Updating Bathroom Cabinets....and More!

Once upon a time, a couple found their 'dream home' which needed some loving care..... one of the things our heroine found was oak cabinets, stained a 'pink-ish' tone (probably from the era of mauve, back in the 90's).

Don't worry--the drawers aren't missing, I just removed them to repair them. A little Liquid Nails and wire nails are marvelous things for fixing drawers with loose bottom panels! I also used a sanding sponge to even out areas, remove drips and drabs of this and that. After I removed the drawer pulls, I took one of them with me to the hardware store, so the new pulls would be the right size. 

Additionally, I tried the new handle to see if the screws were the right size. They weren't--one was too short and the other was too long (the drawer pull package included two of each size). I used my Dremel tool to cut off the end of the longer screw to make it fit. Actually, I cut almost through the screw, then used pliers to bend the end back and forth until it popped off. If you don't have a Dremel tool, you can go back to the hardware store and find a screw that is exactly the right size, if you have the patience! 

 I found my new drawer pulls at Lowe's, but I bought the paint at Home Depot. I bought Behr's Premium Plus Ultra, which doesn't require a coat of primer. It's beautiful stuff. The color I bought for this bathroom is Stealth Jet. Now doesn't that sound interesting. It is a very dark grey, very sophisticated, and reminiscent of Restoration Hardware! 

It was a fairly quick job--it took me several hours, mostly waiting for paint to dry so I could do two coats! Voila!

Further updates in this bathroom will involve a plumber: New faucet and I'll add a big dark-framed mirror hung on top of the mirror!

The master bathroom started with the same pink-ish oak cabinets, but since you have already seen the bedroom update, with the Chinese red/tan/cream bedding against the pale robin-egg blue walls, you know that painting the cabinets dark grey isn't probably going to work well....but what color? I tried several cream and beige, and it was just blah! Remembering the old rule of thumb of repeating colors throughout the room or suite, it made sense to do them Chinese red!

The last little project wasn't in a bathroom, but it still belongs in the category of transforming something ordinary into something extraordinary! In my entry, I had a small table underneath a painting. It was brown and black, and I decided to Mod Podge aluminum foil onto it to give it a little more pizazz! I cut the squares into random sizes, 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" or so, then glued them in place, overlapping them and wrinkling them occasionally, to add texture. Once the whole thing was dry, I mixed some black acrylic paint into a gel medium, and 'antiqued' the surface, wiping some off to leave the color in the cracks and crevices.



The arrangement is one I created, and I found a wonderful large leaf in my collection of Razz decor items! The candles, shaped like pears, are from England, and the candle sticks are from Finland. The painting is my own.