Air Vent Camouflage

Sometimes it's the small changes that make the biggest impact on how you feel about a room.

Our main floor is hardwood throughout in a very dark tone. In the kitchen there is a large air return vent nearly in the middle of the room. It's white and sticks out like a sore thumb. When we get around to renovating the kitchen it will be relocated, but for now it's the first thing you see when you walk in the room (besides the beautiful island where the blue box is below).

One day last week I decided to spray paint the vent to match the floor. After giving it a good scrubbing, I painted it with Rustoleum 2X spray paint in Espresso.  It's back in place now and blends in nicely with the floor colour.

I was so happy with the results that I decided to paint the register covers as well though Tom thought it would be better to just buy new ones since the old ones were so rusted. He bought brown ones, but the colour wasn't quite right, so I gave them the same treatment as the air return vent.

Patio door vent:

Living room vent:

So much better! Why didn't I think of this a long time ago?

Removing a Popcorn Ceiling

I should probably preface this post by saying that, since just about everything went wrong with this project, you absolutely should not treat it like a how-to manual. It's more like a how-not-to manual.

Each of the three bedrooms, along with the living room and entry, have a popcorn ceiling. When we originally viewed the house it was the first thing I mentioned would be going, if we bought the house.

Now I've lived with a popcorn ceiling before - both of our previous houses had them - it wasn't my favourite feature, but at least they had been done professionally. I'm pretty sure these ones were done by the previous owner, or a friend "who's really good at that stuff". You know those friends - we all have them. This popcorn was heavy, uneven, and badly finished at the edges. Here is a prime example....

So I did my research, and the general consensus was that as long as you tarp everything, it's pretty easy to remove. You just wet the "popcorn" with a spray bottle full of water, wait a few minutes, and then scrape it with a wide putty knife or plastic scraper. Easy-peasy, right?

Hold up. Not so fast. The popcorn isn't melting. Why isn't the popcorn melting? Of course they painted over it. And now it's completely waterproof. Occasionally I could get some water in behind it and pry some off, but more often then not, that just softened the drywall underneath and damaged it.

So we spent a couple of days (by this time I'd enlisted Tom's help) chiseling away at dry popcorn. It wasn't until the third (fourth?) day that we discovered the magic of the U-shaped paint scraper.

When Tom brought it out I threw myself in front of him, terrified that it would gouge the heck out of the ceiling. But surprise, surprise, it worked!  A few passes and the popcorn was gone, leaving smooth, undamaged drywall behind. In the photo below, the back corner is the area that was scraped - you can see that there are almost no marks on the drywall.

The next step was skim-coating the ceiling with drywall mud. Initially I was stressing myself out, trying to get it perfectly smooth. But once I realized that sanding would take care of any uneven areas it became fun - sort of like icing a cake.

Less fun was the sanding part - holding an orbital sander over my head for extended periods of time. Sometimes I would switch to hand-sanding, just to give my arms and shoulders a break. On the plus side, check out those muscles I developed:

The ceiling needed to be skim-coated three times and sanded three times to get a nice smooth finish. I really hated the mess it made each time so I spread this job out over weeks. Eventually I'd had enough, was tired of the dust everywhere, and tired of sleeping in the guest room - I wanted my room back! I had spent days and days (and days) looking like this:

I applied 2 coats of drywall primer (Behr Premium Plus Drywall Primer & Sealer), and then 3 coats of white, untinted, ceiling paint (Behr Premium Plus Interior Ceiling). Most ceiling paints have a flat sheen to keep imperfections from showing.

And finally it was finished! I also painted the walls before we moved back in - Edgecomb Grey by Benjamin Moore. Our last bedroom was painted in BM Stormy Monday, which I loved, but it felt a little too cold, so this time I went with a warmer, taupe-ier grey. I will probably always stick with neutrals when it comes to wall colours - I like being able to change out the accents without having to repaint the whole room.

The edges are still a little rough as there was quite a bit of damage to the paper corner tape when the popcorn was removed, but we are intending to add crown moulding, so that won't be a problem.

And we're still on the hunt for the perfect light fixture. For now we're just making do with this $10 cheapie from the hardware store. When we moved it there weren't any ceiling lights - so this is a step up!

My final evaluation of the process - I love the flat ceiling, but it so wasn't worth the amount of work necessary in this case. The whole house felt like a construction zone for weeks - even though we tarped the openings, there was still drywall dust everywhere. We have two more bedrooms and the living room/foyer remaining. For those areas, I'm either going to hire it out or just drywall over the popcorn and start fresh.

I did learn a lot though. I can tape and skim like a (semi)pro now. Some people made fun of me for putting in so much time and effort, but one of the biggest parts of DIY is honing your skills. To get all cliche on you - sometimes it is about the journey and not just the destination.

Give an Old Dresser a Facelift (Cerusing Makeover)

A long time ago in a town far, far away - okay, only about 30 minutes away, but go with it - I showed you a dresser that I was refinishing. Well, break out the banners and confetti because it is finally finished!

My uncle is known to store items for friends and family members who don't have room for them at the time. Often these things end up being forgotten. Last year he came across a dresser that had been there for years and years. As he knows my love for furniture refinishing (who doesn't?), he asked if I would want it. Why yes, I would! I'd been looking for a horizontal chest of drawers to replace the highboy that I wasn't happy with anymore, but was having a heck of a time finding something I liked.

Enter the 1980s dresser. Is it really from the '80s? I have no idea. I do know it has the word "Scandinavian" stamped on the back. And the drawer capacity stamped inside. 'Cause I measure my clothes in cubic inches, don't you?

While I loved the layout of the dresser and the fact that it was solid wood from top to bottom, it sure wasn't stylish.

What had to go:
- the base went right to the floor with a scalloped edge at the front - just big enough to let dust and dog fur in but not big enough to clean under.
- the wooden handles just screamed teenage boy's bedroom to me.
- the colour was u-g-l-y. And the finish was all scratched up anyway so it would have to be redone regardless of how I felt about it.

So I dug in and and started dismantling the beast. First I removed all of the drawer handles. I don't know if I'll ever use them but I held on to them anyway. I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to scrap wood.

The decorative piece at the bottom is really just a board attached to the front of the dresser. I wanted the dresser to have a flush front, so I had Tom remove the front scalloped piece and shorten the sides of the dresser so that they were only about 2 inches longer than the front. I then had him add a new facing piece on the front bottom of the dresser that was flush with the frame, went straight across (no swirls), and lined up square with the sides.

The bottom of the dresser didn't actually have a "bottom" so he added a 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood below the drawers (but hidden by the edging) to give it more stability.

While this was going on I was stripping off all of the old stain from the drawers and the dresser body. I believe the stain was sprayed on in a single coat because it came off really easily.

I puttied all of the drawer handle holes and glued/clamped/filled any cracks in the body where boards had separated over time. I also puttied along the edge where that new facing board joined the old wood so that once it was stained it would look like one solid piece.

I was left with this gorgeous creature.

Sadly, I am short of photos of the repairs as my laptop hard drive crashed about a month ago and I'll admit I haven't back it up in quite a while. I know, I know, please don't say it. I'm still hoping to get it repaired for a reasonable price, but bought a new one in the meantime. I've had the old one for nearly seven years so it was probably time for an upgrade anyway.

Okay, pouting done, back to the dresser.

The next question on my mind: what colour to paint or stain it? The dresser was going to go in the master bedroom where we already have the cerused nightstands, so I wanted it to coordinate with those. But I wasn't planning on painting the bedroom the same grey this time, so I also didn't want the dresser to be quite as grey as the nightstands. (Those nightstands might end up needing a makeover down the road.)

I've always been told to use wood conditioner before staining but never have before. I'm such a rebel. This time I gave it a try. And promptly gave it two thumbs down. The conditioner turned the wood a piney-yellow colour instead of the pure whitish shade of fresh wood.

Then when I started to apply the stain (my favourite Jacobean shade by Minwax), it beaded up and would barely stick. And that darned yellow showed through, too. But I persevered and applied thin layers of stain alternating with layers of watered down grey paint (the paint we used on the basement floor, actually!)

Explaining my exact technique is always difficult. There is no real recipe - it's just trial and error until I get the colour/texture/pattern that I'm looking for. The epoxy paint is fast-drying so I would wipe off certain areas almost immediately, using an old washcloth and trying to imitate a wood-grain look. If the colour got too light I would then wipe on some more stain to tone it down. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It's a modified cerusing method that I've mentioned previously - but without the scrubbing with a wire brush this time. If you'd like more details on cerusing wood go here and here to see the step-by-step process.

Once the colour was where I wanted it to be I applied two coats of furniture wax (Minwax paste finishing wax), buffing in between coats. The final step is to give it a once-over with extra fine steel wool. This makes the surface silky smooth. Make sure you don't scrub too hard and remove all of your hard work!

A couple of the drawers were sticking so I took a spare wax tea light and waxed the wooden runners and the bottom edges of the drawers. We also had to shim a few of them at the back as they didn't line up correctly and wobbled around. That's to be expected with decades-old wood that has been sitting in a shed! Now they all line up and slide in and out with no problem.

As mentioned above, I didn't like that the dresser body originally went right to the floor so I bought six 6-inch decorative legs and finished them to  match the dresser. We attached metal mounting brackets directly to the bottom of the dresser and the legs screw right into them. I wouldn't suggest attaching the legs without the brackets as the built-in screw is very short so there isn't enough support. They could possibly break off if you moved the dresser around without lifting it. That's my worry, anyway.

What's left on this journey? Hardware. I was leaning towards cup pulls like the ones we used on the drawers in our kitchen makeover but couldn't find anything I liked. We took a trip to Lee Valley Tools and I fell in love with some very expensive pulls ($14 each!), but it ended up that they were out of stock and discontinued. So it was back to Lowe's where I "settled" for the ones you see. I didn't really settle because I do like them a lot. Maybe even more than the pricey ones. The center knobs are kind of fun too with their woven, tufted look.

I'm really in love with this dresser. I set it up in the dining room to take advantage of the blank wall and afternoon light for photos. I'm thinking it looks pretty good there and would make an excellent buffet. I might have to go looking for another dresser!

But it's moved into the bedroom now and fits perfectly. I didn't mention that I sold that highboy I didn't like when we moved, so we've been making do with the one we used to have in the guest room (also a stain + paint makeover - my first one!) It's been pretty crowded with only a few drawers between us. I may actually get to unpack all of my clothes now!

Fresh Paint

While our neighbour was having all the fun laying sod in our backyard, Tom & I were repairing and then repainting the wood above and below the front bay window.

When we first replaced the wood and painted - almost 3 years ago (I had to look back) - we ran out of time to finish the area above the neighbour's window. We were using a 20 foot ladder at the time and the weather was starting to change - windy and rainy almost every weekend. Tom decided to retire the ladder for the year, and then it was a case of out of sight, out of mind.

But we would remember once in a while, so we decided to just get it done. Over the last three years the paint has started to peel a bit, so it all needed fresh paint anyway. Those windows are exposed to all of the elements, and we've had some pretty harsh winters these last couple of years.

This time Tom decided to rent a Genie lift instead of messing around with a ladder. Technically it's called a "trailer-mounted Z-boom." You can rent it on a Friday night, return it on Sunday (when they're closed) and they only charge you for one day. The boom goes up to 55 feet and holds two people, plus you can move it around while you're up there, so we were able to get the work done many times faster than we would have with a ladder.

Fun side note: Tom just parked the lift in our driveway the first night - with the support legs down of course. In the morning he decided to move it over so that he could reach both windows without having to reposition it. He engaged the parking brake, lifted the legs, and...the whole thing started rolling down the driveway into the street (and possibly up into the neighbour's driveway on the other side). Apparently the parking brake was just for show.

Tom was holding on tight, trying to slow it down and I'm running beside him asking, "What should I do? What should I do?" What could I do? He got it slowed down enough that it stopped in the street and didn't hit any cars, but I'll admit that my heart was racing for a good long bit afterwards. And you can be sure that the wheels were chocked at all times after that.

This is Tom bringing our little runaway back home.

So, on with the show. We scraped off all of the loose paint from below the windows, then I puttied and spackled wherever it was needed. Tom was the main painter so he spent most of the weekend in the air. I went up a few times to sand and to take pictures. We even went up above the roof to get an aerial view of the neighbourhood.

Tom gave the windows a good three coats of fresh paint and they look new again. Now I just have to touch up the garage door frames and we'll be done with the front (I think).

Bathroom Wall Graffiti

I swear the main bathroom is going to be the room that breaks me. If you remember, I painted it a taupe colour, decided it was too dark, and re-painted it a light blue. I was never that enamoured with the colour - I think I should have gone a shade darker. So now every day I look at it and wish it was different. But the thought of painting it a third time...just no.

Instead, I've decided that rather than re-painting I'm going to decorate around the wall colour. The vanity top is a speckled pattern of mostly navy blue with some green veining. It limits my options a bit, but I think I've found something I like.

I started with a turquoise shower curtain, which is actually a twin-sized flat sheet hemmed to the correct length. Don't worry, there's a shower curtain liner behind it.

I then found some deeper teal towels. Such a rich shade. All of our other towels are white or pale yellow or tan; I think I'd like to start replacing them with more vibrant jewel tones.

The final touch was some "art" to break up the expanse of pale blue above the towel rod. I have several 16"x20" blank canvases that I picked up from the dollar store a long time ago. I pulled one out along with all of my blue, green, and yellow craft paints.

Thank goodness I had a dozen or so little dessert cups from when I made cherry cheesecake and Oreo dirt cake (I'll warn you, if you go look at those pictures you might want to go make some. Like right now. It's okay, I'll wait.) The cups were perfect for mixing paint so that I could have even more colours to work with.

I had so many blues to choose from but not many greens, so the yellow paint came in handy to make my greens. It was surprising what colours I ended up with - that greyish colour is a mix of dark leaf green and yellow. Crazy, right? The turquoise on the far left is my favourite, and an almost perfect match for the towels, so I used it the most.

I just brushed the paint on willy-nilly using the widest artist brushes I could get my hands on.

Once I was happy with the outcome, I painted the edges of the canvas with the turquoise. I'm going to have Tom build a frame for it eventually, but for now I don't want the white edges showing. I also took some silver paint and a tiny brush and just lightly lined the edges of some of the pale blue sections. You can't even notice it unless the light hits it just right.

So, not fine art, but a nice little punch of colour in an otherwise bland room.  What's really funny is that when I went back through my pictures to find one of the vanity, I was reminded that the room was originally turquoise. Maybe I could have saved myself some trouble!

Bedroom Makeover (Goodbye Dusty Rose)

We've been spending a lot of time at Tom's parents' place this year. His mother is very ill, and they've had to do numerous renovations to the house to make it more accessible for her. One thing that was done was moving her into another room that was easier to get her wheelchair in and out of. This left Tom's dad with the master bedroom all to himself. The dusty rose bedroom. Dusty rose carpet. Dusty rose walls. Dusty rose patterned curtains. Here is a picture taken just before we started painting (but after taking it apart a bit).

That's kind of pink, isn't it? Even Tom's mom questions what made her paint it that colour so many years ago.

Tom "volunteered" me to paint the room. His sister told me she was buying new purple bedding (think eggplant) and that the curtains were staying. Other than that I had free rein on the colour.

I used the Sherwin-Williams tool Chip It! to match one of the beiges in the curtains. You upload a picture of something you want to match, click on "Chip It!" and it will tell you up to ten colours that are in your picture. One of the colours it came up with was Perfect Greige. I grabbed a paint chip at the store and took it to Benjamin Moore (my favourite paint store) to colour match. I've since learned that Benjamin Moore has a tool similar to Chip It! called Colour Capture, so I'll be using that in the future. At Benjamin Moore we found a colour called Evening Gown that was a perfect match to the SW colour.

This colour is really interesting. Depending on the time of day and the lighting, it can look tan, green, or grey with a hint of purple. That really leaves it open to any colour scheme.

A few years ago Tom & I built a closet system for his parents because there just wasn't enough storage. But we built it a little too well because that sucker wasn't going anywhere. You could use it as a jungle gym. Which means I had to tape around every shelf and support. This was the point where I started begging people to change places with me, but no one fell for it.

As always, I painted along where the wall meets the ceiling with an eggshell white to hide any pink marks from before. Then once it had dried, I taped it off and painted with white again to seal the tape and prevent seepage. This gives a crisp line when the tape comes off. I do the same thing around window frames and baseboards if they aren't being removed.

I had to patch a few spots and then applied two coats over two days. It was really rainy that weekend so the paint dried slowly. Excruciatingly slowly.

We gave it a full week to dry completely and then put the baseboards and outlet covers back on. Here is the "after" with the bedding and curtains in place. We got rid of the pink sheers and just left the printed drapes. And the green tomatoes on the window sill. Isn't that where you ripen your tomatoes? It's still an "old guy's" room so there was no way he'd let me style it - even for pictures.

It's such a huge improvement though. Tom's dad is considering pulling up the carpet and putting in hardwood (a great idea). It's so much more masculine now. Streamlined even. Imagine how much better it'll look with those new floors!