Plaster & Disaster

April 1, 2015 | By Naomi |

State of my Kitchen 2015 – The Power of a Half Makeover

I can’t provide you with kitchen updates since I’ve never actually provided you with… well, anything much about my kitchen at all. To tell that story, let me take you waaaay back to see our house when we bought it. Back then, the house we love so much was bursting with the wrong kind of character. The walls were various beiges, the wall-to-wall carpeting throughout was shaggy green, and everything was coated with stale smoke and grime.

However, the kitchen was a brighter spot… because it was entirely yellow.

Yes, that is a laminate counter, backsplash, and floor all in different shades of yellow. Try not to get too jealous.

These were not the only features. We had handles in the middle of the upper cabinet doors, a wall cutting the room off from the rest of the house, and awesome boxy window cornices.

Even though we really wanted to MAKE ALL THE CHANGES right away, we prioritized other things in our renovation. Full kitchen renovations are expensive, and there were some things that we needed to do (like replacing leaky windows) and some things that we thought were more important for our enjoyment of the house (like an open floor plan and new floors).

It was also a mindshare issue: we had so many decisions to make about the house as a whole and didn’t have time or energy to plan our dream kitchen. And this is a room I want to get right.

Instead, we decided on a half makeover, where we would take advantage of some of the things we were already doing in our renovation and make some affordable or temporary fixes, but leave a lot of the projects for later when we have the time to really figure out what we want.

Fortunately, a lot was already going to be taken care of during our renovation. As part of creating an open floor plan in the front of the house, we were already tearing down the interfering wall between the kitchen and the dining room, solving the problem of the room feeling so cramped, dark, and isolated. (If you want the full story, you can check out my full post about my renovation.)

Rather than a small kitchen with a single window and a cramped formal dining room, we now think of this space as a luxurious eat-in kitchen with light from all sides.

We were also already installing new bamboo floors throughout most of the house, and it made total sense to tear out that orange and brown vinyl floor and run the bamboo through into the kitchen to go along with the open flow. (Bamboo flooring is pretty durable, and also naturally mold-resistant, so it is not a bad choice in a kitchen.)

But even with these major changes already taken care of, we still had the old-but-mostly-working appliances, the yellow counter and back splash, the chipped and scratched cabinets with handles in the middle of the doors, the vinyl baseboards, the leaky faucet, the boob lights, ugly sink, beige door, grayed vinyl replacement window, and beat-up trim and window cornice.

I’m getting stressed out just thinking about it.

We figured out what on that list we could live with, what we could take on now, and what we could chip away at through affordable upgrades or DIY projects over time.

The “live with” list included the appliances, cabinets, cabinet hardware, lighting, and sink. Why? They all work. We like the current layout and storage options, so we’re not sure yet whether we’ll replace the cabinets or just paint and upgrade the ones we have when we finally do a big renovation. And as much as we’d like shiny, new, efficient appliances, ours are working fine (besides a leaking dishwasher which we were able to get fixed). Plus, waiting has the added benefit of allowing us to hold out until we switch from oil to natural gas, so we can eventually get a real gas range instead of electric like we have now.

We also decided we could live with the gray vinyl replacement window so long as we took down the cornice and replaced the old trim to match the new stuff we were having put up in the other rooms through the renovation. It cost virtually nothing to add this on to the existing scope of work.

However, we chose not to live with the yellow counter and backsplash. We were already doing a lot of demo in the renovation so it was no problem to have the old ones taken out with the rest of the trash… leaving us with this when we moved in:

Kitchen when we moved in - Plaster & Disaster

You can just ignore my post-it note kitchen unpacking and organizing system, thanks.

It’s open! And look at that beautiful floor! And lovely blue paint color! But where’s the counter? We lived without one for about a month. It sure made unpacking and organizing easier (hello, open drawers) but it was a total pain for everything else… like cooking. Even worse, the dishwasher couldn’t work without the support of the counter, so everything had to be washed by hand in small batches (because there wasn’t a lot of surface to lay them out on).

After much thought, we chose to go with laminate counters. As much as I LOVE the look of wood or marble, I am not prepared to take on the maintenance. I prefer a counter that does not pick up stains or need water to be wiped up right away. Personally I think it is a good trade off to just avoid putting hot pans down on the surface.

Also, laminate has come a long way from that bad-imitation-of-wood-grain-with-a-persistent-brown-edge that you are all imagining right now. We got ours with a clean beveled edge, in a dark gray with blue undertones and a bit of shine. It’s from Lam-Art.

For the backsplash, we weren’t ready to replace it with something permanent like tile until we knew what we were going to do with our cabinets. I considered just painting it, but the surface was in too bad of shape, and I don’t love that look anyway. So I decided to try a DIY solution.

I considered fabric like Sage used on her stairs, but that would have gotten too messy in a kitchen, and setting it behind glass or fiberglass would have been just as involved/permanent as tile. Instead, I installed a temporary backsplash using renters wallpaper in a tile pattern.

I love how it turned out. A full tutorial on that is coming up next week! (Update: here!)

We also replaced the faucet – the old one was leaking and looked like it was on its last legs. I really wanted a cool commercial style faucet like this one.

However, the Advisory Committee (Brad) was not interested in that industrial look. But this might be one of those mythical cases where “compromises” are a “good thing.” We ended up with a faucet that we love, that is probably better suited to the overall style of our house.

Grohe Starlight Chrome Concetto Single Handle from Faucet.com - Plaster & Disaster

Via Faucet.com

At the time we bought this, it was priced at more like $200 – not cheap but not unbelievable. With the good quality and the simple and modern shape we’re confident that we’ll have it and love it for the long haul.

(What, you noticed? Yes, our plumber did install it the wrong way, with the control pointing toward the middle of the sink. That doesn’t make it any less beautiful. We’ll try to fix that eventually, but for now it doesn’t really bother us.)

So what did all this get us? Here is our kitchen today!

Not perfect, but it is bright and open, with natural light coming in from two sides and our bamboo floors flowing right into the dining area. The openness makes a huge difference in how much we enjoy the space. Just take a look at how much the “view from the kitchen” has changed!

And no one is sad to see that yellow go away. The counters look a bit bluer in these pictures than they really are – they are really more of a slate than a blue. The color looks pretty good with the tone of the cabinet wood, actually. If only they were in better shape, with different handle placement!

The backsplash really brightens up the room, and I love that it brings in a lot of the bright colors we use throughout the house – yellow, red, and blue – in a way that is not overwhelming. It fits in with our house, but is actually a little calmer in comparison.

However, as much as I love it, I cannot claim the space is done – not even for now. I definitely need to get off my butt and paint the baseboards, which are currently showing splotches of glue from where we tore out the old vinyl ones. It would take me like 5 minutes to just do this, and it would make such a big difference.

Also on the “short term” list is a change of lighting. When we finally pick and install our dining room chandelier, I also plan to replace the living room light (currently a temporary open bulb) and the two kitchen lights. I’d like to do a schoolhouse style flush mount for the central lights in the living room and kitchen, and then pick a cool pendant for over the sink.

Finally, I want to paint or replace the exterior door, which, in all its beige glory, is a lone holdout from the earlier days.

After that, it is time to start dreaming about the real renovation!

(Sharing at Think and Make Thursdays, Link Party Palooza, DIY Showoff, Saturday Sharefest, and AKA Design)

March 30, 2015 | By Sage |

The Stairwell Makeover!

A few weeks ago I shared some of the ideas I was wrestling with for a colorful stairwell makeover, and now I’m back to declare triumphantly that I DID IT. IT LOOKS AMAZING IF-I-DON’T-SAY-SO-MYSELF. I AM SO EXCITED. Sorry in advance, this post is pretty long. I have so many words and feelings to describe my new stairwell.

Quick recap on the hallway project. First, I painted the walls, trim, and doors in the hallway and turned the pantry into colorful open shelving:

That made a huge difference, but left the stairwell untouched. Dark…wood paneling…yellow walls…it was not good.

It was time for a change! Paint to the rescue. First I had to remove the banister from the side of the stairwell. It’s very strange — someone cut it to be wayyyyy too short for the space:

I think we’re legally required to have a railing along the length of the stairs, so I will be getting a new one sometime soon. In the meantime, please don’t tell on me….

Then I slathered white paint all over everything. By which I mean, I painstakingly, tediously applied a coat of primer and 2.5 coats (ie two complete, and then touch-ups) of white trim paint to the paneling, newel post, banister, balusters, upstairs linen closet, and the doors to the upstairs bedrooms. Since I’d decided to leave the stair treads natural wood, I had to be very careful edging along the stairs:

Also, whoever built our house appears not to have heard of caulk, because I had to use two tubes of caulk filling gaps in everything. But it really makes such a difference — here’s a side-by-side showing some of the trim before and after caulking:

What a difference caulking makes -- Plaster & Disaster

Goodbye dark cracks!

The white paint was great, but made the awful yellow walls even yellower.

So next was two coats of gray paint (Moonshine, by Benjamin Moore, to match the hallway and living room). I decided to paint the ceiling of the stairwell the same color, as it is low and narrow so it seemed jarring for it to be a different color. (I fell in love with the idea of painting ceilings after I did it in the bathroom and it made the space feel so much less disjointed.)

I was able to use a roller on a long detachable handle to paint the ceiling, but to get the seam between the wall and ceiling I had to rig up a little device — I just taped a paintbrush to the detachable handle (the end of a broom stick would work too). It was like a paintbrush spear, except less deadly than a normal spear:

Here’s the finished result of painting, as seen from the top of the stairs:

Transforming stairwell with fabric and paint -- Plaster & Disaster

Ignore the open light switch — the tip of the switch broke off, so I need to replace the whole thing. I’m waiting to do it when I replace the hallway light fixtures, so I can have a fun day of trying not to electrocute myself.

BUT, enough about painting. That was fun and all, but the real fun was what I decided to do with the stairs themselves. You guys gave me a lot of great advice a few weeks ago, and most people recommended keeping the treads woods and then doing something colorful with the risers. And that’s exactly what I did! Ready for the finished result?

What do you think? I thought about painting them, but ultimately I was really drawn to some of the patterned wallpaper inspiration images. But you guys, wallpaper is so expensive. Especially fun graphic wallpaper. And also, it’s usually between 21″ and 27″ wide for a roll, meaning that there would be a seam in the middle of every single riser. You know what isn’t expensive, comes in lots of awesome patterns, and is usually 40″ wide or more? FABRIC.

Yep, I decorated my stairs with strips of fabric. And since I know I have inspired you with my creative genius, I will tell you how I did it so you can immediately rush out and do the same.

First, I picked out the fabric. I love the selection and prices at Fabric.com — there’s a lot to weed through, but you can find some really great stuff (that’s where the fabric for our living room curtains is from, too). After lots of deliberation, I settled on the Sunprint Feathers in Teal. Here’s the photo from the website:

It looks green here, but I knew from the product reviews that the color was bluer than it shows on the website, so I thought it would tie in nicely with the built-ins. I calculated that I would need 2.5 yards, which came to $23. TWENTY-THREE DOLLARS. From my research, I knew that this amount of awesome cool wallpaper would have cost me at least $100, probably a lot more.

I decided to use mod podge to adhere the fabric to the risers, since it seemed like people have had good experiences with fabric + mod podge + wood to do things like decoupage table tops. I bought a large container of matte finish mod podge, because I knew I would do a protective top-coat and I didn’t want the stairs to be glossy. But that would probably look cool too!

Here’s how the whole thing went down one Saturday afternoon:

Step 1: I washed, dried, and ironed the fabric.

Fabric stair risers -- Plaster & Disaster

This is what ironing looks like

Step 2: I read a few tutorials on using mod podge for decoupaging with fabric that suggested first coating the back of the fabric with a layer of mod podge and letting it dry. The benefits promised were twofold: this would prevent the fabric from fraying when cut into smaller pieces, and it would make the fabric stiffer and easier to work with. I was a little skeptical about whether this was fully necessary, but I figured I’d give it a try so I laid the fabric out face down on a big table we have in the basement, and brushed on a coat of mod podge. It took awhile and the fabric puckered and wrinkled, but I persevered (and the wrinkles all worked out when it came time to put the fabric on the stairs).

After coating the whole thing, I let it dry about 45 minutes. When it was dry, it had a heavier feel, more like paper than fabric — this made it a lot easier to work with down the road. And when I started cutting, indeed there was no fraying. So even though it adds time and uses up a fair amount of mod podge, I definitely recommend taking this additional step.

Step 3: Once the fabric had dried, I started cutting it out and applying it to the stair risers, one piece at a time. Every riser was a little different in size, so I went riser by riser measuring, cutting, and gluing. On each riser, first I used my sewing measuring tape (which is more flexible than a regular measuring tape) to measure the length and width of the riser and then mark that on the back of the fabric and cut it out to size.

Step 4: Next I painted the riser with a liberal coat of mod podge. It doesn’t need to be perfect and it’s okay for it to get on the stair treads, since it dries clear and wipes up with water. It stays wet long enough to coat the whole riser at the same time.

Step 5: I started every riser in the top left corner, placing the fabric so it aligned perfectly in that corner and then working from there. My process was to gently press the whole length of fabric against the sticky riser, but the mod podge stayed wet long enough for me to slowly reposition the whole thing as I worked across to it stretch it out and eliminate bubbles. I used a credit card (errr, an empty Starbucks gift card) to smooth out the bubbles and make sure the fabric was firmly pressed against the riser (especially along the top and bottom edges).

I take really high quality one-handed photos on my phone, clearly.

I usually found that I had a little excess fabric along the bottom and right edges because the fabric stretched a little during the process, but this was easy to trim away with an x-acto knife later (just make sure to do it before the mod podge dries).

The only wrinkle in this process was that the bottom step was a little longer than the width of the fabric, so I had to use two pieces of fabric. I cut them so that the pattern would match as much as possible, and the seam is really not noticeable.

Step 6: After completing these steps for every riser, I jumped around with joy and made Sam stand and stare at it with me for a good long while. These kinds of celebrations are important for keeping morale up when you’ve spent every weekend this month contorted on your hands and knees in that darn stairwell and finally it’s looking awesome.

Step 7: As mentioned previously, I trimmed off excess fabric with an x-acto knife.

Step 8: To protect the fabric from getting scuffed up, I went back over each riser with an even coat of mod podge. This converted the surface from a soft fabric feel to a harder lacquered texture, but it looked exactly the same (since I used matte mod podge — if I’d used gloss, it obviously would have created a glossy surface). I kept a pair of tweezers on hand to pick off a few stray cat hairs that got caught on the risers, since I didn’t want that solidified in the mod podge when it dried. This step isn’t necessary if your floors aren’t as gross as mine.

And that was it! All told it took about 6 hours, which really isn’t bad. (This does not count the eleventy-million hours it took to paint everything.)

I’m going to be totally honest: I’m kind of obsessed with it. I spend a lot of time these days standing at the bottom of the stairs admiring my handiwork.

Next I am charging ahead with a few final details to complete the hallway: new light fixtures in the hall and at the top of the stairs, painting the inside of the front door, and art in the hallway and in the stairwell. Hopefully I will be able to get that done and share it soon! And I’m also starting to collect materials to tee-up our next big project: our basement home gym. Right now it’s high on function, low on form:

Stay tuned!

Update: be sure to check out Phase III of the hallway makeover, all the finishing touches (including new light fixtures, art, and painting the front door)!

(FEATURED at Thrifty Decor Chick, and sharing at A Bowl Full of Lemons, Think and Make Thursdays, AKA Design, Pure Blog Love, Link Party Palooza, Sarah Celebrates, DIY Showoff, All Things with Purpose, and Whimsy Wednesday)