Thursday, July 29, 2010

Finished Doors : Re-Vamping Old Door Hardware

This post has been awhile in the making...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my step-dad coming over and painting our doors.  When we took all of the doors off, we removed all of the hinges and door knobs too.  We wanted to refinish them with the oil rubbed bronze finish that I've used for both my Key Art and my Sewing Cabinet Makeover.  The shiny gold had to go.

After we took of ALL of the doors, ALL of the hinges, and ALL of the door handles, we scrubbed and sanded down each one.

Step 1 - Scrub and Sand
Okay, so maybe Chris scrubbed and sanded.  Details, smetails.

We have 11 interior doors and 3 pocket doors, which leads to a buzillion pieces of gold shiny hardware.


I actually attempted to do our bathroom door with the hardware still on it awhile back.  That's why you see a few pieces that are already oil rubbed bronze.  The good news was it was really hard to get it off with both scrubbing and sanding, so that made us feel great!

After we wiped down all of the sanded hardware, we spread them out into groups, and sprayed on the primer.  We used RUST-OLEUM's Clean Metal Primer.

Step 2:  Spray Primer onto hardware
 We waited until the handles were dry to touch, and then sprayed on the good stuff...the color!  We used RUST-OLEUM's Metallic all-surface paint in oil rubbed bronze.

Step 3: Spray desired color on hardware.  Step 4:  Spray protective finish over hardware.
After that had dried to the touch, we used RUST-OLEUM's Crystal Clear Enamel for a protective glossy finish.  That's where things got tricky.  It says to spray a light coat , but it really needs to be sprayed on wet (which means a heavy coat).  Otherwise, the top coat leaves a white haze over your hardware (see rainy picture below).

We let everything sit to dry completely for a few days.  We were so excited to FINALLY hang the doors (keep in mind, they were just laying all over the house...leaning on walls is dangerous with an 85 lb bundle of energy running around), and realized that we'd forgotten a minor detail.  Hinges can be seen from both the front and back.  The inside of the hinge goes along the inside of your door frame, and part of the outside of the hinge sticks out when you shut your door.  We had only sprayed one side.  Argh.

So, we went through the process of taking all of the hinges back outside and priming, coloring, and spraying the finish...again.  I left to go for a jog one evening before the color was dry, and asked Chris just to spray a top coat on the hinges in another 10 minutes.

Well, my over-achieving husband decided that he'd surprise me and spray another top coat on ALL of the hardware.  There's a problem with attempting to do anything outside for longer spurts than 10 minutes in the summer evenings here in Florida.  It's called rain.  It can be completely sunny and raining, or completely cloudy and not raining, so you just never know what you're gonna get.

This is what I came home to from my long, wet, run:


Yep, all of them looked like that.  Sigh...time to top coat, heavily, again.

The next afternoon, I took a section outside at a time, sprayed, and brought them back in.


Ah...finally.  There you are sparkly doorknobs!  SO much better!

We managed to get the doors all hung, and most of the doors hardware on before my sister got here last weekend.  We still do have a few doors with just holes in them where the door knobs should be, so hopefully we manage to get that finished up this week / weekend!

It was a pain in the butt project, no lie, but we saved so much $$ in the end.  For just the hinges, it would've cost us $10 a door to replace them.  That's $110 for all of our doors, and the hinges are the cheap part!  It cost us about $6 for the color spray can, $3.50 for the primer, and $3.50 for the clear coat finish.  We used 3 cans of color, 2 cans of finish, and 1 can of primer.

And because I know you're dying to see a good before and after...

Before : Yellow door , gold knob
After:  White door, oil rubbed bronze knob, and not decided on yet vinyl art.
What's that?  You can't see the knob so well?  All right, I'll give you a close up:


If you try this at home, make sure you:
  1. Scrub and sand your hardware.
  2. Use a primer.
  3. Use the color of your choice, made to stick to metal.
  4. Put on a heavy coat of sealer.  Be careful to not let it rain on this step!

So what do you guys think?  Do you think all of our hard work was worth it?!  We sure do!!

As always, check out my links tab at the top to see the parties I'm linking up to.  There's so many creative and fun DIY ideas out there!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Close Encounter : Deer

It's not uncommon to see deer around our area. As a matter of fact, my niece wanted to see some deer while they were over, and we headed to the golf course right around the corner to show her some Saturday night. We see them quite often on our nightly runs or walks with Kodi.

It is uncommon to see them out during the day though. Yesterday, I had my second up close and personal encounter with one in the middle of the day.

My office that I work from overlooks our yard and the street. There's two windows...one for the street view, and one to view the front door. In December of last year, something caught my eye from one window as it raced towards my front door. A baby deer, completely confused, ran straight into my glass front doors. It bounced back, shook its head, and took off as fast as it's little legs could carry it. When I called Chris to tell him what just happened, he asked me what I was on. I promise you, a baby deer headbutted our front door.

Yesterday at lunch time, 11 a.m., as I got up to get my food, I saw a deer in my neighbors yard eating their grass. I took off with my camera to see if I could get a few shots.

First he posed:


Then he got camera shy and took off in the neighbors back yard.  This little guy was jealous and wanted his picture taken too, so I obliged.  I really am not a huge fan of squirrels because they tear up our pool screen, but this was too cute to pass up.




I stood there for a minute debating about what to do, and the deer decided to come back out from the neighbors yard for an up-close and personal view.


No, my lens is not zoomed in.  We both stood there frozen for a second, I snapped the picture, and he took off.  I don't think either one of us really liked being that close to each other!


He took off for the pond , and I let him go.  My heart was racing a million miles per second after being that close to him!



Not quite as crazy as the baby deer headbutting my door, but still pretty cool!!  And this time I was armed and ready with my camera.  Happy Tuesday!


The Trendy Treehouse


Monday, July 26, 2010

Family Fun

We had our last planned visitors of the summer over this past weekend. One of my sisters came over with my brother in law and two nieces. It was their first time visiting our "new" house (we moved here at the end of April last year). On the first night, one of my nieces said our house was like a Hotel because there were just so many rooms.  Kids are funny!

Having a 7 year old and an almost 8 year old around for the weekend was definitely a change of pace, but a ton of fun!  It was the first time we got a lot of quality time with my adopted niece from China.  She's been a part of the family for the past 8 months, and I was so impressed with how well she speaks and communicates in English.  My sister and brother in law are doing such a great job!


After I got home from running 8 miles Saturday morning, we got ready and headed to the Florida Aquarium.  Saturday night we took the girls out to the golf course to see the deer, and Sunday we played around the house all day before having to say goodbye.

I did finish up a project and get another one almost finished before they got here on Friday.  Be sure to stay tuned this week for more posts!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!  Happy Monday!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Cute Pick Me Up

My friend Lauren emailed me last week asking how I was doing. I was having kind of an off week with a lot of different things, and vented to her in my response email. Poor Lauren.

The other day I received something in the mail from her, which is semi odd because she lives about a half hour away. I opened it up and a million  a few puzzle pieces came out of the envelope.

Chris and I got to work on putting the puzzle together.  Neither one of us are very good puzzle people, so it took us a lot longer than it should have, but it was a fun break from the million different projects we've got going on right now.

Once we got it all put together, here's what she looked like:


And when I carefully flipped over the back, here's what that looked like:


(Ignore the greasy finger prints...we were eating dinner while putting it together).  It was such a nice gesture that really made me smile and lifted my mood.  It's such a small, simple gesture that can really put a smile on someone's face!

Thanks Lauren, you're awesome!!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Vinyl : Cute or El-Cheapo?

I've seen from bloggy world that Vinyl Art is making a comeback, and I think done right it can look tasteful, not cheap.

I have this section of wall above my wine bar that I've wanted to fill.


My only problem is that there's nothing to lean a picture against  under there (the previous owner re-did it I believe and just left the lights exposed...so for fire safety...), and it's SO hard to get up there to hang a picture without knocking over any wine glasses.

I came across some vinyl art on clearance at Target that I thought would be perfect there.


I think it's at least a good solution for now, but I can't decide if it looks nice or cheap.  What do you guys think?




Hmm...Problem Solved or a just for now solution?!  I'd love to know your thoughts!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Placemat Pillows

Want to know an easy way to make accent pillows on the cheap?  Use placemats!

I still haven't figured out how to use my sewing machine (or even attempted to be quite honest), so these pillows are no-sew.  Perfect!

All you'll need is thick placemats of your liking, some fabri-tac, a straight edged knife, and some batting for the insides.

I bought a pack of 4 of these placemats from Marshall's for $9.99.  I wanted something blue and yellow to go on my couch, and these were perfect.*sorry about the image quality, my camera battery was dying!:
Front:

Back:

When buying placemats, make sure they're essentially two sides stitched together, like this:



Take your straight edge along the seam to pull out the stitching.


You just need to make the hole big enough to fit your hand in, you don't need to slice the whole thing in two pieces.


Shove in your batting.


Run a bead of fabri-tac alongside one edge of your seam


Push together for a few minutes and wipe off any excess glue.  And wala:  cheapo updated pillows:


And here they are in their new home:



Not a bad little update for $2.50 for each pillow!  We had actually just bought new bed pillows at Marshall's, so I washed our old pillows and then tore those opened and use the batting inside, so my total cost for this project was $10!

I'm linking up to these parties...make sure you checkout everyone else's creative creations too!  

P.S.  Sorry I've been MIA.  We're working on a few big projects, and I was out yesterday with a migraine!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

I can do anything...or so I think.

I saw this listed for FREE on Craigslist (sorry the image quality is poor...it's their pic, not mine!):

image 1842406167-0

I've really been wanting to re-upholster something, so my first shot with something FREE sounded perfect!

Keep in mind that I think I can do anything.  While Chris supports most of my endeavors, he does reel me back into reality quite a bit.

I thought I'd give you an insight into our marriage.  I found this listing over lunch and IM'd it to Chris telling him I wanted to go pick it up...here's how the rest of the conversation went down:

Chris: the couch is kinda gross

me: strip down and recover
i want to recover something

Chris: have you forgotten about your allergies

me: no, i'll tear it all down outside
while wearing my cool mask

Chris: are you going to restuff it

me:yes
it's called batting not stuffing
i'm not making a durn turkey
i'm laughing though

Chris: with what

me: batting

Chris: you cant sew yet

me: staple gun

Chris: omg

me: don't omg me...i've seen it done!

Chris: dont you think you should start small

me: nah, go big or go home

Chris: not a whole frecking couch

me: well, because it's a frecking couch and not a freaking couch, i think i can handle it.

Chris: do youknow that will be serveral hundred for just the fabic..

me: no way

Chris: 14 yards

me: i'll find clearance fabric
clearance fabric is like 2$ a yard
so that's 30$
:-D

Chris: dude

me: don't dude me

Chris: where the heck do you want to put it

me: we have a 3400 square foot home. i'm pretty sure i'll find it a place. Perhaps the game room?
Or if we can't, I can sell it!

Chris: i dont know if we need a pull out if we are getting it for a game room
plus they are uncomfortable

me: you suck

Chris: thanks?

me: boo

So, I have no new/old couch to recover for this weekend...or the next month or two, or however long it would've taken...but, my hubs is a smart guy most of the time, and he's probably right on this one...sigh...oh well.

I'll just have to find something else to create after work!  Err...or, maybe I should just finish the doors...

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Building a Picture Frame

On my to-do list this past weekend, along with the doors, was making a frame for my D. Mom (and taking pictures to put in the frame).

When I got my Etsy frames in the mail awhile back, I knew I could make them. I looked through Ana's site at Knock-Off Wood for guidance, and came across her plans for a 9 x 12 frame.

I wanted to make a 5x7 frame, so I modified the measurements and got to work. The frames are really easy to make, so let me know if you try them!

You'll need 1x 2's, a miter saw, a sander if you wish, a nail gun, 2'' nails, some wood glue, and paint or stain of your choice.


I was in a hurry to get the frame built before my D. Mom left on Sunday, so I don't have any pictures of me actually using the miter saw, but Chris brought the camera out while I was smoothing away my edges.

All of the edges are mitered at 45 degrees, so for the base of the frame, you need to add 3'' to your cuts.  So for my 5x7 base, I measured 8 inches (mitered 1 1/2 on each side) for the 5'' side and 10 inches for the 7 inch side.
To make the 2nd layer of the frame, turn your 1 x 2 up on the skinny side and make your cut that way.  You'll need to add an extra 3/4'' on either side for the 45 degree mitered cut.  So for the 'frame' around the frame, I made my cuts at 9 1/2 and 11 1/2 inches.


Next, take some wood glue to your edges and then nail them together.  For the outer frame, measure 1/4th of an inch around the backside/  Glue and nail your inner frame to your outer frame starting at that 1/4th inch line so that you leave room to insert your picture.  Make sure that your nail gun is straight, and that you're placing your nail where it connects both 'joints' of the frame around all of the edges.  Sorry again that I don't have pictures of this, I was on a time crunch!


I used the Minwax stain in China Red and applied it with a foam brush.


I took a quick time out for pictures, and this is what she looked like dry!  Since she's not hanging in my home, and since we were all on a time crunch, I don't have very many good pictures of the final product.  So, I'll leave you with a goofy picture of a life sized version of me in the frame!


No, my face should not be that large in any picture frame in anyone's home!!  I'm linking to these parties...go check them out!
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