Sunnyside Upstairs

How to Apply Oil-Based Paint on Furniture

2020-03-04T06:44:00.002-10:00

Over the period of a month, in 1 hour pockets of free time, I went through the process of painting built-in cabinets using oil-based paint, after testing water-based gloss paint vs. oil-based semi-gloss paint on the cabinet side. The oil-based paint went on smoother, covered better, and produced a better finish than the water-based paint I had in a similar color, so I was sold on using Oil-Based paint for the first time.

Here are 15 tips that I found most helpful during my Oil-Based Paint experiment and what helped me achieve the best finish with hand-painting methods.

Junk Free January: New Home, New Projects

2020-02-23T12:08:00.001-10:00

New state, new home, new projects to tackle. In January 2019, I began the process of working on this area off our kitchen, once used as a family entertainment room, now being used as a craft room and extra dining space.

Messy beginnings. Still a work in progress. More to come.

Paint a Shimmer Forest Mural (with reflections on the creative process)

2016-05-04T00:10:00.001-10:00

I've been reminded once again that "revision is progress" and the willingness to edit ourselves helps us to uncover the art that was waiting to be found.

After a difficult year, I needed to gather courage to attempt anything creative. Like all times that I've been stumped before, I looked toward my daughter's room - a blank canvas for some fun; a place to imagine and dream and be a little less serious. We decided that a mural behind her little bed would be a great beginning. While painting her mural, I found that my ability to achieve a desirable end wasn't the concern; it was my ability to step back, and be willing to revise the project as I worked on it that made all the difference.

And here is the final view I stepped back to see a few weekends ago.

But it began as an itch in my mind. Then it became a sketch, and then pencil marks, and white paint. And after a bit more editing, a shimmery copper paint outline of a forest. At first, I thought I would just keep the copper outline of the forest on the wall, but the expanse of space cried out for color.

So my daughter and I filled in the spaces with leftover wall paints we mixed together to create new hues.

After the second coat, the mural looked relieved, as if it had sighed after finishing its weekend long work of being born.

Sitting comfortably behind my daughter's day bed, which is now crying for a change since she's 6, and no longer so little anymore. But, I am happy for this whimsical, yet somehow sophisticated start to a new room for a growing girl.

Lace Inspired Door

2016-04-02T01:35:00.001-10:00

In 2012, when I started the journey of hand-making our home furnishings and decor, I had attempted to salvage, repair, and refinish my daughter's existing bedroom door. There were cracks in the door that I tried to smooth out with sanding and darker stain.

Now, 4 years later, I was inspired to add more personality to my daughter's bedroom by painting a lace inspired mural on her door. It reminds me of zentangles, mandalas, and doodles on paper, but with such high contrast, and at a larger scale, this design has given my daughter's room a bold new look that I hope will coordinate with my other plans for designing her space. :)

Make a Tung Oil Wax Finish

2015-05-30T18:33:00.001-10:00

This week, I attempted to make my first oil and wax polish. I tried to follow other tutorials for this process from memory, and found that some tips did not work for this application. It was fun to go through hand crafting my own wax finish, though! :)

Make a Compact Utensil Organizer

2015-05-15T06:24:00.001-10:00

I re-made our compact utensil organizer to document my process on video.

Make Window Valances from Beach Mats

2015-05-07T23:51:00.001-10:00

I found a pair of beach mats in storage, and had a crazy idea to reuse them in my kitchen. I originally tested out this idea in August 2014, and I've loved the wood-toned warmth and textural interest it has added to my black, white, and stainless steel kitchen. They've also held up impressively well!

Adventures in Handmaking

2015-05-02T09:06:00.001-10:00

I made a channel trailer using some used and unused footage from my first 5 videos.
The trailer is a 45 second overview of what viewers can expect from my channel, including:
- Raw and reclaimed material projects
- Repurposing everyday objects
- Before and After refurbishing/remodeling
See it on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/qsEgl8LCdbU

Repair and Repaint a Stool in Silent Film Style

2015-04-24T19:57:00.001-10:00

I repaired a stool using glue, a mallet, a sander, and some paint, then made a short silent film about it. :)
You can also see the video here:

Make Woodland Animal Stools from a Cabinet Door

2015-04-18T09:58:00.001-10:00

Narrative-free video about how I turn reclaimed lumber into animal stools inspired by Killer B and her original project: http://www.killerbdesigns.com/toddler-sized-animal-stools-a-how-to/

Music by Josh Woodward, "Frannie" and "Frannie, Instrumental"

You can also view the video on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/iUdSo-x5ZP8

Reclaimed Woodland Art on Etsy!

2015-04-10T06:23:00.001-10:00

Something exciting happened yesterday. My second video posted to Youtube last week was shared to Hometalk's Facebook page, and it was viewed 120,000 times in 12 hours! I was so delighted to see something I made reach so many people.

On Fridays, I publish videos to my Youtube channel about my adventures in hand-making. Today, I'm sharing how I turned wood louvers and scrap wood into wall art. If anyone is interested in owning a digital copy of these paintings, I also opened an Etsy shop today. You can find the first 8 woodland paintings, digitized at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/Alawa

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Shut the Front Door - A Remodelaholic Feature

2015-04-03T15:00:00.001-10:00

I have some exciting news to share on this Good Friday!

1) I've taken the plunge and started a Youtube channel. I've posted two videos thus far:
Finishing Wood Naturally with Coconut Oil and Egg Carton Paint Palettes
I'll be sharing more about each of these separate projects this month.

2) And, shut the front door, my royal indigo entry door with frosted glass is being featured on Remodelaholic this evening!

I'm so excited to share how possible making your own personally designed door can be, even from scraps. :) Please be sure to check out all the other amazing door projects and hacks featured on the site this week, too.

Sharing @

Liters of Light

2014-08-09T15:47:00.001-10:00

One of my Facebook friends posted an inspiring video about how one man took a liter soda bottle, a plate of metal roofing, sealant, and a little bleach to make bottle skylights for shanties in Philippine villages.

This invention has spread across the globe. An English version of the website was published as http://aliteroflight.org/

Using an LED bulb and small photovoltaic energy collectors, the "liters of light" also can brighten up dark homes at night, without using electricity.

They took an otherwise discarded material and created an economical and eco-friendly solution to a problem that could be devastating to the growth of healthy families and communities. I'm so pleased to have found another foundation to support!

What do you think of these Liters of Light?

Redwood Wall Planter

2014-07-15T19:24:00.002-10:00

In continuation of the story of the curious woman and solutions for her small kitchen, I built a modern wall planter using a $6 plank of redwood from Hawai'i City Mill's "scrap" and hand tools (backsaw, hammer, brad nails, waterproof wood glue).

View other projects in the Kitchen 2014 series:

Keep reading to see how I made the redwood wall planter below

After the curious woman had created cabinet doors from a closet door for her kitchen, she imagined a solution to a strange situation. There was an awkward space where her wall covering ended and her window did.

The curious woman was a school teacher and in her school, she read about a wonderful tree called Redwood. She remembered that she had bought a $6 plank of redwood from the "mill."

Using a drawing tool, she measured the redwood for the awkward space and marked it. She sawed the redwood plank off at the mark and put it aside. She took the leftover plank and sawed it in half lengthwise into two similar and smaller planks. These would be the bottom and front of her planter.

She cut the end of each plank to create sides. She glued and nailed the 2 sides, the front, and the bottom piece together.

To make sure her soil would not fall through any cracks, the curious woman added waterproof wood glue to all seams.

She used a fine grit paper and smoothed the redwood. Then, she nailed the larger plank as the back of her planter box.

She screwed the planter to the wall and wiped the outside with an oil to shine it. She filled the planter with homemade compost and two green onion cuttings she had saved.

How happy she was to have something edible growing in her little kitchen, and how pretty the amazing redwood looked!

Woodland Animal Stools

2014-07-11T15:30:00.000-10:00

Inspired by Brooke of Killer B Designs and the Toddler Animal Stools she built, I sought to create some animal stools for my 'alawa woodland collection. I changed the dimensions slightly, and made my own head and ear templates, then cut everything out with a jigsaw, and the 1x2 legs with a miter saw. I plan to sell them for $20 each within my community. I'm leaving the edges natural and unpainted, to coordinate items within the woodland collection and to show that each stool is made of solid wood. Without further ado, here are the animal friends! :)

Woodland Fox Stool

Woodland Raccoon Stool

Fox and Raccoon are friends

They will soon be joined by Fawn

And lastly, Bunny.

Any suggestions for improvement are welcome!
Want to build your own? Check out Brooke's original post!

Sharing @ Masterpiece Monday || The DIYers || Do Tell Tuesday || Work It Wednesday || Wicked Awesome Wednesday || Create It Thursday || Link Party Palooza || Remodelaholics Anonymous || Say G'Day Saturday || Ana White

Make-Believe Cabinet Doors

2014-07-10T04:30:00.000-10:00

There once was an unfinished kitchen lined with painter's cloth instead of doors.

Until one day, a curious woman spotted an old closet door. The closet door had been lying behind her mother's sofa for several years and the woman thought, "I have had no luck finding reclaimed cabinet doors that fit our openings. My husband desires flat panel doors, but wood so large would be ever so expensive. I wonder if this closet door would do?"

The curious woman measured the door and found it to be just right, so she removed the closet door handle and other metal fittings.

And she sawed the closet door into smaller doors. Remembering her husband's wish, she used very rough paper to bevel the perimeter of the door before smoothing it with finer paper.

Using paint in a can named "Napoleon" in a somewhat-glossy sheen, the woman painted the doors, and the rest of her kitchen cabinets and drawers using a brilliant rolling contraption (not of her invention).

She laid them on her dining chairs, noting how handy it was to have found a solid cored door just the right width for the height of her cabinets, leaving them to dry before hanging.

And now the one closet door is four kitchen cabinet doors in the curious woman's little home.

Compact Utensil Organizer

2014-07-08T17:00:00.000-10:00

It's kitchen month upstairs, and I am so glad to get this bear of a space off my long "do list".

I last posted about our kitchen updates nearly a year ago, in August 2013. I've been gradually layering elements in our kitchen as we've found a need or desire for them. The first thing I added to our kitchen was a place to store our utensils. We were housing them in the dishwasher for a while, but that was too confusing. We stored them in a drawer for some time, but that felt like a waste of prime drawer space. So, I made a countertop option that would take up just a little counter space. Here is the result:

I used a 1/4" poplar project board, about 3 inches wide. I simply cut 4 pieces 4 inches long for the outsides, and cut 2 sections 3-3/4" for the inside dividers. I also cut a piece to width for the bottom.

I used Titebond III waterproof wood glue and simply glued the boards together. I actually glued the outside box first, with the bottom piece flush. Later, I applied glue and inserted the dividers.

To finish the piece, I simply rubbed on an oil and wax mixture used for seasoning cutting boards and salad bowls. The color of the conditioned poplar pairs well with our Chicago Cutlery knife block. It's now my favorite way to store our small utensil collection. :)
I'd love to know what you think, or if you have suggestions for an even more compact utensil organizer! :)

Sewn Work Apron

2014-06-27T04:00:00.000-10:00

This week I have been focusing on "setting up" for my small side business, 'alawa. Setting up with no budget, that is. :) Thanks to plans from Jaime of That's My Letter and Ana-White, I sewed my first work apron and learned a few new things. For the work apron plans, please visit this link.

I was so happy to have actually sewn something with a machine by myself. Here are things I learned how to do:
1. Sew a trim piece by layering the fabric on top of each other, trim right-side down and sew a seam to join.

2. Stitch in the ditch means to sew in an existing seam.

I had to use a search engine for help on that one after seam ripping with a needle for about an hour. Haha! :)

3. Pockets can be easy to sew.

4. Little daughters want a work apron too!

I sewed a 2-pocket work apron for my 4 year old. I resized the apron to fit her and followed the directions for the larger apron, omitting the front 3-pockets. She uses the apron to collect and spread random items around our house, haha. :)

The best thing about machine sewing? Not needing to sand the project after it is assembled! :) Do you have something to share about sewing? I could use all the tips I can get!

Sharing @ Ana White

Pour and Flow Painting

2014-06-05T00:00:00.000-10:00

Having 7 weeks off from teaching tempted me to fill up my days with woodwork and remodeling, but I decided that I needed to make spending time with my daughter my number one priority for the summer. So, I signed my 4-year-old up for a Vacation Bible School program called "Summer Adventure" for the first 3 weeks of break, which I thankfully get to attend with her. I scheduled creative play time with her at least twice a week after her school activities. Our first 30 minute painting session resulted in an easy and messy marble-effect piece:

Using a 1/4" piece of plywood leftover from building our kitchen cabinets, we literally poured two colors of paint on the board and tried to help navigate the flow of the paint to cover as much of the board as we could.

I talked to my daughter about "flow," that liquids, like paint, flow because they don't have their own shape. We talked about how the paint flows down. We changed the orientation of the board to change the direction of the downward drip. Eventually, the paint starting to mix and fold together to create these sections:

We poured more paint of both colors, in different sections of the board and tilted the paint in every direction my 4-year old could imagine. Once the board was full of paint flowing off the sides, I suspended the board over a sink to catch the last drips in an effort to cover as much of the board as possible. Here's what we ended up with:

After a busy and tiring day, this 30 minute messy project was just what we needed to segue into nap time. :)

Next week, we may be able to invite some friends to join in on more abstract art fun.

Link Party @
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S'mores Camping Tents

2014-06-03T00:00:00.000-10:00

Winter has its gingerbread houses, and summer has its S'mores, so why not build a camping scene with S'mores flavor?

My 4 year old daughter and I celebrated the onset of summer vacation with these simple S'mores tents, a nod to cool summer nights, roasting goodies over the fire, and weather that allows for camping with friends and family.

For these treats, we simply used graham crackers, some chocolate spread with graham sticks, and marshmallow fluff. Real roasted marshmallows would be a welcome addition too, of course!

The rest of the build looked like this:

To make little flames, I cut up a baby carrot from my daughter's afternoon snack, and placed them between the chocolate-attached logs. Crumble graham crackers for a beach camping scene.

Or add crumbled chocolate cereal and other additions for a forest camp site.

Or keep it simple with this variation, with a Captain Crunch camp fire, and floating candle bushes.

Please share a link to your own summer treats or S'mores creations in the comments below! I'd love to see more ideas for some kitchen fun this summer! :)

Mini Mudroom Reveal

2014-05-29T00:00:00.000-10:00

I had $50 to spend on freshening our garage entry, which is made of two spaces, really: the "mini mudroom" and the stairwell leading to our kitchen entry. The stairwell has been left untouched, completely, but the "mini mudroom" is $50 more eye-catching and functional than before. Here are the projects that made the difference:

May 2014 $50 mudroom projects
	$14	$10	$0	$0	$0
			Miscellaneous (light switch plates)
	$16	$5	$2.75

And now some photos of what it looks like today, some free (spur-of-the-moment) projects still pending.

I used leftover paint from painting our walls up-stairs to change the mood of this little mudroom entryway. Did you notice I also ran out of wood louvers for the wainscoting wall? I kind of like it, but I'm working on a solution to complete the wall, because a completed wall might actually look better. :)

I love the light to medium browns in this space. It sort of is a foreshadow of our new kitchen look, too. That's coming up in a month or two. ;)

The chalkboard is wiped, but my tasks for this space are in the corner, cut and ready to paint and attach, including that I need to finish stenciling that corner, still.

Our stairwell has literally been untouched. I didn't even paint the baseboard white to match the white of mudroom trim. That little window is THE ONLY natural light source for the entire stairwell and mudroom, hence the lack of lighting.

I screwed in finials from a pair of $5 reclaimed curtain rods as wall hooks. I am glad that my mini-hoarder tendencies saved them after I used the rods, (in our living room, coming up in future, too)! :)

This bench, inspired by the Crate&Barrel boardwalk bench, cost me $5 out of my budget for the month, and that stenciled cement floor? $0. It's growing on me even more now.

A round up of all of the major before-and-afters of this space:

I'm so pleased with how far $50 can go and am thankful for Re-Use Hawai'i, which makes reclaimed material affordable. :)

Sharing @ A Peek Into My Paradise | The Style Sisters | The DIY'ers | Work it Wednesday
Lamberts Lately

Boardwalk Shoe Bench

2014-05-27T00:00:00.000-10:00

The last project I'm sharing about our mudroom is a shoe bench I built using $5 of my budget. I returned to Re-Use Hawai'i, eager to refresh my stash of free hardwood louvers and found shorter ones this time, perfect for slats on a little bench. I saw the Boardwalk Bench from Crate&Barrel and decided I wanted something like it. I drew up a picture that replaced the drawers with another level of slatted shoe storage, shrunk the dimensions to fit our space, and scrounged around my garage for comparable sized lumber to put together my own version on the cheap.

I think I love it. The Crate&Barrel price is something close to $400 for a larger, "drawered" bench. My version is 10" deep, by 20" tall by 30" wide, which is quite a bit smaller than their 4 foot wide version. Still, $5 is my rounded-up total cost estimate for this project.

	3/8" lattice strips - 4 @ 29" (shelves) ($3 from City Mill) 5/8" random trim - 4 @ 29" (shelves)(free from Re-Use Hawai'i) 28 free hardwood louvers @ 8.5" (shelves)(free from Re-Use) 1x3 Maple trim - 4 @ 20" (leg sides) ($2 from Re-Use Hawai'i) 1x2 - 6 @ 10" (leg sides) (already owned) Old solid core door + random trim @ 10" by 28.5" (already owned)
	Wood glue (already owned) Staple gun with 9/16" staples (already owned) Hammer and wire brad nails 3/4" long (already owned) Kreg Jig kit (already owned) Screwdriver (powered and manual) (already owned) 1-1/4" Pocket hole screws and 3/4" wood screws (already owned)

I start my builds by going through what I have, and mentally planning if I need to buy anything else. This is what I had:

1x3 maple trim

Lots of scrap 1x2s.

Free hardwood louvers

After deciding on how long and wide everything should be, I cut my materials and began assembly. I assembled the shelves first:

The underside of the shelves.

The top side of the shelves.

Then it was time to create the side legs.
To make the angles on the legs, I measured per above and cut using my miter saw. A jigsaw may be safer, though.

I lined up front and back pairs of legs and marked lines @ 3" down, 10" down, and 17" down.

Then I used my Kreg jig to attach the 1x2s to create side legs.

Next, I attached the shelves to the legs, in line with the 1x2 stretchers on each side.

I was tempted to stop here, because it looked like a cute sleigh bed, but I continued on! :)

Lastly, I cut the reclaimed solid core closet door to size, and attached trim on the front and back using wood glue and wire brad nails.

I used the Kreg jig to make pocket hole screws on the underside to attach the bench portion. Later, I cut and nailed in some trim between the tops of the leg "posts" for a completed look.

Here's the bench in it's raw state being used in the corner of our mini mudroom (next to the garage entry door). You can see some other sneak peaks of two projects that I decided to share another day. I'll be back once more this week to show the $50 "reveal" and I'll also give a heads-up about what projects you can expect to see next! :)

May 2014 mudroom projects

Sharing @ Ana White

Task & Chore Wall

2014-05-20T00:00:00.000-10:00

By this point in my $50 garage entry / mini mudroom refresh, I had spent $24 on the aesthetics of the room. I just about used up the leftover gray paint from the shades of gray we used up-stairs, and I played with mixing paints together to get new variations on the walls, ceiling, and even floor. Next, it was time for me to actually use my budget toward adding function to the room. I often find that once a space looks improved, then I am ready to improve its usefulness too, which is not necessarily indicative of my priorities -- I think. :) One of the simplest things I did was create a place to hang a chalkboard, a mini vacuum (which will be replaced with a mop now) and a broom.

The task and chore wall put a $16 dent in my budget. Everything was already owned, except for the 4-pack of Super Chalk from Amazon.

	Chalk board (already owned) Leftover paint (already owned) Old chip paint brush (already owned) Brass hooks (already owned) Super Chalk Liquid Chalk Markers ($16)
	Miter saw (already owned) Screwdriver and screws (already owned) Stud finder (already owned)

See these steps in Portable Document Format (.pdf)

After I painted the chalk board, I simply measured and cut a 1x2 to mount to the studs in the wall using screws. Instead of countersinking and filling the screw holes, I left the screws exposed in case I decide to change things up in future. Then, I simply screwed the chalkboard to the 1x2 through the pre-existing bolt holes, and screwed in two hooks to hang my mini vacuum and a broom. The chalkboard in the photo says "April 2014" because I actually worked on this space throughout the month of April. In real time, I've just about finished the work in our kitchen, but those posts will go live in July. :)

Next, I'm sharing how I re-purposed finials into wall hooks -- another free project!

May 2014 mudroom projects

Sharing @ Life on Lakeshore Drive

Sisal Drum Shade

2014-05-15T00:00:00.000-10:00

There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the light in this mini-mudroom garage entryway, except that I don't especially like the way it looks. I searched for "how to cover a light fixture" and found many ideas for hanging a drum shade over an existing fixture. So, I hunted around the house and garage for things that could be shaped into a drum shade without needing to go out and buy anything. My version of this simple lighting disguise tricks is: a garden mesh and sisal rope drum shade hooked to the ceiling.

This drum shade was free using things I found around our house and a wire cutting tool I borrowed from my brother.

	Garden mesh (already owned) Sisal rope (already owned) Garbage twist ties (already owned) Brass hooks (already owned)
	Shears and a boxcutter (already owned) Wire cutter (already owned) Ladder (already owned)

See these steps in Portable Document Format (.pdf)

I love how the sisal adds some warmth to an otherwise cool space and helps connect the wood-toned colors of my mom's downstairs kitchen with those in our modern up-stairs apartment.

Next, I'm sharing our little task and chore wall, which is just a place where I can write down what I need to do, hang a broom and a mop.

May 2014 mudroom projects

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Natasha in Oz

Stenciled Cement Floor

2014-05-13T00:00:00.000-10:00

After removing the mudroom carpet, our mini mudroom space looked a little brighter and was more echoic. I decided to add more contrast to the room and opted for a bright white floor to pop against the wood louver wainscoting wall. When my 4-year old saw the white floor, she echoed out "Thank you for making it frozen, mommy!" Then, of course, we sang our own rendition of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" behind one of the doors, me being young Elsa with the one-liner "Go away, Anna." Har-har.

We lived a few days with our "frozen" floor to experiment with it. For one, I went against all the great DIY wisdom I had read and decided to try using paint I already owned first before buying a specialty enamel or floor/porch/cement paint. [I'll show you what paint I used that totally worked for us]. Secondly, this is a mini-mudroom, so I was wondering how the white would hold up. Let's just say, not only did the space echo a little, it also kept a record of every footprint that passed over it. I was torn, because I loved the white floor, something I hadn't entertained loving, so I decided to stencil a pattern on top that would help disguise the footprint-tracking feature of a white mudroom floor.

Painting this floor was totally free for me because I decided to be cheap like usual and used wall primer and paint and a quick cardstock stencil.

	Zinser Primer (already owned) Valspar Satin Latex (already owned) Leftover teal and gray wall paint (already owned) Paintbrush (already owned) Cardstock (already owned) Laptop and projector (already owned)
	Pencil, scissors, tape (already owned)

This project started with an experiment. I had two kinds of primer: one non-VOC Olympic primer and Zinser primer, that says it can be used over any surface, including cement. It's the same primer I used over the mellow yellow side table I found in family storage. I painted two areas of the floor with 1 coat of each primer, then I painted a stripe of two kinds of white paint I owned, Behr Exterior Semi-Gloss Enamel or Valspar asthma and allergy friendly non-VOC Satin Latex.

This is the non-VOC Olympic primer with Behr and Valspar top coats. I scratched different tools over it and the paint came off.

This is the Zinser primer with Behr and Valspar top coats. The Zinser won hands down, but there was almost no difference between the enamel and the Valspar satin latex.

Zinser Bullseye wins! I should have known - it does say "all surfaces." I just had to be sure there was a difference.

The Behr paint was leftover from an exterior project my mom hired out several years ago. I thought the exterior enamel would have been much tougher than the interior latex, so this was a shock. I chose the interior paint for its relative durability, non-VOC, allergy and asthma-friendly qualities. Also, I have been told it is not advisable to use exterior paint indoors because they off-gas more harshly than interior paints, but it was neat to see there was not a noticeable difference.

I applied two coats of Zinser Bullseye primer. The first coat vertically, and a perpendicular coat horizontally. I was halfway through the horizontal primer coat in this photo. I did the same 2 coat process with the Valspar white top-coat. It increases coverage, and the durability of the Zinser and Valspar together was fantastic on our cement floor. I totally recommend using what you have first before buying specialty products after this experience.

After the paint experiment, I tried making and using a card stock stencil, which worked for me too!

See these steps in Portable Document Format (.pdf)

The stenciled floor still looks about the same as the first day I painted it. I've scrubbed it, swept it, and mopped it, and none of the paint has come off yet. =D I'm so glad I did not have to buy floor/porch/cement paint to get the look and hopeful durability I want. I'm on the hunt for a cost efficient sealer to make the floor easier to clean and protect it for years to come.

Next, I'm showing how I changed the look of the lighting in the mini-mudroom using things already in our home.

May 2014 mudroom projects

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