room in this house, the guest bath was white, white, white, and standard 90’s.

Try to control your excitement.

I wanted to soften up the look of the room with a shower curtain, so we removed the glass shower doors.

Removing the shower doors was a lot easier than I anticipated. It was just a matter of taking the doors off, unscrewing the frame, and then scraping off the residual caulk.

I decided to paint the walls the same color that I used in the great room–Sherwin Williams “Grizzle Gray” #7068 in a flat finish. I know many people choose to use a paint with a sheen for kitchens and bathrooms, however, I love flat paint on all walls. It hides imperfections and softens the look of textured surfaces.

I had originally intended to paint the wood on the sink cabinet, but after getting the dark gray paint on the walls, the wood appeared richer in color, so I kept it as is. After hanging the shower curtain, putting down a rug, changing out the light fixture, and adding decorative elements, we have this:

I picked up the shower curtain at Marshall’s, the shower hooks from Target, and the rug from T.J. Maxx. The mirror, plate, and framed pictures are all from various antique and thrift stores.

It’s hard to get good photos of this room since it is small.

Here are some close up shots:

This shelf is one of my favorite thrift store finds to date. It’s old and rustic and perfect for the space.

Like most of our projects, everything was done inexpensively. I believe that the grand total for this room came in under $200.

Thrifty Bathroom Light Fixture

I’m just about ready to post about our guest bathroom redo. While I am sorting through those pictures, here is a quick little project that I’m pleased to share the results of. Our guest bath originally had this standard 90’s light bar above the mirror:

We found this replacement at a Salvation Army store for only $10.

I wasn’t wild about the bright gold accents, so I pulled them off and spray painted them copper.

The final product:

I pulled the rings that covered the light sockets off of the original fixture, painted them copper, and added them to the new fixture to give it a more finished look.

We had intended to use vintage style Edison bulbs, but found they were too dim for the space. These clear halogen bulbs give off plenty of light and still gave us the look we were going for.

It looks great and you can’t beat the price. I love a bargain piece!

We Painted the Refrigerator

It’s been awhile since I last posted, so I’ve got some catching up to do. If you may recall, we put in a new black stove and range hood last fall. The old appliances were all white. We talked about getting a new black fridge to match, but other than looking yellowed, stained, and out of place with the new appliances, the old one still was working perfectly fine. Paint to the rescue!

I have seen other people paint refrigerators before and generally they move them outside and spray paint them. I really didn’t want to go through all of that, so we removed all of the trim pieces and I decided to roller on the same Behr Premium Plus Ultra in black Exterior Satin Enamel that I used on the cabinets. It’s a paint and primer in one and it has been super durable.

After one coat:

I went in with a small detail brush for all of the hard to reach areas on the water/ice dispenser.

We spray painted all of the trim pieces using a semi-gloss.

After that it was just a matter of letting everything dry and putting the trim pieces back on.

It’s been 3 months now of regular use and so far so good. The paint is sticking and it is easy to clean the finish.

We were a little concerned about the flexible seal on the door holding the paint, but again, so far no cracking or chipping.

Because we already had the leftover enamel paint from the cabinets and extra spray paint around the house, this project cost us $0. I am super pleased with the result…way better than dropping a bunch of money on a new one!

New Blingy Hardware

Aren’t they pretty? I’m so excited. The amber color of the knobs ties in with the wood that we used on the island and above the bulkhead. I got them from a seller on eBay for a pretty good price. They were exactly what I was looking for. It was really difficult to get them on there tight though. The drawers pulls were even worse to install. Previously the drawers had a single knob in the middle. I had filled those holes before I painted the drawers. We then used a template to drill new holes.

Below you can see the old hole in the middle on the inside of the drawer front with the 2 new holes drilled on each side.

And just to make it more difficult, the screws that were included with the handles weren’t long enough. Balls! We decided that the best solution would be to drill out around the new holes in the back so that we could get the nut on.

It seems like I have a knack for choosing hardware that is a pain in the ass for various reasons.

Ok, now we can attach the pulls.

And…

I like how they catch the sunlight from the skylight during the day.

They really tie the room together.

Subway Tile Backsplash

I used white subway tile in our last kitchen and I loved it. It’s clean, classic, easy to install, and best of all, inexpensive. So I figured that I would just do the same in our new kitchen.

Because I didn’t have that big of an area to cover, I went with a premixed mastic. It was so nice to be able to just open the bucket and start spreading that stuff on the walls without having to do any mixing/waiting/etc.

I was able to get all of the tile up in only a few hours. It probably would have gone even faster if I had better tools for cutting the tile (I was working with a hand held tile cutter and a rod saw).

I went with a dark gray unsanded grout.

Six rows of tile were a perfect fit from the countertop to the base of the upper cabinets. Well, almost…There was a small section where I couldn’t quite fit that top row in. I ended up taking 4 tiles over to Lowe’s to have them shave 1/16″ off the top of those tiles with their wet saw.

Now I just need to caulk around the edges of the tile and I can all this job DONE!

I Suck at Taking Photos

Ugh. I keep missing opportunities for “big reveals” on this here blog because I keep forgetting to take pictures. Dang it! I have never been the person who takes lots of photos–even though modern technology means that I can do so whenever I want because of my phone and all. As such, I missed out on doing an upper cabinet post for the kitchen. So I guess now y’all get to see the upper cabinets PLUS the addition of more wood to the kitchen.

This is my singular photo of working of the upper cabinets in progress. I went with a cream color. As with the base cabinets, I sanded the uppers and used Behr Premium Plus Ultra brand paint from Home Depot in Satin Enamel. I had it tinted to Sherwin Williams color #6127 Ivoire.

So, I painted all of the uppers and then Slowhand and I got to work adding more wood to the walls above the bulkhead.

This time around we used 8′ x 4″ bender wood which worked much better than the fence wood we used on the island. It was thinner and much easier to work with. For some reason we didn’t notice it at Lowe’s when we were looking at wood the first time or else we probably would have used it to begin with. Live and learn I guess…

The one drawback was that we could not find any gray-ish pieces like I had found for the island. I wanted a similar look, so I improvised with some Rust-Oleum wood stain in Driftwood. I just rubbed it on some of the lighter pieces with the grain to achieve a gray/weathered appearance.

It ended up working out quite nice and I even added a little bit of the stain to some of the wood on the island.

Grrr. Those white track lights. They irritate me ever time I see them. They are on the chopping block for sure. We’ve been busy bees and are close to finishing up the kitchen, so more on that coming soon!

More Kitchen Projects

Next up on the kitchen refresh: ditching the microwave, replacing the range, and painting the base cabinets black.

I refuse to use a microwave for anything, so we removed the old one above the range and dropped it off at the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. The oven was not working and I knew that I would rather replace it than repair it. As luck would have it, I was strolling through Home Depot in search of something else and stumbled on a floor clearance sale on the EXACT GE Artistry gas range that I was considering. It was half the price of a new one and in perfect condition (well, sort of perfect…someone had stolen the knobs off of it, but replacements had already been ordered, so I just had to wait a few days).

I love the simplicity of it–no goofy digital sh*t to deal with, plus it’s kind of retro and I miss my old 1960 O’Keefe & Merritt from our previous home.

As for the base cabinets, I gave them a quick 120 grit sanding with a multi-tool to take the shine off. I then painted 2 coats with Behr Premium Plus Ultra in black Exterior Satin Enamel–no primer (it was a paint + primer in one deal). I have to say, I am super happy with the results. The satin finish looks great and the paint is sticking well. I haven’t had any problems with chipping or scratching.

Bettie Lu was bored with the painting process and decided to sit this one out.

Lots more to come, stay tuned!

Kitchen Island

It started innocently enough. I saw an advertisement for a place here in Las Vegas that sells reclaimed barn wood. Slowhand and I had been talking about using some rustic wood somewhere in the house, so we decided to go and check it out. The place had some really beautiful wood, but at $7+ a foot, we just couldn’t stomach the price.

Later that day we decided to stop in at Lowe’s for some light bulbs and decided to check out their lumber department “just for the heck of it.” Well, wouldn’t you know it, but $20 and one hour later we were in the midst of adding some fence wood to the front of our kitchen island. Here are some before shots (the first is from the real estate listing before we moved in):

We removed the wooden support brackets and covered over the electrical outlet on the front. There are outlets on both sides of the island, so the one in front wasn’t really necessary.

We decided to miter the corners which was a lot more work than just butting the ends up together, but I think it has a more professional look. We attached the wood with an air nail gun and liquid nails. Lord help whoever tries to remove that wood in the future (hopefully it won’t be us!), because that wood is on there!

We chose a combination of redwood and cedar for color variation and staggered the boards. This caused a whole mess of headaches because the redwood boards were slightly wider than the cedar boards.

As usual, Bettie Lu supervised the project.

All in all, we are very happy with the results. This project has jump started a whole kitchen makeover, so more on that to come.

Thrift Store Frame

Just the facts: I buy an old Wrangler jeans advertisement off of eBay because it is vintage, western, and funny/weird. Needs a frame. I go to Goodwill and find a $3 framed picture that I think will work. Take it home.

Nice rustic frame, clear glass. I disassemble it.

Bonus: The mat boards come apart and one fits my advertisement. The little cut-out at the top even mimics the southwestern detail on my fireplace. Reassemble and pow! New/old picture to hang.

Extra bonus: I recycle the old mat boards/picture and keep the unused 30 cents in stamps! Happy dance ensues.

Crazy Fireplace Wall

Our house has this crazy gigantic wall in our great room that houses a fireplace and multiple alcoves. I have a love/hate relationship with what the architect must have envisioned as a grand focal point in the design of this home. It is big. I suppose it is grand. But, it is also kind of funky and awkward. Here is what it looked like shortly after we moved in.

The previous owners left their flat screen TV behind. Rather than taking it out (and putting it where?…there isn’t another good place for it even though it is difficult to watch all tucked back in there on the far right), we have decided to keep it in the same spot. The 3 big alcoves to the left and above the “media center” are most often used to display art, pottery, or hard to reach dusty fake plants by other people in my neighborhood. I’d prefer to use the space as storage.

As usual, I decided to start this project with some paint. At first I made a bit of a mistake by painting the left side all gray. It was dark and scary looking–especially at night:

So, I changed plans and kept the backs of the alcoves dark, but popped the front with a light cream color.

Muuuuuch better I think. It is hard to tell from the photo above, but the detail above the bullhorns and the mantle are a darker blackish gray. I still have plans to change the tile on the front of the fireplace and add some wood shelving, but it is a start. I’ll post again when I have more to show.

Colors: Sherwin Williams, Antique White 6119, Grizzle Gray 7068, Iron Ore 7069.

Frim Fram Life

Lifestyle & Design from Our Las Vegas Home