It's the Little Things

Sometimes, it's the projects that are (relatively) small, that make me smile the most when they are completed.

BASEMENT DOOR

After replacing the garage door and the pantry door, the door to the basement was painfully, obviously, begging to be scrapped. All three are in a line in the kitchen, so the ugly hardware and dirty door stuck out like crazy.  Also, it didn't close - that's kind of a theme around here apparently.

The above photo was taken before we moved in, while we were working on painting the downstairs, so the pantry is still in its original state as well. Those old window treatments from the living room sat in the hallway like that for an embarrassingly long time, by the way.

It makes me a lot happier to look at those doors now that they are shiny and new.

The unmatching hardware is totally my fault.  A long time ago, I decided that the pantry door should have a different handle to distinguish it as a closet, not an entrance.  Then, when we worked on the pantry, I decided I liked the way the knob looked more than the handle.  Then, I refused to buy new (matching) hardware for the basement door, because it seemed like a waste.

I'm a crazy person.  Moving on...

ENTRY TABLE

This may seem like a very minor change, but I searched for weeks and weeks for a table to sit next to our front door.  We made-do with a moving box for a while, but it just wasn't the "look" we were going for.

There is a 16" vent on the baseboard, and an outlet that I didn't want to cover just above it. This spot is also right at the foot of the stairs, so the table couldn't protrude too far from the wall. I didn't think it would be an especially tall order to find an appropriate little table, but weeks of searching my usual favorite haunts and two returned purchases later (darn vent!!) showed me otherwise. Then, one fateful afternoon in World Market, Mum spotted this gem in a corner back by the rugs.

I ended up getting 10% off the sale price because it was a floor model and slightly scratched (nothing a little stain pen didn't fix), and they let me use a coupon on top of that so I paid $32 out the door.  After looking at wobbly, not-even-real-wood, crappy pieces that were upward of $100 it was such a steal!
I know it's just a table, but I love her so much. Of course she's a she. Look how pretty and perfect she is - she was made for that spot.

LINEN CLOSET

Before we could put away all our sheets & towels, we desperately had to do something about this:

Why do the closets in this house give me the creeps so much?! Why do the shelves look like they're melting?!

So, after a couple of cut-to-size shelves and 2 coats of paint, I no longer feel the need to hold my breath when I open the door to the linen closet.  The paint was just leftover from the dining room, so this transformation was totally on the cheap.

If only I could make it look as neat now that there is linen spilling out of it...

I might be a towel hoarder.

These projects were by no means the most thrilling or grand, but they make a huge difference in ridding the house of that "we just moved in last week" look, that we're so good at.

My Go-To Chocolate Cupcakes

Two years ago, when I was just beginning my cupcake baking days, I wasted an sinful amount of butter and sugar in search of the best chocolate cake recipe.  I still remember squealing with delight when I pulled these out of the oven for the first time and seeing their smooth, slightly domed, perfect tops (if there's one thing I hate, it's a messy, sunken cupcake). I don't think I even waited for them to cool before tearing one apart to find a soft, light texture, and my favorite trait of these beauties is that they don't crumble to pieces when you take a bite (if there's another thing I hate, it's wearing my cupcake). I think I wiped the inevitable batter off my phone immediately, that day, to call Mum who had given me the recipe originally and declared that "oh my god, this is the perfect cupcake".  My opinion of this recipe has only increased in the 20-odd times I've made it since - it has never failed me. 

Oh yeah, and they taste rich and delicious too.

This isn't the most glamorously decorated example, and frankly that's because when someone requests just "chocolate cupcakes", I believe that they will be happiest with the cake being the star. I've also topped these with more elaborate frosting and decorations, which have been superbly received as well. In this case, I frosted them with a modest amount of basic chocolate buttercream.

If you're looking to add a filling, these are probably not the cupcakes to choose - I think they are slightly too dense (but in a good way! I promise)

I've been using the same original printout for two years, but for fear of losing it, or covering it so severely in ingredients that it becomes illegible, I tracked down the online source today.
Side note: I have made the Brown Sugar Buttercream that is included with the recipe online, and I'm disappointed to say that it was extremely underwhelming. I definitely don't recommend it.

Devil's Food Cake
Source: Epicurious.com - originally from Gourmet Magazine
Yield 24-28 cupcakes or 2 9" rounds

INGREDIENTS
1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until smooth, then mix in vanilla and milk.

3. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda in another bowl.

4. Beat together butter and sugars in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until pale and fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in flour and cocoa mixtures alternatively in batches, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.

5. Divide batter among cupcake pans (a large cookie scoop works well for this), and bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until tops of cakes spring back when touched lightly.

Cake can be made several days ahead and stored in airtight container.  Freezes well.

On The Border

Way back before the great blog-hiatus of late 2011, we were preparing the house for our first overnight guests. Unfortunately, even after moving/hiding the boxes which were being stored in it, our guest room was looking like this:

It was better than making our visitors sleep in the ghost room in the basement (a story for another day), but not by much.

Here are the things I don't like about this room:

Wall color - it's indescribably bleak

Baseboards lazily painted same color as wall

Old windows

Weird window shutters

Wallpaper border

Light fixture

Brass headboard/footboard (but we scored them for $20 off craigslist, so they have to live somewhere)

Severely too-small rug (but we scored it for $13, so it has to live somewhere)

Here are the things I do like about this room:

It's huge.  And that's about it.

A lot of the wallpaper was peeling up at the edges already, so I went for broke and just yanked at it. Probably two-thirds of the border just fell off the wall.  Yippee!  Then this happened:

Uh oh.
The paper that didn't pull off easily was seriously stuck down. Seriously. Like it seemed to really enjoy being one with the wall.

I doused the paper in a water-vinegar solution and scraped with a putty knife - no idea if this is an appropriate wallpaper removal technique, but I refused to spend a cent buying anything special/toxic to do it.  It didn't really work, took FOREVER, and there was still a thin layer of paper stuck to the wall in some places.

After two, two hour sessions I thanked my lucky stars that the whole room wasn't stuck, and then took an oath never to install wallpaper in any house I inhabit now or in the future.  You can hold me to that.

I attacked the paper mess with our ShopVac, which was a bad idea since it immediately clogged up the hose. Obviously. I've no idea why I didn't sweep it - sometimes these decisions boggle even my own mind.

I had already put one coat on the baseboards before starting on the wallpaper, so you can see above how much better they looked already.  I also painted the trim around the windows even though they are still wood. It just seems like the right thing to do, you know?

The wall color is Crocodile Tears by Olympic, and I am completely lacking an opinion about it at the moment.  Once there is some real furniture in the room, some appropriate bedding, and a less wonky looking window, I'll pass judgement.

We also threw up some wall art that was lying around the house about 45 minutes before leaving to pick up our first guest from the airport.

I hope you noticed our most elegant piece of furniture in the above picture. Yes, it's 4 (still full) moving boxes covered with a bed sheet. See what I mean about mind-boggling choices? Oh well, at least it coordinates.

There is no story behind the empty frame, I just have nothing to put inside at the moment.

There's obviously still a lot to be done in this room, but it's not exactly a high priority. I have already spray-painted the brass headboard seen in the first picture, but haven't yet figured out how to attach it to the bed or wall (whichever you're supposed to). I also have a few fabric samples that might work for window treatments, but the ugly shutters are probably staying put until we replace our upstairs windows entirely (hopefully by this summer!!!).

Anyone else have experience with stubborn wallpaper? How should I have tackled it? How will I eventually feel about that alligator-y wall color? How does one install a headboard to a frame-less bed?

We'll Be Right Back...

I have not abandoned this blog.

Amidst the holidays and their various incidents (like that time the heat went out on Christmas Eve), and realizing every time I sat down to write a post that I hadn't seen my camera since Thanksgiving...I had to suspend the updating for the last month or so.  But today, I found my camera, so I'll be back with some mildly interesting updates (and hopefully some cupcakes too!) very shortly.

But, you know how these things go...so maybe don't hold your breath quite yet...

Have A Seat

The holidays have taken over my life lately, it seems.  This post is very late.  

We re-covered the chair cushions back in November, so that our families wouldn't have to hover over the chair frames at Thanksgiving...as fun as that would have been...

First, I left the old cushions at Mum's house for a long time, and she pulled out the million staples in each one.  It didn't sound like fun, so I would definitely recommend conning someone else into doing that part for you.

I bought the fabric several months ago on super clearance at JoAnn.  Initially, I brought it home and decided it wasn't right for the chairs, but after their chalk paint makeover (and when the thought of more fabric shopping seemed unbearable), it suddenly looked much more appealing.

After cutting 6 pieces, each a few inches larger than the seat, we started stapling - being sure to pull the fabric taught, but evenly.

When the sides were secure, we wrapped the corners neatly and stapled them down too.

We covered the exposed underside of the seats with felt-like cloth, to avoid dust and whatnot. Except one, because we ran out.  No one will ever know.

We also marked the screw holes on the felt with a sharpie.  It seemed like it was going to be tricky to line up all the screws to reattach the seats to the chairs, but apparently the force was with us and they went in smoothly like a (slightly tedious) dream.

Look at these beauties!

It was such a  relief to finally have the chair makeover finished, and just in time, as they got plenty of use over Thanksgiving weekend!

Chalky Chairs

When I finally got around to starting this project, it felt as though it had been in the works for months and months.  First, we acquired the dining room furniture, and starting thinking about how to make over the chairs.  After seeing them in the dining room, I desperately wanted to lighten them up.

Enter Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  I've been reading about this magical stuff for ages all over the blogosphere, but at almost $40 for a liter and shipping on top of that, I really needed to have a plan before ordering some.

It took a while to get my ducks in a row but, eventually, the day arrived!!

You can always tell that I'm REALLY excited about something when I take a photo of the packaging

I decided to go with a distressed white look on the chairs, so I ordered ASCP in Old White and the dark wax from a stockist of the Annie Sloan line.  Oh boy, was it exciting!

With the first chair, I put the paint on pretty thick hoping that it would just need one coat.  The coverage was pretty good, but not quite good enough.

So, after finding out that I would need two coats, I thinned the paint down a little with some water (yes, I'm telling you, this stuff is magical) to hopefully make it last as long as possible.

It took a few sittings to get all six chairs painted. They have a lot of edges!  When the paint dries, it has a lovely super-matte finish - chalky like its namesake! - and the brush strokes completely smooth out.

I kind of loved the brightness of the chairs at this point; there's something so happy to me about the color white.  Ultimately though, I wanted the set to have a more established and expensive look, so I pressed on...

First up, a coat of clear hard wax over every surface of the chair.  I applied this with an old t-shirt and let it absorb into the paint until it was no longer tacky.

The clear wax I used has a very pungent odor.  It didn't bother me initially (actually, it was kind of weirdly enjoyable), but as time went on and I used more and more of the stuff, I started to think my house was smelling of gas.  Clearly, the fumes were affecting my brain somehow because I didn't attribute the smell to the wax, and kept going in the kitchen to smell the stove.  And we have an electric stove.
Anyway, I definitely opened some windows the next time I worked on the chairs.

Next up was the distressing with the dark wax.

I know, it's scary-looking at first.  I learned that it's okay to put the dark wax on heavier than you ultimately want it to look though, because it'll lighten again with the final step.  I'm admittedly not an expert distress-er, but it's pretty hard to screw this up.  Just wipe the dark wax onto the chair, especially around edges, textures, and where the chair would naturally get "worn." If it's too dark, just keep wiping over that area to spread it around.  It's hard for me, but there is no point being finicky about this - it's all about the big picture.
Next, gently use sandpaper to distress a few edges and surfaces.  Go slowly here, because it's much harder to undo if you go too far.

Finally, I did another coat of clear wax over the entire chair.  This significantly lightened the dark wax and made the whole look more subtle.  It's also an extra coat of protection against damage to the paint.

Blurry picture apologies

Next up, a few hours of quality time with the staple gun makes these chairs sit-able for the first time since we bought them!

Has anyone else used (and loved!) Chalk Paint? I'm addicted already.

Backsplash Part 3: The Finishing Touches

There were three little jobs left before the kitchen backsplash tile project was officially finished.

SEALING THE GROUT

To avoid moisture damage in the future, we had to seal the grout lines, and natural stone tiles in the backsplash.  Honestly, I have no idea if I really did this right, but I sprayed the whole area very generously with the sealer, spread it around with a sponge and soaked up the excess with paper towels.  I let it dry for 15 minutes or so, then repeated the same process.

CAULKING THE EDGES

We used a tile caulk in the same shade as our grout, to finish the rough edges of the backsplash.  I also ran a bead along the bottom of the tile where it meets the countertop, for added waterproofing.

ELECTRICAL OUTLETS

Since the outlet faceplates now rest on the tiles rather than the wall, we needed to bring the outlets forward to meet them.

The lady at the tile workshop had told us to expect this problem, so we had the plastic shims already on hand.  Unfortunately, the original screws weren't long enough, but after we bought some longer ones, it was as simple as unscrewing the outlets and switches from the wall and placing as many shims behind it as necessary (in our case, 2).

 And with a couple of screws to reattach the faceplates, the backsplash project was officially complete!

Other than a window treatment, this is about all the kitchen updates that we have the budget for.  Some of the Black Friday appliance sales were very tempting - an entire new suite for $2000ish! come on! - but since all of the current appliances are hanging on for the moment, hopefully we can get a few more years out of them.  We did buy a chest freezer for the basement though; hooray for soup making!

And a quick look back a few months to when we moved in...