Shiraz and Furniture Glazing Do Not Mix!

Okay, dear readers, when we left our project yesterday, the island trim moulding had gotten two coats of Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Quilter's White. This is not a spray paint (like Rustoleum is famous for), this is a fancy schmancy (fairly new) product they have that promises no sanding, no stripping, and no priming. I am the biggest fan of this stuff (more posts to follow on just how MUCH I've actually used it in my home), and no, I do not work for Rustoleum. But they could hire me, if they want. I love them.

Here is my progress today. Island trim is all painted and glazed:

The Rustoleum kit contains the deglosser (basically a chemical stripper), the base coat of paint, the glaze, these gauzy cloths that help you wipe on/wipe off the glaze, and the polyurethane top coat. The deglosser was unnecessary in this project since that product's purpose is to remove the sheen/polyurethane from cabinetry, and in this case, my trim did not have that on it. I just applied two coats of the base coat. It dries to a matte consistency. You have to put polyurethane over it to protect it and give it a slightly glossy sheen.

My glazing was going well until the effects of the glass of Shiraz wine I had kicked in. Then I encountered a roadblock. I seem to have accidentally wiped the paint underneath away in one spot, and therefore I could not get my glaze to stick in the left bottom corner. When I went back to do a second coat of glaze in places where I wanted it darker, I inadvertently made this area too dark. It looked like this:

The thing about this is that you can paint over the glaze if you want to (I am going to put some of my Rustoleum Quilter's White Base coat where I got it too dark), then reglaze. The products are forgiving. They are all water-based. So here it is after I decided to paint over the dark spot:

And VOILA! After the glaze had been redone:

Glazing is something I had always been initimidated by, so was too afraid to try. I mean don't you just love glazed cabinets and glazed furniture?! They're so beautiful. It must be hard to achieve that effect, right?! Wrong . . . . It's very easy. When I first glazed my island a few months ago, I was amazed how incredibly easy it is. You just rub the glaze on with one of those gauzy cloths, then wipe it off to get the desired effect. Simple. It is seriously one of the most easy and fun things I have every done. I used a small paintbrush to do the detail work on the inside of the trim. It was literally one from a child's paint-by-number kit. It worked perfectly. Here's a pic of the brush with the glaze:

Rub on and off with a gauzy cloth:

So progress is being made. Tomorrow, the plan is to put on the polyurethane topcoat, then get to work on doing the same panel trim on the exposed ends of the lower perimeter cabinets.

Then I will do trim on the exposed ends of the upper cabinetry. I bought some moulding, and some more moulding, and even some more. Where does it end?! My moulding obsession is getting out of control.

This one seems to have promise as the trim for the upper cabinet end panels:

It's chair rail moulding from Lowe's.

Until later . . .

Real Carpenters Do Not Fly By the Seat of Their Pants

Okay, when I started this island project, I intended to just fly by the seat of my pants when it came to measuring for how much I needed in materials. I thought I'd just eyeball it, estimate a little, and VOILA! Like magic, the project would come together and be perfect! Not so, my dear people, not so.

There is actually something called precisely measuring, and then adding a little more to account for error when it comes to building/making/embellishing something. Who knew?! Not me. So as I had to run out to Lowe's again today since I had not calculated the right amount for materials yesterday, I learned a valuable lesson. MEASURE beforehand what you need.

So as we left our project yesterday, I had framed one side of the island. Today, the whole island is framed. Well, at least the parts that matter, the bland parts, the sides and back. This has not come at a small cost,  everyone. This isn't easy. Things are not precise. It did not turn out perfectly. But I have not yet caulked it/filled in the seams. Here it is framed out:

Since I was a bit skittish at times with the brad nailer, my nails did not always go in perfectly flush. Here is an example of a mishap:

Which meant I had to use something called a nail punch and a hammer to drive my nails in so they were flush with the surface. This is not so easily done on this foam polyurethane moulding material. The material will dent if you apply that kind of pressure (meaning I missed a few times with my hammer and accidentally slipped and dented the surface of the moulding with the nail punch). I will have to touch that up before I paint. Here is a pic of the nail punch (on left).

Another thing that added time and energy to the project was adding that screen moulding to the top and bottom parts of the island (since the sides already had some that stuck out 1/4"). Here is an example:

I affixed this screen moulding with Liquid Nails. This is a construction adhesive that acts like a glue. Here is a pic of it:

Here is a pic of the inside corners, where I again added the screen moulding underneath so it would stabilize the base moulding on the top:

I did not use Liquid Nails for these inside moulding pieces since I just laid them flush and nailed them in at the same time as I nailed the base moulding in. Once I became comfortable with the brad nailer and not afraid of it, things went well. Almost all my nails went in perfectly flush. This gives me promise for future large projects, such as my crown moulding project. This brad nailer is addictive. It has a lot of power and is so much easier than nailing in each individual nail. Who knew something so cheap could give so much pleasure?! 

As a side note, I probably would not install this type of moulding on an island where there is a lot of traffic that could dent it (children, etc.). I will have to see how it goes after living with this island for awhile. My husband's verdict on this new foamy moulding material? "I like wood." And when you cut the moulding (at least with an electric saw), it smells like burning plastic, not a good smell at all.

Tomorrow's project: paint and glaze the moulding. See you then.

I Have a Sickness

Yes, everyone, I have a SICKNESS. It is called home renovation-itis, and I stay up late at night thinking of home projects, dream about them, obsess about them while I'm working, and google things like brad nailers (not that I would ever surf the web for personal reasons at work), and sometimes utterly drive myself crazy with my obsession.

I am starting a blog because I’ve learned so much over the home renovation/decoration process, and I have more projects to do. I want to share what I’ve learned and done so I can (maybe) inspire and teach others, as other bloggers have certainly done for me. I am continually inspired and amazed by people’s ingenuity. I am not alone in this obsession, people . . . there are many, many others out there who also have home renovation-itis/decoration-itis, whatever you want to call it.

Today's project is called . . . adding moulding to an island. I have been so inspired as I've googled these words. I found this blog http://dimplesandtangles.blogspot.com/2012/02/our-kitchen-details.html (love the name of her blog, BTW), and thus began my inspiration for my island project. 

Here is her gorgeous kitchen island and paneling work, which I was trying to emulate for my island. 

Here is what I had to work with:

Please ignore the gratuitous kitty kat photo. She wanted to be featured in my new blog so she can become a celebrity. 

My island is a boring, simple builder's grade island that probably has been installed in thousands of homes all over America. I have painted and glazed it in a cream color, but it was a maple wood color when we moved in. The boring blandness of it was driving me nuts, and I couldn't stand those side pieces of trim that stick out and seem to have no place whatsoever. It needed some dimension, some pizzazz. It needed moulding!!! There is nothing better than moulding, moulding, and more moulding! It was time to do something with the island and do it FAST. 

But the problem was . . . I don't have a lot of carpentry skills. In fact, until today, I've never even used a saw. Inspired by many other women on the internet and their carpentry skills, I went out and bought a simple miter box at Home Depot for $4.97. You can see it (it's yellow) on the top of our island. This is all because I found a blogger who used this inexpensive tool with a handsaw to cut her foam moulding. I am intrigued by this lightweight material, which is why I was inspired to try this project myself. I bought this to frame the island at Lowe's:

It's 3 1/2" wide, which will frame my island nicely and will cover that weird open place in the corner at the bottom, since that's exactly 3 1/2" wide. Here is a pic of that weird cut-out at the bottom right.

This foam stuff is a polyurethane foam material, but don't be misled, people . . . this is hard stuff, not like your styrofoam coolers. It is durable and would work for my island. I also bought this at Lowe's:

This is just 3/4" wide screen moulding (again, made out of the same polyurethane foam material). We bought this to go between that weird trim on the island (under the nice base moulding as a support) since it's 1/4" thick, which is how much that weird trim sticks out. 

And since I wanted a pneumatic nailer (I'm tired of using a hammer, dear readers), we bought this at Home Depot:

It's a Campbell Hausfeld Brad Nailer/Stapler. We got it for the bargain price of $39.97. My husband had never bought a brad nailer before because he thought they were expensive. Well, this is how we found this particular nailer: I called Home Depot and asked, "What is the cheapest brad nailer you have in stock?" The sales associate told me "We have a Campbell for $39.97. But I haven't heard of that brand. We also have a Porter Cable brad nailer for $69.97. That's a good price for a Porter. I would get the Porter." So I googled the reviews for the Campbell Hausfeld, and bought that one. It's cheap, it does the job, and I am not (probably) going to use it extensively (except for a super-whopping big project I have to do putting up crown moulding in our whole downstairs in the future).  A hint here: when you go look at the finish nailers at Home Depot, this was not located with them. This was in the air tools section. This is important because, for some reason, they only seem to have the more expensive finish nailers in the finish nailer section. Pretty sneaky, if you ask me. You need an air compressor for this brad nailer (which we have on hand). If you buy a brad nailer, make sure you have (or buy) the right air compressor for the nailer you have (the PSI--or pounds per square inch--varies on different air compressors). The nails (500 of them) are included with the nailer. The nails that were included were the 1" long ones, which is what I needed. You don't want to go through your cabinet so you can see the nails on the inside.

Then we went home. I have never used a saw before this day, my friends, nor have I ever used a brad nailer before this day. So I did both. First I used the $4.97 miter box from Home Depot with a handheld miter saw. Yes, you can cut the foam moulding stuff by hand with a handsaw, but it is still hard to cut (maybe I'm not the strongest person in the world, OK?). So after the first two cuts with the handheld saw and my griping, my wonderful husband told me he would set up his electric compound miter saw for me. Thus came my very first lesson in using this sort of scary piece of machinery. Once you use it, it's not so scary. I never knew that, all these years! I have seen my hubby do projects for years, but never have I used that thing! I was intimidated. So no more. I have been initiated . . . .  Yes, it was way easier to do the cutting with that electric saw. But if you just use a handheld miter saw and cheap miter box, it will get the job done as well. You just have to hold the moulding really well as you're cutting, or it will slip around a lot.

My next lesson . . . the brad nailer. I didn't even know it was called a brad nailer until today. I had seen the term finish nailer, but brad nailer? Is it the same? Yes, I now know it is. So we proceeded to unpackage the nailer and set it up. We oiled it up (5 drops), inserted the nail strip, set the depth penetration, and I was off! If I can just stop flinching when I use it, I will be okay . . .

It's been a long day, readers. After three hours at the zoo in the hot baking Florida sun, and then coming home to work on the island project, I am exhausted. Here is our progress thus far:

We've framed out one side of the island. Of course, I will have to caulk, paint and glaze when we're done, but I am happy to get this much done. It has been a day of learning, and I am very happy. I am starting to feel accomplished . . . .

More tomorrow.