Finishing

Category

How to DIY Transform your Garage with Epoxy Paint

When it comes to enhancing the look and durability of your garage floor, few options can compare to the transformative power of epoxy paint. Our garage had this coating when we moved in, but after a few years the pristine paint chipped and was stained with paint and other DIY leftovers. I called for some bids on epoxy and was told it could cost me up to $7,000! This project all in with supplies was under $250. Refreshing your garage...

How to Apply Wall Texture

A quick how to on saving you time and getting great results texturing wall patches. For small projects, texture in a can will get you great results to match existing orange peel or gently raised texture surfaces. Start with a Quality Product We’ve used a plethora of spray products over the years. Big box and Specialty Store water and oil-based, and we’ve mixing our own using our hopper and air compressor. However, the variability in the texture and how it...

How to Install Edge Band Veneer

There are a few tips and tricks we wished we had learned prior to applying edge band veneer. Here is a way to make the process easier: Step 01. Buy Right Size Veneer Try to buy the veneer that is as close to the size that you need. It’s possible to use 3/4-inch veneer on 1/2-inch pieces you just need to be a little more careful. Step 02. Get Tools Together We don’t recommend grabbing your good iron, unless you...

DIY Custom Closet – Update Your Bifold Doors

We created a custom built-in closet in our hallway to replace our boring bifold doors and it turned out fantastic – we eliminated those pesky bifold doors and ugly wire racks. We built custom box-joint drawers with mortise and tenon face frames and built-in shelves. All of this using affordable tools and picking up skills along the way. We’ll show you how we did it with tips and tricks, including ways to flex your woodworking skills if you so desire...

IKEA Koppang Dresser Hack

I love a good IKEA hack. This super simple and inexpensive update made a big difference in this IKEA Koppang white dresser. IKEA dressers can be hard to find, and we lucked out by getting our hands on this one for delivery even though it was sold out everywhere in stores around us. There are other options that are very price friendly, including some on Wayfair, like this one. For E’s room makeover, we needed something narrow that would fit...

How to Create a Wood Accent Wall

We have always had an “accent” wall in our son’s room. Even when we repainted his room to create the Star Wars Boys Room, we kept a wee accent. A recent overhaul of our daughters room and some need for balance between siblings gave us the idea to punch it up — and having a bunch of free wood that Nichole found on our local marketplace that was begging to be made into something. We drew many options of what...

How to Brighten Fireplace Grout and Stone for $50 – Schmearing DIY

Schmearing a fireplace can positively change the way your fireplace looks – our reason was to brighten up our room! When we moved in, we wanted to update this fireplace. It’s in our family room, and we wanted to keep the cozy look of stone (which matches our exterior stone), but wanted a different look. Here is how we’ve had it for a few years, after Ryan updated the mantle to a new beautifully made mid-century model wood mantle (which...

DIY Pottery Barn Dollhouse Bookcase – Finishing

There were a lot of lessons from this series of projects for our daughters room. I had this wonderful thought about spraying with an airless sprayer — it was a spectacular failure. Such is life. At least you can sand your way out of those failures.. Involve the Kiddos One of the great things about this project series was our daughter’s design and finish input. We didn’t deliver on her request for a rainbow painted bookcase but we did keep...

DIY Pottery Barn Girls Desk Hack – Finishing Touches

We are so happy with the way this custom Chelsea Pottery Barn -esque vanity turned out for our daughter and the finishing touches. There was some finishing challenges and some good lessons on the journey as we undertook our first furniture project with red oak wood. See our Instructions for Building the Pottery Barn Vanity here! Time for Sanding the Vanity To clean up some of the drawer face markings from routing I put my oscillating tool to use –...

Upgrade your Pulls and Knobs to Enhance your Cabinets

Swapping out your existing pulls and knobs is an easy DIY project and can really change the character of your space. It can be as simple as only needing a screw driver. Lucky us, we needed to drill new holes in our cabinets which was a wee bit stressful. Here are some tips and tricks to upgrading those knobs and pulls. Selecting Hardware Finish. Because the majority of our existing finishes are satin, we opted to stay with a similar...