I love reading this thread. Since owning a house I have learned to do so much stuff I had never even thought about doing before; it's a really rewarding experience and I love seeing what other people are doing to their houses as well.

I can also definitely say now that I look at other peoples' houses differently after all the handyman and interior design stuff I have gotten into. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing

1/17/2011 12:39:14 PM

Quote :

"Refinishing old family furniture for your kids is always exciting. :-D"

i don't think i posted a picture of this.

my wife bought a dresser from the salvation army back in college and painted it. we now have a new, big dresser so we stripped the paint and re-painted it for our son to match his room.

1/17/2011 2:45:06 PM

made a crib for the little one that is coming...

1/17/2011 3:09:32 PM

^^I re-purposed my childhood dresser (which I used up until 2009) for my daughter as well. :-D

1/17/2011 4:28:20 PM

^^ your wife is going to smack you in the face for making that crib so deep. I hope you can raise that thing.

Just a bit of advice & 2cents. Otherwise, nice work man.

1/23/2011 5:49:31 PM

^ha. that, too, was my initial thought. well, after "holy crap that's sweet."

just stack like six or seven mattresses. you'll be straight.

1/24/2011 9:00:19 AM

Quote :

"I love reading this thread. Since owning a house I have learned to do so much stuff I had never even thought about doing before; it's a really rewarding experience and I love seeing what other people are doing to their houses as well. I can also definitely say now that I look at other peoples' houses differently after all the handyman and interior design stuff I have gotten into. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing "

and i hate this thread cus it just reminds me how much i suck at this stuff

1/24/2011 11:54:42 AM

haha. I was the same way at first, but like I said, it inspired me to learn to do a lot of stuff. My father-in-law helped me out a ton at first (and still does) but he took the approach of actually teaching me HOW to do it so I could do it on my own too. Frustrating at times for sure but it has paid off.

1/24/2011 12:40:10 PM

^^^ & ^^^^ that is perfect height for a toddler. I'm going to make a platform for the mattress or buy a baby box spring for the newborn stage.

No worries people. I thought of that...

1/24/2011 5:41:06 PM

we were just making sure.

Serious though - that's some impressive work. Congrats and good luck with the little one.

1/25/2011 12:51:53 PM

Gonna pick it up from paint today. Will post pics....

1/26/2011 9:26:42 AM

All done. except for the frame that raises it to new born level

1/26/2011 11:12:19 AM

Looks good - so how long did you spend building this?

1/26/2011 12:00:16 PM

Nice crib! Did you make it from plans?

1/26/2011 12:08:46 PM

^^4 hours. Then my cabinet guy painted it.

^ just a picture from restoration hardware baby

1/26/2011 12:26:36 PM

We have a similar crib that is also a lifetime bed. the only complaint is that there is nowhere along the "headboard" to secure crib bumpers in the middle (on ours).

the bed looks great.

1/26/2011 12:27:16 PM

http://www.rhbabyandchild.com/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=rhbc_prod213021&categoryId=rhbc_cat197005

1/26/2011 1:35:54 PM

Working on re-doing the master bath. Nothing major, just paint, accessories, and refinishing the cabinets. I didn't take a before picture, but I will be able to put up an after soon.
Putting the clear coat on today.

1/28/2011 9:06:29 AM

got lots of stuff done this weekend. None of it hard to do, just took some time:

-Painted the upstairs guest bathroom gray
-Took down the old standard bathroom mirror there and replaced it with a black framed mirror
-Replaced all the outlet plates with brushed nickel plates
-Replaced the towel rack with a brushed nickel towel rack
-Painted the whole upstairs hallway area
-Painted the kitchen
-Hung 4 pictures
-Cut and painted chair rail for the kitchen (ran out of time to hang it yesterday).

As usual I always forget to take before pictures and realize it like halfway through

Either way, all very rewarding work as usual. The upstairs guest bathroom looks a LOT nicer now. Still need to hang a black medicine cabinet there, replace the light fixture with a contemporary black one, paint the vanity, and change the faucet to brushed nickel.

1/31/2011 12:26:57 PM

PS Not looking forward to trying to paint the walls of the staircase leading up to the upstairs hallway. It's one of the sort of "hidden" staircases so it isn't in the front of the house so it is walled up (some windows but you get the idea) on 3 sides for the most part and ~20ft of wall space since it starts on the first and ends on the second floor. I have one of those handy adjustable leg ladders but it is only about 11'. I am thinking that I can use the ladder for as much as I can to roll/brush and then if just use a telescoping painting pole to try and cut in at the ceiling and then roll the rest? I dono.

I'm not big on heights and I don't want it to look sloppy since I have been so careful painting the rest of the house but I don't know if I feel like paying someone to come in and paint one hallway. Kind of torn here. Also, one of those "genies" or other portable lifts won't work here since it is stairs and won't have a wide enough surface for a base.

1/31/2011 1:44:50 PM

^may be too late, but can you make some sort of scaffolding with the ladder? might help ease with the heights portion at least...

2/3/2011 9:31:14 PM

^^you could also try using an edging pad for cutting in where the wall meets the ceiling. Most of them can be screwed into the same telescoping poles that you use for rollers.

They're usually small, maybe a 4" x 4" square with a couple of plastic "wheels" at the top which allow you to push up against the wall and ceiling corner, then slide it sideways. They work pretty well, especially when they're new. I'll try to include a picture here of the one we used successfully:



If it's that high up, then it's going to be hard to notice any minor mistakes from ground level. And also remember that slipping up and getting paint on the ceiling is much more noticeable than leaving a bit of unpainted wall at the top. Good luck!

2/4/2011 4:47:25 PM

^^ By itself now but if I had a second ladder like this available to me then I could even on the stairs. I just don't have a 2nd ladder with individual adjustable legs around :/

^ I actually have one of those (I think it is shure-line as well). I think that is probably what I will end up doing. It did a decent job in other rooms with the ceilings but I ended up taping onto the surface of the smooth ceiling and just rolling and brushing in the other rooms (came out crisper). However, for this task I think you are right that if it is that high up it won't need to be that perfect. Really, I think if I can cut in ok the rest shouldn't be terribly difficult, just time consuming with the roller on the pole (harder to get more paint on it, funky angles with the long pole etc.)

appreciate the input

2/7/2011 4:19:00 PM

Here is a picture of the bathroom that I redid. We bought a spec home with no choices.
My wife hated the cabinet color and told me we(I) was refinishing them.

They were originally just like this:


And now it looks like this:


Painted stripes on the walls
Framed mirror
Hung shelves
Dark bamboo floor mat
Ebony stained cabinets
Hung decorative curtain that matches what we put over the top of the shower doors.

2/8/2011 8:04:57 PM

I like the color

Next, change out that hardware

2/8/2011 8:21:15 PM

That is on the list for 'some time in the future' as well as possibly adding handles/knobs to the cabinet doors.

The ones we like are WAY to expensive for us to consider right now, and we aren't looking at the expensive ones either.

2/8/2011 8:35:37 PM

Finished this a few months ago...

[Edited on February 8, 2011 at 11:58 PM. Reason : x]

2/8/2011 11:58:24 PM

cool. i remember seeing that posted in some thread on here good stuff man.

I have an update picture to post. I don't really have any good before pictures in this room but I can at least show where the room is at right now. This is a quick picture I took this morning in the library/reading room. (it's the formal living room per the floor plan).

We painted the top 1/3 of the room a deep red, installed chair rail around the room at 36," painted the chair rail a white semi-gloss as well as painted the wall below the chair rail in the same white. Also, the pictures we are hanging in the room so far are all literary related.

Still some things that need to be done in there though. The rug has to go (it's just one I had in storage that worked ok for now with the wall colors) and we are going to do the rectangular picture frame molding on the wall below the chair rail at some point. I think I am also leaning towards installing ceiling beams in that room instead of crown moulding like I plan to do in the other rooms of the house. Probably this summer it will also be redone with solid hardwood along with the rest of the 1st floor.

Also, I took the shot to include the door trim that we cut, painted, and hung ourselves. We were really happy with how that turned out. Those doorways were just wrapped drywall before. And on the near side of the foyer you can also see a bit of the dining room where we hung chair rail and did the two-tone paint job along with trimming out the doorway the same as the reading room.



[Edited on February 13, 2011 at 9:57 PM. Reason : ]

2/13/2011 9:55:05 PM

So...my first woodworking project isn't anything close to as impressive as most of the stuff on this thread, but here's a couple of planter boxes.


It's just 2x4's so really simple stuff there, but I enjoyed it and am thinking about taking on a much bigger project. A kitchen island! More to see as that project comes along, but what I'm thinking I'll do is take a couple of standard door and drawer floor cabinets, connect them together, and then build up a back on it to bar height and have an island/breakfast bar. Never taken on a task quite this big before, so anyone who would like to offer some advice or wants to help out, let me know. (I know I enjoy projects that aren't on my dollar! )

2/14/2011 1:19:55 PM

^^ Is that just bare wall below the chair rail or some kind of wainscoting? I've been fighting my living room for 3 months now and it's currently 5 different colors because I can't decide what to do. So far I have a blue similar to the one in your photo, off-white, taupe, & a light gray. I'm trying to decide whether red would work or not.

2/16/2011 6:24:13 PM

Yes. Right now the chair rail itself, the dry wall below the chair rail, and the baseboard in that room are all painted a semi-gloss white. Similar to how the dining room you can see in the foreground is 2-toned. Except the Dining room is a dark green with a green on top that is 2-shades lighter in the same color family.

We plan to eventually come back with some kind of wainscoting on the white wall in the library but it looks good (to me at least) for now as it is.

2/16/2011 7:30:35 PM

What's a good/cheap paver sand bedding and where can I acquire it? Lowes has Greensmix 0.5 Cu. Ft. Paver Base Sand for $3.25...

2/17/2011 4:47:37 AM

I do not like painting bathroom cabinets.

That is all.

2/17/2011 7:01:35 AM

What were they before? Standard wood with a cherry/oak/whatever veneer or what?

We have two bathrooms where I think I would like to paint them black from the cherry they are now since it goes with the bathroom colors better. I've never done it before. Figured I would need to do a series or two of sanding before I tried to paint them.

2/17/2011 7:48:59 AM

They're just a standard oak, stained. Roughed them up and put primer on last night. Painting them black tomorrow. It just has to make do until we decide to do a total renovation on that bathroom.

I kinda just want to take the gallon of paint and fling it around the room.

That's how much I care about this particular honey-do project.

2/17/2011 8:10:33 AM

Covering Oak Cabinets in black paint is just wrong. Is there no way to stain the cabinets a nice dark color?

2/17/2011 8:23:41 AM

Haha. We thought about getting a brand new vanity in both bathrooms, but I figured it would just be easier/cheaper to change out the hardware for the faucet and repaint the cabinets to the color we wanted than to deal with ripping out the vanity, repainting around it, and installing a new one.

2/17/2011 8:29:28 AM

^^ Would do it if we planned on keeping the cabinets longer.

We don't, so I won't. Much more effort involved in that.

Not to mention it's particularly cheap cabinetry from the late 1980s.

2/17/2011 8:41:07 AM

I don't blame you; I can't stand oak (at least if there is a lot of grain showing which is the case for most oak). Oak grain just looks dated to me :/ I'm staying away from it for any flooring, cabinets, or furniture in our house.

2/17/2011 8:44:07 AM

Oak flooring isn't too bad, unless you go with a lighter stain. We used Red Oak #2 for our floor (for higher level of variability) and stained it with Provincial. Dark enough with enough variability to make it interesting. Plus it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

This is a picture as it was going down (WTF WOOD PANELING YOU ARE GROSS GLAD YOU'RE PAINTED NOW)

2/17/2011 8:49:40 AM

^ true. I've seen some with a darker stain that I did like. Once again it all kind of goes back to the grain/exact type of oak and the stain. Of course this is just a personal preference. (I have seen some Heritage and Red Oaks that were not bad).

Mainly I am not a fan of cabinets that look like this:



For some reason the grain on those is just distracting to me. If I had to have a lighter stain on oak I would have to go with something like the Heritage which tends to have really close grain lines:



For some reason I'm really picky/opinionated when it comes to wood grain. I love stained wood over painted in general but have a really specific style of wood I tend to like. No idea why really

[Edited on February 17, 2011 at 9:02 AM. Reason : .]

2/17/2011 8:56:11 AM

my wife is second (and third, and fourth) guessing our color choices for redoing our kitchen. now she's thinking she wants all the trim and cabinets a bright white, the walls a "robin's egg" blue, dark chocolate island with a light brown countertop and the regular countertop a dark brown. we saw lowes has this rustoleum "redo your countertop" product. basically you roll on a base coat of color, add the color chips, and then roll on a sealer, similar to their "redo your garage floor" product. any thoughts?

for reference:

kitchen:


hardware:


oh yeah, the inspection is monday, hope that goes well

[Edited on February 17, 2011 at 9:00 AM. Reason : that's right, haven't actually bought the house yet. pre-planning mode ]

2/17/2011 8:59:29 AM

Quote :

"we saw lowes has this rustoleum "redo your countertop" product. basically you roll on a base coat of color, add the color chips, and then roll on a sealer, similar to their "redo your garage floor" product. any thoughts?"

I don't think you'll end up liking this at all. I could be wrong.

2/17/2011 9:02:25 AM

any reason? my father in law did his garage floor and said it was really easy, and it does look really good. i'll admit that the difference b/w garage floor and countertop is considerable, but their samples at the store looked nice

2/17/2011 9:04:36 AM

Nope.

Hell, it may look great.

2/17/2011 9:14:14 AM

I can hope.

ALSO, Lowes is selling some sort of special gift card now where you spend $500-$4000 to buy it between now and March 14th. Then on March 18th they put 10% of the original balance back onto the card. Not too bad if you're looking to spend several hundred within the next few months, as we are.

It's on the lowes.com front page, but their site appears to be under maintenance if you click on the link.

Something like this is what we're going for (via sherwin-williams.com):



[Edited on February 17, 2011 at 9:40 AM. Reason : .]

2/17/2011 9:19:21 AM

den before (aug 2010)


den now (feb 2011)


installed a pet door yesterday for my fiance's cats to get the litter box out of the house


also cut new slats and reassembled a bed to finally have a complete bedroom


sorry for the crappy iphone photos.

i've also replaced every light fixture in the house and a couple outside but i'll spare everyone those pics.

2/19/2011 9:57:15 PM

just closed on the house today and already have a laundry list of DIY projects.

2/23/2011 12:47:53 PM

^grats! try not to let the projects pile up. good luck!

2/24/2011 11:31:33 AM

Anyone here ever installed faux ceiling beams? Planning on doing some in our reading room maybe. They would be painted white like the rest of the trim. I've looked at a lot of tutorials online to see the different ways that people do them but I wanted to see if anyone had any personal experience in here

3/16/2011 8:54:01 AM