living room | Operation Home

White paint for everyone!

All the things will be painted white!

All.The.Things.

At least that’s how it seems lately, anyways. And I’m not complaining. This lightly-shaded mayhem began with the transformation of our dining table, and now our built-ins have gotten the blanco treatment. And there’s more to come. Just you wait. 😀

White is one of those lovely shades (remember in school when they referred to white and black as shades, rather than colors?? This has never left me. I remember the weirdest things.) Anyhoo, regardless of the verbage, white is classic, clean, and still leaves plenty of room for character to seep through while modernizing the item in question. And that was exactly my goal with the built-ins. Maintain character while modernizing and brightening the space.

As a refresher, when we purchased our home, the built-ins looked like this…

They were stained a 1970’s wood tone… and don’t even get me started on those nose-cabinets. Not only this, the finish was a thick, high-gloss shellac that was drippy and uneven….

The instant we saw these built-ins during our initial showing, I knew they needed to be white. They were SCREAMING for it. And so was the fireplace. After all, he was the showstopper of the space. The built-ins were basically zapping him of energy, what with them matching almost perfectly. The fireplace deserved to be the star-attraction and painting the built-ins white would allow him to fulfill his destiny.

So, after more than a few pep-talks (3monthsworth) to motivate myself, I got going. I’ll admit, I was sort of dreading the process. The finish used on the built-ins was super glossy and clearly oil-based. This meant that they would require mucho prep work to ensure an even, long-lasting finish.

I started by removing all the doors and labeling them both on the door behind the hinge (because I knew I wouldn’t need to paint over it)…

I also labeled the brown paper used to protect our floors under each corresponding cabinet….

Then, I sanded.

My goal was to rough up the surface so that my primer would adhere well. I used my orbital sander with 220 grit sandpaper and hand sanded the crevices. I sanded the doors and shelves outside to help minimize the dust indoors….

To be on the safe side, I also wiped down the entire piece with some liquid deglosser (as shown in this old pic)….

I simply wiped off all the dust with a few Swiffer rags first, then applied a nice, generous coat of deglosser (I just wiped it on with a lint-free rag). Once it was dry, I carefully cleaned everything off with some tack cloth to remove any residual dust and dirt.

Next, came my favorite primer…

Zinsser shellac primer. It sticks to anything, prevents bleed-through like a champ, and you can topcoat it with anything. Plus, it dries fast and can be topcoated within 45 minutes. Ever since this experience, I’ve used this primer on any project that I’ve ever painted white and have yet to be disappointed.

Once the primer was dry, I topcoated it with this paint in Extra White Semi-gloss….

Now, I’ll admit, I wasn’t so kind to this paint in this post when I first tried it, but it’s grown on me. It really is very good paint that leaves a relatively smooth finish. Plus, this one gallon has lasted me through many a project. I ended up doing 3-4 thin and even coats with a foam roller to get everything perfectly uniform (3 on the doors, 4 on the unit). I used a 2 1/2 inch angled brush for the crevices and to edge the units. My favorite is the Wooster brush… it just covers so well and with great accuracy.

Once all was said and done, I let everything cure for 5 days before putting it all back together. I usually wait at least a week to be sure, but my impatience got to me this time (baddiyer!).

So you don’t have to scroll back up, here’s the before again…

And here she is now…

This view from the dining space is now SO much brighter…

Being that it started out here..

And this view of the living room is less brown now as well…

What’s funny is, I’d totally planned on filling in the middle hardware holes and drilling new ones at more traditional placements, but once I found the streamline knobs from Anthropologie and tried them out, I decided to keep the holes as is.

Both Joey and I were sold. They just looked so cool in the middle of the door. Sleek. Different. Color me shocked by this revelation.

Seriously, though. Aren’t they snazzy? And I have to admit… I feel pretty swanky now that I own something from Anthropologie. Heehee! Are you impressed by my trendiness?? 😉 The knobs were a bit pricier than I’m used to at $6 a pop, but they MAKE the piece. In my eyes it was totally worth the splurge. Plus, this makeover was pretty cheap overall since I already had the paint and primer. And I decided to reuse the original hinges since they meshed with the new knobs (which was another money-saver).

I just love how the units now contrast with the fireplace, making both elements pop in their own way…

As for styling, I tried to keep it simple to prevent the unit from becoming too busy. I used mainly neutral colors with a few pops to tie everything in to the surrounding rooms…

I couldn’t be happier about how these built-ins turned out. They’re light, bright, but still have some of that 1970’s charm. And now they royally put our wet-bar to shame…

Being that this guy is on the opposite wall in the same room, he’ll be painted next to match. And I have a fun idea to try with the counter top as well. Things are happening, guys. Things are happening… 😉

And now I’m signing off… Until next time! 🙂

Last we’d left off with our newest ~~family member~~ Craigslist find, I’d just divulged the story of a sweet, sweet man who’d sold me this lovely mid-century Bassett dresser and made my New Years complete…

I knew immediately that I wanted this beauty to serve as a media stand in our living room, so we tried him out in the space to be sure he’d work. As anticipated, I LOVED the result (He fit right in. Made friends immediately.), so we got to work transforming him into a media stand.

We began by removing those wooden mirror supports (shown in the pic above). Then, Joey drilled large holes in the back of both the dresser and the top drawers to allow space for wires to escape and ventilation to ensue…

Then, we purchased this puppy for $30 from Radioshack…

This IR repeater allows you to hide your media equipment behind closed drawers (or doors… whatever floats your boat) while still being able to operate the remote control. The only external evidence of this smart little device is a small eye which is attached to the TV….

I have to say, it works pretty well. Not perfect by any means, but that’s okay. We have to point the remote at crazy angles sometimes to get it to work, but really, it hasn’t been much of an inconvenience in the grand scheme of things. I’ll gladly take a little remote control gymnastics over having our media equipment exposed.

All-in-all, when we purchased it, the dresser was in pretty good shape. Some scratches and imperfections in the finish (which is to be expected of a 50+ year old dresser) and three small missing areas of veneer on the side (Note: I’d already “blended” the missing areas in the middle and left of this pic when I snapped this shot… they were quite light-colored and glaring prior to this)….

To help camouflage these areas, I simply used some oil pastels…

And simply layered and blended the colors until I had a close enough match…

I tried using stain and a permanent marker prior to this, but neither worked well. The oil pastels were great because I could just keep layering and adding color until I achieved a match. And the more I added, the smoother the areas looked and the more they matched the dresser in terms of texture as well as color. In the end, I was left with this…

It’s not perfect, but these areas definitely blend much more. I barely notice them from afar. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the camera makes these spots appear more noticeable than they are in person. So squint when you look at these shots. Heehee! I will say that prior to using pastels, the missing veneer grated at my nerves every time I walked past. Now, I barely see it. So, we’re cool. Thus, I’ve placed the stink-eye back into hibernation mode…

And here’s our dresser in action…

COULDN’T.LOVE.IT.MORE. It’s like this dresser was born to reside in our living room. It takes up less space than our previous media cabinet, thus, makes the room feel bigger. And it balances the console table on the opposite side of the space perfectly. Plus, the era of the dresser suits the 1970’s vibe of the room better than its more modern predecessor. I heart you, dresser. You sexy, sexy beast.

As for our living room…. it’s definitely coming along, though there’s still more to do. I’m on a perpetual hunt for a larger rug for the space. Our little postage stamp of a 5×8 just isn’t cutting it…

This space is quite cavernous compared to the smaller, cozy living room in our last house. And I love it, but the decor needs definitely change when the scale of the room does. I’m currently on the lookout for a rug large enough to fit the entire couch on top of it (likely a 9×12), so wish me luck with that. Big rug, decent quality, little price tag. This is my mission. Well, my secondary mission. I’m also putting forth effort to de-brown the space. I realize that this makes no sense being that I just moved a new brown piece of furniture into the room, but hear me out…

Since taking these pics, I’ve finished painted the built-ins beside the fireplace and am now in the process of putting everything back together. I’m giddy each time I see it. Y’all… painting it was SO the right decision. I can’t wait to show you. The rug that I ultimately choose won’t be in the brown family either –possibly grey undertones or something with a pop of color. Then, I’m tossing around the idea of moving the coffee table into the hang-out room and replacing it with something either white or with a pop of color (depending on the rug we end up with). Or maybe a sleek glass table would be nice. Something with a metal base. My next painting project will be to paint the wet bar cabinets (seen two pictures up) white to match our new-and-improved built-ins. Ultimately, I want the only major brown items in the room to be the fireplace and the media stand. The two items that deserve the attention most. I also have some crazy-cool artwork that needs to be hung around the television.

I know it seems like a lot when I’m listing it off in writing, but this stuff really excites me, so it doesn’t seem like much to me at all. I think the biggest thing will be simply FINDING the rug. The rest will come together after that.

So, anyways, that’s the plan, Stan! I hope everyone has a safe and fabulous Superbowl weekend!! What projects do you have going right now??