My heart is heavy this week. Lots of sad news involving people we know and love + cancer. No one in our household but that doesn’t make the news any lighter or less serious. Cancer can kiss my a$$.
In an effort to distract my thoughts, I’m sharing a bunch of random information. Sorry if there’s no good flow to this. Blogging, DIYing and decorating seem so trivial today. Pretty much anything that doesn’t involve hugging the people you love seems trivial today.
We used Bondera to install the subway tile in our kitchen.
It was easy to peel and stick directly onto the drywall. HH lubed our kitchen scissors with cooking spray to cut the adhesive sheets.
The subway tile went up without a hitch but when we got to grouting, there was some pesky tile shifting. We think this was due to the size and weight of our extra long subway tile. The tile displacement wasn’t noticeable when all was said and done but we think it’s worth noting that if you’re going to be working with an extra heavy or large tile then maybe Bondera isn’t the best choice. Now you know.
The tile is 2″x12″ imperial blanco in a gloss finish. The grout is Laticrete in natural grey. It’s an epoxy grout which never has to be resealed. The downside is you have to clean up any stray messes pronto or else it’s permanent. I spent the entire evening after we installed the backsplash cleaning grout off of everything in kitchen. That stuff is like concrete when it dries! I missed some on the back of the handle to our trash pull-out and it’s still there to this day. It’s not visible but I feel it every time I throw something away. It peeves me.
The open shelves are made from reclaimed fence boards from HH’s family farm + IKEA brackets. They are 11″ deep.
HH sanded the fence boards down a little but we didn’t want to completely remove the natural patina. We finished the shelves with a few coats of sanding sealer {above} then a few coats of spray poly in a satin finish. The shelves were left out in the garage for a week to off-gas.
To hang the shelves, we were able to tie into studs in a few places by pre-drilling and then screwing directly into the stud. You can see the patched holes where we originally hung the MDF shelves. Hint: a strip of masking tape sticky side up catches drywall dust.
In the places where we couldn’t hit a stud, HH used toggle lock drywall anchors.
These bad boys can handle up to 100 pounds so technically I could put my kids up on the shelves for time-outs if I wanted. Not that I will.
I tried out some industrial chairs in the dining room a few weeks ago. I liked the chairs but not in our dining room/mudroom. With the tile floor and metal pendant, it was all a little too cold for me.
In fact, the seats themselves were cold on the buns. I returned them the next day. I found them at Home Emporium near Cincy for $79 each if you’re interested. Their inventory is always changing so they might not be there now.
I finally started painting the french doors in the kitchen. Before I could even start to paint, I had to take a razor blade and scrape off a ton of drywall mud that had splattered onto the doors and their windows during renovation. The doors came to us primed.
We splurged for this gel-flow trim & door paint from Home Depot. I think it was $20? Anyways, the ‘no drip, no brush marks’ claim hooked us. The stuff stinks and isn’t like a typical paint. It’s thick and you don’t stir it. It’s like painting with crude oil. As for the ‘no brush marks’ claim, either I’m a sloppy painter – which is highly possible – or the claim is too good to be true. I mean, it’s definitely better than a plain old latex at hiding brush marks but it’s not perfect. FYI – This glop is oil-based and not low VOC so be sure to work in a well-ventilated area.
Still, I’m absolutely loving the results. Very shiny almost like they’re wet and DRAMATIC. Once the doors fully cure and I get the hardware back on, I’ll share some glossy afters. I haven’t painted the french doors in the mudroom yet.
Hope you understood all that nonsense or found something useful. Hug your ‘lil and big ones today.
images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
budget decor, DIY