Every now and then, you come across things (or whole rooms) in your house that just need a little sprucing up...you know, they just are lacking something. Sometimes you can't just put your finger on what that might be...
...and sometimes...you can figure it out pretty easily.
If you read
this post about my unfortunate pink kitchen, you know I had big plans for this unsightly room of mine. "Big plans" equals "big work", and in most cases, "big spending" as well. Work, I can handle, the money part on the other hand...well, we might just have to consider that one a bit. I decided to shop our options for counter tops. We needed something cost efficient and durable.
One thing we knew for sure, labor is the major cost of any home improvement, so we wanted to the work ourselves...even though we did not have a clue what we were doing!
Obviously, the first thing we had to do, what get rid of few things.
Then, using liquid nail and screws, we attached a new counter top using pine panels found in the lumber section at
Lowes. You can buy these in different lengths and widths. We used 24 inch wide and 1 inch thick pieces.
My mister cut them to fit together around the corners and used a jig saw to cut out a spot for the sink. He screwed them on from underneath. I very dumbly deleted all of the pictures I took of this entire process, but it's pretty self explanatory. Glue, set the boards in place, and then screw. I pretty much think he did an amazing job getting everything to fit just right.
At that point, I took over, and used an electric sander to even out all the cracks and make it baby smooth. The sink really should have been put in last, but we didn't figure that out until right about this point. Oh well. After sanding it down, I stained it with black stain.
At this point, I was starting to wonder if this had been such a good idea after all. We were too far in to quit now, so next up was the varnish. I used a heavy duty Polyurethane and a sponge brush to apply it.
I gave it six coats, lightly sanding between each coat. It looked immensely better with some shine!
To be honest though, I still wasn't 100% sure I was on board with it though. It was all just so dark looking still, that I couldn't really tell if they were good or not. A little white paint to let the sunshine pour into that dingy old dark kitchen did the trick. They get my vote now, for sure and for certain!
Sometimes, looking at what things cost can be quite disheartening ..but maybe, you're just looking in the wrong department? There's no law that says kitchen counters
have to be ordered from the kitchen department. They actually might be hiding out in the lumber isle...or the roofing section, or on the cement shelf, or you name it!
You can make just about anything work, if you are willing to give it a try...
even if you've never done it before! What can it hurt? Most likely, even an imperfect job will be worlds better than what you started with!
Things don't happen over night, but as with anything, persistence will pay off! And now that I've delivered this inspiring pep talk, I'm off to paint cabinet doors...which anyone within a 50 mile radius has probably heard me griping about in the last week! I don't see why we need cabinet doors anyway...
Have a great weekend!
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
