We have lots of plans for revamping our house’s exterior, but it isn’t in the budget until next year. These are the top priorities on our exterior makeover to-do list:
– New house numbers : done!
– Paint Exterior
– Build New Shutters (our current ones are old beat-up aluminum shutters that wasps and yellowjackets love to build their nests in.)
– Gooseneck Exterior Lights
– New Screen Door
– Replace Roof over 3 season porch
– Replace 4 windows
New exterior lights have been high on this list for me, since they’re such an easy swap and make a huge impact. I’ve been drooling over the Austin Sconce at Barnlight Electric, in black. They’re so pretty, and goosenecks cast such a pretty light, without blinding the neighborhood like our current lanterns do. Since this is not our forever home though, I couldn’t justify spending $120+ per fixture. In comes a dupe project – I found these lookalike gooseneck lights on Amazon for $40/each. Score!
I picked up 2 cans of Rustoleum interior/exterior paint in Flat Black, to give the lights the matte finish I wanted originally, and gave each light 3 coats.
Installation was easy-peasy, and this is the end result. Love!
The problem now is having the self control to push back against the “might as well” syndrome that comes with improving one tiny aspect of an area. Now that these adorable lights are up, I want to do ALL THE THINGS outside. 🙂 Oh well, this just means lots of blog posts to come next Spring and Summer!
We’ve been trying to find some time to sit down and plan out the nursery, and decided to put most of our house projects on hold until it was finished. Then one day, one of Jeremy’s super-generous coworkers said “Hey, I have this Pottery Barn medicine cabinet that I bought a few years ago and don’t have any use for now. Do you want it?”
And I was like:
…and we totally forgot about the nursery. Oops! The End.
Really though, it was an amazing gift (thank you, Sharon!) as we’d been talking for over a year about how little storage space the guest bathroom has, and how a medicine cabinet would solve that problem. We were going to hang on to it until after the baby was here, but after thinking it through it was decided that if we were going to cut holes in the walls and take on a big project like this, it would probably be best to do it before we have infant needs and nap times to compete with. So with that, we jumped right in!
This is the cabinet, in chrome finish. Isn’t it pretty? Originally, there was just a framed mirror hung on the wall. It was a good size for the space, but obviously the lack of storage was an issue.
We took down the mirror, turned off the power to the bathroom, and cut a few exploratory holes in the wall. This is a really important step, you need to take your time determining where plumbing and electrical are running before you go any further. Just our luck, we found we had a water pipe running directly behind where the cabinet would have to sit. This was not the best news. And the hole in wall got progressively bigger as Jeremy kept saying “I just need to cut a little more out so I have room to work.” At this point I was a little scared that we were about to tear our bathroom apart forever.
Thankfully, Jeremy had some plumbing knowledge from one of his jobs in high school, so he felt comfortable taking this on himself. He ended up buying 4- 45 degree copper elbows, flux, and pipe sanding cloth. We had a soldering gun and solder, too. After shutting off the water, he was able to move the pipe back further into the wall, leaving plenty of clearance between the wall/pipe/medicine cabinet. The real moment of truth was turning the water back on, and making sure the soldering job was solid. It was! I’m still SO impressed with what a great job he did, since any kind of plumbing or electrical is intimidating to me.
We’d already determined where the medicine cabinet would sit before we cut into the wall, so now we just had to frame it out. Jeremy used 2×4’s cut to size, to frame out the cabinet insert. By using the existing woodwork + 2 extra pieces to frame out the top and bottom, we were able to make the frame REALLY solid and stable.
To repair the gaping hole we’d left in the drywall, we went to Lowe’s to grab some more. Pro tip: if you only have a small section to repair, ask them if they have any scrap drywall to sell. These are full sheets that have small imperfections that make them unsellable as a whole – we were able to get a 4’x4′ piece cut from a scrap piece of green board (good for moisture-heavy rooms) for $1. Can’t beat that! We cut the drywall to match the existing space, and screwed it in. Jeremy then cut the hole out for the cabinet insert, and put the cabinet in to make sure it fit.
We then taped and mudded the edges of the drywall, and filled in all of the screw holes. After it dried it was given a good sanding to remove any rough edges or bumps, and this had to be repeated for a total of 5 coats. We use pre-mixed joint compound, and have found that this kind is the easiest to work with – be prepared to be patient with the drying time. It took almost a whole day for each coat to fully dry. I also highly recommend a Magic Trowel for a really smooth finish!
After the final coat was dry it was sanded, primed (with trusty old Kilz), and painted (Benjamin Moore – Palladian Blue). We then re-inserted the cabinet, screwed it in place, and put in the glass shelving. Finally done, and looking like it was there the whole time! We re-hung the lights upside down on accident, but decided to leave it for a while to see if we liked it.
I made a fun little sign out of some scrap wood for the floating shelf.
The project turned out to be a little more involved than we anticipated, but turned out so great. The cabinet sits flush with the wall, which is perfect for the small space, and now we have storage! Totally worth it.
I had to take a sappy photo because I realized seconds before I took this that we met 13 years ago today! Now I guess we should probably get working on that nursery 🙂
There’s really just a whole lot of NO going on here.
AFTER: Still in progress, but much less MAKE IT STOP! happening now.
Let’s continue talking about how we got here – today we’re talking countertops!
Part II: Tinted Concrete Countertop Overlay
The gray laminate countertop was durable, but so, So, SO ugly. I also knew the 4″ laminate backsplash had to go. It made the walls behind it feel so small and closed-in, and I knew we’d be putting in a subway tile backsplash next that I wanted to run flush from the countertop. My inspiration has always been these two photos:
I love the look of soapstone or black granite with crisp white cabinets in a farmhouse, but we’re not quite there yet budget-wise. So for a quick livable makeover, I opted for a black-tinted concrete countertop overlay. I was inspired by the tutorial I found on Little Green Notebook, she made it seem so easy! We ordered the Ardex Feather Finish concrete powder, as well as the black tinting powder from Amazon. We had about 30 square feet of countertop space to cover, and one bag of each was plenty. Ardex is not sold in stores unless you have a distributor nearby – you can search for them here.
While we were waiting for the powders to arrive, it was time to do some prep work. The first thing we did was attack remove the 4″ laminate backsplash. If you have countertops like we did, you’ll notice that unfortunately they usually screw this backsplash into the countertop through the bottom, before they install the counters themselves. This makes it near-impossible to just unscrew them from underneath, and trying to pry them off will only damage the countertop you have left. To get around this, we slightly pried each section away from the countertop enough to expose the screws. We then used an oscillating saw with a metal blade, and cut through each screw as flush to the countertop as possible, and finished grinding down the screws with a dremel tool. It’s okay if you scuff up the countertops a little, since you’ll be doing an overlay. You just don’t want the huge holes that prying might cause.
Woohoo! So much better already, and we haven’t even started.
Next, we needed to scuff up the surface of the countertop, so that the concrete had something to grab on to. I used a wallpaper scorer for this, and gave each surface a rough score 3 times each. Finally, make sure each surface is clean with a wet sponge. If the surface is really dirty or greasy, clean with a mixture of 1/4 cup TSP: 1 gallon water. Wear eye protection and gloves if you have to use this solution, because it is serious stuff! The countertop will look rough when you’re done, but that’s good – at this point there’s no turning back 🙂
Now is the exciting part : time to lay down some concrete! Be sure you’re wearing disposable gloves for this part, if you don’t want stained hands. I wish I had more pictures of this process, but we finished the project 4 months before I started blogging. I’ll do my best to describe the rest from here! To get the dark color we wanted, we mixed the following ratio:
1/4 cup tinting powder : 2 cups ardex powder : (about) 1 1/2 cups water
It will look like a thin black cake frosting. Yum?
You want to mix this up until you get the consistency above, then let it sit for 5 minutes. I know this sounds counter-intuitive because it would seem like letting it sit would give you less time to work with it – but it’s actually the opposite. After 5 minutes, mix it up again. This will give you about 15 minutes of working time, which should be enough to do one coat on about 10-15 sq. ft. of countertop.
Take a trowel (we used a magic trowel – highly recommended!), and spread on a thin layer of concrete. It’s like icing a cake. Don’t overthink it, smooth it out the best you can, but remember that small ridges can be sanded after each coat. The vertical edges are a bit tougher – I found the trick to this is to wait to do these until the countertop itself is covered. This gives the concrete mix enough time to set up so that you can just grab some in your (gloved) hand at the end and rub it along the sides without it falling off. Let this coat dry completely, about 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Then it’s time to sand – we did a rough sanding with an orbital sander and a 120 grit pad in between each coat. You want to put on at least 3 thin coats of concrete to completely cover the surface.
Once you’ve finished your last coat, give it a once over with the 120 grit, then follow it up with a 220 grit to get it really, really smooth. (Pro tip: if you’re doing a kitchen countertop with a sink insert, don’t be dumb like us. Remove the sink before you do this. We didn’t and I’m not thrilled with the results around this area).
Done!
Just kidding. You have to seal these bad boys unless you want your every move in the kitchen documented on these porous, easily stainable countertops. To do this, we chose two different sealers:
We did 3 coats of the impregnator/sealer, and 3 coats of Acrylaqc. Acrylaqc is a food-grade, stain resistant sealer, so we thought this was our best choice. However, it’s been over 6 months now that we’ve lived with these countertops, and it hasn’t proven to be as stain-resistant as advertised. We’ve got some spots that are left over from spills which is a HUGE bummer, but it blends well enough (it almost looks like well-worn chalkboard) that I can deal until we save up enough for stone.
If I could start over, I would have finished everything off with a clear, 2-part epoxy top coat. I think this really would have made these countertops super stain resistant, however, that is my only regret. We’ve had no issues with surface scratches or chips.
It took about a week start to finish, but looks much so much better!
When we moved into this old house, the kitchen was cosmetically in the worst shape of any room. Even our home inspector said it was ugly! And he was right. But when you have a room with character and good bones, you have a room with a lot of potential – our kitchen was no exception. I have big plans for this space, which include knocking out a wall – but that requires putting in a very expensive header that doesn’t fit in our budget just yet. So in the meantime, we’ve been focusing on small cosmetic fixes to save ourselves from cringing every time we walk in the room. I started rehabbing this space well before I started this blog, but we’ve made such great progress (and it still is a work in progress), that I felt it was worth showing some before/afters!
BEFORE:
These photos were taken straight from the real estate listing when we bought the house. There is a tan/pink/orange/green tumbled marble backsplash, gray laminate countertops, 1940’s cabinets with cheap country hardware, loose magnetic clasps, bent hinges, and a chipping paint job. The dijon yellow walls and vinyl flooring are just the icing on the (ugly) cake. Why, previous homeowners, WHY?! Just…yuck.
AFTER:
Still in progress, but such an improvement!
So let’s talk about how we got to this point.
Part I: Cabinet Refacing
Our cabinets are original, solid oak cabinets. I’m a big fan of Nicole Curtis‘ theory that if you have quality woodwork, don’t replace it! They seemed to be in great shape, and offered plenty of storage, they just needed a little lot of TLC. We removed all of the cabinet doors, took off all of the hardware, and numbered them so we’d know which cabinet/side they came from. We then stripped them down to the wood using Citrustrip chemical paint remover and a 5-in-1 tool. That last sentence sounds so easy-peasy, I know…but sweet jesus it was not a quick task. Stripping paint is seriously my least favorite job on the planet. I would rather deep clean a bathroom with a toothbrush than strip paint, and every time I take on a project that requires it, I get about 40% of the way in and say “I’m never doing this again!”. And then time passes, I forget about how much I hate doing it, and then take on another paint stripping project (example: notice the stripped door in the kitchen). I’m dumb sometimes.Anyways…the cabinet boxes themselves were in good shape, so we left those alone until it was time to prime and paint. When you have older cabinets like these, you should avoid sanding if you can, due to the risk of lead paint. After removing 6-7 layers of paint from the doors (in all colors of the rainbow), we gave the wood a good sanding with an orbital sander, giving it a once over with 120 grit, followed by 220 grit to give it a smooth surface ready for painting. We ripped 1/4″ birch plywood down into 2 1/2 inch wide strips with a table saw, and attached them to the doors with our brad gun to add some shaker trim. I put wood filler on all of the brad holes, but didn’t fill in the lines on the cabinet face because that would have gotten rid of the classic shaker look.
We then primed the doors and boxes with Kilz, and then did 3 coats of Benjamin Moore’s White Dove (my favorite white of all time) in Eggshell finish.
After letting that dry for a few days, we did 3 coats of Polycrylic Satin. When I think farmhouse, I think white and oil-rubbed bronze, so that’s the finish we went with for the new hardware. I also got matching half-moon pulls for our pull-out drawers, and faux drawer faces. We have semi-inset cabinets, so I got matching oil-rubbed bronze hinges with a 3/8″ inset to fit.
They look like completely different cabinets, and I LOVE them. So much more fitting for the space. If you plan on refacing, and work full-time, give yourself a good two months to get this done.
We also attached this bottle opener that we’d had laying around for a few years on the side, because it’s adorable AND functional. Jeremy made the small cap catcher box below it out of some of the leftover birch from the trim.
Tools Required:
5-in-1 Tool
Orbital Sander
Table Saw (we used one at Maker Works in Ann Arbor)
Air Compressor + Brad Gun
1/4″ Brads
Screwdriver (a drill is even faster!)
TOTAL: $178
Hiring a professional to reface/redo cabinets in a kitchen our size usually starts at about $1,000, which after doing the job ourselves, I totally understand those labor costs. Coming in at $178, I’m pretty thrilled at saving more than 80%!
I picked up 2 cans of Rustoleum interior/exterior paint in Flat Black, to give the lights the matte finish I wanted originally, and gave each light 3 coats.
Installation was easy-peasy, and this is the end result. Love!
We’ve been trying to find some time to sit down and plan out the nursery, and decided to put most of our house projects on hold until it was finished. Then one day, one of Jeremy’s super-generous coworkers said “Hey, I have this Pottery Barn 
…and we totally forgot about the nursery. Oops! The End.
This is the cabinet, in chrome finish. Isn’t it pretty? Originally, there was just a framed mirror hung on the wall. It was a good size for the space, but obviously the lack of storage was an issue.
We’d already determined where the medicine cabinet would sit before we cut into the wall, so now we just had to frame it out. Jeremy used 2×4’s cut to size, to frame out the cabinet insert. By using the existing woodwork + 2 extra pieces to frame out the top and bottom, we were able to make the frame REALLY solid and stable.
We then 
I made a fun little sign out of some scrap wood for the floating shelf.
The project turned out to be a little more involved than we anticipated, but turned out so great. The cabinet sits flush with the wall, which is perfect for the small space, and now we have storage! Totally worth it.
Still in progress, but much less MAKE IT STOP! happening now.
Done!
