Galleries > Robin (WI) > Image 21 / 25 (936 views)
  FirstPreviousTo the overviewNextLast  Start slideshow
Options | Login
Previous"Before" bathroom, view 2. Believe it or not, people were actually living here two months before I bought it."After" bathroom picture. When we replaced the tub, it left a five-inch gap between the existing tile floor and the tub. I used some of the leftover mosaic to fill in the gap. The light switch area is now as waterproof as I could make it. I also tiled the ceiling over the shower. Im all about only having to fix things once.The kitchen cabinets just looked tired. Their warm tones didnt match the cool tone of the granite, and the new hardware didnt fit the existing holes. I patched and sanded the misfit hole, and then used one of my favorite products: Polyshades! It transformed the cabinets to cherry.Yucky kitchen cabinets. Corroded hardware, peeling/worn poly, dated color. And isnt that a lovely backsplash?The original kitchen. Doesnt look too bad from a distance, but the countertop had absorbed so much water that the corner miters had swelled up and it looked like a fungus was growing out of the underside of the lip. The brick backsplash was coated with grease and wasnt very cleanable.Redoing the countertops with $1.99/sq ft granite. Cut off the edge with a circular saw, screwed on a wood strip, and used construction adhesive to hold on the granite strips.Partway through the tiling. The brick proved hard to remove: it was glued to two thicknesses of drywall. We decided to leave it in place and tile over it.This cabinet was golden oak. Two coats of Espresso Polyshades and a new countertop and sink were like magic!Close-up of Espresso Polyshades.The Espresso Polyshades was a little too opaque for my liking, so I did this golden oak cabinet in General Finishes Java. This is what it looked like with two coats.I just left the insides their original golden oak. I didnt want them to be dark like the doors.Two coats of General Finishes Java. I didnt want it to be any darker, so there are reddish streaks.Two coats of General Finishes Brown Mahogany gel stain. You can see the original color to the left. I did a trial run on the doors above the fridge, since you cant ever see them behind the cereal boxes.Three coats of Brown Mahogany was where the magic took place. It gives the wood almost a Mission Oak feel. The edges at the top and bottom are hard to wipe off evenly, though. You can see where its darker there.Old version to the left, new version to the right.IMG_6171Kitchen #1Kitchen #2Final kitchen. We used leftover mosaic from the bathroom to add an accent strip on the backsplash. Some people use wood trim for the front edge. We wanted something a little more durable, so used strips of granite. We used a palm sander with 80-grit sander to create a microbevel on the leading edge, and used wet-look sealer on the raw edge to make it look just like the polished edges.And the final kitchen. It lured just the kind of tenant I wanted. Goes great with her stainless-steel appliances. If you look closely, you can see that the backsplash looks "thick" from where we covered up the old brick backsplash. It actually looks pretty classy.

 IMG_6171 
Visits: Total:3.968.192 Today:1  
30 days history