Skim coating our kitchen walls

The first project I wanted to tackle in this house was the awful wall texture/color in the kitchen. They looked like someone spread peanut butter all over. Here's a closeup of what we were dealing with:

Gross.

Whoever did this took 3 different shades of nasty brown and haphazardly spread it all over our kitchen and back entry walls. I knew we couldn't just paint over it, because the paint was so thick that the texture would still be visible. I consulted the internet and my future brother in law who is an architect and it seemed the only way to remove it was to skim coat over the walls. For those of you who are like me and had no idea what this meant, skim coating is where you take joint compound (similar to plaster) and spread multiple thin coats over the top of the wall to create a smooth surface. I had no idea if this was a DIY job or if we would have to hire someone to do it. One day my work was offering a lunch that featured "Mr. Fix it" Lou Manfredini who is a radio talk show host, has a TV show and has written a book on home ownership. I am so glad I attended this talk! After the lunch, he was inviting people to come ask questions. I brought the above picture to Lou and asked how to fix it. He said I would have to sand the walls lightly and then skim coat. I asked if this was a DIY project and he said "Have you ever decorated a cake?" and I have so he said I could tackle skim coating myself.  I never heard of Lou before this, but now I am a huge fan! I bought his book "House Smarts" and it's basically home ownership 101. I would definitely recommend any new homeowners buy and read this book!

As with any project, I recommend you do your research and devise a plan of attack. As everyone who knows me knows, I am a planner. So naturally I like to do a ton of research online and familiarize myself with the lingo, tools and different ways to approach a project. I found lots of guides online for skim coating walls. The two I referenced most are found here and here. I compared different ways to do it and the different supplies needed. With traditional skim coating, you use a metal trowel to spread out the joint compound and smooth it out over the wall- being very careful to feather out the edges. A few people mentioned that there was a great tool called a magic trowel that made this process much easier. It's basically a long squeegee made for skim coating. I did buy the magic trowel from Amazon as sawdustgirl recommended and found it to be super easy. I headed to HD for the other supplies. I needed a pole sander, a 5 gallon bucket, a drill mixer attachment, and a 5 gallon bucket of joint compound (the kind with the green lid).

My plan for this project was as follows:

Step 1: Lightly sand walls with 80 grit on a pole sander (to remove sheen from paint so joint compound will adhere better)
Step 2: Clean walls with TSP solution (to remove dust)
Step 3: Begin skim coating thin layer #1 (roll on with paint roller and smooth with magic trowel)
Step 4: Lightly sand with 220 grit on pole sander
Step 5: Skim coat thin layer #2
Step 6: Lightly sand with 220 grit on pole sander
Determine at this point if the walls are smooth or if they need additional skim coat.
Step 7: Prime walls with oil based primer/sealer
Step 8: Paint walls (I used latex Sherwin Williams Superpaint)

Before I get into the process, here are pictures of what the kitchen looked like before in all it's gross peanut butter wall glory:

I followed the advice of the forums and use plastic drop cloths and painters tape to seal off the kitchen so I wouldn't get dust in the other rooms. This was a very messy project!

Because I would be sanding paint, it was very important to wear a dust mask!

I had safety glasses on to avoid getting dust in my eyes, but after awhile the dust was preventing me from seeing so I took them off. I started the process by first sanding the walls with a pole sander to roughen up the surface so that the joint compound would adhere better. I then cleaned the walls with TSP to remove all of the dust created by sanding. I mixed some joint compound with warm water to thin it out in a 5 gallon bucket and mixed it with the drill attachment. I began by trying to roll on the thinned joint compound with a roller, but found that it was too thick so I ended up spreading it on the wall with a putty knife and then smoothing it out with the magic trowel. Here is what the wall looked like with one thin coat of joint compound:

Whew. This was going to take awhile. I decided to put the second coat on a bit thicker to make the process go faster. The idea is that you build up the layers of compound to create a smooth surface, and it generally takes at least 3 coats. After about 3 coats it was looking pretty good!

I ended up doing a section of a wall at a time and moving my way around the room. Luckily, there isn't a ton of wall space due to the doorways and cabinets. By the end, my shoulder hurt for a few weeks. All of the reaching up with the magic trowel took a toll on my arm. So worth it though!

After the walls were skim coated with about 3 coats, I let them dry and lightly sanded with the pole sander. I wiped up all of the dust and got ready to prime. I taped off the cabinets and counters and used KILZ primer because it also acts as a sealer for the joint compound. I had a fan in the window because KILZ is super strong smelly stuff.

It looked so much better! Even though my kitchen was a disaster for a couple days. After the primer dried, it was finally time to paint. I picked a super fun color for the kitchen.

I was a little scared at first because it was so vibrant. It turned out really beautiful though! Stay tuned for final pictures!

House Before & After Series: Master bedroom

We were so fortunate to find a 3 bedroom house with a nice size master. It's not huge, but it's perfect for us. It has nice natural light and his & her walk in closets. I have always wanted a walk in closet! The previous owners had the bedroom painted a deep maroon color. Definitely not our taste. I was thinking a light blue would be perfect- calming and soft. D wanted a darker color but of course, he had to go with me on this one. Here is the bedroom before:

Notice the radiator that is also painted maroon... and the KILZ primer.

Because the color was so dark, I did't want to take any chances with the paint not covering well. The maroon walls also had a glossy sheen to them, so we decided using oil based KILZ primer would ensure that the new paint covered well. KILZ is some serious stuff. We made sure to open the windows and turn on the fan for ventilation because it is very strong smelling.

I should also note that before we started priming the walls, I painted the radiator first so I could prime over any overspray. I made sure to tape a plastic drop cloth behind the radiator and covered the floor with a drop cloth and cardboard to protect the wood floors. I started off using high heat spray paint, but ended up using regular ivory Krylon spray paint. The high heat wasn't covering as well as I had hoped, and I figured if the previous owners used regular latex paint the spray paint would be fine. It turned out really great!

I ended up choosing a soft blue color that has a lot of green to it. It's a pretty dull, sort of a blue/gray so its not too overwhelming. D doesn't care much for the color- it's too feminine for him. But for me, it's the bedroom of my dreams! Here is our final bedroom:

The chair pictured is the one I actually designed and made in college. 

My grandpa gave me these beautiful jewelry boxes from Korea that were my grandmother's.

Even though the bedroom is feminine, I tried not to make it too feminine. We kept the print minimal. D actually picked out these pictures.

D and I took a pretty big shopping trip to Ikea for some new stuff. We ended up buying the dressers and nightstands from the Hemnes collection. The frames, pictures, curtains and mirror are also from Ikea. They have such great stuff! We upgraded to a king size bed which has been so awesome. I made my own fabric covered headboard (I'll write a DIY post on that later). 

So there it is. What do you think? I think the lighter color actually makes the room look larger. I love how the ivory furniture looks with the floor and ivory trim. It works together quite well.

House Before & After Series: Dining room

I have always wanted a formal dining room. My grandpa has a huge wood dining table and that was always the gathering place of my dad's family growing up. I have a lot of wonderful memories of delicious meals, holidays, birthday cakes and fun stories sitting around my grandparent's table. I was so delighted that this house had this one important thing on our home wish list. Here's a view of the room:

I knew immediately what I wanted to do with the dining room. Once I laid eyes on that beautiful queen ann table that our neighbor threw away, everything fell into place. I had made up my mind to paint it teal. A deep, rich teal.  Like I have said, you have to take some risks somewhere in your home. This was my bold move. When I opened the can of paint, I thought to myself "what am I doing?" and "there's no way D is going to like this". During the painting process, I even thought the color was so rich it was causing me intense headaches. D came in to help out and said the same thing. "I think the color is so intense it's making me sick." Oh great. Now we are just wasting time and paint. We figured we would give it a couple weeks and repaint if we still didn't like it. Maybe it just took some time to get used to.  I was so excited to finally hang my Tracey Reese plates that she designed for the Neiman Marcus collection for Target and when I picked the paint color, I thought it would coordinate perfectly. I am happy to say, after a few weeks and many delicious meals at the table, we are so happy we picked the color and we love it! No more headaches- turns out it wasn't the color's fault. This was likely due to all the paint fumes we were inhaling. We've added a few fun decor touches, and the table and chair set fits so nicely! Check it out:

Beautiful flowers my lovely friend Taylor brought us

I got this awesome table runner from Target's coastal collect. It coordinates well with the wall color & the pop of coral trim is so fun.

Ahh I just love this table!

And Benson loves the window view.

 

Such fun details in the chandelier and built in cabinets.

 And my Tracey Reese plates coordinate so well!

I love it! And no more headaches! So worth the color risk taking!

Refinishing an old wood dining table

So like I mentioned in a previous post, our neighbor was getting rid of this old queen anne style dining table. I had to drag it out of a dumpster area in a parking lot in the cold rain and wheel it over to our apartment garage on a dolly. I dropped it on my foot in the process, but knew it would be totally worth it in the end. D hated this table. He said it was ugly the first time my neighbor asked if we wanted it. The next day, I was thinking about how good the table could look in our new dining room so I had to have it. I also ended up picking up 6 of these awesome tufted dining chairs on sale at Target (but of course). Link

So here is the table before I started:

Some close up shots of the nastiness:

I looked at this table and saw potential. How gorgeous it could look in our new dining room. I knew it was going to take some elbow grease to get it gleaming again. Luckily, the rain softened up the varnish so it was easier to scrape some of it off. I thought I could just use a palm sander on the rest of it until I realized it was wood veneer. So I looked up how to refinish a wood veneer table and came across a great step by step tutorial over at Fabulously Flawed. Link

I made a trip to Home depot to gather all of my supplies. This was not a cheap project. I didn't have existing stuff on hand, so my grand total was about $60 for everything in the tutorial. 

I started by putting the leaves in the table and making sure it was sturdy. I did not want to go through all that work to find out it wasn't usable in the end! The legs needed to be tightened, but other than that it was in great shape. Just needed a little TLC. 

After checking the table's sturdiness, I took all the pieces apart so it would be easier to work on.

I then put on my gloves and safety glasses and got to work. I used Klean Strip and followed directions carefully. It says on the container to let it sit for about 15-20 minutes to let the stripper soften the finish. After trial and error, I found that it works best when you apply a thin coat and give it about 1 minute before you take a plastic scraper to it. I ended up applying more coats than I thought because I let the stripper sit 15 minutes and by the time I went to scrape it, it was dried up and not scraping easily. 

After stripping the finish off, I used my palm sander to smooth out the top and remove small areas of stain & patches of varnish the stripper did not remove. I made sure to wear a dusk mask so I didn't breath in any nasty stuff. At this point, I was pretty happy with my progress. It took an entire sunday- about 6 hours working outside to get the pieces nice and clean. I was a mess and my hands hurt, but it was a labor of love. 

Working on the legs was a little more difficult since they are all curved surfaces. I used a scouring pad and steel wool to remove the finish. Here you can see the before and after of the legs.

I also had to reattach a piece of veneer that came off the table edge. I carefully stripped the finish off then used titebond wood glue and painters tape to reattach.

So finally the hard part was over and all of the pieces were stripped and sanded. I wiped them down with mineral spirits and let them dry overnight. 

Next step was to stain the table. I started by using Minwax wood conditioner on the legs. After wipign that on with a rag, I used Minwax stain in dark walnut. I used a foam brush to apply an even coat on each of the legs.

The stain looked extremely dark, but after about 10 minutes I wiped it off and it wasn't very dark at all. Here's a before and after picture, the one on the left has wood conditioner and on the right it has one coat of stain. I thought about applying a second coat, but when I held one of the new Threshold chair legs against it, the color was very similar so I decided to keep it. 

Here are all 4 table legs with 1 coat of stain applied and wiped off. There is a bit of variation in the color, but I think that is more due to the nature of the wood. It adds character :)

I let the legs dry overnight and the next day planned how I was going to tackle the table top. I checked the legs and they were still a bit tacky, but it was very humid outside. I read online it can take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to dry, so I left them alone. I decided it would be best to do the table top last, and it would be easier to access the table edge if it was laying upside down, so that's how I stained the underside of the table edge. I was very careful not to apply too much stain and let it run to the other side which would have left ugly marks on the table top. I also wiped off the edge with a rag as I went to make sure i would have a clean line when I applied the stain on the top and edge. 

After all of the edges were stained, I decided to reattach the legs so that I could flip it over and do the table top. I would not recommend attempting this on your own, but D was at work and I am impatient :)

I took a step back so I could see how the color looked and the legs matched the table edge pretty well. I attempted to flip it over after removing the 2 leaves and man this table is solid.

Don't mind the mess in the background, I did this in the garage while we were in the process of packing for our big move. My next step was the defining moment- applying the stain to the table top. This could make it or break it- depending on how the wood grained showed through the stain. I applied the stain very carefully, in long even strokes one section at a time. This time, I decided to let the stain soak in about 30 minutes before wiping it off. It took a lot of elbow grease to get the stain off and I realized a very important tip - USE A RAG TO APPLY YOUR STAIN. I used a foam brush and it pretty much made this whole process take ten times longer than it should have. The foam brush applies too much stain in a heavy thick coat so it has a hard time penetrating the wood and drying. It was very difficult to get the excess stain off of the wood. Once I did, there was still a sticky film of stain over the top. I used the rag to even out some spots and realized how much easier it was to apply stain with a rag and I wished I would have done that all along. 

This is how the table looked once I removed the excess stain with a rag and touched up some areas by applying additional stain with a rag. I definitely had more control of the stain when I applied with a rag. 

At this point it looked pretty great and I let it dry overnight before putting on the polyurethane topcoat the next day. I read the back of the can of poly and it said let stain dry at least 8 hours. Well, it had been at least 12 so I figured it was good right? Wrong. I stirred the can of poly (never shake!) and used a foam brush to apply it. Little pieces of the foam brush seemed to be disintegrating onto the table.  So what did I do next? I decided to wipe the table down with a clean rag to get the little bits of foam off. Bad idea. The rag started to lift the poly off along with the stain. I think this was because the stain was not fully dry due to it being applied so heavily with the foam brush. I swear, it seemed like nothing was going right with this project. I asked D to come take a look and see if it looked ok, and he shook his head. The finish now looked very uneven and lighter in some areas.  I went inside and pouted for about 20 minutes thinking of how I was going to have to let it dry, sand it down and start over. I then decided to try one thing. I soaked a rag in mineral spirits and wiped down the entire table top with it. After wiping it very throughly to remove the poly coat, the table looked much better! It seemed to even out the finish a little more and removed all excess stain and poly. Phew! I didn't have to re-sand it! Doesn't look too bad. I knew it would look great in the end no matter how difficult and frustrating it was to get there!

After letting it thoroughly dry overnight, I used a RAG to apply the stain in the areas that needed it to even out the finish. 

Here's the final result:

And a close up:

It turned out so nice. I need to tell my old neighbor thank you! ;)

Wedding invites

Our wedding invites have recently been sent out and it's crazy how close we are getting to the big day! Only 67 days to go! Our photographer posted this lovely picture of our invite suite that I am happy to share. I am so thankful to have such an amazingly talented wedding photographer!

Photo credit: Amber Engfer Photography