paint and sawdust

So, I've decided that I am happiest when I'm covered in paint and sawdust. The promise of a new cheap project makes me want to giggle. So much so, in fact, that I don't take pictures throughout...but fret not, I have before and afters!

We have some lovely *coughnastycough* yellow/orange oak cabinets that I'm sure were the bombdotcom when they were put in, but they are no more. I have been planning on painting them for a while, but our bathroom vanities are an off-white color. As I painted our bathroom, I realized that white on off-white would probably not be the cutest color contrast. It's still my intention of painting our kitchen cabinets when we replace the countertops, but I set out to find some other solution for our bathrooms.

I found a chemical stripper to take the finish off of our cabinets. All the videos/reviews of stripping agents I had seen showed a "sludge" that forms after you apply it and you simply scrape off the mess. If only I had been so lucky...I ended up with more of a stubborn flake than a sludge. No fun. It took pretty much a full day to strip, sand, and pre-treat the wood.

After testing one door, I found that some polys never fully leave the wood, which makes the wood refuse to take stain. I stained one door but it didn't take ANY stain. Pain. So, take two. I got Minwax's Poly and Stain in one. It's more like a translucent paint that a traditional stain, but it worked miracles. However, don't take a magnifying glass to my cabinets--there are streak marks everywhere. The Poly and stain in one is crazy hard to use. It streaked at the littlest change in pressure and pooled constantly. But a mistake ridden beautiful stain is much better than a yellowed oak stain. See for yourself:
This is after some test sanding and test staining. But still--nas-d.
Guest bath before.
ahhh...and after. still love it.

This was definitely a full Labor Day weekend project (I went to school Monday exhausted) but every time I walk in our bathrooms, I can't help but smile.

Speaking of the bathrooms...I painted. After TWO (count em two) awful greens (and we even bought samples) allll over our walls (seriously, one color I trimmed and put fixtures back up before I realized it looked like pistachio ice cream), I figured if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I pulled out our trusty Behr Oat Straw (LOVE this color) and my stripe color. Love it. :)

Also, in other news, school is great. My new roles (team leader and AP Bio...or BAP as my awesome AP kiddos want to put on our t-shirts) keep me busy to say the least--definitely a baptism by immersion! One morning I was having AP tutorials and I had about 10 interruptions by other teachers asking questions. After a while, one of my students laughed and said "man, you must be important. this is like grand central station!" I get to teach some fantastic students. If you want to see something funny, though, come hang out in my 5th period. There are 23 (yes...23) 9th grade boys. I only have 7 girls in that class. Yeah...it's comical. I have to say things like "Quit hitting him with your casita" and "Why do you have glue all over your hands?" and "Put your butt in a chair"...they get confused unless you are that specific. Plus they think it's hilarious when you say butt. But(t) I love it. :)


<3 L

P.S.- If you know me, you'd probably think teacher-me is very funny. I definitely put on a persona. I say things like "baby doll", "bud", and "let me see your pretty little faces". In fact, on day 3, I had a SIMPLE warm-up for them to practice doing my warm-ups that said "Mrs. Nichols thinks safety is important because..." and one of my students raised his hand and said "because she doesn't want us to mess up our pretty little faces." Ha. The things they pick up.