Fire Place Mantle Before and After

BEFORE

AFTER


To darken the finish on the Oak fireplace mantle. I first cleaned it with TSP. I then just roughed up the finish with a low abrasive sandpaper. Used a vacuum to get every bit of dust. Used a lightly damp cloth to dust it completely. Then painted on GEL STAIN. I just picked out a warm color from Home Depot. I took picture of a color of wood I liked and the nice paint man helped me pick it out. I was so so so so nervous. But was very happy with the end result. That's what I want to do to the Banister. Huge Huge job with all the little curves and grooves. The prep defiantly takes the longest. It is advised to do a poly finish but I didn't. But plan to. Its just so smelly. LOL OH I almost forgot, the brass on the glass part. I painted with a heat resistant black with a small brush. I roughed it up with one of my finger nail buffers first to take the shine off. I did two coats or three?. I still need to paint the handles. I have decided I don't like them as is. LOL...But we are definalty keeping the child lock, so fashionable!

The kitchen cabinets we took all the doors off and used TSP (de-greaser) I don't think they had ever been cleaned. It was a huge huge job getting them clean and prepped. After light sanding (we took off more than suggested just to be safe, kitchen's are so greasy) After the prime. We then used a Ivory semi gloss paint. (2) coats separating the coats by 24hrs. Then we glazed with a glaze from home depot called TEA GLAZE. Once again the nice paint man was so helpful as I told him the look I wanted. He pulled out a sample of woods with different glazes on them. We first bought the wrong one and it was so so so burnt and orange...(tested on laundry room cabinets) Then since I didn't want it to look "too" old world, but somewhat. Not too dirty looking, but aged a titch...the tea glaze was perfect. We brushed it on, and ragged it off with cut up t-shirts. You can streak it how you like. If you get too much wipe it off and mess around with it. You will get your own technique as you experiment. Its a very good idea to practice on the inside of the cabinet door. We liked it to puddle into the creases of the wood to give dimension. We then changed out our hardware. And still need to do the polyurethane coat...I think that's all. It took 5 days!! The bead board was purchased then cut when we got it home. A routing saw was used on the edges on the corner and the framing of the bead board to give a custom look. And the decorative wood was purchased in the mantle applique section of Lowe's. They have so many things to add and to chose from. Just visiting gets my creative juices flowing of the possibilities to transform the 1990 house...LOL...just sayin' We love this house but want to update as we go along.
My Father-inlaw helped us put lighting underneath the cabinets to show off our gross lacking back splash LOL(we will get to it)...he did an AWESOME JOB! And it's amazing how it adds to the transformation!