You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘before and after’ tag.
As we’re slowwwwly wrapping up the guest bungalow project, I decided to take on a mini project I’ve been aching to do for a whole now… A Mirror Makeover!
The mirror that hung above the bathroom pedestal sink (way back in another time when we bought the house) was floral, faux finish-y, shabby chic-y… Nothing desirable in a mirror in my opinion. BUT! It had a lovely geometric shape and so I kept it hidden away in the basement… Until now:
I removed the glass, primed the frame, let it dry, then sanded down the raised areas of the painted finish. (There was still a price tag sticker on the back so I’m certain this is a circa early 2000 mirror from a box store, rather than something antique/ precious.)
Then I painted it with our Pot Of Cream trim paint:
Much better. Here’s the current guest bedroom set up, with mirror:
The set up and accessories took about 5 minutes so they’re still in flux. Dresser is Rob’s from childhood, leather elephant bank was an awesome work pollyanna gift a few years ago, the ‘Y’ is a piece of a second year architecture model made of plaster, recent photo is us with our niece, mid century clock from a block fair at Fitler Sq a few years ago.
The antique cane chair used to be my grandparents and recently came out of storage. My grandmother had re-caned it, so that part is fairly sound, but currently the chair itself is sensitive and therefore has a “look but don’t touch” policy.
So mirror makeover… What do you think?
The cork’s down but there are a few more steps to go, including applying two coats of water based poly and the bottom -shoe- part of the baseboard.
Threshold between hall & bedroom. Before we installed the cork I sanded and stained it and we plan to take the water based poly right over it from the cork.
After. We chose to center a full tile on the threshold:
Before. Tools of the measuring trade strewn about the self leveled floor:
After. We used a rented 100lb roller to make sure the tiles adhered fully.
And a view from the closet. Per product instructions, we left a hairline gap between all of the tiles to account for possible swelling of the tiles during the summer months.
Before (a crazy storage/ project prep room):
After (practically ready for furniture):
To prove that it’s a whole new room, I decided to lay down on the floor (extremely risky behavior before) to get a good photo of the ceiling:
More on that light fixture soon. The cork is similar to wood floor- warm to the touch, a little bit of give, and smooth. The color was pretty consistent too. So far so good!
Tonight we jumped back upstairs to take the guest room from this…
…To this:
View from the hall:
And it only took a few hours of this:
I also got the second coat of the hall wainscot painted… So tomorrow we’ll be seeing blue!
Rob worked his spackle /sanding mojo magic and left an amazingly smooth room. Today I cleaned the bedroom from top to bottom, including a microfiber wipe-down, grabbed my painting supplies and stirred up some Primer!
Handy dandy extend-a-roller-pole (and proof that the ceiling is over two times my height, apparently):
All primed:
I’m still amazed at what some time, patience, and spackle did to this room- check out those pretty 90 degree plaster-to-drywall corners. Yum!
The past two nights have been spent on quick floor repair in the little bedroom. In the before shot below, it’s easy to see that the area of previous patching was exactly where we had to fix the floor. It was squeaky and did not feel solid at all. The area below the window was also shot due to all the openings from the old radiator pipes we removed. Before:
During- we added some more insulation for sound dampening in the joist bays we could reach:
We patched with glued & screwed down plywood; After:
Re-worked pex for radiator:
Shimming:
Meanwhile of course our most-needed tool for the project, a hand me down corded circular saw, decided mid-project that it quit. Luckily it was just the cord, Rob had a spare cord and rewired it.
Who knew we had a spare power tool cord on stand by?
A little trim work, exterior ladder work and wall building still to do, but the little bedroom window is now installed. Before:
After:
Exterior Before:
Exterior After (yes that is a work light suspended from a 2x from our third floor… Love daylight savings.):
Scale figure:
Exciting!
We hung a total of three doors so far, orange bedroom, linen, and small storage closet across from the linen.
Small storage door from inside bedroom:
Bedroom door from inside the bedroom:
Bedroom door from hall/bathroom:
Linen closet from hall/ top of stairs:
Ok and here’s Rob installing the last two stops for the bedroom door post- hanging:
Still so many doors to hang and hardware to install but this, friends, is progress!
Saturday was the big day…
To finally take down the plastic dividing the orange bedroom.
This was the view from the “clean” side of the bedroom through the plastic…
And the picture we have all been waiting for… the after shot with plastic down!
We have some things to finish up, most noticeably hang the doors, but we have come a long way.
Here is a view to the hall with a test fit of the closet doors. You can also the area where we are refinishing the floor.
Who Said What?