Tuesday, August 3, 2010

A fellow serial DIY'er...

I want to thank Brandi for sending over her DIY projects.  They are awesome!  This is a long post, but I can't leave out any details.  I love all of her creativity, DIY talent and her beautiful home.  I think you will too.  Make sure you click the links to visit Brandi's blog for all of the details and even more DIY eye candy.

Kitchen Before/Afters:
When we looked into buying the home, I was HATING the kitchen.  It was screaming BUILDER GRADE. The kitchen had never been painted and the countertops looked horrible.  And it was begging for a backsplash.

We chose to paint the kitchen orange and do the “antique glazed” look.  We painstakingly painted the cabinets a linen color and then glazed each one of them. We added some crown moulding to the top to give it a more “high end” look.  Then we added hardware to the doors and drawers.  Finally we changed out the countertop and put in a Travertine backsplash on the diagonal.  I couldn’t be happier… well, now that’s not entirely true – I want to change out the white appliances for stainless steel ones – but that will come later on down the road.

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Fireplace Before & After:
The night we closed on the house, I immediately started pulling up carpet and smashing the tile surround on the fireplace. 

The hubs built the mantle and we used slate tiles as the surround.  Total cost for the transformation?  $36.00!!!

  As you can also see, we replaced the carpet for hardwood – a steal we found discount supply store for $1.50 sq ft… I am still convinced they had this priced incorrectly! HA!




Beautiful Bathroom vanity Before & After:
This is still a work in progress (its never ending).  But when we bought the home – there was carpet in the master bath.  GROSS!  We hated the vanity… okay we pretty much hated everything about the bathroom. 

We decided to take out the original vanity and put in an antique dresser with a sink on top in its place. 

After months of searching for the PERFECT one, we found this small dresser at Goodwill for $60.00.  We sanded it down, painted the body black and stained the drawers a mahogany color.  We also stained the side insets the same.  We added glass knobs and kept the beautiful brass locks. 

We found the sink and faucet on Overstock.com for $120.  Can’t beat that! 

The hubs had to modify the drawers to fit the plumbing, but I am extremely happy with the way it turned out! 

We also ripped out the carpet and put in black and white tile.  Now it has an antique feel to the bathroom.  I am loving how it turned out!!



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Thank you for sharing all of your beautiful DIY projects, Brandi. Everything you touch turns to gold! lol I love the barnwood shelves, the kitchen is amazing, the bathroom might still be a work in progress to you but it's gorgeous! Congratulations on doing fantastic work!