River Rock Fireplace

While the kitchen has been hogging up all my brain time, string art & the rest of my life have put the progress at a standstill.  The weather has suddenly decided that yes, fall is actually here, and it's getting chilly! So other projects have taken precedence, like gutter cleaning, wall building (ugh!), and heater buying (totally caved...).  So today I want to share a quick update we gave our fireplace recently. This is a really easy, non-permanent update you can do in a weekend, and I haven't really seen it anywhere else.  Perfect for renters!

When we white-washed the fireplace I mentioned this idea, and finally one Sunday afternoon we just went for it. When I say it's easy, I mean.. really easy. The hardest part is rinsing the rocks. Which, was easy. Rocks, being naturally non-flammable, should hold up to the heat that the stove gives off.  The bricks around the stove are never really HOT in the winter, so I'm not worried.  The rocks don't go UNDER.... just around.

Here's how easily you can throw this together, you need:

• Rocks. Your choice of style. We chose Mexican river pebbles.
• Wood, for the border. We used 1" x 4" 
• Stain & Poly (or use the Vinegar & Tea recipe)
• Miter saw, or miter box, to cut 45 degree angles.

We started with our stove sitting in this brick area, which, if you look closely, is pretty beat up...

The front right corner there. Seems the last owner chopped wood (and missed..) non stop on that area, and has totally broken up the bricks. Replacement at this time wasn't in the forecast, so covering it was the next best thing.  First, a border had to be placed, since we didn't want stones all over the carpet.

Whoah, blurry photo! Ah well, you know how it goes.  All we did here was measure the area, mark that on one side of the wood, and cut at 45 degrees inward (meaning, the measurement will be on the LONG side), and set it in place.  The fit was perfect, and didn't need any securing.  If yours does, I suggest a little super strength double sided tape. That should hold it still.

Meanwhile, we washed our rocks by putting a few hand fulls in a bucket full of water, and placing them on towels in the sun after.  That took forever, but was necessary.  Look at our clever way of bringing them in, it's like a little hammock!

So that's it really, you just start spreading your rocks around.  Super complicated, huh? I know...

A large part of me wanted to stray from the original plan to stain the border, and keep it natural. But being on the floor, I figured it's better to have some protection on it. (side note, anyone know how to fix that ever growing crack in the ceiling? It's like, the drywall tape or something...)  Here's the stain:

Much better! I did the Tea & Vinegar stain technique from the antique crate post, I just love that trick. Then I coated in a semi-gloss Minwax Polycrylic, one of my favorites.

I cleaned the glass, but the inside was pretty dirty, and now in plain view. So for the summer I just adhered a little wrapping paper in there, which, of course, will NOT be there once we start using this bad boy. (duh!) You probably noticed the back isn't filled in with stones. Yep - we didn't listen to the guy at the store when he recommended an amount for this size area, and we had to go back. Boo....

But you get the idea. Isn't that neat? I've always loved rocks, especially river rocks.  Just another way to bring the outdoors in, and add a little texture in here.  It actually feels really good to walk across these, like a little massage.. ahh....

All done!  Just for fun here's what we started with, less than a year ago, before the whitewash:

Yea, so nothing terribly tricky, or tutorial worthy... pretty much just cut a frame, popped it in & filled it up. When winter comes (right around the friggin corner!) I am thinking of putting one round concrete stepping stone near the door (on the right side) so I can split kindling. Something the last owner did NOT think of. 

That's about it... 

What do you think? Before you say it - someone already asked "how on earth will you clean that?!" and someone else suggested using the vacuum with the brush attachment. Problem solved! Perfect too, because I had NOT even thought about cleaning.  Thanks guys! 

Enjoy your day, get something pumpkin-ey, because it's October, so everything is pumpkin.  Shouldn't be hard. Seriously, yesterday I saw pumpkin bagels... who knew?

-Jesse

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Related Posts:

• How To: White Wash the Brick Fireplace
• DIY Black & White Brushstroke Art (on the sides of the brick)
• Painting the Living Room Green
• DIY Black Tea & Vinegar Stain Recipe

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Painting the Kitchen Cabinets: Part 2

Do you ever have those weeks, where your day job says to you "Yea, this is all you'll be doing this entire week, including evenings"? That's me this week, it's my turn.  I haven't had a spare moment aside from working, eating & sleeping - crazy! But I found time to sneak in a post, since I felt so guilty being postless all week.... Last week I posted Part 1 of Painting the kitchen cabinets, and this week I'm so excited to show the rest:

Aaaaah! Fresh & Clean.... this time we used the sprayer, which is pretty self explanatory, maybe I'll do a post on it someday though.  But as you know, we DID do the white ones by hand, or roller... (full directions in Part 1).  Also - we decided to add a few coats of minwax polycrylic on this set, in semi gloss.  Being the bottom half, they'll be more likely to get beat up so.. better safe than chipped, right?

Before I show the close-ups, the color is Glidden's Blue-Grey Slate.  Paint & Primer in one (a must!), in Interior Semi-Gloss. Here is a link to the color.  Always tell your paint person what you need the paint for, as they will have the best advice for your finish.

Like I said, I'm sneaking in this post before work, so let's get to the good stuff:

It's an interesting color! I love it - sometimes it has a blue tint, other times  a dark grey... and at sunset it gives off a blue purple.  Hooray... color changing cabinets!

Things are starting to come together. Yes, those are rainbow knives! Ha I know.. typical of me, right?  Many of you asked about them - they are called Pure Komachi, and they're the best knives I've ever used, so sharp.... (find them here on amazon - they have tons more too).  Rather than use a knife block, we used IKEA magnetic knife strips to keep the counterspace pretty free.

This area is to the right of that stove, across an entryway.  I love that blue-grey slate!

Hello new rug! (Ikea.... lovely!)

Oops! Bad photographer moment... Surprise appearance by Sir Brown Paper Bag, who in our part of the country, is becoming a rarity...

Oh, I grouted that round marble lamp in the top corner there, I'll be sharing that soon - came out great.

There we go! I love this angle.. really shows off that stove.  What do you think of our newish cabinets? Eventually the counter-tops will be hopefully butcher block, but cement would be amazing too.  We'll see how the wallet feels when the time comes.  All in all, painting the cabinets was the affordable upgrade we needed, to hold us over until we redesign the kitchen all together.  But honestly? They came out so good I wouldn't mind them sticking around...

What about you, any cabinet transformations in your future?

Back to work... wish me luck...   ;)

Have a fantastic weekend!
     -Jesse

Related Posts in-case you missed it:

• Painting the Cabinets: Part 1 + A tutorial
• 7 Kitchen Buffet Ideas
• The Great (soon to be late) Kitchen Hutch Makeover

And one last time, here's the paint color link, Glidden's Blue Grey Slate:

• Paint color link @ Home Depot

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Painting Kitchen Cabinets: Part 1

Well we did it! We painted our kitchen cabinets, finally. They weren't horrible to begin with luckily, just not what we were going for.  Our kitchen has a lot of wood going on, and while I love it - I love bright and light a bit more.  Before & After reveal, of the top half:

What a difference, right?! Let me just say, this is something you can definitely do.  It's pretty easy, just time consuming! I made a major boo-boo in when we did this top half.  Ha... let me explain.  We did the top by hand, using high density foam rollers - the works, ya know? It came out great BUT on the LAST coat I realized...  I HAVE A HVLP Sprayer!!! Why in the world didn't we spray them??  Oh well... at least now I can verify that it CAN be done by hand, if you don't have a sprayer.  Stop me, I'm rambling- Here's a better shot of our cabinets before.

Pretty standard, nice cabinets.   I was just happy to have this many cabinets in the first place, though you can never have enough. So one brave weekend, we took to the job. I referenced East Coast Creative's awesome tutorials, which you can find here and here.  It looked relatively simple...Here's a quick run down:

First we removed the cabinets & hardware:

With all that food & junk we definitely won't be going with the open shelves look... haha...

Quick tip: To remove these cabinets you take the screws out of the hinge portion on the cabinet door. This also leaves the settings on those crazy hinges intact, and makes them a lot easier to re-install. Here's a crappy photo that sort of shows what I mean:

The hinges remain.... see? But ya know, do what you like, it's probably fine either way.

Side note, many of you asked about our stove from the Entryway Command Center Posts... here's a full frontal:

Isn't it perdy.. in pretty good shape too. When we first moved in we considered getting rid of it, but a combination of everyone saying we were insane & then falling in love with cooking on it, it's decided to stay. Someone said it was from the 1940's, but I forgot where I heard that. I might have made it up.

Ok, cabinets! After the hardware was removed, we did a simple steel wool job to remove the glossy finish. We'll be using Paint & Primer in one (best stuff ever) so I'm confident in how it will adhere. Even still, steel wool is an extra step that will really bump up your cabinets durability rating.

Just run over the fronts to scratch them up a bit, I'm using the coarse - paint removing steel wool. In person you can see scratches in the glossy finish, and that's how you know you're good to go.  Be sure to get the sides and in those grooves too, as best you can.

Then start painting! We started by doing the details by hand, notice we propped the cabinets up on some old wood scraps so they didn't stick to that gorgeous blanket:

And finished up with a high density foam roller. These foam rollers are different than your average paint roller, as they leave a very-very smooth finish that looks clean & professional.  The rollers are smaller, about 6" wide, to see it on HomeDepot.com, click here.

Yum....The paint color we used is just white. Semi-gloss white, Paint & primer in one.  There were SO MANY whites to choose from so I walked up to the counter and said "Don't  you have just...ya know... white?" And they did. And now we do.

After about 3 coats we were happy, and let them dry completely.  Working backwards we just installed our hardware, and popped the cabinets back up. Just in time for dinner. 

Surprise! I have a gif for you..

Ha! Get it? A Gif?!? Ok, bad joke...

So that's it! We're done with the top half. The Paint & Primer in one paint, in semi gloss, adhered wonderfully to the cabinets & provide an excellent finish.  If you want to be extra safe, you could slap a few coats of semi-gloss minwax polycrylic on these babies.  I had every intention to do so, but got hungry and forgot.  I would have gone back and done it by hand, but in my dreams there are new cabinets with glass fronts anyway... so who cares.

Let's see some finished photos that aren't as difficult to look at as that crazy gif:

Don't mind that wild white cord, the lighting in here was just ONE of those little boob lights, so we had to improvise. I'll get to it someday, I swear....

Hey did you guys notice that weird yellow animal on top of our cabinets? I have NO IDEA what it is! But it was yellow & cute in it's own weird way, and $3... so it came home:

A blow-fish? A pig? An artichoke?  I just craved a little yellow up there, and I couldn't stop staring at this thing.  Hey, good conversation starter...

So that's that. Cabinets done in white, and I love 'em. What do you think? Have you painted cabinets? What tips & tricks can you share?  Up next we are conquering the bottom half... and there are twice as many. Break out that sprayer!

Enjoy your day please. (One time at the end of a phone call, the person said to me "You have a nice long day, Jess"....what the!?)

-Jesse

Linkies: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Subscribe & of course, Email me.

Hey - here's some older posts about Kitchens:

• 7 Kitchen Buffet Ideas that I want, ASAP.
• Installing a new faucet, all by our lonesome
• Cheap & Easy Kitchen Cart
• DIY Triangle Pattern Table Top
• The Hutch Makeover

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Entryway Command Center Part 3: Rope Trimmed Accent Wall

Details, details! The "command center" has come along nicely - it's been a really smooth project so far, but something's missing. More gold? Nah.. Ralph had an idea, and pitched it to me with the expectations that I'd think it was nuts. He said, "what if we lined where the walls meet the crown molding with some sort of rope?" -----and I was silent.

Genius! I loved the idea.  Have you ever heard or thought of putting a trim on the walls? I'm hooked.  See - we have these weird walls (I'm sure they aren't that weird, everyone has 'em.) The texturing is so... textured... that it makes it really hard to make a clean line in the corners. Even with tape. So covering with a cute rope is perfect! All you need is rope, and a glue gun.

Hold on real quick - did you  notice I swapped the plant out? In the Entryway Command Center: Part 2 post I used a bundle of grasses as our plant.  Well,  remember how I had a redwood cutting living on my desk for over a month? It's still going strong (month 2!), so I figured, why not put another one here:

I'm so impressed with how long these stay fresh - I change the water regularly and they stay bright green. Even in low light!

We have so many popping up around here that I'll never run out.  Problem solved!

Back to the project - we went rope shopping, and found this 1/4" Manila Rope at Home Depot.  You can also find it on Amazon if you aren't up for the trek to HD - I know it can be a lot! (I've seriously just given up and put things back before, when I can't find what I need, or someone to cut this or that...ha! I'm so impatient sometimes)

 

So, pretty simple here, just start hot glue-ing your rope into the corners.  This worked really well with two people, I quickly ran the glue while Ralph pushed the rope in.

If you've worked with hot glue before, you know this low temperature stuff peels off easily. So if you mess up, just peel it off, or if you no longer want rope on the corners... just peel it all off.

Isn't that cute? It's subtle, but adds just a little detail to our wall.  Plus it goes great with the white, navy blue, gold thang....

Here's the cow!

Got a little flyaway on that one, no stress... rubs right off..

We chose this particular rope because of it's darker color, and it has a lot of rough edges.  It's also just thick enough to hide any less-than-perfect paint lines.

I found this little plaque downstairs that I bought years ago at a goodwill. Didn't have a home in our new house yet, so I tried it out. I think it works:

Well I think we are done!  Part of me wanted to put a wall filing system in the corner, near the mirror, but I think with that many drawers we can afford to keep this very clean & clutter free.

To recap, we went from this:

To a whole new, fully functional & adorable "command center":

Ignore the rope there, we were mid project. You know how it goes! Have a fantastic weekend everybody, if you decide to tackle an area in your home, send it my way - I love to see what you're up to! 

Up Next: 7 Kitchen Buffet Ideas... I'm about to swap ours out.

-Jesse

OMG - did you notice it's Friday the 13th? Creepy...

Linkies: Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Subscribe & of course, Email me.

Posts you may have missed:

• Entryway Command Center: Part 1 - Painting the Walls
• Entryway Command Center: Part 2 - Card Catalog Makeover

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How To: Hang Perfect Pictures

Earlier in the month I showed you my gigantic Marilyn Monroe string art piece that sits above my desk. Some of you wrote me and asked how I was able to hang each piece without nailing 65 different holes in the walls to get it right, and I'm here to share it! It was the first time I tried this technique, and it was definitely the easiest picture hanging experience I've ever had.    Ever.

I originally came across this awesome tutorial on Celebrate Everyday, who saw it on Pinterest - I'm sure you all have too. So it's been circulating for a while, I shared it with you all (because it's genius!) a while back, and finally got to put it to the test.  I needed to hang the 12 tablets that make up Marilyn, which was really intimidating as they needed to line up.  Here's a lovely photo run through:

1. Hammer a small nail halfway through the end of a ruler (anywhere near the end).
2. Make sure it sits half in, half out.
3. Use the nail to hold your picture, and float it to the wall.
4. Line the picture exactly where you want it, and use your free hand to hold the ruler against the wall.
5. Remove the photo (while keeping the ruler in place) and push the nail into the wall with your thumb, to make a mark.
6. Remove the ruler & don't lose that mark. Circle it in pencil if you need to.
7. Hammer a new nail into the mark you made, and put the photo back up. It should hang exactly where you had it before. 
8. Repeat!

That's it! It really was easy! What I thought would take me hours to do, took about 45 minutes. for 12 tablets. I felt so proud that I didn't have to repeat any, why haven't I tried this before? I rewarded my productivity by not doing anything for the rest of the day. I mean it looked like I did a lot, right? Heh... right.  This would be perfect for arranging a gallery wall, especially if you don't have all the pieces collected for your gallery yet.  Easy to add onto.

So that's that. We're done.  For this post I tried to go more, condensed, Pinterest friendly tutorial style - but if you're the type that likes more details, they are all included - photo by photo - after the break. 

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend everyone!

-Jesse

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How-To: Black and White Brushstroke Art

After we had whitewashed the fireplace, and painted the living room, it was time to add some visual interest to the fireplace wall.  I thought about doing fabric wall scrolls with a nice modern print, but worried it might be too busy. Perfect timing: I had seen this awesome black & white brushstroke art over at the Hunted Interior, and knew this was the project I was searching for:

Source

Aren't those lovely.. I'm a mega fan of abstract, and the black & white contrast is really clean & modern.  

Since we wanted to incorporate more modern elements into the house, I showed these to Ralph & he was totally on board.  Luckily, we had everything on hand (I always keep canvas around!) & were able to start. This project is so easy, and so fun!

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