My Faux Finished Faucet

We have gutted two of our bathrooms and the powder room is that last to receive its makeover.  But not just yet.  Two kids in college equals no new bathroom.  

So what is a girl to do?  Paint of course.  Not the walls but the faucet.  When we bought this house 4 years ago all the fixtures were very  high quality they just had not been treated very well.  All the faucets had been cleaned with something that took the lacqure coating off and left them scratched and peeling.

I wanted to removed them to paint but hubby was afraid they would not survive the removal since they were very rusty where they connected under the sink.  So paint in place I did. 

Step 1:  I removed what parts I could, cleaned them very well and sanded all the parts.

Step 2:  The only metal primer I had was in a spray can and since I am uncomfortable with spraying in the house I sprayed the paint into a butter tub and painted it on.  I use this technique all the time and it works really well.

Step 3: I used regular craft paint for the rest of the project.  I mixed up a brown that matched an existing towel rack and gave the faucet 2-3 coats to make sure I covered it completely.

Step 4:  I mixed cooper metalic paint with a little of the brown I used for the base.  Then I dry brushed it on the edges of the handles and faucet until I got the look I wanted.

Step 5: After drying over night I sealed it a water based varnish and used to razor blade to carefully remove any paint I got on the sink.  I would rather have sprayed a clear coat marine finish on the faucet but I have never done that with a finish coat and I did not want to experiment on this project by spraying it into a container and brushing it on.  I also painted the toilet handle and the toilet paper holder so they would all match. 

I am a much better painter than a photographer so I apologize for my blurry photos but it looks great and I am very happy with it.

If you would like to see the whole bathroom in its finished state please check out my post, The 4am Bathroom Makeover is Finished.

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Still Learning

Somehow I accidentally turned off the comment capability here at Three Dogs At Home and no one was able to post comments. I am not sure how I turned it off in the first place but I have learned how to turn it back on.
And because this blog is named after my dogs I am going to post a picture of Zoey today. No reason, no decorating, just because she is cute is reason enough. 

A pair of chairs hoping for a facelife

This chair is one that were auctioned off at my husband's office and I was lucky enough to end up with two of them. I have wanted these chairs for a quite awhile but my husband got busy at work and did not attend the auction and what a surprise, he did not get the chairs I wanted. But he redemed himself rather quickly by barginning with the winner for two of the four chairs. Yaaaa!  He paid $22 each for these beautiful chairs,  All I have to do is pick fabric and covers them,  And they voila!!!

They both need to be recovered.  A Project that I have never tackled before but I am willy to try my hand at it.  I am thinking about adding taller feet on it to bring it up the hight of my couchs. Something on the order of bun feet.  So I will be reading of the post and tutorials on uphostering I will be able to find.

I have about 4 unfinished projects I am dying to get back to as soon as the decorations are all in their boxes.  Hopefully this will inspire me to put away the decorations quickly.

Traci

Watch for it Miss Mustard Seed's

The 4am Bathroom Make Over is Finished

I could not sleep a few weeks ago and found myself trying to quietly productive.  No vacuuming, no washing, no make noise of any kind.  But I did find a few jobs that were completely silent.  I striped the wallpaper border from the guess bath and took down the valance.  That was what prompted me to start on the faucets.                                                               

   The before of the faucet and sink.                                                                                             

The sink after the faucet and handles were paint with a rubbed oil copper look..,

This is the finished bathroom.  Well as least it is finished until we do the major remodeling it needs.

This is the finished project.  I shopped my own house for all the things in this bathroom,  I had to paint the frame but the picture was already in it.  I am very happy with the results and it matches the decor of my home much better than the old room did.

Picture That!

My daughter moved to college and her bird Smokey left for a new home.  Leaving me with a blank wall where the bird cage had been since we moved into this house over 4 years ago.  So what is a girl to do?  Why make something to fill that space of course.  But this being the month when both kids have tuition due and the big holiday has drained the bank account, this girl needs to do it on the cheap.  No problem.  My inspiration was a foursome of old oak frames I used in our first home.

Yes, they were in my first home in the 80's.  Was it the blue and pink that gave it away? 
I was picking up a few holiday things when I ran across these keys that were made for scrapbooking. 

They are flat on the back so they are easy to attach to paper and thin enough to fit in the space mad by the mat between the glass and back of a picture frame.  A real key would require additional spacing to fit under the glass.  But you are thinking that such a find would be expensive?  Happily, no.  At Micheal's the set was priced at $3.99.  Such a deal.  I would have bought two but I was doing this project on the cheap.

I sprayed the frames with Oil Rubbled Bronze (no picture was taken) .  And since I did not like the color of the new mats I purchased I sprayed them with Oil Rubbed Bronze as well.

So the only thing I had left to decide on was the background for the frames.  I tried red fabric, silk and twill thinking that I would move my red acsent color over to that wall.  But it just didn't get the job done.

So after the red silk and the red tweed I started looking at other textures that might do well here, when I thought about using scrapbooking papers.  After all I was alread using keys that were made for scrapbooking.  So I went out to find a few continders to finish out the frames.  The first two were basicially red with gold scrolling or gold lettering on them, I loved the scrap paper and the scrolls and lettering was just right but the red was too strong a statement for the four smaller frames.

I finally decided on a love gold colored paper with newpaper stories on it. It mad a underful backdrop for the keys. 

Now that I have all the elements all I need to do is assymble my are pieces.

And this is how they turned out.  You can read some of the stories behind the keys so I choose ones about family and generousity.  I loved the way the turned out, the subjects, the keys are interesting when viewed up close and the pattern and tied mats and frames together.

The foursome just finished the look I wanted in the family room.

And the to my surprise I fould almost the identical framed and matted keys at Restoration Hardware.

I will be linking up to Between Naps on the Porch

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