First, our guest room - soon-to-be nursery.
When we moved in, it was blue with dried boogers all over the walls (ew!) and had an awkward jut-in in the closet.
We've since built in 4 shelves to disguise the jut-in in the closet with smart storage in that tiny alcove. We painted the walls Olympic's Quill, leftover from the living room and hallway, just as an interim fresh start from the room-shrinking darker blue color, and we removed the carpet to put in laminate wood Oak that matches the rest of the first floor.
But what I'm here to show you today in that room is an armoire I had in my room growing up. It is a giant pine piece, stained dark cherry color, and it is the heaviest piece of furniture we own (no joke!)
But that dark wood and brass pulls weren't exactly our style...and it didn't match the other dark wood pieces we own that we prefer.
So I started by removing all the handles and filling the holes with wood putty since the new pulls I chose were a different size.
We sanded all the surfaces just to rough them up enough for primer to stick...and then the trouble began. We tried 2 coats of our on-hand Olympic No-VOC primer. But the wood tannins bled through. So we bought a spray can of stain-blocking primer to spray just the one side (bottom of the left side above the base trim) that had bleed-through showing. The tannins still bled through after 2 spray-coats. So we bought some KILZ stain blocking primer (which Hubby applied in 3 coats to the entire body and pieces of the armoire since I then knew I was pregnant and couldn't be around the fumes). It seemed to be working better than the other 7 coats, so we painted on 1 coat of Olympic's Delicate White in Satin finish... There is still some minor bleed-through on that edge piece, but it faces the wall/window and isn't noticable, so we waved the white flag for now and just keep that side in the shadows!
Then we drilled new holes for the new brushed-stainless pulls and knobs (for the door) and attached those. I also spray-painted the hinges and door latch that were previously brass to be a matte "brushed nickel" (that really looks like stippled gray) since they're hidden but are seen when the door is open, and I didn't want a clashing brass near the new knobs and pulls. I am so happy with the result!
The pulls came in 2 multi-pack boxes that I purchased at Target, and the knob came in an 8-pack there as well. We used the remaining pulls and knobs to add to our previously hardware-less bathroom vanities in both the master and guest bath. They look great, though they'll look infinitely better after we do a paint-wash treatment on the vanities....sometime down the road!
Next up: the kitchen. You saw our big kitchen reveal last month. Today, Hubby attached the beginning stages of our Mud Room pieces. We're probably going to cover the mounting screws with wood filler and paint over them to completely hide the mountings, but for now, it functions to hold our every-day coats and my son's backpack that we take on outings with extra underwear and pants in case of potty accidents.
The "hooks" on the coat rack are simply knobs from Target that came in a 10-pack, but they are rectangular and thus, when turned vertically instead of the intended horizontal placement, make excellent hooks! And it was only $19.99 for the 10-pack, leaving 2 more for me to add some hooks below our calendar at the other end of the kitchen, creating a perfect spot for mail in/out slots. The wood was even free since it was just being used as spacers between pickets that we purchased at Home Depot, and they said we could have those scrap spacers too or else they'd just throw them away!
We will intend to build a bench below the hooks for putting on shoes, baskets to hold hats and mittens, etc. For now, a spare dining chair does the job.
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