How to White Wash Wood Floors

This past week while on vacation, I decided to tackle one of the bedrooms in our new home, and turn it into a relaxing beach themed room. Heck, we even hung a hammock in the room!
While emptying the room, and painting the walls, I decided that I wanted the wood floors to match with this theme by white washing the floors.

Taking on a task I had never done before, I must say that they came out pretty spectacular, as did the entire room for that matter!

I had white interior paint already, so I was set!

What You Will Need:
-Sanded wood floors
-White paint
-Paint brush
-Water based polyurethane. I used Minwax.

Step 1-
 
Make sure floors are sanded. I did this using a handheld 5 inch orbital sander. You can also rent a drum sander, but unless you know what you are doing, I would skip out on that, especially if you are like me, a beginner to do it yourself home improvement projects!

Step 2-
 
After sanding clean the heck out of the floors to remove any dirt, dust or sanding debris.

Step 3-
 
Mix white paint with water in a container. I used half paint, and half water in a standard household container and mixed it together. Solution was very runny.

Step 4-
 
Paint your floors going with the grain of the wood. It is OK if things look milky, they are supposed to!

Step 5-
 
Allow paint to dry for up to 3 hours.

Step 6-
 
Use a water based polyurethane gloss over the paint to seal it in. I used Minwax, and it dried in 3 hours.
Work your way around the room until all floor boards are sealed with a thin coat of the Minwax clear gloss.

Step 7-
 
Allow everything to dry, and enjoy your new floors. This white wash finish looks beautiful and is so easy to do.

How to Create a Beach Theme in Any Room in Your Home

Putting together a beach themed room in my new home has been one of the funnest and most rewarding projects I have ever done.

You see me and my other half go on tropical vacations 2-3 times a year, however after recently becoming homeowners, vacations had to take a pause. I decided however to take vacation home with me by going about the task of turning one of our spare rooms into the beach/vacation/relaxation room.
I started by tearing up the old carpets on the floors and white washing the wood floors. This gave the room a really nice and beach like look.

Next I decided on room colors. I wanted the ocean to mix with the beach, so I went with Behr's blue Pool Party paint, and a nice sandy colored tan.

I however decided to go an extra mile with my beach theme by adding a textured sand grain into the sandy colored paint. This gave my walls a gritted texture that looks and feels like petrified sand. It really gave the room that extra bit of flair that I was looking for.

I painted the wood panels in this sand gritted paint, and the other 2 walls I used the blue pool party paint. Basically the room has 2 colors going on, and they mesh perfectly.

After painting my walls and the trim, the fun part was the furniture and the decor for the room.

I found some really beautiful old wood pieces of furniture at a local thrift store. I got extremely lucky when I found an old wood captain's chair as well. I decided to paint all of the furniture using the blue and tan colored paint I had left over from the walls. Low and behold, it came out wonderfully.

Next was decor, I used netting on one window, and added starfish and shells to the nets. On the other window I used beach themed lights around the other window. My lights are palms and flamingos.

To up it a notch I also nailed a fishing pole to a top wall, and allowed a lure to freely flow down the side of the walls. I have anchors that hold frames in place, and seagull figures on the walls. I also hooked some starfish to the walls for that extra bit of something.

Other extras included framed money that I got while abroad in the tropics, a hammock that we can relax in was hung from the walls, and other extras like snorkels, masks, surfboard themed items, and seashells displayed around the room just add to the flair.


Other things we still need to acquire include tin signs from crab shacks, no swimming due to sharks signs, surf lesson signs, antique lifeguard rings, and so on.

The beach themed room has been so fun, and it one of my favorite rooms in the house thus far.
Getting started is the hard part really, but once the walls are painted, furniture has been decided on, and floor colors chosen, everything from there comes together easily.

Turning Old Roadside Garbage Into Roadside Treasure

I have become the biggest do it yourselfer since becoming a homeowner, and honestly I had no idea how much I loved restoring old looking things into something that looks as if I spent a whole lot of money on it.

Hence this old drawer. Sadly I did not take a before photo, and I regret doing so. At any rate, what we had was a beaten up old piece of garbage sitting on the side of the road, neglected, looking sad, and no one wanted it.

I however saw potential, and knew once I got it home, patched it up a little, sanded it down and filled in the cracks and holes with some wood filler, I would have me a nice sock and bra draw! And that my friends is exactly what I have!

I painted it to match my changing rooms pink and black theme, and added the hologram rainbow glitter to the black paint to give it a gnarly glistening effect. It actually looks a hell of a lot neater and prettier in person. 

All in all, if it is wood, and it is on the side of the road, I know there is potential. Glad for my keen eye... it was just what I needed!

There is a tutorial on how to add glitter to pain in my blog somewhere if you care to look for it. : )

Antique Gold Leaf 12 Light Chandelier - Painted Over!!!!

Someone out there would probably want to kill me if I told them that I painted over gold leaf. But, yep, I did just that.

I got this here old antique chandelier from the little old man that my other halfs mother takes care of. He had it hanging in his basement from a nail hook for over 60 years, and told me that if I could get it down, I could have it.

I had no clue what sort of condition it was in, or if it was even something I wanted, but he was so adamant about giving it to me that I of course took it upon myself to go and have a look.

It was unfortunately wrapped underneath a burlap sack, so I had no clue what it looked like till I got it down and unwrapped the old dusty burlap from it.

At any rate, the story I got was that he purchased it in the 1950's for $500. After unwrapping it and taking a glimpse at it, I was impressed, and knew that all it needed was some dusting. The thing was so old and untouched that the crystals on it were literally so dirty they looked frosted.

I cleaned it up, and took a look at it. The chandelier was stunning, but I simply cannot stand the gold color, and I knew it would not at all match the darker black, red and white hues going on in my parlor.

After some serious debating, and realizing this chandelier was worth quite a bit of money- according to ebay, people are buying these old things way over the $1,000 mark. I decided I would paint over the gold leaf.

Yup, cringe now.

I don't care though. I had no intentions of selling it, because I loved it so much. It took me a bit of time, but the chandelier

now hangs proudly in my home, and it really is quite the stunner. The photos just couldn't even do its beauty justice.

Martha Stewart Pink Glitter Paint Over Black Walls

Not really feeling it. The Martha Stewart Pink Glitter Paint is semi decent depending on what color background you are applying it to. I found it odd that it was a pink hue yet when dry gave off a green glitter shimmer. Meh, so be it.

At any rate, on top of black walls this is basically the results, it is more of a cosmic star sort of finish, which is not terrible, but if it is not something you are looking for, I'd skip it. It's also rather streaky.

Bull Terrier Puppy!!! Maybe!!!!....

I cannot lie, being in my new home for only 3 months now, and we have already gone through $10,000 just to get the place in order. I hate watching my savings dwindle down, but that is life...

At any rate, with that said we decided on one more semi large expense... however this one is a gift to ourselves that'll keep on giving... pee-poo-barking and so on.

We already have a bull terrier, he is one filled with energy, farts, burps, and lots of love. He is really a gentle giant, but has a lot of energy. Back when I lived home my brother had a boxer that Bully loved and adored. My brother moved, and took away his best friend. My little dog is just too tiny to play with Bully, and honestly my little guy hates him.

I caved this past week and started looking online for a semi stocky breed- one that could handle his rough housing. I was initially going to adopt a pit bull from the shelter, but as asinine as it sounds, I do have reservations about pit bulls in general... which I know- it is stupid, and it is so hypocritical of me considering the fact that Bull Terriers come from the line.

After poking around on the net, I found this one Bull Terrier though that stole my heart, and the reason was due to the fact that she has these markings that make it seem as if she actually has eyebrows!
It's rather interesting, and after posting a picture of her on my Facebook profile, a lot of my friends thought it was fake, or photoshopped, but the fact of the matter is that those are her real markings.

After contacting the owner I got some more photos sent to me of the little girl laying down. She appears a bit larger in the photos in comparison to this photo, so I am curious as to how big she really is. I know Bull Terrier puppies are larger in general. We got our fella at 6 months old and he was already nearly full grown.

At any rate, she is pricey, a $1,500 drop in my bank account, but figure she will make the perfect addition to our tiny family. More so for my big guy who misses his old pal. Hopefully this here puppy will keep him busy and out of my hair!

We are scheduled to go and meet the fog this Saturday in Queens. I initially was going to take the train, but figured riding in would probably be cheaper and faster.

Not sure if she is coming home with us or not yet, but I guess Saturday we will know!!! I'm excited!!!

UPDATE!!!

We got the little girl... her name is Demonia, and she is pretty high maintenance, a little more high maintenance than our first bully, but she is a riot, and fits in with our little family perfectly!!!!

Hand Sanding Old Wood Floors

Underneath the old shabby carpet in our parlor sat these wooden floors, likely not touched since the 50's, and ever since the 50's I am sure these poor wood floors have seen their fair share of cat pee, cat poo, dog doo, and all sorts of yucky and nasty....

It became my mission to restore the woodne floors in the house, to make them dark, shiny, and looking like a pile of new!!!

I knew I could easily just hire some handy man to sand them down and re-finish them, but I am not that sort of person. I would rather save myself $500, and tackle it myself. 

The photo shows what my floors look like now. Last night I found the time to whip out my orbital hand sander to begin sanding the floors by myself, by hand!

I was amazed at how nice the areas I covered looked with barely any effort on my part. My little Makita sander is a pretty awesome tool, and it seems to be scrapping up and sanding the floors right down to their natural beauty. 

I figure in due time, the entire parlor will be done and sanded, and ready for stain. 

I will come back and update this here blog piece as I move along in this particular room/floor. 

OK- So here is the during photo. This is the floors after about 6 hours of hand sanding using the orbital hand sander. I have to go down a little deeper till the wood is pale before I can stain it. However, 6 hours on my butt, and this was the result, which is not bad at all. What a difference! And they said it could not be done! Pssshhh.... it was actually quite easy and the room is rather large too.

But the best news is this:

When we first purchased the home we were told that only the parlor and small hallway were wood floors. However after making my way around the room, and getting to the threshold that connects the parlor to the kitchen, I discovered that the wood floors do in fact travel through the kitchen.

So--- tonight's big project when I get home from work is to yank up the old floors, and the baseboard laid down on top of the wood floors to reveal the wood floors in the kitchen! Crazy people who covered them up!

I am so excited about this and cannot wait to just get home today to begin!

That's me down there, excited to discover the wood floors in the kitchen! We don't know how far they travel, but we are about to find out~!

For those wondering, the hand sander I am using is the one available in the link below- the smaller 5 inch orbital sander.

In order to sand wood floors, you will want to use a low grit- anywhere from 20-30. I am using a 30 grit, only because they did not have the discs available in a 20 grit.

When all is said and done, I will re-post the finished product on this blog.