Stairwell Update: Wallpapering

After painting, I still had that terrible strip of paneling that showed through the paint. In past renovation projects, when you don't want to drywall and you really can't patch a wall, we've put up wallpaper. I'd decided not to use my paintable wallpaper on the front of the stairs, and this became a perfect solution for covering up that nasty paneling place.

I carefully measured my wall space, leaving a little extra for cutoff at the top and bottom. I then measured out my wallpaper, cut it in a straight line at the end, and rolled it up so the pre-pasted side was facing out rather than in (as it comes on the roll). I then filled my son's baby tub with water, dipped my roll in so that as I unrolled the pre-pasted side faced out and got a little wet. I folded my paper in half with the pre-pasted sides facing each other. This allows the paste to activate and allows for even wetness. I had to be very careful not to let the wallpaper tear as it was very fragile in the non-design parts.

After allowing that to set for a few minutes, I unfolded the wallpaper and positioned it on the wall. Start at the top and work your way down the wall. If you need to re-position the paper, just pull it up and start down the wall again. Work from the vertical center of the paper, feathering out your wallpaper brush or a wet rag to work out your bubbles and to smooth the edges down to make sure they stick. Then take a straight edge and boxcutter and trim off the top and bottom of your paper along the wall and floor or trim.

Please note: old houses are notorious for not being square - i.e., you can't count on a wall or ceiling being straight. Because I was only putting up one strip, I eyeballed the distance from the wall to position my pieces. Ideally, you should take a level and draw a vertical line (pencil or chalk) on the wall as a starting place to ensure you start with a straight line.

Because it looked weird to have one wall papered and the other wall plain, I papered the mirroring wall in the same manner. I decided to leave it unpainted because I like the contrast of stark white to the Antique White of the paint. The good thing is that I have the option to paint it in the future if I decide to do so!

Stay tuned for the big reveal!

Stairwell Update: Painting

When painting, it's important to prep your area before you begin. Paint will not stick to a surface with dirt on it, so cleaning your surface before painting is important. I used a scrub brush and rag dipped in a Lysol/water mix on the stairs to get them ready to paint after I'd used that same mix and rag to wipe down the ceiling, walls, shelves and other trim.

While my clean surfaces dried, I gathered my painting supplies. I prefer to use a 4" roller because it doesn't suck up as much paint and doesn't get as heavy as you continue to paint. I think the ease of use makes up for the smaller surface area with each stroke. I also used a small, plastic paint tray. Normally, I'd have used a larger paint tray that could be cleaned up and used again, but having a 1 year old has severely limited my time. I needed a quick, easy clean up, which also meant a cheap brush to do my trim work.

Please note, because I used a cheap brush on the trim for the white, I had to buy a new brush to use on the black - the first brush was a mess and there was no way I was going to get an edge on the stairs with that blown brush. Moral of the story? Use a good brush from the beginning.

I began by painting the Antique White. I worked in small sections, painting the trim and corners first, and then filling in with the roller. Working in small spaces helps with blending between paint brush strokes and paint roller marks. It makes for a cleaner finish if you transition from the brush marks on the trim to the roller while the paint is still wet. Because I was painting the ceiling the same color as the walls, I didn't have to tape off the ceiling. Keeping the paint color the same from walls to ceiling helps make a space look bigger.

After 24 hours, I started taping off my space to start the black paint. I had decided earlier that I was only going to paint part of the riser black along with the tops of the stairs. Because the white was freshly painted, I was careful of the type of tape I used. I tried the FrogTape(R) for delicate surfaces because it is made for newly-painted ares. I found, however, that it wasn't sticking well because my surface was uneven - 60 years of use will do that I guess.

I ended up free handing the black paint along the edges because the paint wasn't working as well as just carefully using the brush. Again, I had to use a new, more expensive brush for this trim work to help keep the lines straight. I was also able to keep a good line with my roller as long as I didn't have a ton of paint on the roller. By just adding pressure to the outside, I was able to keep the line straight. I then feathered that in with a brush and used the roller to fill in the center.

As I painted the stairs, I painted every other stair so I wouldn't get caught in the basement. I allowed the paint to dry for the prescribed 3 hours (check your paint can for a repaint time) and then finished the job with the remaining stairs.

Stay tuned for the wallpaper finish!

Stairway Update: Choosing Paint

My family and I started renovating my home in 2006, and finished most of the renovations in 2007. There was one space, however, that had not been touched in that time. It's a utilitarian space - used to get to the basement, but also to store some of my extras - like formula and household goods I need to keep away from the baby.

The steps were a dirty grey - who knows when they were painted last. The handrail was pretty, but looked like it had 60 years of dirt embedded in it. The walls were an amalgamation of cream, peach, unpainted drywall and paneling that had been patched together. My first thought was that if we could just get it all one color, it would look 100% better.

After doing some extensive Pinterest research, I decided to do an antique white and black combo. I initially bought some paintable wallpaper that looked like a tin ceiling to put on the riser part of the stairway, but when it got down and dirty, I realized it wouldn't look right given each of the risers has what looks like a framed area on them.

I chose Antique White from Behr's Premium Plus in Antique White, and decided on a semi-gloss finish for the walls. The paint store will usually steer you away from this finish, saying the shine will show blemishes in the wall. But this is a hallway that will get hand prints going up and down, and the only light is at the base of the stairs. I wasn't worried about blemishes showing. And a semi-gloss finish is really easy to clean.

For the stairs, I wanted a paint that could stand up to wear and tear as well as one that was easily cleanable. I went with Behr's Porch and Patio Floor Paint in Belugah I knew I'd probably only use a quart of this, but Home Depot only sells this in the gallon size.

Stay tuned for painting and wallpapering steps!

DIY Monday: Krylon Looking Glass Mirror Paint

It's been a while since I first learned about this paint, and it took a little time to find. I wasn't successful finding it at my local craft stores, so I had to order it online. Since it's a little pricey, I have been waiting for the perfect project to try it out.

I changed the quilt on our bed about two months ago and since then I've been looking for the right art to put over our bed - as anyone will tell you I'm of the belief that "white space" is great in an ad, but not something I like in my home. So having a stash of old frames I found one that I think will work with the other things I'm pulling together and tried it out.

First I cleaned the glass thoroughly on both sides. Then, following the instructions I used a well-shaken can to put on the first, thin layer of paint. I shook a little more while I was waiting the directed minute between layers (to let the solvents evaporate) and then sprayed another thin layer. I repeated this 5 times and sure enough on the 5th layer I could see that the paint had pretty much turned opaque by that last layer.

Emerging a little light headed (the smell is very strong), I put the glass in a place where it could safely dry. About 12 hours later, the result is an antique mirror-like finish. I wouldn't say it looks like a new mirror, but there's definitely a reflection that looks a lot like some of the older mirrors I have that have been dulled by time.

I think in the future I may use this paint to spruce up some of the old metal frames I find at estate sales. It's not chrome shiny, but it'll add just the right finish to frames that others may be tempted to just toss. Overall, I think this was worth the time to track down and try!

DIY Monday: Behind door number 1....

This post is about getting behind. Getting behind in projects. Getting behind in fixing things. And specifically getting behind my bathroom door.

About 2 years ago we undertook the renovation of our bathrooms - documented here for all of those interested in that endeavor. As happens with all projects, when you get to the end of the project, you're ready for the project to be over. Done. Finis. And thus we are left with the picture above.

The fixtures were the first things bought for the project, but the last things put up. As we were putting hooks into a hollow core door, we were in need of some good anchors. And on this particular hook, I'd run out of the proper sized anchors. As I was behind, I fudged and used a larger anchor, pounded it into the door (because that's how I roll people), screwed in my screw and covered it up with the hook. And I was DONE. Finished. Right? Wrong.

Yup, you guessed it, on the first use, the hook ended up looking like this. And it's stayed looking like this ever since. It started out so right... see the painstaking way I'd drawn measured the placement and drawn an outline of the underplate in preparation of hanging? How I'd carefully drilled the proper sized holes for placement? But then, because I was behind, I tried a shortcut that didn't work and have been left with this for roughly two years. So I'm making this my project of the week. Hopefully next week I'll have pictures that show a properly anchored door hook. 

And the moral of the story? Even if you do get behind, it pays to do the job right the first time!

DIY Monday: Caring for Your Rose Bouquet

Since Valentine's day is coming up, I thought I'd give a quick tip on how to extend the life of roses. After all, some of us have dear ones who will give us a lovely bouquet on this hallowed day!

If your honey brings you cut flowers without a vase, be sure to trim the bottoms UNDER WATER before putting them into a vase. Cutting them under water helps keep air bubbles from getting into the stems so that the water can flow freely up into the stem.

Remove any leaves or greenery that's below the level of the water. Greenery makes the water spoil faster, causing decay.

As with all flowers, they'll last longer if you change the water every day. Be sure to add the preservative powder that often comes with cut flowers. It really does help extend the life of the flowers.

If your roses start to droop, you can fill a sink with cold water and completely submerge the roses under water for a time. Usually this gets water to the places that need it and they start to perk up again. Remember to re-cut the stems UNDER WATER before you place them back into your vase.

Voila! Better roses DIY style!

DIY Monday: Adding light and depth to a room

When I married I moved into my new husband's condo, which presented me with some design challenges. The condo is on the top floor of the building. That meant high ceilings and skylights in most of the rooms without windows. One of my main problems, however, was a dining room with 20+ foot ceilings, no skylight, a 30 year old light fixture and three very, very red walls. That made for a dark room.

I wasn't afraid of red walls. In fact, I'd painted a focal wall in my old house a deep, dark red (that took 9 coats of paint to get the right red). Of course, that house had tons of windows in that room to lighten up the effect. This wall was tall and the space was dark. Luckily, I had a solution.

My solution was to gather all the old mirrors we had between the two of us and use them to reflect the light from a wall of windows on the opposite side of the room thereby creating light in that space and lengthening the space visually. We were lucky, between the two of us, we had a wall full of mirrors. Jason had inherited several from his grandparents and I've always been an advocate of using mirrors to open up spaces. Additionally, we got a bright new chandelier for the space that, when reflecting off the mirrors, makes the room shine with light.

Now, I call my design style "eclectic" - I have friends, however, who call it "cluttered." In short, I like a lot of stuff on the walls. I say that because if you have a dark room problem and like a cleaner look, you'll have to adapt this solution to your own design aesthetic by, for example, using fewer mirrors than I've used. And you don't have to use old mirrors - you can go to the thrift store, find some frames, paint them black, white, gold or silver (whichever you prefer) and have the local glass store fit them with mirrors for you.

However you decide to adapt the idea, it certainly will add depth and light to your room.

DIY Monday: Reader Question - Re-grouting tile?

Dear Swoon Studios,

I have an island in my kitchen with a tile top. I've had it for a while and the grout is starting to crumble. I'd like to re-grout the tile, but I'm not sure how to do it. Can you help?

Sincerely,
I Can DIY It!


Dear I Can,

Re-grouting is a lovely way to freshen up your surface and is pretty easy to do. First, pick out the grout that's crumbling. Leaving crumbling grout is like leaving a crumbling foundation - the new grout will not have a stable surface to adhere to and will just crumble more.

Once you have cleared all the crumbling grout, give the remaining grout a good scrub. I've found that hydrogen peroxide and a toothbrush are miracle workers in cleaning grout. The peroxide bubbles down into the porous surface and cleans out all that bacteria, leaving a shiny clean surface!

Let that dry while gathering your materials for grouting: grout, a grout float, sponge, bucket of water and a small, clean towel. I prefer using pre-mixed grout because I find it easier, but I know others prefer the kind you mix. It's up to you. If your seam is 1/8 inch or less in width, use unsanded grout, and if 1/8 inch or more, use sanded. Be sure too to match the color of your existing grout!

With clean water, lightly wet down the area you want to start grouting to help the old grout receive the new grout. Then take a little grout on your float and in a sweeping diagonal motion push the new grout down into the existing grout lines.

When you've pushed as much grout in as you think will go, lightly wipe over where you've grouted with a sponge to clean up the extra grout. Rinse out your sponge after every pass. You want a clean tile and even grout line. I then wipe over the tile with a clean towel to keep from having to clean up stuck on grout when everything dries, but be careful not to dislodge your new grout.

Continue to do this down your counter top working in small sections. When you're done, you should let it dry according to the directions on your grout - usually about 24 hours.

Then comes the most important part - sealing. Make sure you've cleaned off all the stray grout from your tiles. If grout is stubborn, I either use a toothbrush or a razor blade to dislodge it from the tile. Then, using a grout sealer you can find in the grouting section of your home improvement store, seal every grout seam. Follow the directions on the sealer to see recommended drying time and number of layers of sealant. Because this is a high traffic area, I'd seal it with several layers of sealant.

Let me know how it goes! I look forward to seeing the finished product!

Good luck,
Swoon Studios

Working Tuesday: Eyeglass Leashes

I've got a brand new batch of eyeglass leashes for the Etsy shop. It took me FOREVER to figure out what these are called, but I finally found the proper name. I started making these a couple years ago for my mother because although she doesn't wear necklaces (because she doesn't like her neck of 70 years), she constantly wears eyeglass leashes. She liked them so much she encouraged me to make some for the shop. And so I have!

Because she likes quite a bit of color, I used Millefiori beads as the base for determining the colors in each of the leashes. I then made her several colors so that no matter the outfit she always has something that coordinates with her outfit.

I've learned, however, that you can't just attach the plastic eyeglass holder directly to the strung beads. Invariably the plastic part breaks or stretches out to the point that it's unusable and the whole thing has to be re-strung. This is where the lobster clasp comes in handy! String a lobster clasp on the end of your beads and then use the clasp to attach the plastic eyeglass holder to the end. If the plastic part breaks, just clip on another!

Many of the leashes you see use seed beads as the main type of bead. I prefer, however, to use larger beads. The more substantial beads make it look more like a necklace and Mama always knows when she's lost one end of her glasses.

And now you know... the rest of the story!

DIY Monday: Choosing Paint

I assume we've got several different levels of skill among Swoon Studios DIYers. Some know more than others about different subjects, which is why I try to cover a variety of skill sets. This week I'm focusing on the beginners in the group and we're going to talk about paint.

Starting a painting project without knowing anything beyond what color you want can be a dizzying process. You get to the paint counter with your trusty swatch that took you a week to decide on the color. You're ready to give the person who'll mix your paint this important decision and they start asking questions. Oil based or latex? Semigloss, flat, eggshell or satin? Indoor or outdoor? WHAT?

Take a deep breath and let me try to explain.

First, oil based or latex. Oil based requires paint thinner or turpentine to clean up, so I usually stick to latex, which requires water to clean up. Sometimes, however, it's better to use oil based - especially when painting a piece of furniture that needs to be water resistant or that will take a lot of wear. It takes a little longer to clean up, but sometimes it's worth the work.

Second, indoor or outdoor? Well, sometimes that's pretty self explanatory. If you're using inside on walls, use indoor. If you're painting your front door or outside trim, outdoor. Sometimes, though, I have the same situation as above where I want a particularly durable paint on the item I"m painting. In that case I might use outdoor paint for that project as well.

Lastly, the luster. The terminology may differ, but the concept is the same: do you want a high gloss or no gloss to your paint. Our home was painted with flat paint. An entire home in flat paint. And I HATE it. I can't clean it. It seems to hold the dirt. I like a little sheen so that I can WASH the walls when they get dirty. I also like the way the light reflects off of walls with a little sheen. For that reason, I choose a satin finish for walls. I tend to go toward a semigloss for woodwork - again because I prefer the sheen and it's easier to clean. Also, a good rule of thumb to remember is the shiner, the more durable. Some people choose a shinier finish in kitchens and bathrooms for that reason.

And if you forget everything I've just told you, ASK. Usually there's a helpful guide to finishes at the paint counter and it's not often that the person mixing the paint can't answer your question. I've found myself helping them on occasion when they've been stumped, so you might just run into someone at the counter that can give you help as well.

That's the basic skinny on choosing paint. I can't help you with choosing the color, but maybe this will make the process a little easier.

DIY Monday: Cleaning out vases

Next week I'm going to show you how to do event decorations on a budget, but this week I'm going to share a little trick my Mama taught me to clean out old bottles or vases with flower residue in them.

Say you find a lovely old bottle or vase at a flea market or thrift store, but there's yucky reside inside. You don't have a bottle brush and you have no way of getting that junk out - or so you think. Fear not! There's a way to clean it without a brush! You only have to know this one little secret:

That's right dear DIY-ers, denture cleaner. That's the secret. And why not? It works on dentures to break down residue. Why not on the inside of a bottle or vase?

Simply break up a tablet and drop it down into the bottle or vase and fill it with water. The water will turn blue and start to fizz. When the water turns clear and stops fizzing, your bottle should be clean. If it's not, empty the bottle of the liquid, put in another tablet and soak it for another round!

And that's my Mama's secret for getting bottles clean without a brush and without much fuss!

DIY Monday: Polishing Silver

A couple weeks ago I posted about finding this lovely silver pin for 25 cents at a local community yard sale. I like the "patina" (darker, aged look) of the piece, but wanted to polish it up a bit. The only problem is that the many nooks and crannies make it difficult to effectively polish. So I turned to the aluminum foil method to get into all the tight spaces!

First, find a container in which you can completely cover your object with water. Cover the bottom of the container with aluminum foil, shiny side up. Pour in 1 Tbsp. of baking soda and 1 Tbsp. of salt and then cover the item with boiling water. The boiling water is important because it speeds up the molecules that help remove the tarnish quickly (someone really smart figured that out, not me). You should smell a bit of a sulfuric smell and see the foil start to turn a darker color.

I don't leave the silver in for a long time as I worry about the salt pitting the silver, but it works wonders in a pretty short period of time. Don't forget to use tongs to take the item out of the water - both will be hot! Next week, I'll show you a non-chemical way to finish polishing up your pieces if there's any tarnish left!

DIY Monday: Stain Removal - Lily stains

If you've ever bought or received lilies, you'll know about the messy orange stains you can get from trying to remove the orange parts of the stamen before they drop and stain something else.

I love working with lilies in flower arrangements and have to remove these pretty often. I've learned a few tricks along the way. First, before pulling them off with your fingers, make sure your hands are completely dry. For some reason water seems to spread the stain and ensure your fingers are going to turn orange. If you do get some of the dust on your fingers, wipe it off with a paper towel or napkin as best you can. This will cut down on orange finger syndrome.

If you do have some of them fall on a tablecloth or get some of the stain on a towel or your clothing, don't try stain removers and certainly don't try clorox. Simply lay them in the sunlight for the morning and voila the stain will disappear!

I've always been amazed at how nature takes care of itself in this simple stain removal tip!

DIY Monday: Dresser to Bathroom Vanity? Part 3: The Big Finish!

If you read Part 2 of this series you'll see that I had a foot to replace on my vanity. The vanity was also full of dings that I wanted to fill in before painting the piece. Since I needed an open back for the pipes to go through, I pulled the back off of the vanity. I used spackling compound just as I would for a wall to fill in the gouges and holes. Just as you would with a wall, I waited for it to dry and then gave it a light sanding to smooth out the ridge.

I then lightly sanded down the whole piece to give the paint something to grab. Anytime you're painting a piece of furniture like this that has a finish on it (especially anything with a shine) it's a good idea to sand it down before you paint. It makes little tiny ridges for the paint to stick to instead of just a shiny surface on which the paint will streak or bead up. When you're finished sanding, run a cloth over the piece to get off what you've just sanded. Just to be safe, I also run over the piece with a tack cloth. A tack cloth is a cloth that's got sticky stuff on it made especially for this purpose. You can find it in the paint section of your home improvement store. The piece has to be clean before you paint it or you'll end up with little grainy bits in your paint instead of a smooth surface.

Before I painted the drawers, I wanted to replace the French Provincial handles with glass pulls. This required my filling the two holes required for the handles and drilling a single hole in the center of where the handle had been for the single pull. It's easier to do this before painting so you don't mar your paint and you can paint over the filled holes.

I used a shiny, oil based, outdoor paint on this piece because I wanted it to shine and wanted it to hold up to water. It is, after all, a bathroom vanity! I suggest, however, if you use an oil based paint, you get a set of brushes and rollers especially for this project as well as a pair of throw away gloves.

As I've said before, I like to be careful of the environment, but using turpentine to clean out a roller is almost impossible. Cleaning a paint brush is easier, but still difficult. For that reason, I usually use a wooden handled brush (cheap) and a roller I can throw away when I'm finished with the job. I start early in the day, cover my brush, roller and paint tray with plastic so it won't dry out, and then put on a second coat later in the day after the first coat has had time to cure (no longer tacky to the touch).

After two coats of paint, I checked for places I missed. Because there were so many cracks and angles on this piece, I really had to look at it from different angles to make sure all the brown was covered. Some opt to do some light sanding of the edges to let the brown underneath shine through for a more primitive look. I prefer the shiny opaque look!

Once the second coat dried, I then applied a coat of Deft to the top. And this is where my trouble began. Listen closely my friends for I am about to impart a piece of knowledge that will save you many hours and quite possibly your sanity. Never, NEVER use a latex paint over an oil-based paint. Never.

Now I know not to do this. I've known not to do this for most of my life because my Mama said, "Honey, never, NEVER use a latex paint over an oil-based paint." And I listened to my Mama and never did it... until now. I had just finished coating the entire top when I noticed the crackling, buckling and bubbling had started to occur. And THEN, I realized my mistake.

Many hours of stripping, sanding and repainting later, the vanity was ready to be installed. Since your "guts" will be different from my "guts" I won't get into how to hook up the pipes on the vanity. Every piece will be different and require creative problem solving on your part. I will say, however, you should set your sinks on the vanity and look at the placement before you cut your holes into the top.

In our case, we set the vessel sinks on top, measured from the side of the vanity to the base of the sink on both sides and in the front to make sure they were evenly placed. (Yes, this was during the sanding phase and before the repainting phase.) Once we were sure of placement, I marked the drain hole on the top of the dresser with a pen. We removed the sinks, drilled the holes and installed the sinks with the drains, hooked up the water pipes.

And then we stood back and admired our beautiful new vanity!

DIY Monday: Dresser to Bathroom Vanity? Part 2: The Fix

We found the dresser we wanted to use for our bathroom vanity. One of my "conditions" for the right piece, though, was that it had to be banged up enough that I could bear to paint it and cut holes in it to work in our bathroom. And this piece needed some TLC.

One of the lovely little feet was only half there. It needed repair. And I was just the girl to fix it!

First I turned to the Internet to find a molding compound that would make a mold of the foot that was still intact. I found something called Easy Mold Silicone Putty that was used for jewelry making, but I knew would work for this purpose. It's malleable for a few minutes and then takes about 30 minutes to "cure" or take it's final form. I shaped some of the putty around the remaining foot, left it to cure and then pulled off the finished mold.

I then took the mold to the missing foot and marked in the mold what was left in the foot. This gave me a measurement to follow when pouring my replacement foot. Since it was on an angle, I needed to tilt the mold so that the plaster would dry with a smooth surface at the right angle. I mixed some Plaster of Paris (from the paint section of my local home improvement store) and poured it into my mold. Since the mold is flexible silicon, I didn't worry about coating it with anything to make it release my form. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the black marks in the sides of the mold where I marked placement. I also placed the mold in a measuring cup to help tilt it in the correct position to dry at the right angle to attach the foot.

Once the plaster was cured (per the instructions on the box), I pulled it from the mold and fitted it to the foot of the dresser. There were a couple places that had to be gently filed down (with a metal nail file) for the fit to be perfect. Once I was satisfied with the fit, I then put a bit of liquid nails onto the plaster piece and fitted it to the existing leg. I left it alone to give it time to cure and then took some paintable caulk and filled in the seam where the two pieces joined, smoothing it with my fingers. Since I used oil paint on the piece to finish it, I didn't worry about sealing the plaster before painting. If, however, you are using latex paint, you should seal the plaster with a primer before painting.

Next up, preparing to paint...

DIY Monday: Dresser to Bathroom Vanity? Part 1: The Search

I love, love, love the look of a sideboard or dresser turned into a bathroom vanity. I looked at so many pictures of furniture that had been turned into a sink vanity. These top two options are from Canton Antiques, a shop that seems to specialize in this conversion and has some fabulous pieces! Others I found used sideboards or buffets, some used dressers, some used Victorian wash stands. Many replaced the top with a custom slab of marble. All looked expensive... and the ones I could actually buy WERE.

Yet again, we were working on a budget. We couldn't afford to drop $3,000 on a custom vanity. So we had to get creative in our search.

I knew we had to find a piece that left room for the pipes as that was the trickiest part of this

endeavor. As you're searching, you should also keep the following in mind: height, stability of legs, placement of pipes (do they come from the wall or the floor) storage needs, room for sinks on top, room for "work space" on top and dimensions of the area in which it will be placed.

Given my love of antique furniture, I really didn't want to tear apart a piece of furniture that was otherwise salvageable to use in it's original purpose. So the more scratched up, dinged up or beat up, the better for me.

When looking at possibilities, buffets often had cabinets that allowed room for the pipes, but they were on tall spindly legs that, once cut above the supports to make it short enough, would not provide us the support and stability we needed. Sideboards were lovely, but they usually had a row of drawers in the center that would need to be gutted giving us less storage space (a valuable commodity in our home). Dressers were often full of drawers as well.

We also had to keep in mind the dimensions of the space in which the finished piece would fit. Some were way too short for double sinks. Others were too long for our space. We had picked out the vessel sinks before we picked out the piece so we could be sure to have enough surface area on top for two sinks and some work space in between. We had to think about the placement of the drain as well - whether it would be in the center of a cabinet or the center of a support piece or drawer.

I looked at estate sales, on ebay, in used furniture stores and poured through Craigslist postings. In the end, we found a well-"loved" French Provincial dresser on Craigslist that was exactly the right length and height for our sinks, leaving some work space in between and that would fit in our space. The sides - the part that would be under the sink - had open cabinets that were perfect for the pipes and drains. We had to cut into one side of the drawers because our pipes came from the wall and were fixed in place, but the cuts were slight and easy to do. We still had the remaining drawers for storage space. And best of all, I had no problems painting and cutting this dresser up. It was perfect, but it was brown and needed some work to fit in our overall design. Stay tuned for how I did it!

* Click pictures to find their sources.