POTW: Spray Painting a Mirror Frame

A recent pull from The Task Basket rendered something I actually looked forward to doing, and because it involved spray paint, was best done outdoors before the weather turned. We had replaced the flat standard sheet mirror in our downstairs powder room with an ornately framed mirror. The frame had previously been painted off-white, but after spending who knows how many years in my parents’ basement, there were a few little nicks and areas where the paint had chipped. To match the white painted cabinets, I decided to spray paint the frame white. There are a few ways you can do this, but I employed my standard spray-painting method:

1. Cover the mirror with painter’s tape and plastic shopping bags.

POTW Update: Revamping the Vanity

Okay … so … who are we kidding here? This “project of the week” was more like “project of the month.” It was not so much in that the project was so labor intensive that it took days and days of dedicated time to complete, but rather, it came together in parts and pieces. (Plus, throw in a Halloween weekend, and give a girl a break …)

So, you’ll recall the “before”:

Guest Vanity Cabinet: Before

A Tisket, A Tasket … The Task Basket

A look inside The Task Basket

Ever wonder how we decide on our Project of the Week (POTW)? In comes The Task Basket.

Because we have so many things to accomplish, the master list is sectioned out by room, materials needed, and ranked by priority. Ugh. There’s no real joy in weighing the pros and cons of one little task from a monster spreadsheet like that. So instead, we wrote all the things that could realistically be done in a week’s time on little slips of paper and put them into The Task Basket (which is actually a bag, but why nitpick?).

POTW: Revamping the Vanity

At the starting line ...

The POTW (project of the week) is the guest bathroom vanity cabinet makeover. The goal was to get a start on it over the weekend, but Tyler had the urge to rip out some bushes in the backyard, and I worried about stain fumes bothering the baby. So, today it begins!

Here’s what we’re dealing with: a dated medium-brown toned wood box cabinet.  The finish is peeling and dying for a little TLC (which should make it all the easier for me to sand off that first “shiny” layer so that the stain can penetrate through to the wood). 

“Caulk” it Up to Learning Something New

The recaulking job on the tub is complete! While we did run into a few minor hitches (the tub was grouted in, not caulked … my first trip to Lowes I bought clear caulk rather than white), overall it was a pretty smooth process and a spectacular outcome! If the recommended dry time of three days weren’t in effect, I would have considered doing the tub in the master bath at the same time! 

Tapping into my inner handiwoman

 Now that the babykins is almost six months old, it’s really becoming quite a stretch to continue to use the “I have a newborn” as a global avoidance excuse. This includes letting my lingering list of house projects go by the wayside. With a renewed zest for “getting crap done” and a to-do list in hand, my attempt is to cross one thing off the list a week.

Lovin’ Za Credenza

My first Craigzlist diamond-in-ze rough transformation iz complete!  Below is a picture from the actual ad, where the seller was asking $25 for the bute.  Due to my finely honed negotiation skills, I haggled the gent down to a cool $20.  (Come to find, he probably should have paid us to haul this monster out of his house – the thing weighs about as much as Tyler’s SUV.) 

DIY Project: Custom Silhouettes

This is a DIY project I’ve been eyeing for a while now … As soon as we get settled in, I’m going to do one of each of the pups in a black felt – over a fabric background (maybe the fabric I’m having the chairs or ottoman reupholstered in)