Stained Bathroom Vanity Espresso - DIY

Last time I stained my pine dresser and gave it Pottery Barn look. Link

 Oops! I did it again!! With the same technique, this time with the master bath vanity. I changed the original oak cabinets which were popular in 1980's to the new espresso face lift.

Here is our bath before surgery!

The new face lift!

 

 Before and After

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Fireplace goes black!

Another painting project on my list was done! YaY! My original bronze fireplace finally got touched up to black. This is my first project of painting using spray paint. So scared to do it at first but I did it!

Here is her look that came with the house when we bought. I have to tell you that all hardware and light fixtures in this house are in brass, 1960s' style. Fireplace was not brass, I guess it's called bronze?? Since we plan to get rid of the brass look so this bronze fireplace must go too.

And here is her new look!

If you are wondering about " How to", below might help.

1. Clean surface with Lysol Dual action. I used this one because one side of wiper is rough and suppose to clean well.
2. Sand it with steel wool. Thank you anonymous employee at  ACE Hardware who suggested to use this product to get rid of its shine without leaving scratch.
3. Repeat step#1
4. Wipe with paper towel or any clean dry towel.
5. Spray primer, I use Rust-Oleum black primer. Let it dry for 1 hour.
6. Spray Rust-Oleum black heat resistant. Thanks again to that anonymous ACE employee.
7. Second coat spray paint. FYI, the heat resistance  Rust-Oleum only came in Gloss and Flat. I wanted satin finished so I used Rust-Oleum Double Cover 2X in Satin black for my second coat.

Again....before and after ^___^

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Get Pottery Barn dresser look for less!

I'm so excited with this project! I have this dresser since 2008 when my girl was born. It came in original natural pine wood color.  Along with my kids' growing, his dresser became decorated with stickers and tapes all over.  When we moved, we had to make decision what to keep and what to sell. The craftsmanship of this one was too great to put on Craigslist for $25. I insisted to keep it.....I had a plan ^__^

I fell in love with this Pottery Barn Tall Boy Dresser from Farmhouse collection which is $1299  OMG >_<"

I found great tutorial here to give an espresso finished to your furniture. Her blog and method used is fabulous. I follow her instruction carefully except for one thing, I used thin black sock from Dollar Trees instead of my hubby's athlete white sock as the original tutorial did. Reason?

       1. My hubby didn't like the idea that his socks would get stolen.
       2. I tried couple of thick white socks and it left some streaky mark unless you make a very thin layer as her suggestion.
       3. I'm not good with using foam brush either (as another blogger used).
       4. No socks from hubby allowed, no problem, $1 / pair at Dollar Trees! I tried both white and thin black. The latter works better.

Too bad I was so excited to try and forgot to take picture before starting. I have pic from 2 years ago with my little girl having fun with red jello!

At first I hand sanded but it didn't get rid of all sticky things. I tried using nail polish remover and power sanded after...yeah..came out really smooth. After many days of painting, drying and polishing, I got this!!

Now I've just started my new project.....bathroom makeover.... which I will use this technique to stain the vanity again. Stay tuned!

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Mira's bedroom makeover

It took so long since my blog grand opening. So much work of moving, painting, ordering (the most fun part so far) and paying (the most unpleasant part).

The first makeover to be revealed is Mira's bedroom. It's the most challenging part of the house to play with.

First time we saw this wall....everybody even the little 4 yr Mira said "Yuck!!"

It was also the only room in the house with no carpet. I personally love hardwood floor but you know..for little girl.. she preferred soft carpet and (of course) wondering "Why Max's bedroom have carpet but not mine??"

So our "To do lists" for Mira's bedroom were;
1. Planning her bedroom color scheme. Mira chose purple and pink :D
2. Painting over the harlequin wall. I felt a little bit sad to destroy someone's art work though.
3. Installing carpet. Although carpet in the house is ivory, Mira insisted to have hers in pink.
4. Changing ceiling fan which Mira said the current one was suppose to be boys' fan. (Wondering who gave her this picky gene.)
5. Setting up her  big girl bed :D
6. Putting up curtains
7. Adding rod in closet to be kids reachable.

Let's start with the wall. Primer on! Harlequin's gone..boohoo!

Then, 3 layers of purple. I didn't mean to have 3 layers but we made mistake with the second layer using a bit off color from different gallon of paint. (Lesson #1 ; If you buy more than 1 gallon, you have to pour and mix all to a bigger container to get the same tone of color. Although you buy the same model paint, it might be a bit off among each gallon. Paint we used was "Purple Lace" from Benjamin Moore. (In case you are curious)

 As plan# 4 above, we originally wanted to change ceiling fan. I searched online for an affordable girl's ceiling fan and ended up...DIY!  Why not? We have white paint left in garage and wall sticker from Target that I planned to use for the floral bedroom theme. Since my hubby was not home and I didn't know how to turn off circuit breaker, I stupidly risked my life unscrewing the wings by myself while electrics on . Max, big brother wanted to help. Kids and stickers are always the best buddy.

 New curtains up and carpet on! I'm pretty sure Mira loves her new room!!

 Found this switch plate online :D

Bed and night stand in!

Side by side, before and after! We still need to do #7 on the lists soon.

My very first post ever!

Living in San Francisco for 8 years, it's time to make a change for our family. I didn't say San Francisco isn't a nice city or such. We just want more space for our growing family with 2 little monkeys of 4 and 5 .

San Francisco is also known as city of hills, with 50-plus hills, it's considered the 2nd hilliest city in the world, next to La Paz, Bolivia. We can't play balls in front of the house without chasing ball rolling down a hill. How about backyard, can we throw a BBQ party there? Nah....it's too windy and foggy! Fog might be charming for many people but not me, seriously. In summer, you will see the fog that blanket over the city, sometimes obscuring from sight all but the tallest buildings. Just imagine our kids wear thick jacket in summer rather than just short and Ts. Not fun, huh?

Despite of its hills and fog, San Francisco is one of the most attractive cities in America for picturesque and diversity. We have been discussing about moving for a while...Yes, No, Yes, No. Until we got the helper who helped us make a final decision easily. It's the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) who assign each kid a public school to enroll, started at kindergarten. Although we currently live 3 blocks away from the elementary school nearby, SFUSD has assigned Max, who will be in kinder this August, to the school across the city in the most dangerous area!! What? Really? Are you serious? We rejected and filed petition just to find that no more school assignment for Max now and we must wait to submit again in August, yes..just right before school starts, to see any seat available in any school. Ok....we are done. Time to move on!


We started shopping for new house, sounded fun.. but.. not really. We've looked at few cities nearby to make it convenient for hubby to commute to work in SF. We narrowed down to Walnut Creek and Corte Madera. And the winner is...drums please....Walnut Creek! Hubby lived in Walnut Creek few years ago and he loved it. We have visited Walnut Creek many times in the past just to enjoy sunshine with outdoor activities. We did research about schooling system there and we satisfied with it. 


Next step, house hunting! The time we seriously looking for house was the time with lowest inventory. We saw the same group of people shopping around for houses wherever there was open house. Almost of them are the families with 1-3 kids. Just wondering, are they from San Francisco? Same reason of moving? I've heard many families moved away from SF because they couldn't stand the messed up schooling system.^__^"

After looking quite a bit, we put offer on one house. No...we didn't get it. I was sad but relieved in the same time. Why? It's a swimming pool...hmm...nice... but wait...I don't want to take risk with my 2 monkeys who don't know how to swim yet. Ok....we moved on.

And...TA-DA... finally, we found the perfect one for us. Just to clarify, perfect here doesn't mean either big or elegant. It just answered what we need.


Outside:
1. Flat area, no hill (MUST)
2. Good school.
3. Safe neighborhood.
4. Big street but NO TRAFFIC.
5. Spacious backyard for kids to let out energy.


Inside:
1. High ceiling with good lighting
2. Enough rooms for me to have my own craft room..he..he
3. Not too much of Fixer-upper. We don't want to spend most of the time fixing instead of enjoying family time. But we don't mind doing little by little. Now you know why I name my blog 302 Little by Little. 302 is our new address.


Okay..okay...no more talking. Let's see our future home. We have not officially moved in yet, but we've started calling our house already :D

We are hiding behind this little rose garden and few trees. In Walnut creek, any tree taller than 4.5' and larger than 9" diameter needed to require permit to cut. Note: Because a tree drops leaves or needles is not valid reason for removal.Cool!

Behind the garden, here we are! We need to change roof before moving in. Stay tune for "After" photo.

Big street with no traffic :D Love it! Mira is exploring the neighborhood.

We will move in soon after roofing done. Please follow my blog if you want to see what we will do to our new nest, the 302 Little by Little blog.