Since buying my new home I have been on a real kick when it comes to
adding a sparkling shimmer to some of the bedroom walls. I have been
painting, and trying out new techniques, as well as trying to figure out
what the best on the market method of painting your walls with glitter
is.
I have hit a few road bumps, but discovered that the easiest way to do
it is by simply blowing glitter onto the walls and finishing it up with
a clear sealer.
However when I discovered that Glidden had come out with a new line of
interesting specialty finishes, I was one of the first on line to
picking up a can. I came across Disney All That Glitters Specialty
Finishing Paint at Walmart for about $10 for a half gallon. Which in my
opinion is more than enough to finish a decent sized bedroom.
I was planning on trying it out over black for a quick and eye catching glitter effect that I knew would be recognizable.
I was pretty baffled when I popped open the top though to reveal
nothing but a big old bucket of what appeared to be white milky colored
glue. Apparently though it would dry clear, and the glitter would be
revealed. I could only hope that it worked as promised, and that the
finishing results would be a nice glittery shimmery effect.
Results:
Well, yes Disney All That Glitters Paint did in fact work fine over
paint. However I did not know firsthand that the glitter that would be
revealed once the paint dried would be one flustered with rainbow
colored thicker round flecks of glitter.
For me it was sort of tacky, and I would have loved to have seen smaller flecks of glitter used, instead of thick cuts of it.
Now I cannot bash the specialty finish too much because there is
surely a lot of glitter throughout the paint, which was a plus, but the
glitter quality itself could have been a heck of a lot better. Finer
glitter and instead of a rainbow array of colors, silver would have been
nicer, and it would have allowed me to use this specialty finish on
more walls.
I wanted a classy elegant touch of glitter, but instead ended up with a
more confetti like finish which I did not really care for all that
much.
Overall:
Although Disney All That Glitters Paint was not necessarily for me, it
still worked very well. It was cleaner than blowing glitter onto the
walls, it worked better than the small containers of expensive glitter
finishes from Martha Stewart, it did not change the color of the paint I
used it on top of, and it dried quickly. In my opinion these are all
major pluses when it comes to this particular finish.
For young girls with a princess bedroom theme this finish would be
perfect and add an adorable touch to the walls that kids would love.
However for larger more open rooms like your living room, this would not
be the specialty finish you would want to use.
I am pretty sure that there are other finishes that may not contain
such large confetti like glitter flecks, but I was not able to find it
in the store.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
How to Stain Wood Floors Black
I bought my first house back in October, and ever since moving in and
discovering old rickety looking wood floors underneath the old cat pee
stained carpet, it became my personal mission to sand the floors myself,
and then stain them.
Black!
Now I am an absolute beginner when it comes to home improvement projects, but I must say, I learn fast and go about things in my own manner. I basically hope for the best as I go about home projects, and you know what? I do a pretty darn good job when it comes to a task at hand.
When I told everyone my plans for a black as night wood floor, I got a few raised eyebrows, and a lot of others whom claimed I shouldn't do it because it would show every hair, bubble or bit of dust. The funny thing about all of their testimony was that none of them ever had black wood floors done in their home, so I ignored all negativity and perused my mission for black wood floors.
Step 1-
You will need to sand your floors. Some will tell you to sand the heck out of them until they are their original pale yellow raw color. We however are using black stain, so just make sure you sand off any surface layers of old polyurethane.
You can go about sanding the floors in 2 ways. If you are crazy like me, you can take a few weeks to hand sand them using an orbital sander. This was the method I used. It takes a lot of time and patience, but I got through it, and it was no tiny room either!
The second way you can do this would be to rent a drum sander, however you can really mess your floors up if you do not know how to use one.
Hence being the girl I am, and the fact that I was afraid to ruin my floors, I did it all with a 5 inch orbital. Yeah, crazy. I know!
Step 2-
Once your floors are completely sanded, you now must go about the daunting task of cleaning, mopping, cleaning, vacuuming, and repeating these steps until the floors are literally spotless. For me, this was actually harder than the sanding, because even after thinking every fleck of dirt or hair is gone, you'd be surprised to find how wrong you are.
Step 3-
Stain! Now there is this really neat stuff out there that is literally a polyurethane and stain in one. We used this in a color called ebony. However we discovered that this stuff was really low quality, and the finish was not quite what we wanted.
When working with the stain go with the grain of the wood. I used a regular paint brush to stain each individual strip of wood. I worked slowly, and carefully.
Step 4-
Allow it to dry for at least 6 hours before using/walking on the floors.
We did not really like the low quality flat finish that this 2 in 1 product left behind, and turned it into a high quality finish by simply adding Minwax clear gloss finish on top of this. I did this by easily working in the same manner as I did when applying the stain.
This literally allowed the floors to shine brightly and look a lot nicer than when it was a flat color.
Step 5-
Once the clear coat is dried, you can use your floors. We allowed it to dry for 3 hours before it was fully dry and safe to walk on.
Tips-
Do not drag furniture across floors, it can and likely will scratch it.
Black!
Now I am an absolute beginner when it comes to home improvement projects, but I must say, I learn fast and go about things in my own manner. I basically hope for the best as I go about home projects, and you know what? I do a pretty darn good job when it comes to a task at hand.
When I told everyone my plans for a black as night wood floor, I got a few raised eyebrows, and a lot of others whom claimed I shouldn't do it because it would show every hair, bubble or bit of dust. The funny thing about all of their testimony was that none of them ever had black wood floors done in their home, so I ignored all negativity and perused my mission for black wood floors.
Step 1-
You will need to sand your floors. Some will tell you to sand the heck out of them until they are their original pale yellow raw color. We however are using black stain, so just make sure you sand off any surface layers of old polyurethane.
You can go about sanding the floors in 2 ways. If you are crazy like me, you can take a few weeks to hand sand them using an orbital sander. This was the method I used. It takes a lot of time and patience, but I got through it, and it was no tiny room either!
The second way you can do this would be to rent a drum sander, however you can really mess your floors up if you do not know how to use one.
Hence being the girl I am, and the fact that I was afraid to ruin my floors, I did it all with a 5 inch orbital. Yeah, crazy. I know!
Step 2-
Once your floors are completely sanded, you now must go about the daunting task of cleaning, mopping, cleaning, vacuuming, and repeating these steps until the floors are literally spotless. For me, this was actually harder than the sanding, because even after thinking every fleck of dirt or hair is gone, you'd be surprised to find how wrong you are.
Step 3-
Stain! Now there is this really neat stuff out there that is literally a polyurethane and stain in one. We used this in a color called ebony. However we discovered that this stuff was really low quality, and the finish was not quite what we wanted.
When working with the stain go with the grain of the wood. I used a regular paint brush to stain each individual strip of wood. I worked slowly, and carefully.
Step 4-
Allow it to dry for at least 6 hours before using/walking on the floors.
We did not really like the low quality flat finish that this 2 in 1 product left behind, and turned it into a high quality finish by simply adding Minwax clear gloss finish on top of this. I did this by easily working in the same manner as I did when applying the stain.
This literally allowed the floors to shine brightly and look a lot nicer than when it was a flat color.
Step 5-
Once the clear coat is dried, you can use your floors. We allowed it to dry for 3 hours before it was fully dry and safe to walk on.
Tips-
Do not drag furniture across floors, it can and likely will scratch it.
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
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. : )
Sunday, December 1, 2013
Antique Gold Leaf 12 Light Chandelier - Painted Over!!!!
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.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)