Kitchen Trim Continued

Cabinets can be such an expensive cost when building a house. We received many estimates outside of our price range. I wasn’t trying to have elaborate cabinets, so I can’t imagine what the price tag would have been if I did!

I asked to have “feet” at the base of the cabinets on one wall in the kitchen, but that was the extent of “extras” I requested.

I asked for turned column legs on either side of the stove and got a version that was not my vision, but I went with it. If you remember my experience with the cabinet supplier, you will understand that I ended up accepting a lot of things from them just to get the experience over with. 

For a year, I stared at my island dreaming of how I wanted it to look more like a piece of furniture. I added baseboard to it and some trim. (Post here)

At the time, I also added a piece of trim to the wall cabinet.

All was good. My base cabinets felt finished.

But then I studied fancier kitchens and noticed the finishing details on upper cabinets. There was trim at the base of upper cabinets. So, I found trim and installed it.

I used wood glue and my nail gun to attach the trim to the cabinet.

I used my miter saw to cut the corners.

Before

I used wood putty to fill in the nail holes and the seams.

Once I sanded, I painted.

When I added the trim to the island, I bought Benjamin Moore paint from Lowe's. The color wasn’t an exact match, but pretty close. I could tell the difference. I was glad I had taped the trim instead of assuming the color matched perfectly.

So, this time around, I bought Benjamin Moore paint from the Benjamin Moore store. The color was still not a match, but better than the Lowe's attempt,

I am now thinking that the cabinet maker does something a little different to the paint. And it makes sense reflecting on a comment he made while visiting the house during construction. The owner of the cabinet company actually told the cabinet maker not to make a cabinet I wanted. !!! (I had many issues with the company, so this was not a shock.) But the cabinet maker went behind the owner's back and built me the vent cover I needed and I paid the cabinet maker directly. When the owner was checking the final job, the story we gave was that my trim carpenter made the vent cover. The owner’s comment was that he was surprised the paint matched so well! I don’t know what it is that they do differently so that you cannot match the color perfectly, but I wish I knew. I actually like his shade the best!

The new trim color is not too big of a difference, and I’m probably the only one that notices.

After adding the trim, the kitchen does feel complete. I kind of wish I would have added feet to all the lower cabinets, but that is something I don’t think I will attempt to do myself. And since it has been years since our cabinets were made, there is no chance the cabinet maker has our paint still and can add them. Without the legs, it is still pretty!

Playroom Shelves

I left off with my last house post talking about the boys' bathroom. It's a hard room to photograph and it's just a normal bathroom, but I still love it. This week I'll keep up upstairs and circle bath to the Bonus Room.

I shared a post about our Bonus Room, and I think I mentioned how that room was not complete. I wasn't yet happy with it. It currently serves as a play room with the majority of the toys. We used existing furniture we had, but it wasn't working. We had some wire shelving that was meant to hold storage cubes. I had cute baskets to hold toys in there, but I didn't like how it looked. It felt cluttered. And when you have lots of toys, it's hard NOT to look cluttered.

I searched for cube storage and just wasn't finding what I liked. And when I can't find something I like, I make something I like!

Mr. JCrew has an amp for his guitar, so I wanted to created something that made it looked built in to the storage area.

It started off as buying wood deep enough for the cubes. They are 13 inches square. If I bought a 12 inch piece of wood, the cube would hang off. And my first idea was to make floating shelves.

I bought the wood, stained it and bought simple brackets. I also searched for brackets I liked, but went with cheap ones I could buy in a big box store instead of a custom order. They were silver and I painted them bronze.

I used a new stain for this wood and fell in love! Best brand! I've stained before and always did a bad job. This stain covers your sins! (ha) I felt like a pro and wanted to find more projects to stain!

Once I got the shelves up, I realized I needed longer brackets to make sure the weight would hold. Even without toys on the shelf, it was already dipping forward.

I then decided to put pieces of wood on the end that I could bracket the front end of the shelf to. It would feel much sturdier. And it did!

I was hesitant to make it look like a piece of furniture when I already have a console under the TV, but it works.

And it cleans up that area much nicer. Looks much more open and less clutter!

One day the shelves won't be full of toys, but we'll turn it into library shelves.

Nook Shelves

I designed a little nook in the toilet room of our bathroom to store things out of view, but necessities needed while you are in the toilet room. Not to get too personal, but it helps you avoid having to leave the toilet room to go fetch a new toilet paper roll. And if I’ve left some people behind, when I refer to a toilet room, I am talking about how bathrooms in newer houses have a toilet hidden behind walls and a door inside the bathroom so that you can use the restroom in peace while someone else can come in the restroom to wash their hands and not be staring at you.

I didn’t have our trim guy build shelves for our nook, because I knew I could do it on my own. But this project was before I bought my new nail gun last year. I should probably redo the shelves, but it’s fine and I can live with it.

The shelves not only hide extra toilet paper rolls, but they help keep things off the back of the toilet that we use to keep; like the air freshener and flushable wet wipes. The wet wipes were an awesome transition for the boys during potty training.

The shelves really keep the toilet room looking clean and not cluttered. You have necessities within reach, but out of view.

And at the bottom of the nook, is where I place the trash can, cleaning wand and plunger.

All this is packed into a little room, but you wouldn't know it!

Face Cutouts 2017

I’ll begin by saying I don’t know what these things are called, so I call them “Face Cut Outs.” We see them all over the place. Our favorites are at the Pumpkin Patch.

This year, I made some of my own! It was an easy project that I got started with in July.

Every December, my neighborhood hosts a Luminary Stroll. This is our third year doing it, and I spear-headed the event. We use plastic luminaries instead of white paper bags and it has a light string to use instead of candles. It’s really awesome. Especially when you get all your neighbors to do it and connect to each other (not really, but it looks like they do). I am so proud of my street! This is the first year we have had no blank houses… 7 houses in a row! And it actually continues with four more if you hang a left where the luminaries on our street end. The effect is really pretty.

At the Luminary Stroll, we gather at the clubhouse to mingle and then head out to view the Christmas Light Displays together. Each year the event gets larger and we add more things. Most ideas come a week before the event, but we can’t execute. So we save the idea for the following year. One of those ideas was for the face cut outs.

I got the ball rolling in July by trying to come up with a design. I needed a design that was sturdy but didn’t have a large “footprint” so that they could easily be stored. I searched around on Pinterest.

I ended up with a simple stand.

But before I got to that part, I practiced cutting out the hole for the face. I made sure I picked out thin wood so that I could easily cut the hole out.

I traced an oval for the face shape and then drilled holes along the line.

I then took my reciprocating saw to “Connect” the dots.

I then sanded the edges… VERY IMPORTANT! You don’t want people to get splinters in their necks.

My circles weren’t perfect. The battery was getting low, causing me trouble with accuracy, but I finished!

I then attached the boards to the stands.

I now had a base to paint. With how the wood was cut and how tall and wide I calculated my measurements, I ended up making four face cut outs. I had two volunteers that said they would help me paint. One lady took two and she made gorgeous snowpeople! I had no idea how talented she was. The level of detail is amazing!

Another lady whipped up a Nutcracker in less than a day. I dropped it off at her house early afternoon, and she text me a picture that night of the final product!

Because a nutcracker is known for their mustaches, we couldn’t leave that part out, yet, the face was cut out. So, my volunteer made a template and I used some leftover wood and my scroll saw and cut out a mustached to place over the hole. The only downside, is people can’t rest their chin on the cutout, but it gives them a mustache and it’s cute!

I decided to be artistic and painted one myself. I do not considered myself an artist in the true sense of the word, but I was proud of myself with this one. I paired my cutout to go with the Nutcracker. I made Clara!

I can draw pointe shoes like nobody’s business, since I drew them all growing up and had it perfected, but ask me to draw body parts, and I flunk!

I started with one color at a time. This made me feel like I knew what I was doing.

I was pretty proud of the finished product.

I colored the hair brown, because I thought that was an easier color to create than blonde, but it got lost on my navy background. I then tried to up my game and add dimension. This is where things got dicey. I was not good and very critical. I realize now, that adding dimension needs to be done while all paint is wet. I tried and tried to add detail. That dress has seven coats of white on it, as I would try to show creases, but didn’t like it, so I painted over it. I finally gave up and put subtle lines in there, but you can’t see them, they are so subtle.

I did try and add detail to the hair so that you could see it better and see that is was ringlets. 

I only painted over the brown 3 times before I liked it. 

The event was this past Sunday and the kids loved the cutouts. They were a huge it!

Now to store the cutouts are the clubhouse and not my garage!!!