Furniture Makeovers & Building Stuff
Nursery Progress: Refinishing A Veneer Dresser
Well, we recently took on the biggest nursery project to date and we lived to tell the tale. This post is a bit of a two-fer, since it not only details how to stain any wooden or veneered piece of furniture but also touches on how to paint anything that’s wood or veneer since we did a two-toned treatment on a dresser that we hunted down on the cheap. That’s right, we stained our “new” six drawer dresser with a deep rich brown tone and painted the top a crisp and glossy white color. Here’s how it all went down.
First we had to search for something to add tons of storage space to our tiny-closeted nursery, so we measured the wall that we knew we would be dedicating to a nice double dresser and hopped on Craigslist chanting “less than sixty inches” and crossing our fingers. Our hope was to find something that was up on little legs (so it felt airier and less heavy than a legless version) and we also needed it to be deep enough to accommodate a 17″ wide changing pad since part of the dresser top will also be used as a diapering zone. We had a budget of $150 or less in mind, so we hoped to find something that was a few decades old and solidly made (as opposed to something more flimsy from Ikea circa 2005). We also wanted a piece with nice clean lines to work with our crib which is a bit on the modern side, so a super curvy dresser might feel a little out of place. A few days of stalking Craigslist turned up this listing:
The little legs along with the 54″ length was perfect, plus the clean-lined look of the dresser would work amazingly well with our crib. And did you see that price? Twenty bucks?! Yes please. I said a little prayer to the Craigslist gods and shot off an email right away. Less than three hours later we heard from the dresser’s owner and he said we were first in line if we still wanted it. We just had two more questions: what was the depth of the piece (just to be sure it wasn’t too narrow to accommodate our 17″ changing table pad) and was the dresser made of solid wood (since that’s a lot easier to refinish than something covered in laminate or thin flaking veneer).
The good news was that it was just deep enough for our changing pad. The bad news is that it was veneered (although still extremely solidly made with dovetailed joints, etc). Oh well, it was $20- what did we expect? The verdict: we said we’d love to take a look at it and again found ourselves crossing our fingers (this time in hopes that that the veneer was nice and thick so it could take some sanding and staining). See, the plan had always been to stain the dresser and paint the top a glossy white ever since we got our two toned crib and loved the look. But unlike solid wood, if veneer is too thin it’s pretty hard to sand and restain without going right through it and hitting the plywood underneath during the sanding step.
Luckily when we got there to check out our new Craigslist crush the dresser had amazingly thick veneering (about 1/4th of an inch) which made it easy to determine that we could totally sand it down and restain it without any trouble. Note: to check how thick your veneer is just open a drawer or look at the back of the piece where you’ll hopefully be able to see if it’s paper thin (aka: not-sandable) or thicker than a dime or so (aka: sandable).
Now certain that our dresser hunt was over and this was “IT”, we handed over twenty beans to our nice Craigslist friend and took home our “new” double dresser (thanks to John’s sister’s borrowed SUV- love you Emily!). Then it was time to refinish her. Here she is hanging out on the patio atop a nice big piece of cardboard to catch any stain, paint or primer drips during the muti-phase project:
You can see that the veneer is scraped and stained in a few areas and of course the finish isn’t deep and rich like the rest of the wood tones in our house (including the drawer on our new crib in the nursery). Hence the refinishing idea. Oh and it bears mentioning that this little staining & painting tutorial will work for any solid wood items as well as anything that’s veneered as long as the veneering isn’t paper thin. Note: this method is not recommended for any laminate furnishings because that material cannot be successfully stained since it’s not a true layer of wood.
The first thing we did was wipe everything down with a moist rag (both inside the drawers and out) just to remove any spiderwebs, old pen caps & pennies in the drawers, etc. Of course everything was about to get coated in sanding dust again momentarily, but it was a nice “reset” for the dresser and we were able to take things like random paperclips out of the drawers so they didn’t fly around when we got to our big sanding step. Oh and while we wiped things down we came across this label inside the top right drawer:
It turns out our twenty beans had scored us an original 50′s or 60′s mid-century dresser. Cool right? We thought so. And that explained why it was so well made and had such nice thick veneering (they just don’t make ‘em like they used to). Anyway, the next step was to break out our trusty sander and some extra sandpaper to get to all those crevices that it couldn’t reach by hand. We used 80 grit sandpaper to rough everything up and followed that with another soft sanding with 200 grit paper just to smooth things out. Oh and be sure to always sand WITH the grain of the wood for a nice natural look (nothing screams bad refinishing job like round sander circles that soak up stain and look even more obvious when you’re done).
Here’s a shot of our set-up. John got to work sanding the top, sides and front of the dresser along with the flat fronts of the drawers while I was in charge of getting into all the smaller crevices and built-in bentwood drawer pulls where the bulky electric sander couldn’t reach. We also set up a staining station for me to work on drawers on another piece of cardboard nearby (don’t worry, Mrs. Prego wore a mask to avoid inhaling anything nasty).
Once things were sanded down with both 80 grit and 200 grit sandpaper (with the grain of the wood) it was time to wipe everything down with a moist rag once again, this time to remove all that sanding dust. Then when things were thoroughly dry (you don’t want to stain a moist recently-wiped down drawer) it was staining time. We picked up a cheap-o synthetic 2″ angled brush (knowing that stain would likely ruin it) along with a pack of rags (which we used to wipe the stain off once we applied it) and a quart of Minwax Wood Finish stain in “Red Mahogany.” Note: we picked our stain color by taking a pretty true-looking photo of the crib drawer with our digital camera and bringing our camera with us to use as a reference while standing there in the stain aisle.
This kind of stain necessitates a coat of poly on top of it to seal everything and add a nice glossy finish but we intentionally opted for it because we knew we could use our eco-friendly Safecoat poly (which is lo-VOC, no-odor and 100% non-toxic… more on that later). We could have chosen to buying a stain with a poly sealer built right in, which is unquestionably the easier approach since it doesn’t call for the extra polying step at the end, but it’s also undeniably more fume-y and chemical-y, especially for something that will live in a nursery.
But it’s definitely worth noting that if you’re looking to take on a staining project and don’t mind the smellier chemicals in the poly-plus-stain-in-one option, just visit your local home improvement store to check out those “shortcut” products (also made by Minwax, although their color palette is a lot more limiting than the ones without poly worked in). We also tend to prefer liquid stain (like the one we chose above) over gel stain because we have more experience working with it, but we’ve heard that gel stain can also be amazing- especially for items that can’t be thoroughly sanded or those on a vertical plane (like wood trim) since the liquid stain can be too runny and messy. So definitely talk to the pros at your local home improvement store or do some preliminary google stain research to pick the right one for the job before you start.
But back to the matter at hand: staining our dresser. After everything was wiped down and dried completely I just used my 2″ brush to apply one thin and even coat of stain WITH the grain of the wood on each surface that I wanted to stain (the fronts of the drawers and the sides and front of the dresser). It went on incredibly smoothly since stain is very watery and the sanded veneer happily soaked it right up. Note: if your wood or veneer isn’t soaking up the stain you probably haven’t sanded it thoroughly enough, so go back and be sure to really sand through the existing poly so the wood underneath can absorb the stain.
Next we let the thin and even coat of stain sit on every surface that we applied it to for twenty full minutes. We wanted to achieve the richest and deepest absorption possible (which we reasoned would hide the most flaws and leave us with a nice saturated dark tone).
Then after those full twenty minutes we used a clean dry rag to gently rub- again in the direction of the wood- every plane of the dresser that we stained to remove the excess stain. Since we waited so long for ours to soak in we didn’t pull very much stain off at all (our rag was still dark brown but we didn’t see much of a change in tone on the dresser, for which we were extremely grateful). It’s important to remember that you should be gently running the rag along the surface to catch any excess stain but you shouldn’t be applying a lot of pressure (which will result in a streaky and worn down look). Slow and light is the name of the game.
Presto. When you get to this step you have officially stained your item of furniture. In other words, at this point there was a victory dance in progress on our patio. Of course there’s always the option to apply another coat of stain following the same steps outline above (brush on stain, let penetrate for a set amount of minutes, wipe away excess with clean dry rag) if you’d like a deeper or more uniform look. So if you’re left with a piece that is a bit to light or a bit too streaky for your liking we suggest going for a second coat and letting it sit at least 20 to 25 minutes to really soak things up before gently wiping it down again.
Now on to how we painted the top of the dresser (we’ll get back to polying the stained portion of the piece in a moment). We had already thoroughly sanded the top of the dresser before we began staining so the next step was to apply one thin and even coat of oil-based primer to the top of the dresser with a small foam roller (while being careful not to get any on the recently stained part of the piece). It’s always smart to work out a game plan so you’re not doing a second round of sanding as an afterthought which could result in your stain getting coated with sawdust. And when it came to priming, I was able to use my foam roller to carefully apply primer without getting any on the stained area, but if you don’t have a steady hand you can hold up a rigid piece of cardboard under the lip of the top of the piece to keep primer from getting where you don’t want it.
One thin and even coat of oil-based primer should do the trick. The coverage won’t look flawless but it’s there to provide tooth and some nice grip so it’s doing its job as long as everything is coated- even if it looks patchy and thin in some areas while other spots are thicker and less transparent. The reason we suggest oil-based primer over water-based formulas (or primer-&-paint-in-one products) is solely based on personal experience. We’ve attempted to paint furniture with water-based primer and have dealt with bubbling, tackiness, and terrible staining and bleed-through but have never had those problems with the oil-based stuff.
Of course the oil-based formulas are stinky and harder to clean up but it’s worth it to us to do the job right the first time instead of having to do everything over again when something bubbles or bleeds through your water-based coat of primer (which you often don’t see until after your last coat of paint dries- talk about annoying!). And obviously taking precautions like applying the primer in a well ventilated area (we prefer being outside) and even wearing a mask while you work is always recommended. Really, it’s nasty stuff so you want to get ‘er done but be as safe as possible while you’re at it.
The next step was applying three thin and even coats of semi-gloss latex paint with a second small foam roller (remember you can use latex paint over oil-based primer without issue, you just can’t use latex paint over oil-based PAINT since it’ll bubble and separate). We were sure to apply the paint extremely thinly and evenly and not to roll too quickly (which can rile up the paint and cause air bubbles). The white paint that we used is Freshaire’s off-the-rack white semi-gloss paint from Home Depot which is also what we use for all of the trim in our house and many other furniture projects. We love that it’s no-VOC and extremely comparable when it comes to the quality and coverage of other less-eco brands.
Then we just let everything dry for 48 hours (we brought the dresser into the sunroom in case of rain, but kept all the screen doors open for some nice ventilation so the stain and paint were both sure to cure up nice and solidly).
After two full days it was time to coat everything (both the painted top of the dresser and the stained base of the piece) with a nice protective, glossy and totally wipe-able top coat of Safecoat Acrylacq. Of course you can use a cheap and easy to find quart of basic water based polyurethane instead (sold in the same aisle as the Minwax stain) but if you’re not familiar with Safecoat it’s definitely worth checking out. We actually first used it here when we made a bathroom vanity from a night table, and we had most of the quart leftover so we happily used it to seal all that stain and primer/paint for a non-toxic, odor free finished product. Note: we found it at a local green boutique called Ecologic but you might want to google around or even check out greendepot.com to see if you can hunt any down for yourself.
We just applied two thin and even coats of the stuff with a brush (giving it ample drying time in between coats- about five hours or so- to avoid any tackiness or drag marks). You should not get brush strokes if you apply this (or any other water-based poly) very thinly- about as thin as an eggshell or a piece of paper. And you definitely want to brush it on WITH the grain of the wood and gently brush out any bubbles that you see (bubbles can dry and remain forever). The only way you’ll end up with a marred finish or unsightly brush stokes would be if you apply it too thickly or don’t allow an area to thoroughly dry before touching it up again. So gently brush out bubbles as you go and apply very thin even coats, then wait to do a second coat and resist the urge to go over areas that you already did a minute or two before to “clean them up” (because you’ll do more harm than good).
Here are our glorious and glossy drawers drying:
We gave everything three full days to completely cure in our well-ventilated sunroom so by the time we brought the dresser into our nursery over 72 hours later everything was nice and solid so we didn’t have to worry about getting rings on the tabletop if we placed an object on it. Plus everything was 100% odor free and non-toxic thanks to those last coats of Safecoat, so it was nice to walk into the nursery and visit the dresser without smelling it from a mile away. You know how we like to visit our recent projects (we hung out in our recently renovated bathroom for weeks after we finished that big makeover).
So here’s our “after” of a dresser living it up in the nursery:
Isn’t the two-tone finish fun? We think it ties in perfectly with our crib, and it sort of has a kitchen island effect (it’s reminiscent of rich dark cabinets with a glossy white countertop). Plus we love that the entire piece is super protected and wipe-able thanks to the Safecoat, so whether the beanette decides to have a digestive explosion while we change her or throw a wood block at the dresser in a fit of rage, we’re pretty sure it’s up for the challenge.
We also love the hardware-free handles since they’re unusual and interesting- and the fact that we get six spacious drawers for storing everything from clothes and diapers to books and toys is really the icing on the cake.
Oh and we know you guys love a budget breakdown, so here you go:
- Dresser: $20 from Craigslist
- Sandpaper: already owned (80 grit and 200 grit)
- Electric Sander: already owned – it’s by Black & Decker from Home Depot for around $50)
- Stain: $7.02 (Minwax Wood Finish stain in “Red Mahogany” from Home Depot)
- Ten cloth rags: $2
- Cheap synthetic brush for stain: $2.49
- Two small foam rollers for primer/paint: already owned
- Oil-based primer: already owned
- Freshaire White Semi-Gloss paint: already owned
- Safecoat: already owned
- TOTAL: $31.51
Not bad right? We totally expected to come in around $175 because our original budget was $150 for a large super-solid double dresser from Craigslist and we knew we’d need some supplies. But our budgetary surplus just means that we have more money leftover for a few other fun nursery projects (we still have art, DIY shelving, a homemade mobile, closet organization and lots more on the agenda). Oh and we actually have a second dresser project to share a little later in the week (lets just say we had the time of our lives lining the drawers so we’ll be back with those details). Stay tuned…
And while we’re on the subject of staining and painting furniture, have you guys taken on any big makeovers of your own? We’d love to hear what you’ve been up to. And since we also owe this dresser makeover to Craigslist for supplying this beauty (we still can’t believe it’s an original 50′s or 60′s dresser) feel free to tell us all about any and all recent Craigslist finds that you guys have snagged. Fun, fun, fun.
Psst- Wanna see our nursery progress from the very beginning? Here’s our painting post, our big shopping spree, our crib hunting rundown, our curtain-making tutorial, and our fun little chair search, our mirror-painting extravaganza, and our DIY faux sheepskin project.
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Tackling The Bathroom: Chapter Seven
I’m back with the LAST chapter before the quote-unquote “big reveal” next week. I know you might be rolling your eyes at the continued suspense, but the wait actually mimics the true pace of this project. This ain’t no TV show where you get a before and after tied up nicely with a bow 30 minutes later. Instead you get the nitty gritty play-by-play as we go. But lucky for you it’s a bit less dusty and tiring than what we’ve been experiencing firsthand. Plus you’ve all been happily showering at home every day over the last month while you patiently (or not so patiently) wait for the after pics. In contrast, we just took our first shower in the newly completed bathroom this morning after about a month of remote gym showering- oh happy day. So hold your breath a smidge longer as we take you through last weekend’s big project: the vanity!
Just as Sherry described in our first bathroom post, we opted to create our own DIY vanity by retrofitting a piece of furniture. Despite drooling over similar options at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, we weren’t about to blow our budget on a $1500 piece. So thanks to some internet sleuthing by Sherry and a full day of home decor & thrift store hopping (don’t I deserve good husband points for that?) we settled on a discounted clean-lined white sink and a sleek chrome faucet from Overstock.com that we’d pair with a Crate & Barrel night table purchased with a 15% off coupon (see more info about the mood board below here).
Those finds added up to a modern-meets-traditional vanity that barely touched the $400 mark… not bad when you look at vessel sink cabinet options from Lowe’s and Home Depot that ring in at around $500 without including the faucet or the sink in that price (like this one and this one). Oh and we actually ended up ordering a slightly different faucet than the one in the mood board above (from amazon.com with free shipping instead of from a random ebay seller) so that explains why it looks a bit different in the pics below.
Anyway, assembling (yes it came home in a “some assembly required” flat box) the night table was so easy a pregnant lady could do it (in fact, one did while I was tiling). But since the finish on a night table isn’t quite splash ready, we added some extra durability and waterproofing with three coats of protective laquer. After some research, Sherry discovered an eco-alternative to our usual go-to: oil-based polyurethane. We bought this Safecoat Acrylaq at a local store called EcoLogic, where the sales person swore by its easy application and durability.
Although the Safecoat is low-VOC, Sherry took the extra-cautious-mom-to-be route and applied all three coats (after giving everything a light sanding) on the porch just to be as well ventilated as possible. Yes, a pregnant girl sealing a dresser on a front porch is something our neighbors put up with thanks to our home improvement obsession. And while we haven’t really put it through years of rigorous testing yet, so far we’ve been extremely impressed with the lacquer we chose. Droplets of water bead up right on the surface and it seems as though this stuff is generally impervious to water (which is a good thing in a bathroom). Here’s what it looked like all Acrylaq-ed up and begging for some vanity-ification:
The elbow greasiest part of the project was poking holes in all the right places so the faucet, sink and related plumbing would all sit nicely (and firmly) in the right spots. So once the night table dried (and the floors were in place) we put the table in the bathroom to see what modifications we’d have to make to accommodate the plumbing. Luckily, the p-trap sat perfectly under the drawer and upper shelf, meaning both of the bottom shelves could stay 100% intact (this felt like a miracle discovery at the time- picture cartwheels and happy jigs). But of course, the hot & cold water pipes stuck right into the back of the drawer (and I’d need to drill some holes in the top of the vanity for the drain and faucet to pass through).
So I carefully marked which sections of wood needed to go and started cutting away. Despite my new obsession with power saws, I did this the old fashioned way: drilling a pilot hole big enough to get my handsaw through and then cutting things manually. It was actually pretty easy considering a lot of what I was cutting were thin panels, not thick support legs.
With the back cut out enough to accommodate the plumbing so we could push the night table flush against the bathroom wall, our next step was to figure out where we needed to make those two holes through the top. Our main concern was making sure we drilled the hole for the sink drain directly above the p-trap so no “creative” pipe tricks would be required. Fortunately, it only required some creative marking techniques instead. We simply used a slightly trimmed, empty paper towel tube as a stand-in drain pipe followed by a silver Sharpie centered in the tube to mark the underside of the tabletop. After drilling a small guide hole up through that spot, I officially had my mark to begin carving a big hole in the top from above.
Using the measurements included in our sink’s directions, I purchased a hole boring bit for my drill to do the job precisely. It was totally worth the $6. I was through the thick tabletop in no time with a perfectly sized hole (and a bit of a mess – good thing we had laid down a towel and a plastic bag for easy clean-up afterwards).
We then put the sink temporarily in place to make sure the drain stopper fit (it did) and figure out exactly where we wanted the faucet to go from there. With that marked, it took just another few spins of the drill to have the second hole ready to go.
Next we decided to install the faucet before placing the vanity in the bathroom, mainly because it would be easier to screw it tightly in place from behind (without a wall in the way). After attaching the provided hot and cold braided hoses to the faucet itself, we just fed them through the top of the hole and began tightening the nuts on the other side. This is where we realized another strip of wood had to be cut out so that the nut sat flush and tight against the underside of the vanity top. A few cuts of the saw and one creepy, reflected glare later, we had this:
Note that my cuts are far from pretty – but since they’re all hidden against the back wall (with a soon-to-be-adapted drawer that would obscure them from the front) I wasn’t too concerned with how they looked as long as they were in the right place. Someone would literally have to remove the drawer and squat down to be at eye level with the vanity to see ‘em.
So with the faucet firmly attached and everything tightened, we carried the piece into the bathroom and connected the water hoses to the plumbing on the wall. This step just called for a combination of plumber’s tape and a few turns of the wrench (the key is tight, but not overtight!). Oh and we can’t forget my simple “paper towel test” (patent pending… not really) to see if anything was leaking. Explanation: I hold up a dry paper towel for about 60 seconds to see if any water spots appear. No spots = you’re good to go. Then with both water hoses attached, I shoved them as far back in the drawer cavity as possible and sailed along to the next task (we’ll explain how we retrofitted the drawer bit later).
The next thing on the agenda was attaching the sink, which would be held in place through a combination of plumbing and adhesive. But before doing that, we carefully did a “dry run” installation where I brought the vanity, sink and faucet in and loosely hooked up all of the plumbing to make sure things were lining up perfectly. Fortunately, they were – except that I need about 4″ of extension pipe to connect everything. But even an unplanned trip to the home improvement store couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the progress we had made in about an hour of vanity building. For instance, see how much happier/crazier I look in the “after” sink picture below? I look like I’m auditioning for Glee.
Ok, so after returning with the small section of extension pipe that we needed to connect all the plumbing, we now had the confidence to glue the above-counter sink onto the top of the vanity. For this we used a clear waterproof silicone caulk – since it would do both the job of adhering and blocking water. Plus, the guy at Lowe’s had just done something similar in his bathroom the week before and was convincingly confident about it (and we knew the plumbing for the drain would also firmly hold the sink in place for added security).
We laid a line of silicone along both edges where the sink would rest on the vanity top (the bottom of the sink appears flat in the photo below, but it actually arcs in the middle so we only applied caulk where the sink would directly make contact with the vanity). Oh and we did leave a small break in the caulk line at the back of the sink – reasoning that if we had a leak issue down the road, it would be nice for it to seap out the back of the sink where we could see it (instead of silently collecting between the sink and the vanity top while we had no idea what water damage was lurking underneath). Oh, and even though the caulk looks white in the picture it dries clear.
With the sink laid carefully in place and pressed down, it was ready for plumbing. Since I’d confirmed that all the plumbing would fit together before during my “dry run,” there wasn’t much magic to this step. I inserted the drain stopper from the top, screwed on and tightened the washer and nut from the bottom (all per sink instructions) and attached the rest of the drain pipe using plumber’s tape and some tightening (but not overtightening) with a wrench. Then – with my trusty paper towel sitting on the shelf under it to help me identify leaks – we turned on the water and (after a couple of tightening adjustments) had a leak free sink. Victory. More happy jigs and cartwheels ensued.
Then we whipped out the same clear silicone caulk that we used to hold the sink down to seal around the base of the sink where it meets the vanity (except for that small span of space in the back which we left unsealed to alert us of any potential under-sink leaks). Looks pretty much complete, eh?
Nope, two other tasks were in order before we could wash our hands of this project (and then subsequently wash our hands in this project). First we wanted to be 100% sure that our DIY vanity wouldn’t pull away from the wall (since the only thing holding it in place were some pipes). So using some simple L brackets and a few long screws we secured the vanity tightly against the wall in two spots right under the drawer base (meaning they’re completely hidden from view). Now this baby isn’t going anywhere.
Our second job was to adjust the drawer to work around all of the plumbing that I had just carefully installed right behind it. Thanks to some trial-and-error before moving the piece into the bathroom, we figured out that all we needed to do to salvage the function of the drawer was to trim the big base panel and reinstall the back panel at a shorter depth (ie: shorten the drawer to create clearance for the pipes). This was easy since Sherry had constructed the thing in the first place, so it was no big deal to take the drawer apart and make those adjustments.
After unscrewing and removing the back of the drawer and sliding out the bottom panel, we used a circular saw to shorten the bottom to the new depth. The wood was thin so a handsaw would’ve easily cut it, but this cut needed to be straight for a secure fit (so not trusting my hand, I went over the top and headed to the garage where the power tools with laser guides could do my dirty work). The shortened base panel slid right back into place and with a few self-made drill holes, we easily attached the back of the drawer at the new depth.
So with the drawer in place (which left just enough room to store toothbrushes, toothpaste, contact cases and deodorant) we were officially D-O-N-E with the vanity! And it only took a few hours to accomplish the whole thing. Not bad for saving several hundred bucks, right?
And now that this chapter is also d-o-n-e, the next post up will show you the whole shebang completed and accessorized. Not to mention a full budget breakdown and us answering the ten million dollar question: would we do it all again? And don’t worry, we’ll still follow-up after the big reveal with other details like how we reglazed the tub and made some new art. Details, details. But one thing we won’t be covering is the riveting tale of re-installing the toilet, which you can see is already in place (since we’ve got that step-by-step available here). Besides, I’m spent.
What about you guys? Has anyone else altered a piece of furniture in some way to make it more customized and functional for your home? Sherry’s mom actually turned an old cabinet into a sink over ten years ago, on a serious budget no less (so that’s where Sherry gets it from!). We’d love to know what sort of furniture “hacks” you guys are taking on these days. Do tell.
Wanna read about the first few chapters of the big bathroom makeover? Check out Chapter One (Moodboard), Chapter Two (Demo), Chapter Three (Wall Reconstruction), a little teaser post, Chapter Four (Tiling), Chapter Five (Grouting) and Chapter Six (Trim) right here.
Tackling The Basement: Chapter Eight
We know this was supposed to be the final chapter when it comes to our big basement makeover, but because we tackled two different DIY projects (making a screen to block off our fugly water heater and frosting the windows for 100% privacy that still lets in the light) we realized it would be crazy to try to squeeze all those step by step photos and instructions into one post… so we’re breaking it down to two. Just look at it as twice the fun. So without further ado, here’s how we made a custom screen to hide our eye-sore of a water heater with $18 worth of secondhand bi-fold doors and a quart of punchy bright green paint (stay tuned for the window-frosting tutorial coming soon).
Before we get into all the nitty gritty details, we should remind you what the aforementioned water heater looks like. Remember this guy?
Of course the room has come a long way from that point (we added a rug, brought in a bike rack, upgraded the the lighting situation, papered the insides of the armoires, hung some art, brought in some storage, and organized our paint). But the frighteningly gross water heater remained… taunting us with its hideousness. We debated springing for a tankless variety, but because we’re big fans of working with what you have (and didn’t want to cart off our fully functional water heater to a landfill) we opted to create a screen that will block off the water heater along with the ugly trap door in the wall behind it (which leads to the crawl space under the house). And when this water heater finally breathes it’s last breath we’ll definitely consider upgrading to a tankless one (and we’ll still be able to use the screen to hide the unsightly trap door in the wall behind it).
But how did we end up with a giant screen without blowing our meager basement budget (many store-bought ones are in the $100-300 range and a bunch of those weren’t even tall enough to work for our space)? We just brainstormed materials that we could use to whip one up on the cheap. Here’s how it all went down.
Step 1: Locate three adequately tall bi-fold doors that are sturdy enough to stand on their own and will easily obscure a 6′ water heater. After debating the use of everything from all-weather curtain panels hung from the ceiling to bookcases on wheels (which could be pushed aside for water heater access) we finally decided a screen was the perfect solution for our space. And what’s an easier way to make a screen than hinging three bi-fold doors together and calling it a day? At first we thought about cutting a full sized door in half but bi-folds are like pre-cut doors, so they’re ready to go. Even better. Plus they’re easy to move, relatively simple to find, and definitely would add some playful color to the room if we opted to paint them a bold hue.
So a plan was born. For just $18 we snagged these three bi-fold doors at our local Habitat For Humanity ReStore (they were having a 40% off door sale when we went in- uh, awesome!). Plus they already came with enough hinges to join them all together and create one large screen. Jackpot.
When we got to the checkout the lady was like “um, you’re missing a door” (since there are supposed to be four) but we explained that this wonky set of three bi-folds was actually perfect for us since we were going to make a screen by joining them together and didn’t need a fourth. She seemed excited for us until we mentioned that we were going to attempt to shove them into our good ol’ Nissan Maxima. Then she just shook her head and muttered good luck. Of course we took it as a personal challenge…
That’s me flashing my victory smile. A lot of people write to us and ask how we take on so many projects with such a small car. We’re just like anyone else with a modestly sized ride… we squeeze things in when we can and call John’s sister and beg to borrow her Ford Explorer when we can’t. In a pinch we’ve even been known to rent a pick-up truck from Home Depot for a few hours, just to cart something around. It’s all about, in the words of the ever-fabulous Tim Gunn, making it work.
Tip: when you recline the front seat and place large objects in the car as we did above, you can actually fasten the passenger side seat belt across them, which can help keep things safely in place so they don’t slide around and encroach on the person in the back seat- especially when she has an ever-expanding belly full of baby to protect).
Step 2: Place bi-fold doors on cardboard (for painting) and hinge them together in the room where your screen will be living (to avoid the annoyance of building it in one place and then moving it halfway across the house afterwards). When we finally got our precious cargo home we placed the doors on a large piece of paint-ready cardboard, hinged them together with the free hinges that we inherited with the doors, and stepped back to take a look. By golly this just might work. We also did a bit of puttying/sanding to fill in any recessed parts of the doors and smooth out anything that wasn’t exactly ready for paint (but for $18 pre-used doors, they weren’t bad at all).
Step 3: Paint your newly made screen. That’s it. You’re done. I guess we should elaborate a bit. We used one quart of semi-gloss latex paint by Behr, which we had color matched to Benjamin Moore’s Bunker Hill Green 566. Two coats later John was finished. I love this whole being pregnant thing. No painting for me (of course for the impending bathroom and nursery projects we’ll be using no-VOC paint so I’ll be back on painting duty, but for the separate entry basement we figured low-VOC Behr paint worked for us- and at just $14 for the quart it put our total cost for the entire screen project at… (drumroll please)… $32!
We love the happy burst of emerald green that it brings to the space (it complements the paper behind the armoire doors, the large green tupperware bins we brought in, the storage boxes in our Ikea workstation, and even the subtle green stripes in the rug). And the function is great. It definitely hides the ugly stuff but still makes it easily accessible. Best of all, there’s still more than enough room- over 35″- to walk to the other side of the basement, roll out our bikes, etc.
So that’s how you give an old set of bi-fold doors a whole new life on the cheap. We’ll be back with a window frosting tutorial followed by an entire basement project wrap-up (complete with photos from start to finish and even a budget breakdown for your viewing pleasure). And while we’re on the subject of repurposing bi-fold doors, have you guys reused doors or windows in any interesting ways? We’d love to hear how you’re giving old household staples a second life with a bit of DIY determination so do tell.
Psst- Want to look back on our big basement makeover from start to almost-finished? Here’s the first post, the second post, the third post, the forth post, the fifth post, the sixth post, and the seventh post. Ah memories.
Tackling The Basement: Chapter Six
We’re back with our weekly basement update (here’s where we left off) and this week we painted the dingy built-in cabinet, added some art, obscured the semi-sheer doors to our armoires and brought in a bevy of bins to organize everything we have on hand (and everything we’re sure we’ll acquire down the line- now there’s lots of room to grow). Here’s just a taste of the latest updates:
But before we get to all the dirty details we owe a huuuuuge thank you to the wonderful peeps at True Value who made a lot of this week’s undertakings possible thanks to their generous gift card (which we’ve been using left and right these days). True Value was the source of the paint for the built-in and a slew of storage bins that we picked up to maximize both armoires and the space under the little Ikea table that we already owned near the door. Our basement never looked so good. Seriously the spiders who used to live down there wouldn’t even recognize the place. Thanks True Value!
But back to this week’s latest projects. First we grabbed some crisp white semi-gloss paint to clean up the built-in wall cabinet that we inherited with the house (we have big plans for what we’ll store there so stay tuned). Here’s what we started with, just to refresh your memory:
And here’s how it looks with a few coats of white paint. It honestly looks as new as our recently purchased Ikea desk to the left of it. Yay paint!
You also may have noticed that we dealt with the semi-sheer panels on the two wardrobes we recently picked up. See, after we filled one with our giant Christmas tree bag and added a few bins up top…
… and used the other armoire to house eight variously sized bins (only two of which we’ve filled- so we still have a lot of available real estate)…
… we were left with colors coming through the fronts of the doors, which looked a bit chaotic and unbalanced thanks mostly to the big red tree bag on the right.
So we snagged two rolls of green and white wrapping paper from Target and cut them each down the middle of the roll to create four nearly perfectly sized panels of paper that we trimmed down a bit more and double-stick-taped to the inside of each door.
Presto, fun color and pattern that comes right through the semi-sheer door panes and adds some textured interest to the entire room. And the total project cost was just $6 (with some paper left over to wrap a few presents). Can’t beat that with a stick.
And you might notice the art hanging above the armoire (along with the large black and white framed print leaning above the table near the window). Well, the print near the window was one that we already had laying around – and it was as if it was meant for the basement (the black frame and moody art looks great with the black stripes in our rug). And the long framed piece above the armoire was actually a recent groomsman gift for John (it’s our last name spelled out in photographs of objects that resemble letters) and it also worked perfectly with the newly spruced basement color scheme.
But how did we hang the print above the armoire when our cinder block walls are so famously difficult to screw into (everything we’ve attempted to secure into the wall pulls out seconds later with a puff of dust)? Well, we grabbed some Command Picture Hanging Strips… and they did the trick! They’re super strong sticky strips that act sort of like extra-strength velcro to hold things in place.
You just remove the protective backing and stick one side to the back of the frame…
… and remove the other side’s protective backing and stick that side of the strip to the wall. Then you apply some decent pressure to the frame against the wall to get things to stick well for about a minute and then separate the pseudo-velcro strips so the pieces on the wall can “cure” for an hour or two without the weight of the frame pulling down on them. Then it’s time to reattach the velcro-ish pieces on the back of the frame to the two pieces that are then completely secure on the wall. Voila: your art is officially hung in a totally screw-free manner. It was so much less frustrating than fighting with our temperamental cinder block!
And because we visually revealed what we were using the bins in both armoires to store (some Halloween decor, an air mattress, some family quilts, etc) we might as well share what those two green bins under the table by the window are currently housing:
They’re storing all of our Christmas decor, which is super amazing since it used to be strewn about the house in various kitchen cabinets, bins under the bed, and boxes in my closet.
It’s so nice to have everything reunited in those cheerful oversized green bins. This stuff shouldn’t excite us that much but for some strange reason it just rocks our world.
So that’s where we are as of this week. Of course we’re still not finished (we have to add some privacy to those windows, create a screen to hide the ugly water heater and share our fun little storage project for the newly painted built-in cabinet) so stay tuned. And speaking of not being finished, do you guys have any projects that are half done? We’d love to know what you’ve started but have yet to finish. Because we of all people can totally relate to how that feels…
Psst- Want to look back on our big basement makeover from start to almost-finished? Here’s the first post, the second post, the third post, the forth post, and the fifth post. Ah memories.
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