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Tag: Tutorial

From Wood to White: How-To Paint Mouldings

If I could sum up my Summer in DIY terms, it was all about painting. From the staircase to my office chair, from the white shelves to the new blue room, I think there was 2 (or maybe even 3) weeks straight that I had a paintbrush in-hand everyday!  Honestly, I’m kind of sick done with painting for awhile. Anyway, alot of projects got accomplished and one in particular were the oak stained wood mouldings that I painted white.  All I can say is…  WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

The staircase project was what did it and started the process of updating the mouldings.  It’s something that I wanted to undertake for a long time, but just didn’t know where to begin.  Once I started painting the stair risers and balusters, I realized that painting the trimwork wasn’t too difficult, so I just continued around the room. Even though the staircase was time consuming, the result was completely worth the effort and I knew I would feel the same way once the mouldings were finished.

To start off, I applied painters tape to the wall so only the mouldings (the areas that I wanted to paint) were exposed.

Here’s a snapshot when I painted the area around the window in the living room.

* Sidenote: My walls were already painted, but if you’re undertaking this project and your walls are NOT painted or you plan on changing the wall color, then paint the mouldings first.  Believe Me, It’s much easier!  So you would reverse the step I just mentioned.  Paint your mouldings first and once they are dry, tape the moulding edge (or buy a moulding paint gadget), THEN paint the wall color.

okay, moving on…

Once the tape was up, I was ready to paint.  Using my favorite Purdy brush, I applied one coat of Kilz Primer (I’ve heard good things about gripper primer too, but haven’t tried it yet).  I didn’t bother with sanding because even though the mouldings were stained, there was no gloss or sheen to them.  They were at the point of needing to be restained (to protect them) or painted (as I did).  IF you’re undertaking this project and your mouldings have a gloss finish, giving them a light sand is probably a good idea.

Primer for the mouldings is really important.  At one window I didn’t use it (by accident – it was late at night – you know the rest…) and you could see the orange color of the stain coming through the paint.  No matter how many coats of paint I applied, the orange tint always showed.  Now with primer, you may still get the orangey color, BUT when you go to apply the paint color, the orange color won’t come through because the primer will block it.  Primer truly is amazing stuff!

After the one coat of primer, then it was time to paint.   I continued with the paint I used for the staircase which was, Snowfall White by Benjamin Moore (thanks BM for providing the paint!).

Here’s a snapshot of the first coat of paint.

In most areas, I applied 1 coat of primer + 2 coats of paint, but in some areas I did use 3 coats.  It really depended on the finish look after 2 coats.

Once the painting was complete, it was time to remove the tape.  I’ll forewarn you – Don’t quickly pull off the tape because you’re freshly painted mouldings might get ruined.  When the paint was dry (to the touch it takes about 20-30 days to fully cure), I pulled off the tape and some of the paint came to.  To avoid that from happening, I used an X-acto blade to score the corner of where the moulding and wall meet…

…then removed the tape.

At this point, I noticed that some of the paint bled under the painters tape – so annoying, right?  I’ll tell ya, I tried lots of different ways to avoid this, but nothing worked.  I even googled it, and I found nada.  If you know a secret way, will you share?  Until then, this is what I did that worked best.

After removing the tape, I took the wall paint color and my Purdy angled brush, and slowly dragged it down the wall where the wall and moulding meet.  It worked perfectly!

And that’s about it…  Not too difficult, just alittle time consuming.  But believe me, the result is SO worth it.  Take it room by room – that’s what I’ve done.  Honestly, not all my rooms are completely finished, but most are and the result is so satisfying!

Here is the before and after of the living room…

Want to see some more?

Do you remember when I updated the door hardware? Check out how fresh it looks with the newly painted white mouldings…

And here’s one more.  Do you remember the DIY built-in coat rack behind my front door?  Well here it is now surrounded by freshly painted mouldings…

What a refreshing update!  Well I have a few more painting projects that I worked on over the Summer that still need to be shared, so check back soon!

What painting projects did you work on this past Summer?

I link my projects to some of these parties: Skip to My Lou, Dittle Dattle, Between Naps on the Porch, Today’s Creative Blog, Stories of A to Z, All Things Heart & Home, Savvy Southern Style, House of Hepworths, Finding Fabulous, Creation Corner, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, Tatertots and Jello, Thrifty Decor Chick, Tip Junkie

How-To Paint Laminate Furniture

I recently shared my newly styled bookshelves, but before I added all the colorful books and stylish accessories, I gave the bookcases a much needed makeover.

Since painting the space deep blue, the once faux-wood bookcases got lost in the dark hue of the walls, and they were ready for a transformation. A crisp, fresh coat of white was the perfect solution to make a statement.

I purchased these two bookcases from Walmart about 2 years ago.  Each were around $100 and were not the best of quality (duh, look at the pricetag).  Anyway, they fit the bill at the moment, but recently the shelves started to bow.  Aside from the decision to paint the bookcases, I also needed to make a few updates so they would last a few more years – I’ll get to more on that later in the post.

Before starting the process of painting the laminate, I did a little research on the process and the first article I saw was Lindsay’s post when she transformed her TV cabinet.  It was just what I needed to get me started.

Here’s the bookcase before…

To begin, I gave each bookcase a good sanding with my orbital sander (hands down, my favorite power tool). These bookcases are made of a particle board-like  composite with a faux-wood laminate exterior. It was important NOT to sand too much because otherwise the surface would get ruined (since it’s essentially paper), but at the same time it was important to get them ‘roughed-up’ so the paint would absorb into the surface.

Then the next key step was to prime all the surfaces.  Like usual, I used Kilz Primer which blocks, seals, and preps the surface for the paint to adhere to the surface.  Primer is important, but especially when painting over laminate (as I described above).  Unlike wood, laminate is a smooth, non-porous material, so it really needs something to ‘grab’ on to – primer will do the trick!  It’s suggested that primer takes 7 days to completely dry – you can take that advice if you’d like, but I didn’t (shame, shame on me, I know).  BUT, I did wait about 4 days before painting to really make sure the surface was good-to-go!

My good blogging friend, Diane, recently wrote a post on Gripper Paint.  She uses the Glidden brand (Kilz brand has a similar product), and even though I haven’t tried it, this is another great product to use as a primer.  The name says it all.

Sidetrack Steps…

At this point of the project, I made the decision to make a few much-needed updates to the structure and look of the bookcase.  Instead of moving on to directly painting the bookcase, I decided to replace the shelves and the backing material.

As I mentioned before, the shelves were really bowing – alot – so I took a trip to my hardware store and had a long piece of 2×12 cut into lengths needed for new shelves.

And check out the back of the bookcase…  UGLY!  It was basically paper and when I started to paint the surface, it started warping even more.  Once the decision was made to upgrade the back, I crumbled the paper-backing with one hand…

To fix the backing, I had a thin piece of plywood cut to size.  Then the Mister and I flipped the bookcase onto it’s front and nailed the plywood to the perimeter of the bookcase back. (This step might seem difficult, but please be assured it wasn’t – this was probably one of the easiest steps throughout this project).

Now back on track…

After sanding, priming,and making a few updates, it was time to PAINT!

I used a brush for the corners and a roller for the flat surfaces.  In certain areas, I used a brush first, then went over the same surface with the roller to achieve a smooth, stroke-less surface. Here’s the bookcase with the first coat of paint…

Here’s a tip.  If the surface isn’t sanded or not sanded enough, then the paint will bubble (because it’s not adhering to the surface).  Check this out…

This is a No-No!

I’ll be honest, these bookcases took about 3-4 coats until I felt they were fully covered. And even after they were dry to the surface, I didn’t put anything on the shelves for at least a week.  Paint takes about 30 days to fully cure and with the heavy books and accessories sitting on them, the last thing I would want would be to have them ruined or peel!

And this is the result…

So refreshing!  Then it was time to add the books and accessories.

And here’s a peak at how the bookcases look fully styled with books and accessories.  You can check out more by viewing this post.

Painting laminate wasn’t difficult, but I did find it more time consuming than painting wood.  To sum it up, the most important steps are to sand and prime all the surfaces before painting.  If you were to skip the 2 steps, your paint would have nothing to adhere to and would most likely peel right off.  Going into this project, I wasn’t sure of the result and if the paint would even stay since the surface was so smooth, but with the right preparation, I was thrilled with the outcome.

Valentine Burlap Wreath

Even though I said goodbye to the Christmas decor days after the 25th of December, I only took down my Christmas wreath from the front door last week . The wreath didn’t scream Christmas, but it was time to say ‘See you next year’!  So the entrance to our home was naked.  My bare apple-green colored door just wasn’t cutting it till Springtime, so I adorned it with a crafty, handmade Valentine Wreath.

DIY: Valentine burlap wreath with handmade felt flowers by @Jenna_Burger, SASinteriors.net

Ta-Da…  The new and improved front door, dressed for V-day!  It’s beautified with the newly created handmade wreath using burlap and a few pretty flowers!

Supplies

  • Wire hanger (from any ole’ laundry mat or cleaners)
  • Scissors
  • Burlap
  • Florist wire (optional)
  • Plyers
  • And some crafty lovin’

Here’s the Process

Start with a wire hanger…everyone has them, right?  NO…not I.  I actually had to get one from my friend, Paula (thanks Paula!).  I am SOOO against hanging clothes on wire hangers and the only way to prevent my husband from hanging his clothes on them is to TOSS EM’.

Total diversion…  Here’s the next step…

Round the wire hanger (you may need two hangers depending on the size wreath you want to create), to look like this.
The wire hanger is probably too difficult to bend with your fingers (unless you’re the Hulk), so a pair of plyers or two, will definitely be helpful!
DIY: Valentine burlap wreath with handmade felt flowers by @Jenna_Burger, SASinteriors.net
1. Cut your burlap (I used 3/4 yard for the whole project / 1 yard was $3+/-) into 4″ wide strips.
2. Fold the burlap strips into an accordian style (as shown).  The fold should be about 3-4″ wide.
3 / 4. Poke and feed the wire through the center of the new accordian bunch.  Just keep on doing this until you create you wreath and you’ve used enough burlap to cover the wire.  I would actually recommend using at least one yard so the wreath is dense.  (I only had 3/4 yard at the time).
5. This step is optional.  If you have to attach two pieces of wire hanger, then follow this step.  I had to piece-meal two pieces together and attached the wire hanger with thin wire (florist wire) is good.

Done!

Well…NOT YET!
???

How about pretty little flowers? Yes, that will do the trick.

Welcome to My home

The flowers are made of felt and I attached them with a safety pin to the burlap, so I can use the wreath for other occasions throughout the year.

DIY: Valentine burlap wreath with handmade felt flowers by @Jenna_Burger, SASinteriors.net

Do you love these little felt flower beauties?

DIY: Valentine burlap wreath with handmade felt flowers by @Jenna_Burger, SASinteriors.net
Check out the Felt Flower Tutorial {HERE}

How do you adorn your front door for Valentine’s Day?