$148.00 Bathroom Makeover

Here it is!
Sadly, we didn't have the before pictures we thought we had, so we had to go with the only one we could find. It's not a great shot, but you get the jist right? HID-EEEEE-OUS !!!!

Keep in my that I am 110% junker by professional choice, so the decor in the shots are things I have around the house and use in re-purposing projects or for sale on my website. (sadly no I don't ship .. yet)

So here is the dreadful before shot!

And Here are the after shots. The progress photos will be added below.

And HUGE thank you to Glimpse Imaging.ca
for helping me decorate and do the photos!

 

Now, hopefully we have caught your attention to see all the in between involved!

Basically, you know the beginning stages, 

GUT, DEMO, DESTROY!

And then of course, patch up any holes with some drywall mud and sand them down nice and smooth.

Now for the fun part.

The "panels" on the walls were created by cutting down to size some mirror backings.

Or sign backings, picture backings, even dresser backings would work!

As long as it is thin.
I'm sure if you had some old lathe from some plaster walls,

they could be cleaned up and used for a thicker look.

We're contemplating that for the downstairs "closet bathroom"

So here we go - 

Step 1 after walls are fixed and primed......

add your strips of panel.

Now, here are the shots side by side, so you can see that that is indeed what I used.

I cut them on a table saw and used a little glue and a nail gun to attach them to the wall.

Expense #1 - Nails and Glue. - $10.00

I then made sure to caulk the exposed edges of allllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the trim. 

This is a crucial step. 

This is being done in a bathroomm - which means a lot of moisture, 

and this board would suck that right up and warp. So seal any exposed edge!

Caulk - $4.00

Now, you get yourself a mighty fine manicure between all the primer, paint and caulking.

I think a Free DIY sexy manicure like this should knock the expense list down shouldnt it?

Next step. Prime with a GOOD primer, especially in bathrooms and then paint!

Now if you are like me, which most well planned people aren't, you will paint half the room bright yellow, sit back and look at it, then go nahhhhhhhhhhhh and choose a new colour!

I chose grey.
It was a can that has been laying around here forever waiting to find a use.

I never pay for paint that I use in my home renos. I always take other peoples left overs.

No need to throw it the landfill or any other means, I can use it somewhere!

P.s. I had to include this shot.  

When painting over the door, the back of the door hanger makes an 

excellent extra set of hands to hold the paint can!

The mirror in the picture - well, it came from a dresser that was on the side of the road. 

I just painted it the same white I used on the bottom half of the bathroom!

Voila!

Yes ... that's it.

It's not as big of a job as you would think.

I did this in 4 days - while on bed rest for pneumonia!

I laughed at the doctor when he said - GO GET REST!

I'm sure it will come back and kick me in the butt again ... but at least my bathroom is done!

Now, where did the other $134.00 expense come from you ask?

Floor, Sink, Toilet, light fixture.

Let me just say this - 

If you see any store - and I mean ANY store with a Going out of  Business sale

or a Moving Sale

Ask them for their floor model demos!

I don't want to tell you how much we didnt pay for the sink and toilet ....

because, well, I don't want to make you jealous! HA! But it was a friggin steal!

Ask for demos, ask for bundled discounts and open box deals!

They will never tell you.... you have to ask!

The floor and light fixture were just some little quickie yardsale pickups. I haven't decided on permanent flooring yet, so this will do for now!

And that is that in a nut shell!

I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I hope not.

But I have 11 more rooms to redo ... all looking as bad as that ...... so a lot more to come!

And when I'm not *ill* 

I will take more pictures as I go. But this was a full steam ahead, just get it done and relax project!

 One Last Peek!

*In Hind Sight, painting the strip before you put them on the wall is MUCH more intelligent and time saving!

I blame medicine head for not letting me do that. But still CAULK!

Until next time!

Before Blogging

Before I learned about the blogging world, I didn't see any relevance in taking "progress photos"

I was more so in a mad rush to get the after pictures posted up for sale.

Recently, I have come to discover that I get far more enjoyment from teaching women

how to do these things, more so than simply selling them.

Enter: World of Blogging!

So, here is a small collection of a few before and afters from the earlier days.

 

The Little Cubby, Bubby.

She sold quickly! And why not? Super Cute!

 

The little French Chocolate Table. Graphics care of the Graphics Fairy

 

This was a custom order for a customer looking for something cute to be used at the bottom of her stairwell, so we dubbed her the Landing Table.

She had a total overhaul with some fabulous new Glass knobs and Pulls.

Saved! No one thought this was do-able!

So she got a beautiful blue with a tobacco glaze. 

Again, I didn't realize the importance of closeups then either.

*tsk tsk*

I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with this piece when it came in!

And then, Ooh La La Furniture decided to host a Facebook group dedicated to

Painting things pink to raise money for Breast Cancer!

This was our contribution to the cause and she was then auctioned off!

And of course, one of my personal favorites! The Rustic Triplets bench made from bits and pieces we pulled from a Barn Demo that we were called in to help with! Such a great piece! That would be the bottom of two chairs and the top of a third.




And that my dear friends is a little collection of things gone by. All have found new homes and I just keep on creating! I have quite a bit more to come to the Blog World as I get time to sit and write. However, I find it very, very difficult to sit still for too long, so crossing my fingers, they make their way over here!

Until then, come view the albums on Gypsy Barns Facebook Page


Cheers!
From DIY GRRRRRRRRRRRRRL
Jasmin of
Gypsy Barn!

One Wild Martini Table

This will become more and more clear as I continue uploading all my past creations 

to the wonderful world of blog, but I have this sort of  

White Knight Syndrome for Beautiful Junk!

True Story!

see....

However, well worth the stop!

Moving Forward,  witness exhibit A of the White Knight Syndrome!

Just covered in scratches, gouges, holes, chips and dings.

Not to mention, that paint job made him look sooooooo sad!

There was no way I could leave him looking so .... well, pitiful.

So, first things first,  he received a nice fix up job with some plaster 

and then a lot of sanding to smooth him out.

Next up was a shiny new coat!

It was a tough call to go between a flat or metallic finish, but in the end, 

I decided he needed to look sleek!
Rustoleum to the rescue!

And last but not least, a fancy shmancy new glass top to add to the glisten!

And there you have it!
Sitting pretty in the sun!

The most low maintenance animal I have ever owned!

And ....... it serves up a mean martini, therefor bumping it up to the best pet ever!

Stop by Facebook and see all the albums of projects that will eventually make their way over to this blog!

 Gypsy Barn on Facebook

Sleigh Bed Gypsy Barn style!

The most YOU-Nique Sleigh Bed we could think of!

Well, here goes Blog attempt #2!

This beauty was discovered at an Estate Sale we just happened to stumble across.
There were quite a few sleighs there, in excellent condition, however, at the very end sat this little girl giving me the puppy dog eyes.

This particular one was from William Gray and Sons Carriage Company

circa 1903 - Chattham Ontario

Yup. She was looking pretty beat up.

Here is a nice shot of the boards that used to be the inner base.

Complete Rot.

The boards just crumbled away if you looked at them wrong ...
I tore the entire thing apart right down to the bare minimum that I could handle for a
repurposing project.
I then replaced them with some barn boards from a demolition we helped with.
Might as well try and keep the aged woods somewhat similar.
 I added some Elmers Wood Rot Stabilizer and some wood conditioner to the frame underneath the boards.

 Multiple layers of treatments left to soak it in for a few days.

Then, I tried the best I could to re-use some nails from the beams and boards we salvaged from this old barn that we were fortunate enough to pick from before it was flattened.

So FUN!
The sleigh threw me a little attitude and decided to eat my hammer.

After the boards were all replaced and everything was treated
I called in my dear friends Mother.

She likes to sew.
I do not.

It requires my having to sit still for along period of time, and well, that doesn't happen.
Ever.

She was cussin' me to make sure I didn't get her face in any of the photos haha

So here's a little compilation.
Sorry Judy, it made the cut!
You look fabulous!

She did the entire process by hand. I love it! I think it adds to the integrity of it all.

It took quite some time to choose this fabric. I think it was the right choice.
It still holds the antique look but it is ohhhhhhh so soft!

After all was said and done, I used Min Waxes PolyShades -Black Satin

and as fast I could, rubbed it on and wiped it right back off.
It really pulled that dull sunfaded pink back to red and really made it pop!

Here my dear friends are the after shots!

Lexy and I decided that it needed to be put to the comfort test! So we took a minute to enjoy it. My darling Hubby grabbed the camera and started shooting..... then I hear him say - " I'm assuming you want me to make sure the camera is angled enough so no double chins are showing?" THAT is why he is MINE! HA!!!

The final before and after

On to the next creation!

EDIT - AUGUST 2 - 2012

WOW! What an honour! The lounger was chosen by Minwax for the project of the month! Given all the entries that were out of this world, that is VERY flattering!!!

The Painted Chair - How To -

Well, I can truly say, I'm behind the times with blogging.

This would be my first official "blog"

I decided, that if I were to start a blog, that it would be on something that received a lot 

of questions on "how to" from our facebook page.

That would be my 

"Painted Chair".
Wingback Makeover for under $25.00

I thought to myself, I'm sure people have painted chairs before, it has to be cheaper than re-upholstering, 

so there MUST be a recipe somewhere online!?!

I searched for a while and found tid bits of information here and there.

 Everyone seemed to have left out one or two details, assuming that we 

would know what they meant from the pictures.

Well, here is what I pieced together from all the various "recipes" 

of course with my own little twists and experiments.

Let's call this a Gypsy-fied recipe shall we?

Since we never do what we're told anyway!

Step 1.

Find a chair that you won't feel guilty about ruining if things go wrong.

And they likely will.
However, the bonus here is, if you choose a light colour and mess it up, 

you can always try again with a darker colour :)

Things to consider when picking a chair -

1. The size of the paintable area. I suggest NOT doing what I did and choosing a WHOLE chair. Maybe start with a smaller chair with a simple fabric back pad on it.
2. The Material - Try to pick something smooth. Materials that are "soft and fluffy" will turn out to feel a little more "crusty". I picked a fairly smooth material, even with the pattern.
3. How many folds are in the material.  Folds are a royal pain in the rump to get under. Once you are done, if someone sits on the chair, the folds will smooth out and show whether or not you painted under them. Your secret will be revealed! *le gasp!*

Here is the chair I chose.

With a model of course!

So this beast was filthy. I scooped her up from an estate sale. 

She is large and in charge weighing more than I do!

Step 2

Decide what type of paint you are going to use.

I know most people will immediately think FABRIC PAINT!

Well, you can think that if you want. You can even try it. But my experience with fabric paint is that it needs a lot of love beyond just painting it on. You have to heat set it, and you can't really wash a
chair in the washing machine to allow it to set in and soften up.

So naturally, I started researching how to use other paints.

Here is what I came up with.

1. An 8 oz bottle of Textile Medium - $9.00
   It says right on the bottle: Transforms Acrylic Paint into a Washable Fabric Paint!
2. Black Acrylic Crafting Paint. The craft store I was at just happened to
   have the bottles on sale 2 for a dollar! Well how convenient is that?????
3.  A small paint brush
4. A foam roller and small tray
5. Water

Recipe - 2 parts acrylic to one part textile medium.

I emptied one bottle of black into the small tray, then filled the same bottle half way full with the textile medium and mixed it. It is wise to water it down.... I'll explain that more....

Now, my forte is in furniture painting, so naturally my mind went to primer.

There's no such thing as fabric primer.... that I could find,
but I wanted to make sure the paint got INTO the fabric.

I had visions of the material stretching when people sat on it allowing
the white to show through.So, here's my solution......

Fabric absorbs. Everyone knows that!  I figure, once I mixed the recipe together, if I filled the remaining space in the tray with water and used that to soak the chair, the material would suck the paint  right into its skeleton!  I was right. It did just that. I did a very light coat over the entire chair using an extremely watered down mixture of one bottle of acrylic and half that same bottle of medium.
It took a total of 3 bottles of black to *prime* the chair. I let it dry over night.

The next day, I checked the chair, and it was nice and dry. Not crispy or feeling rough.
I decided now, that even though the bottle says nothing about water, I liked the idea of the water being the transport to pull the paint through the fabric. When I mixed the recipe this time, I only filled the remainder of the tray half full with water. This allowed the coat to go on thicker and darker. I ran over the same spots with multiple passes to make sure no roller lines were left or gobs of paint as the textile medium seems to not like mixing completely smooth with water. It may leave little "gobbies" here and there - another pass or two with your roller should get rid of those.

I coated the entire chair, and then went back with a small brush and pulled the trim back to reveal the lighter areas under it that the roller couldn't get to. I also pulled back all of the folds all over the chair and made sure to get underneath them. They were only *primed* so they were simply grey underneath.

I let that dry for about 6 hours, then went over it again, with very minimal water added this time.

I let that dry over night.

The next day, I went back and painted the trim a vanilla colour. I was contemplating trying a black *drybrush* over the white, but my *better half* thought it was just perfect the way it was.

Here is the before and after shot.

And there you have it folks. A total chair transformation for under $25.00
Now, I'm not sure if it was the watered down paint, or the type of material, but if you were to sit on this, you would just think it was a nice thick upholstery. It doesn't feel anything like the *crusty, crunchy*  perception most people have of painted fabric. It's now taken up permanent residency in our living room.

I think my favourite part about this is, if any stain ever appears, it's pennies to fix!

Just dab a few drops of paint on!
Now I'm contemplating adding a Fleur de lis, or damask or maybe an 8-ball design on the backing.

And possibly painting the legs white.
But that's another days project!

From my very 1st blog ever, this is Jasmin from Gypsy Barn saying:
"YOU CAN DO IT!"
"Be a D.I.Y Grrrrrrrl!!!!"


Hope you enjoyed this blog. I'll get the jist of it eventually!
*** IF YOU TRY THIS.....
Please pretty please, take before and afters and come share it on our facebook page!
Gypsy Barns Facebook Page 
We would LOVE to see that we did in fact inspire someone in this big world :) ***