It's All Good Home

For several months I’d been on the hunt for the perfect hutch for my kitchen.  Unfortunately I’d located several prospects that were a little too perfect.  You know, too big, too pretty (I wanted to add a painted distressed finish), or just too expensive.  In fact I almost purchased a gorgeous PA Dutch pine hutch on Craigslist.  It was aged, big and beautiful.  Too big though, size and price

A few days later I headed to my trusty Habitat for Humanity Home Store.  They had a great, not-so-perfect hutch.  It needed refinished, check; was smallish, check; the top was removable so it would fit in my SUV, check; half price, CHECK.  Sold for $89.  Guess the Thrifting Angels were singing that day.  Oh, happy day!

hutch before

Lots of sanding (to remove grime and old finish), black paint (two coats, rolled some areas brushed others) with Valspar matte black (a quart I already had on hand).  I didn’t prime it because I was planning on distressing it and wanted the pine color to show through.  The brass hardware I removed and cleaned up, but left it as is because I liked the patina.  The little turny latches (not sure what the technical name is for these) painted up really well.

One requirement for my hutch was that it had to fit our small kitchen TV, so that my little T-Bird can have his 10 minutes of Phineas & Ferb with his morning waffle and grapefruit.  Works quite well (I did cut a hole in the back for the cords to run through).  Also, my big dog food bin needed to fit underneath.  I didn’t paint the interior of this piece, in the event I want to change it up in the future.  Actually, I haven’t distressed the hutch yet.  Thought I’d wait and see how it distressed on its own in our busy household.  What do you think?  Should I distress the wear areas?

The black paint works well with our distressed bar stools and contrasts nicely with our white island base (I may blog about this project at a later date).

hutch hardware

I think it looks great, and by the way the It’s All Good sign was purchased at the same Habitat Store about a year ago for $12!  Works well helping keep our crazy calendar in check each month.

hutch after closeup

hutch complete

organized hutch

So remember, instead of always searching for the perfect piece, think about the not-so-perfect ones.  Sometimes they are just what we need!

Karen

I’m linking up with

the cowgirls http://farmhouseporch.blogspot.com/

Coastal charm http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/

Savvy Southern Style http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/

Bloggeritaville http://lbratina.blogspot.com/

Chic on a Shoesting Decorating Budget http://chiconashoestringdecorating.blogspot.com/

Visit the parties there!

Please refer to two previous posts on preparing your space and measuring for your diamonds.  Once you have all your calculations, you’ll begin taping off your diamonds.  Start on the wall opposite the entry to the room (so you’ll get the hang of things before working on your most visible wall).

7.    Make sure you have your cheat sheet rotated correctly for each wall, in the event your diamonds are slightly different on the opposite walls.  In fact, I taped my calculations to the wall where I was working.

8.  Begin marking off your diamonds by measuring half the width of you diamond and marking the wall with a pencil mark at the ceiling.  (You’ll learn as you go along, to mark the points so that you’ll align the painters tape right next to it, so the pencil mark will end up being painted over).  So if your diamond is 19 inches wide, make a mark at 9 1/2 “.  Then measure down half of the diamond height and mark a line completely across the wall (with a level), checking you measurement as you go to keep everything lined up.  Mark along that line, increments of 19 (or whatever your diamond width is).

9.   Take your painters tape and pull it from the mark along the ceiling to the mark at the wall to create your top left diagonal portion of the diamond.  Then do the same on the right side.  Mark the bottom point of the diamond in the same manner and then run your tape from the side points to the bottom point.

10.   In my experience it’s best to tape off one whole row of diamonds across, paint those and then proceed with the next row when the first row is dry (also remember some rooms may need more than one coat of paint).  Of course depending on the size of your room you may be able to do one row and a portion of the next.  This is how I did it in my small powder room.  I taped off an entire row and a portion of the next row, painted it and proceeded with the rest of that wall the next day because I had some obstacles (to be addressed later).

11.   As you proceed you can trim the tape with a razor blade and line up the next row perfectly.  see photos with tape untrimmed and then trimmed.

Taped diamonds before trimming

12.  You’ll notice I have small pieces of tape in the middle of some of the diamonds.  This is to indicate where I should NOT paint.  It gets a little confusing when you’re taping the shapes, so remember to tape the diamonds so that you paint on the inside of the tape.  Believe me you don’t want to do all this work and accidentally paint on the wrong side of the tape.

Diamonds with tape trimmed and ready for paint

16.   Obstacles… what to do?  Okay it’s pretty obvious that you’ll have to work around light switches, doorways, windows, (toilet and vanity in my case), etc.  So they’ll be areas where you won’t have an entire diamond.  Just get creative to keep your angles matching your whole diamonds.  At one point in my project, I measured what the width of my diamond was (on a complete diamond)  at a particular point to match where my other diamond was going to be cut off.  (Hopefully that makes sense).  Doorways, windows pretty much work the same way.  Try to determine where your pencil mark would be (if the wall continued) and adjust your tape angle accordingly.

17.  Since my project only required one coat of paint, I removed the tape once my diamonds were partially dry.  If you have to come back to your project to paint in increments of time (cover your roller and/or brush in a plastic shopping bag to keep it wet and to save you from cleaning it every time.  Also I tried to only pour what paint I needed into my tray so that it could just dry between uses.  I use painter tray liners because I’m lazy and don’t have a good place to clean my paint trays, but when working on a project I just let the paint dry in the tray and add more paint when I’m ready to continue.

Well, that’s pretty much it.  Let me know if you have questions.  Also, let me know how your diamonds shine when your project is complete.  Remember, harlequin patterns can be used on furniture, trays, boxes, etc.  If you’re not ready to try an entire room, you can do an accent wall or smaller project.  Post a picture or tell us about it.

Good luck!   Karen

Finished wall!

As you may have seen in my previous post, I’ve just completed a diamond project in our powder room.  This graphic patter is also known as a harlequin pattern.  I’ve outlined the To Dos and a few tidbits about how to figure out the size of your diamonds (bigger isn’t always better in this case), and how to accomplish this sometimes frustrating rewarding task.

1. Of course, go ahead and paint your base coat to the entire wall surface (or if possible work with the wall color you already have).
2. Measure each wall in the room in inches.  Only measure the exact wall space, don’t count mouldings, baseboards etc.  You’ll need height (don’t assume converting your 8 ft or 9 ft ceilings into inches, remember deduct trim work) and width.
3. Note all measurements on a piece of paper, with each wall rotated the correct way.  See my sample page of crazy chaos calculations.  I had two short walls and two long walls.  My project measured 105″ high and my short walls were 38″ and my long walls were 87″
4. The Southern Living article recommended diamonds 24″ long and 12″ wide, which I did in my dining room several years ago.  However, if your diamonds are approximately twice as long as they are wide, they will look great.  Start with your room dimensions and figure it out from there.
5. I decided to paint larger diamonds, since it is a pretty small powder room.  Larger is usually considered more casual, and my color combination was going to be very subtle. I debated going floor to ceiling with one exaggerated long diamond, but decided on two rows instead so that I wasn’t moving the ladder as often.  (Hard to squeeze a ladder and myself with a paint roller stick into that small of a space.)  You need to consider the contrast of your color choices as well as the size of the room, number of doorways/windows etc. before determining the size of diamonds.  It’s really just a personal preference.
6. The height of each diamond is the easy calculation, just determine how many rows you want and divide room height by the number of rows.  I had 105″ high walls divided by two rows, so my diamonds were 52 1/2″ tall.  You may have to play around with numbers to figure out what divides evenly for the width.  Also, the opposite wall’s diamonds can vary in width slightly without being obvious.  However, the heights all have the be the same.  See photos (I apologize for the flash, but without it the room was totally black, I couldn’t get enough light in there.)  For example, in my project room the diamonds on the short walls are 19 1/2″ wide and 52 1/2″ high and the ones on the long walls are 21 3/4 ” wide and the same height of 52 1/2.  Note:  You’ll also need the mid point of each diamond, or half of the height, so in my room it was half of the 52 1/2″ or 26 1/4″.  This measurement allows you to draw a line across the entire wall at the midpoint of each painted diamond.  I used a level so that I could keep them all lined up exactly.  Draw it in pencil and your paint will cover it easily.

diamond calculations & cheat sheet

CONTINUED… (You may need a break by now too, whew!  Remember, this is the hard part!)

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, at least the pretty sparkly ones!  I just finished a diamond painting project in our powder room that had me cursing like a sailor left me speechless!   These diamonds, also known as a harlequin pattern, were done in a deep chocolate brown (BEHR Roasted Nuts UL130-2), with the background base coat done in eggshell and the diamonds painted in the same color in semi-gloss.  This room is already small and dark with no window, so I figured that I may as well go for the dramatic look.  (Of course in the middle of winter with no natural light coming into the small bath off a back hallway, I can’t get good photos to show the finished project, so it doesn’t look as awesome in the photos as in person.)

I felt pretty confident beginning this project since I had successfully completed a similar harlequin pattern in our 1926 Craftsman Bungalow about ten years ago (in Eastern NC).  However, luckily that room was perfectly square (yeah, believe it or not an old house that was perfectly square) anyway, the dimensions made for an easier math calculation in determining the size of diamonds.  In that room I did four rows of diamonds (we had high ceilings) in contrasting deep blues.  (I haven’t located a photo of the original project.)

Diamond Powder Room

In my original harlequin project I referred to an article in Southern Living Magazine from Oct 1997 that I had saved, anticipating the opportunity to put my skills to the test.  I’ve combined the instructions from that article (yes, somehow in my organized chaos that piece of paper survived the addition of two more babies and two house moves), plus some tips I learned along the way to provide step-by-step instructions.  Since, this is a rather lengthy project, I’ll divide it into several posts.

Get your tape measures, calculators, paper and pencil ready to go.

Until next time, Karen @ ItsAllGoodHome.com

Sharing with Debbiedoos newbie party.   http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

and Little Becky Homecky on Friday http://littlebeckyhomecky.blogspot.com/