Interior Design: First Floor Refresh, Part 1

The following video is a first look at my design choices for my next major project: an update on my first floor finishes. I haven’t renovated any areas on my first floor since I moved in (except painting the fireplace). See why I chose the colors and products that I did. And check out after the video for my lessons learned.

Say I love you with…a toilet seat replacement?

Valentine’s Day is not just about giving candy and cards to significant others and friends, it’s about showing your love language. Which for my brother must be acts of service because it involves replacing a toilet seat.

Yep.

Well to be fair, I had already called my brother to help repair a piece of furniture, and we had both forgotten it was Valentine’s Day weekend, and since he already had the tools out for the furniture, he replaced the toilet seat in my guest bathroom, too. He uses that one after all. So, this really has nothing to do with love. Well, some caring.

Brief backstory: if you will remember my IG post from July 2020, I had this as a TO-DO project. It’s not a hard thing to do, especially with newer toilets like I have, but for some reason I didn’t have the motivation…or something to get this done. It’s probably a combination of not liking germs (I’m a little germophobic, and this is the guest bathroom) and scared that my phone would fall in the toilet while I tried to get a picture.

Instagram photo. The desk got done, the toilet seat not so much.

Before I had to return it for the right color. Oy vey!

Home Office Reno, part 4 of…The Bookcase Debacle

In my Home Office Reno, part 4, I started off with two bookcases: a tall, 8-cubed unit in a satin maple finish, and a short, wide double shelf bookcase with an oak laminate finish that I spray painted an antique gold. Two finishes that no longer work in the space.

In a previous redesign, I painted the short bookcase (see that project here), but again, the outside paint no longer worked with the current design.

After a few tries with the taller bookcase (see that mess-up here!) I’ve finally got these two bookcases into the design. By purchasing another tall, 4-cubed bookcase, I now have a sort-of bookcase wall in my new home office!

Lessons Learned:

Home Office Reno, part 3 of… Desk is finally done!

Finally! the desk I dismantled and sanded in April 2020 is finally done 3 months later! If you’ve seen my IG, you know I did have to break my quarantine to go to a home improvement store (for, among other things, a new toilet seat. Toilet seat replacement in an upcoming post). So, of course while I was there, I had to purchase everything I hadn’t in months! So let the painting begin!

Even DIYers get it wrong…

Parts 3 and 4 of my Home Office Renovation are to paint 2 pieces of major furniture: A double bookshelf and my desk.

The desk interior cubby needs one more coat, but after that, I’m stalled while doing my part to #StayAtHome. After all, there’s so much more to do on this renovation.

I thought the double bookshelf would be a snap–just spray paint it white, let it dry, and it could go back in the office. Two cans of spray paint later, and it’s in my living room waiting to be fixed. How did it happen?

This is a case of doing too much and not paying attention. Firstly, I was doing three projects at once: painting a wall in my home office, sanding my desk between coats, and trying to declutter this very same bookshelf’s contents. I did all of this with relative ease. Getting the bookshelf down the stairs and out the door was a little harder.

But my mistake was in not sanding. Like in other paint projects I’ve done here, I’ve played hit or miss with sanding. Every time I miss sanding, I always come out with a not-so-good result. Here, because I have a shiny laminate on top of this engineered wood, I need to sand the shine off so the spray paint can adhere. That’s why It came off on the right side (below pic)

Well, now I need to sand off more than that. See the drips? I’m pretty sure it’s mostly my fault for not sanding and for spraying too heavily and too close ( I was pretty tired that day). Although, I did get a better spray paint–one that I know works well. Hopefully, try number 2 will yield better results!