BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE VIDEO AT THE END OF THE POST!

When we were getting our Airbnb off the ground, speed was the name of the game. Well, sort of. It still took about six months from the time we closed until the time we actually started hosting, but we were moving as fast as we could with two full-time jobs and a toddler in tow!

After purchasing the house, we didn’t have a lot of money left over to work with for renovations, so the plan was to do what was absolutely necessary to start bringing in income ASAP and make more improvements down the road once we’d started making money. 

Our upstairs bathroom is the perfect example of this.

(I apologize for the horrible photo quality. The only ones I have are stills pulled from the video I took during our walk through–yes, all this stuff was in the house when we took possession of it!)

It needed help. A gut renovation would’ve been the ideal scenario, but that definitely wasn’t in the budget. We’re about ten months into hosting now and we’ve only just started to save for that. 

So, in the meantime, I started making some minor cosmetic improvements that would make the bathroom a little more appealing. 

I painted the walls. I tore down the gross old plastic tub surround and installed a fresh new one. And I put down peel and stick floor tiles. 

Choosing Peel And Stick Floor Tiles

When you Google ‘peel and stick floor tiles,’ there are a few options that dominate the big-box stores. 

After comparing the designs, I decided to go with these ones from FloorPops. 

Side note–I’m surprised by how few designs there are and how there aren’t more basic ones, like plain colors. I probably would have ordered something less busy if it were available, but I thought this was the best one from the selection available online.

They come in boxes of ten tiles. I ordered eight boxes at ~$12 each. 

This was a little more than I needed, but between having to cut some odd size end pieces and making a few mistakes, I wound up using all of the boxes. If you order them on Amazon like I did, you can always return any extra. 

Installing FloorPops Peel And Stick Tiles

When you first start sticking the tiles down, your first instinct will be to stick the corner of one of the tiles in the corner of the room and build outward from there. Don’t do this. 

Why? Because there’s a good chance that you’ll get to the other side of the room and be left with an awkwardly small strip for the last row of tiles, which looks weird.

Or, the more likely situation is that the walls of your room are not perfectly square, and as you move down the wall, your tiles will start to slant. 

So, instead of starting with one full tile in the corner of the room, you want to start in the middle and work your way toward the corners. 

I saw a mathematical equation somewhere for how to determine exactly where to start based on the size of your tiles, but it was so confusing. Since we’re using peel and stick tiles and not the real thing, I think it’s perfectly acceptable to just lay them out and eyeball how it will look best. 

Ideally, you want to have the pieces on the edges of the room be somewhere between ¼ to ¾  the width of a full tile, like this:

I hope that makes sense. 

Listen, if you get to an edge and it’s an awkwardly small strip, it’s not the end of the world. It’s much easier to cut these FloorPops tiles into thin pieces than it is to cut real tile. Believe me, I tried to cut thin tile pieces during this project. It was next to impossible and almost caused me to have a mental breakdown  

Once you have the layout decided, you literally just peel off the back of the tiles like a sticker and stick them into place. I stuck mine down right over the existing vinyl flooring. 

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND adding some additional sticking power using a product like this Gorilla Glue spray adhesive. While the tiles stuck pretty well on their own, I did have a few that started peeling up at the corners that I had to re-glue. 

I used the Gorilla Glue linked above on a peel and stick backsplash in my kitchen and have had no peeling!

As for cutting the edge pieces, the instructions recommend scoring the tile with a utility knife and breaking them. This works, but I think it’s a lot of effort for this kind of project. 

I used a piece of paper as a template, drew a line on the tile and used these heavy duty scissors to cut them. You can kind of get an idea of what I mean in the video that accompanies this post, in the part where I’m stenciling around the toilet. 

Again, I am plugging these scissors. Buy them. You will not regret it. 

I bought them at the start of the pandemic and they continue to be the most useful purchase I’ve made since. I whip them out for everything: DIY projects galore, cutting open that crazy annoying clamshell packaging on products, breaking down cardboard boxes, you name it. Using them brings a smile to my face.

The Verdict

Are these peel and stick tiles going to fool anybody into thinking they’re real tile? No. It’s very clear they’re vinyl.

But for the price–under $100 for a bathroom–they’re pretty darn good. For a cheap bathroom makeover, I don’t think you can find a better option, and you can do the whole room in a day.

If this were going to be a long-term update, I might have taken the time to use tile spacers and grout in between the tiles, which really takes the look up a notch. But at that point, you probably just want to go for actual tiles, which aren’t that much more difficult to install. 

I love that they were so inexpensive, so I won’t feel bad if we do end up gutting the bathroom within a year. And they made a dramatic improvement in the look of the room for minimal effort. 

While I don’t love the status quo of this bathroom, it works for the time being. So far no guests have complained about it, so it’s a win in my book!

Find the FloorPops tiles I used on Amazon here.

The post FloorPops Peel and Stick Tile Bathroom Update appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

Six long months after closing on our Catskills investment property, we welcomed our first guests in mid-October. Part of me still can’t believe people are actually paying money to stay at our house. I really, really hope they like it!

It was a marathon to get to this point, taking one small step after another after another to clean out decades worth of stuff and get the house in guest-ready condition. Now that we can finally take a step back and breathe a little, I was able to reflect on three of the biggest takeaways from this experience. 

1. Renovating With A Toddler Dramatically Extends The Timeline

My daughter Zara was 15 months old when we closed on the property. She’s curious, independent and wants to be part of everything we do. 

This is great (and completely adorable), and we incorporated her into the mix as much as we could. But it meant the big stuff had to be confined to nap time and days when one or both of us could drive up to the property and squeeze in a few hours of work while she was at daycare. 

When I laid out the timeline for when the house would be ready to list, I thought it would take about four months to get ready. This would’ve meant listing it sometime in August. 

This timeline was generous already, but it still took us two additional months to have it ready for guests. And that’s after scrapping some of the projects we wanted to do!

We even took an entire week off work over the summer and stayed at the house, thinking we’d knock out a ton of stuff. We tag-teamed toddler duty; I’d work in the morning while Johnny hung out with Zara, then we’d switch for the afternoon.

While this worked alright, we found it just wasn’t all that much fun. We really love spending time together as a family, especially when we’re up in the Catskills, and divvying up our time made it feel more like work. 

I’m not sure if there’s really anything we could have done differently, other than hiring people to complete more of the work, which wasn’t in the budget for us. Just something to be mindful of if you’re also in the position of fixing up a house with a toddler running around. 

2. Cost Increases Threw A Wrench In Our Budget

After the price of the house and closing costs, we had juuuust a little left in our house fund for improvements. I thought it would be plenty for what we needed, but the costs added up a lot faster than I expected. 

Some of this was due to things we just hadn’t considered, like new pillows for five beds and a living room couch. Pillows are freaking expensive! 

But a lot of it was also due to everything being more expensive right now, including gas to drive back and forth. It wasn’t a cheap summer. 

Because of this, we ended up putting aside a lot of the interior decorating items we would have liked to add or change. For example, I only switched out a single light fixture, and that was to a super basic one from Home Depot.

We only painted one of the upstairs bedrooms, and that was to get rid of a bubblegum pink hue that absolutely had to go. The rest of the rooms, while not what I’d choose, are colors we can live with for the time being. 

3. Done Is Better Than Perfect

Even though I know the house is totally comfortable and equipped for guests as it is, I still look at it and see the outdated kitchen appliances and the basement we need to clean out. I also see the other listings in town that are absolutely gorgeous, with amenities like hot tubs and pool tables and fire pits. 

I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a long-term project and it doesn’t have to be perfect right this minute. It’s a practical, functioning rental property and making more upgrades over time will be part of the fun of owning it. 

Want to stay with us in the Catskills or just check out our listing? You can find it here!

The post 3 Things I Learned From Renovating Our First Short-Term Rental Property appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

It’s easy to turn any cabinet into a DIY pull-out shelf. 

I recently did this with an unused space under my kitchen counter to create a slide-out shelf for my recycling bin.

Here’s what you need:

• Rev-A-Shelf pull-out shelf (multiple styles and sizes are available)
• Rev-A-Shelf door mount kit (this is how you’ll attach the cabinet door)
• Cordless drill
• Screwdriver

DIY Pull-Out Shelf Instructions

1. Measure

To start, measure the width of your cabinet. 

You’ll want to order a shelf that’s at least ½ inch narrower than your cabinet to allow for easy installation. For example, my cabinet was 12 inches wide, so I ordered the 12-inch Rev-A-Shelf (which is actually 11.5 inches wide–confusing, I know).

The door mount kit works with any size shelf. 

2. Mount the Cabinet Door

When you take the shelf out of the box, your first instinct is going to be to place it in your cabinet and start screwing it in place. Do not do this! 

You need to attach the cabinet door to it first using the door mount kit before sliding the whole thing into the cabinet. This will save you a lot of hassle. 

Attach the door mount to the shelf following the provided instructions. Then, attach the cabinet door to the front of it.

Attaching the door mount to the shelf

Now attaching the door to the mount

THIS PART IS IMPORTANT: As you attach the cabinet door, you need to make sure the top and bottom of the door line up with the cabinets on either side of it. Otherwise you will have a wonky-looking cabinet and have to go back and reposition your screws (which is what happened to me).

You can do this by resting the shelf on the bottom of your cabinet and holding the door in place as you make marks for where the screws should go. This will all make more sense as you’re actually doing it.

3. Install The Shelf

NOW you can slide the whole shelf—with the cabinet door attached to it– into the cabinet and screw it into place. 

Use a pencil to mark where the screws will go, then drill pilot holes into the base of your cabinet. Screw the shelf into place. 

This is all a bit hard to explain through text, so I made a video to help show the steps. You can see where I went wrong (twice!) by putting in the shelf too soon and then by misaligning the cabinet door. 

Hopefully this will help you avoid some of my mistakes!

The post DIY Pull-Out Shelf How-To appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

Lately life feels like it has been moving at warp speed but also in slow motion. How is that possible? 

We’ve been so busy this summer and I’ve loved every moment of it, but there are also so many things in the near future that I’m looking forward to and want time to pass quickly for. 

My to-do list is never even remotely close to being finished and everything takes three times as long as I’d like it to, yet I just keep adding things to the list. 

The biggest item on it right now: a new fixer-upper project. 

In April, Johnny and I closed on a 100-year-old house in the Catskill Mountains. Buying a vacation property in the Catskills has been a goal of mine for years, and now it’s finally a reality.

Getting to this point was no small feat. We’ve been searching and saving for years. We made offers on four or five different places, but we just kept getting beat by people going way over the asking price, paying cash, waving the inspection and so on in this crazy market.

Finally, about a year ago, we went under contract on a house we loved. This was it! we thought. We dreamed of how we’d decorate and started making plans to rent it out during ski season. 

We completed the necessary inspections, finished the mountains of mortgage paperwork and were a few weeks out from closing. And then, with no warning, the seller backed out of the deal. It was heartbreaking. We never even found out the reason.

By this spring, we were ready to throw in the towel on our search and revisit it again in a couple years, but I convinced Johnny to try one more time, one more house. Somehow, this time everything came together. Now we’re the very proud owners of our own little place in the mountains. 

Projects! 

The house we bought is a bit of a diamond in the rough. That’s the nice way of saying it needs some work. And of course, we’re doing it all on a budget.

The house has a great layout for vacation renters, but the prior owners weren’t so great about upkeep. The kitchen and bathrooms are from the 70s, maybe earlier, and the house is outfitted top to bottom in varying shades of beige, brown and green.

Consider these the ‘before’ shots:

Living room

Dining room

Kitchen, complete with missing cabinet doors and light switch signs labeled ‘flip twice for ON’

Drafty old windows

Let’s head upstairs!

The previous owners’ kids room, and a fraction of the 1,269 DVDs that came with the house

The dogs have claimed this as their room

This room gets great natural light. I think it will be “our” bedroom when we stay here

The mattress room

Upstairs bath

There are about a hundred projects we’d like to do, but right now our main goal is getting the major, can’t-live-without-it things done so it’s rentable in time for this year’s busy season.

A few of those things are:

Clutter cleanup. When we got the keys to the house, it wasn’t quite a Hoarders situation, but it was close. It was filled with decades worth of the previous owners’ possessions–some hidden gems, but mostly a lot of junk. There were stacks of ratty linens, mattresses shoved into closets, furniture with legs falling off. Our first step was to sort through it all and either salvage, donate or trash it. 

Window replacement. The area gets below-freezing temperatures for weeks at a time, and when I first toured the place there was an icy draft coming in around every one of the wooden, single-pane windows. Replacing them is a necessity to make it comfortable during the depths of the busy ski season. This is where the bulk of our repair budget is going. 

Paint. I know beige is back in home decor, but not like this. A fresh coat of paint on the walls and some of the floors will give the space new life. 

Bathroom facelift. I can live with dated fixtures if they’re still functional, but the upstairs bathroom is particularly depressing in terms of just feeling “icky”. While we don’t have the budget for a total remodel, we’re doing a few cosmetic updates to make it more cheerful.

And that’s the bulk of it. Someday down the road I would love to gut renovate the kitchen and bathrooms, and the deck outside could use some TLC before next summer. 

My dream project is to finish the [currently very creepy] basement and turn it into an awesome hangout space. We’ll get there one day, hopefully.

For now we’re doing what we can, when we can, as fast as we can, which is basically a theme for the rest of my life right now, as well. 

I can’t wait to share some progress pics soon!

The post Buying Our First Investment Property appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

I ordered this barn door hardware, which I have no complaints about, but with the crappy door and my haphazard installation it looked about as good as you would expect.

I had to turn to Instagram for documentation because I deleted all evidence of this from my phone

Despite looking like something that flew off the back of a truck, that door was heavy and I just didn’t feel like bothering with it, so it stayed up for almost a year. This summer I was determined to finally fix the hack job and turn it into a real barn door.

I came across this barn door DIY from Remodelaholic, which looked a lot easier than some of the complex barn door plans I’ve seen. Plus she said it was cheap, so I was sold. I followed her instructions almost to a T, so all credit goes to Remodelaholic for this great plan.

Instead of using plywood, which is heavy and cumbersome to work with, this plan uses these genius tongue and groove boards, which snap together and have a great rustic looking finish. I love them because it’s easy to adjust the door to the width you need, and they’re only $7 a pop! I’ve seen barn doors selling for upwards of $300 (not including the hardware) so the total cost of this project was a steal.

I also got a few 1×6 poplar boards to use for trim.

Steps To Make A DIY Barn Door

The first thing I did was use my circular saw to cut the tongue and groove boards from 8 feet long, how they came, to 7 feet to fit our doorway. Then, I laid them out side by side and placed wood glue in the groove before fitting the boards together.

This was a bit trickier than it sounds because the boards kept slipping and sliding, but I eventually discovered it was much easier to do if they were standing up. I recommend having two people for this part of the job if you can, but it can be done with one.

Once the boards were fitted together, I carefully laid the door flat on the floor. I used some adjustable straps we use to move our kayak to hold the boards tightly together while they dried. Bungee cords or even some rope would work for this, too.

After letting the boards dry for 24 hours, I attached the trim made from my 1×6 boards. I kept it super simple and did one piece of trim around the outer edge and one horizontally across the middle. I attached these pieces using more wood glue and clamped them in place to dry.

This photo shows the backside of the door, which has a beadboard pattern

Gluing the trim

Trim clamped in place to dry

Installing the Barn Door Hardware

While the trim was drying, I got the hardware positioned to hang the door.

Listen closely, because this is where things went drastically wrong with the hardware on my first attempt at a barn door.

I promise it’s not that difficult, it’s just important to get this part right.

There are two parts to the barn door hardware: a rail, which attaches to the wall above your doorway, and two sliders that attach to the door and allow it to slide on the rail. If you don’t install these pieces carefully, your door will either hang crooked, fail to stay in place after you slide it, or both.

The rail needs to be hung perfectly level, independent of the door frame. In other words, don’t figure out where to hang your rail by lining it up with the top of the door frame. Most doorways aren’t exactly level (especially in a 100-year-old house like mine). A lot of times, they have a tiny slant one way or the other. If you hang the rail along this line, the door will slide, just like if you dropped a marble on an unlevel floor.

This is the mistake I made the first time around and the door would always slide open unless it was hooked shut. So, be sure to use a level to draw the line for where you’ll hang your rail. I used this long level and it worked great the second time around.

The next part you have to get right is putting the sliders on the door. For these, it’s important that they’re parallel with the sides of the door. This way, the door hangs straight up and down. If they’re not exactly parallel, the door will hang crooked.

To get this right, I used an envelope. I lined up one side of the envelope with the outside of the door and used the other side of the envelope to draw the line where I would attach the slider. Very low tech, but it was the easiest way I could think of to make sure the lines were parallel. (There’s a tool for this, it’s called a carpenter’s square, but I don’t have one and I wasn’t about to make a special trip to go buy one.)

Finishing Touches

Once the wood glue was dry and my door was nice and sturdy, I painted it. I took a paint chip from the surrounding wall to Home Depot and they matched the color for me. I have to say, I was surprised how well it matched up.

Finally, when the paint was dry, I attached the hardware and muscled the door up onto the rail. When I stepped back, I was pleasantly surprised. It was a 1000% upgrade from the janky door that had hung there for so long! This door hangs straight up and down, slides smoothly and doesn’t drift one way or the other.

I also have to tell you about one more cool gadget I found as a way to “lock” the door in place. I mostly wanted this so my dog can’t push the door open and bother guests when they’re sleeping. There are tons of tracks you can attach to the floor for this purpose, but we have laminate flooring and you’re not supposed to attach things to it.

After much searching, I discovered these handy roller guides that attach to the wall and adjust to the width of your door. This way, our guests can guide the door in between the little rollers and it can’t be easily pushed open from the outside (say, by a mischievous dog’s snout).

Via Amazon

Works great!

I’m super happy with how this came out. Since I already had the hardware (which is less than $50), this project cost me a grand total of about $80.

Would you put a barn door in your house?

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The post DIY Barn Door – Simple and Affordable appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

First up, a look at the damage:

That white stuff is a trash bag that I tried to use (unsuccessfully) to temporarily seal off the spot from further damage

The door on our ancient fridge has lost its stick, and if you’re not careful when you close it, it hangs open a tiny crack. This causes a little dribble of water out the front right corner of the fridge, which, over time, had seeped down and caused a nice section of rot in the adjacent floorboard. Yuck.

It’s been covered by stick-on linoleum tiles that were here when we moved in, so we didn’t know exactly how bad the hole was. It’s been one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things, but I knew it was time to address it before it got worse.

I know what you’re thinking—get a new fridge!—but that hasn’t been a priority in our budget just yet. Despite being a dinosaur, this fridge works perfectly fine other than the door that sometimes doesn’t stick. We’re going to make due with this one a little longer until we can invest in a few bigger kitchen upgrades.

Ok, so on to the fix.

A floor is made up of pieces of subfloor (essentially sheets of plywood) that are screwed to joists (the big beams that run side-by-side and hold up your house). Whatever kind of flooring you have—tile, laminate, carpet, etc.—is installed on top of this subfloor.

The great thing about homes up north versus homes in Florida where I grew up is that they have basements. This means you can get underneath the house and see exactly what’s going on when there’s an issue. I could see from our basement that the water damage hadn’t spread beyond the one floorboard directly under the leak, so all I needed to do was swap out that section of the floor.

I began by taking a crowbar and ripping out the soft, rotted section of the floorboard. I quickly realized this was going to result in an irregular shape that would be hard to patch rather than a clean rectangular cutout, so I switched to my Ryobi circular saw. I also purchased a wood-cutting blade so I’d have no problem making nice clean cuts.

I drew a rectangle around the rotted section and carefully took the saw to it. I set the saw depth to ¾”, the standard thickness of a piece of subfloor, made my cuts, and removed the rotten piece.

My adorable helper with the rotten layer of subfloor removed

Measuring a new piece of subfloor to patch the hole

Next, I needed to cut a new piece of subfloor to fit into the hole I just cut out. For this, I picked up a $2 piece of scrap subfloor from Home Depot. (Pro tip: if you ever need pieces of wood or trim that are smaller than the standard size, ask for scraps! They sell them super cheap and will even cut them to the size you need.)

I made a few small trims to get the size of the new piece just right, then fit it into the hole and screwed it in place.

Note: This rectangle-cutout method worked because our kitchen has a double layer of subfloor, and the bottom layer was rot-free. So, it was easy for me to cut out a rectangle from the top layer of subfloor and just screw the new piece of wood to the bottom layer. If your subfloor has only one layer, you’ll need to cut out a wider piece so that the joists underneath are exposed at either side. You’ll attach the new piece of wood to these joists.

See how the edges of each piece of subfloor line up with a joist? You’d remove the whole piece and insert a new one in its place (source)

Unfortunately, our kitchen is the ugly duckling of the house flooring-wise, with the 1980’s era stick-on linoleum tiles. There were a few extra out in our shed, so I just pieced them right over the repaired spot. Eventually I will re-floor the kitchen to match the laminate in the rest of the house, or put down tile. I’ll get to it at some point, but I think I want to wait until we’ve saved up a bit and replace the stove and refrigerator at the same time.

All in all, this was a pretty simple project. I’m so glad that soggy section of rotten floor is gone!

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The post How To Repair Your Water Damaged Floor appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

Here’s what this part of the house looked like when we first moved in.

A few months later I updated our floors and spruced up the mantel, which really improved the look of the room, but I didn’t have a fix for the fireplace figured out yet so I left it for the time being.

One rainy Sunday morning, I got antsy and started picking at the old porcelain tiles. Next thing I knew I was going at them with a crowbar and there was no turning back! Now the update is finally done and I’m so happy with it.

How To: DIY Tile Fireplace Hearth

Here are the steps I took to complete my first-ever tiling project and update our fireplace.

Step 1: Remove Old Tiles

The first step was to tear up the grimy old tile and mortar.

The tiles around the edges came up so easily I could pull them off with my hands, but the sections in the middle were still attached pretty solidly. I bought a floor scraper to help pop the tiles off the floor and it made things much easier.

Step 2: Level The Foundation

Once the old tiles were removed, I was left with an uneven concrete foundation. As with most old houses, our home’s surfaces have settled into all sorts of weird slants and angles over the years. Before I could put down new tile, I needed to level the foundation.

This was a part of the project I was actually excited about. I first read about self-leveling concrete on The Art Of Doing Stuff and I’ve been dying to try it ever since. Basically, it’s a liquid concrete that you mix up and pour onto an uneven surface. Like hot lava, it oozes and spreads out across the floor before it dries, leaving a nice level surface on top. I used Levelquik RS. This project took about half a bag.

Before you pour the concrete, you’ll need to create some barriers at the edges where you want the concrete to stop, otherwise it’ll run into every tiny little nook and cranny. My barriers were very fancy, cobbled together with painter’s tape and cardboard from cereal boxes. They worked great. Once the concrete dries you can rip them up or slice the tops of them off with a utility knife.

Do you ever feel like your entire life is held together with painter’s tape?

To mix the concrete, I bought a large mixing paddle (like a giant Kitchenaid mixer attachment) seen above and rented an industrial mixer from Home Depot. The industrial mixer was legit, but I realized afterward it was probably overkill. If you have a strong drill, pairing that with a mixing paddle will work just fine to mix the concrete. Just charge your drill up ahead of time so it’s nice and powerful. The paddle fits right into the head of the drill like a drill bit.

When you pour the concrete onto your surface, use a trowel to help spread it out, like spreading cake batter in a pan. The consistency isn’t that different from cake batter either. It dries to the touch pretty quickly and you can walk on it in 4 to 6 hours.

Step 3: Paint Inside The Fireplace

One of the things that initially stumped me about this space was figuring out what to do with the inside of the fireplace. I wanted to be able to actually use it, and I was worried that if I put tile in there it might crack under the heat.

Finally, it dawned on me that since we usually have a screen over the fireplace, it didn’t really matter what the inside looked like. I decided to keep things really simple and paint the concrete floor and brick walls of the fireplace with a black high-heat paint.

I used Rustoleum High Heat Enamel, which is designed for use on surfaces that get really hot, like fire pits and grills.

Step 4: Lay Tile

Now that our fireplace was prepped, it was time to lay the tile. The hardest part of this whole project was finding a tile that would work for this space.

First of all, it had to be something my husband and I could agree on. Although he doesn’t share my interest in home improvement, he is *highly invested* in making sure our home isn’t “too girly.” To him, this means anything that’s a color or is even remotely trendy, so I usually stick with neutrals.

Secondly, after cutting about 479 pieces of laminate while redoing our floors, I was not at all interested in using a saw to cut the tile. I wanted a material that could be cut with a tile cutter, which ruled out marble and other natural stone. Porcelain and ceramic were our best options.

Since it was my first time working with tile, I wanted them to be larger so there were fewer to work with (a.k.a. less of an opportunity to screw things up). And finally, since the fireplace hearth butts up against our laminate living room floors, I needed a tile that had some kind of matching accent pieces that could be used as a border around the edges.

Ultimately, I decided on this beige 12” by 12” tile and matching border pieces (which I learned are called ‘jollies’—how adorable). The tile was $0.99 per square foot from Lowe’s. It met all of the above criteria and you can’t beat that price.

Laying the tile was the easiest part of this project. It’s very straightforward: you measure the tile, score and break it using the tile cutter, spread some mortar on the back like you’re buttering up a slice of bread, and stick it in place. I used the same trowel that I did to spread the concrete to spread the mortar on the tile. Use tile spacers to keep the spacing even between each tile. I used this basic tile cutter and pre-mixed thinset mortar.

The only point where I ran into trouble was when I got to the very last corner. The way things measured out, I needed to slice a very thin piece (about ¼”) off the top right tile to get it to fit into place. A tile cutter isn’t meant to make such thin cuts, so every time I tried I would end up snapping the whole tile in half. So frustrating!

The standard procedure for making this kind of thin cut would be to use a wet saw, which I would have either needed to rent or pay someone to do. At this point that seemed like way too much of a hassle for such a small task.

Instead, I grabbed a pair of tile nippers from our neighborhood hardware store and used those to make the final cut, snipping off a tiny bit at a time. This was super tedious and took about half an hour, but it got the job done.

Trimming down the last tile, one tiny piece at a time

I used some gritty sandpaper and my oscillating multitool to smooth the rough edge left behind by the tile nippers. I highly recommend this tool, by the way. It can be used for sanding, cutting and more. It has come in handy so many times since I got it!

The last tile fit in place beautifully.

Step 5: Grout

Once the mortar dries for 24-48 hours, it’s time to do the final step and pour the grout. When you buy your tile, the recommended grout to use with it will usually be listed on the box or display. I mixed up the suggested grout in a bucket the same way I did with the concrete.

Pour the mixed grout over the joints in the tile, then use a rubber float (a tool made specifically for spreading grout) to push the grout deep down into the tile joints. I used a flexible putty knife to work the grout into the smaller crevices.

At first I was being super careful with the grout, but then I figured out that you can get pretty messy with it and just wipe up the excess after the fact. It doesn’t dry that quickly. Use a big, soft grout sponge to make cleanup easier.

Finally, I added this fireplace screen, which I adore.

Here’s the finished product.

This was quite an involved project for such a small area, but I think it goes a long way toward making the room feel complete. Eventually I’ll add new blinds and curtains to the windows on either side of the fireplace to polish things off.

What do you think? Was the outcome worth all the steps involved in this project?

Materials To Tile Your Own Fireplace

• Floor scraper
• Drill and mixing paddle
• 5 gallon mixing bucket
• Self-leveling concrete
• Trowel
• High heat paint
• Tile (here’s the one I used, along with mtching 12-inch jollies as the border)
• Tile cutter
• Thinset mortar
• Tile spacers (I used 1/16″)
• Tile nippers for making irregular cuts
• Grout
• Grout float
• Grout sponge

Need a hand getting started on a DIY project of your own? Download my free DIY Project Checklist to map things out.

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The post DIY Tile Fireplace Hearth appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

Since the holidays, I’ve been in money-saving mode. In December I gave my kitchen an uber-affordable facelift and loved how it turned out, so I decided to challenge myself with a similar budget makeover on our fireplace mantel.

When we moved in, the blank wall above the mantel was driving me crazy, so I threw up a couple frames I already had on hand—these palm prints from Ikea.

I love those prints and they hung there for a few months, but the stark black frames didn’t fit with the airy look and feel I was going for in our compact living space. At the moment I didn’t have much money to spend (read: none) on decor, but I did have a couple gift cards from Christmas and a few decorative items that were still boxed up from our move.

With those things in mind, I set off in search of simple fireplace mantel decorating ideas. Here are a few of the inspo pics from my ‘Mantel’ Pinterest board:

Source

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As you can see, I was digging the round mirror, simple layout and neutral color scheme. One of my gift cards was to Home Depot, which is where I tracked down this mirror in gold and a set of distressed wood candle holders (now discontinued, similar here). I also had on hand two vases from this Crate & Barrel set and a few basic pillar candles. Using these pieces, here’s how I changed things up.

Much lighter looking and the mirror definitely makes the room feel bigger. Total money spent: $0.

I’m purposely not showing a full-length picture of the fireplace or living room yet because the tiling on the hearth is messed up and in need of repair. It shouldn’t be too expensive to fix, just messy and time consuming. It might be the next DIY project I tackle so our fireplace can finally feel finished!

In the meantime, anybody have any ideas about what I should do with the sconces that frame the mantel? They’re definitely not great, but I’ve decided to live with them until something comes along that’s worth the hassle of changing them out.

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The post Simple Mantel Decor Makeover appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

They were about 60 years old, beige Formica with little black flecks that I’m guessing were supposed to be decorative, but at this point just looked like dirt. No matter how much I scrubbed the counters, the kitchen just didn’t feel clean.

About a month ago I decided to give our tiny kitchen a facelift by painting the cabinets and drawers. I’d heard about another cheapie way to upgrade by using contact paper for countertops, so I figured while I was at it with the screwdriver and paintbrush I might as well give the countertops a makeover of their own, too.

These pictures are from after I had already painted the cabinets. To see the full ‘before’ shot, check out this post!

I ordered three rolls of this contact paper in marble print off Amazon. There are endless options for contact paper out there; I got this one because it had decent reviews, I liked the print and it was available for Prime shipping.

I should mention that although it’s called contact paper, it’s really not papery at all. It’s much more durable, like thin vinyl with sticky adhesive on one side. I was very pleased with the quality of the product.

If you’re about to order contact paper for your countertops, get more than you think you need. Then, go ahead and throw another roll in your cart for good measure. I ordered three rolls, which should have been plenty, but by the end I was slicing and dicing up scraps to finish the job. Good thing our microwave covers like, 30% of our counter space, because it’s a checkerboard under there.

This process wasn’t the easiest, and I’m going to do what sounds like a lot of complaining about it, but I am glad I did it and am very happy with how it turned out. I just want to share what I learned so it might be a little easier for you.

Giving Your Kitchen A Makeover With Contact Paper For Countertops

In theory, installing contact paper on your kitchen counters is as basic as it could be; you roll it out and stick it down. The end. However, in practice it’s kind of like trying to wrap Christmas presents in a room full of cats: exasperating.

First of all, the contact paper is really sticky. Like lollipop-in-your-hair-in-third-grade sticky. Once it touches something, it takes an act of God to get it off. This is wonderful if that something is your kitchen counter because it stays down beautifully, but not so great if it brushes up against the wall or the sink while you’re trying to put it in place. So move carefully.

Secondly, it bubbles very easily. Once an air bubble gets trapped in a section you’re rolling out, you have almost no hope of getting rid of that sucker unless you peel the section up and start over. So move sloooowly.

I used a credit card and a scraping motion to smooth down the paper as I rolled it out, and by the end I had gotten pretty good at applying it with no bubbles. Unfortunately, the section I started with (and hence, the messiest) is the most visible section of our counter, and the one I finished with (the part under the microwave) is the one that looks the best. Go figure. So start with the section of your counter that’s least visible or practice on a piece of cardboard first.

Finally, this project is best completed with two people. I did it myself while my husband was out of town, and it was legitimately more frustrating than painting the entire set of cabinets. For your best shot of getting a smooth application the first time, it will work best to have one person holding the roll of contact paper and the other person smoothing it out and sticking it down.

Now that we’ve got all that wisdom out of the way, here’s what I did.

I first began by scrubbing the counters like crazy. Get them nice and clean and dry.

CLR has become my go-to cleaner for fixer-upper projects

Then, I took a toothpick and scraped any remaining gunk from the seam where the counter meets the metal edging and the wall. Apparently aluminum counter trim was a common feature in 1950’s kitchens. I considered taking the edging off first, but I didn’t want to risk damaging the wall in places where it was attached. Ultimately I ended up leaving it in place and I think it came out just fine.

Once the counters were as clean as they could be, I started with my first section of contact paper. Unless you have really narrow counters, the roll is probably not going to be wide enough to cover them with a single sheet. You’ll have to lay two or more side by side.

Believe it or not, this is actually really easy and the seam is barely noticeable. If you aren’t looking for it, you’d never know it was there. It’s been a month and I haven’t had any problems with the seam pulling up or apart. I guess that’s the upside to the paper being so sticky.

Start by cutting the contact paper to approximately the size you’ll need. Begin with the outside edge of your counter so you have a nice straight edge to work against. Slowly, carefully, peel the backing off and lay the paper down, rolling out only as much as you need at a time and using your credit card to push any air bubbles out.

When you reach the end of where you’re going—for me this meant reaching the edge of the sink—use a utility knife to cut the paper around the edge. Then, take the side of your credit card and seal the edge of the contact paper down nice and flat.

I did my counters and the backsplash on the wall behind them.

Roll out the paper over the section where you’ll be working and cut it an inch or two longer than you’ll need

Use a credit card to push the air bubbles from the middle to the edge

Use a utility knife to slice the paper when you reach the edge

Can you spot the seam toward the back of this section of counter? It’s barely visible to me even though I know where it is!

That’s basically all there is to it! This project took me about three hours and I spent around $35 on the contact paper. It’s been a month and so far the paper has held up wonderfully. I’ve gotten it wet, set hot pans on it and scrubbed around the edges and seams, and it hasn’t moved a bit. The only thing I wouldn’t do is cut on it because that would probably damage the paper.

Because I did this on my own and it was my first time, I ended up with more bubbles in the finished product than I would have liked. My husband says they’re hardly noticeable, but I may go back and re-do it a few months down the road just to get a smoother application. Or I might just leave it as-is. We’ll see how much the bubbles bother me in the long run.

Product Used: Faux Marble/Granite Contact Paper

See the rest of my kitchen facelift for under $100 here!

The post Transform Your Kitchen With Contact Paper For Countertops appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.

Before

Have you ever wanted to teleport back to the 1950’s? If so, all you had to do was come on over and walk into our kitchen.

The knotty pine cabinets. The Formica countertops with aluminum trim. The grease from 60 years’ worth of pot roasts. It was truly the whole experience.

In fact, it reminded me so much of the kitchens in my grandparents’ old houses that part of me didn’t want to change a thing about it for nostalgia’s sake. The fixer-upper itch eventually won out, though, and I decided to give our kitchen a little facelift.

If money were no object, we’d completely gut and renovate the kitchen like we did with our bathroom. The problem is, re-doing a kitchen is a lot more expensive than our small bathroom project was, and our budget for home improvements right now is pretty much nil.

I also didn’t want to put a ton of work into it, like removing the cabinets from the wall or even sanding them down. If there’s the possibility that we’re going to completely tear them out in a few years, why go to all that trouble? Answer: don’t.

So on a recent weekend, my husband was out of town and I had a gift card burning a hole in my pocket. I did what any DIY-loving girl would do and made a trip to Home Depot. All in all, the materials for this project cost less than $100. Score! I’ll include a full list of the materials at the end of this post.

How To Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets Yourself

Let’s get to it.

The first thing I did was remove all of the handles give the cabinets and drawer faces a deep cleaning. I used TSP substitute, a heavy-duty cleaner I read about online. I mixed the concentrated cleaner with the directed amount of water and got to scrubbing with the rough side of a sponge (and gloves—this stuff is a pretty heavy chemical).

The first thing I did was use this cleaner while wearing gloves

Look at the grime built up around where the handles were!

It was grimy. The grease and dirt began to slowly come off in a film on the sponge. I thought this step was gross, but then I got to the next step: the liquid sandpaper.

I had already decided not to bother with actual sanding, but I read online about liquid sandpaper, which is a chemical solution that basically strips the surface down in the same way sandpaper would to prepare it for painting.

You guys, if you’re OCD and you do this, be prepared to spend hours scrubbing. It’s necessary, but it’s filthy. It took me about two hours to fully scrub all of our cabinets and drawers, and our kitchen is pretty small.

I first started with the liquid sandpaper and a rag while the cabinet doors were still attached, but I quickly realized I needed more leverage to properly scrape the grease and grime that was still coming off, especially on the cabinets above the stove (I told you—nasty). At this point I stopped and removed the cabinet doors and drawers.

I switched out the rag for the rough-sided sponge (you’ll need several because they get all gunked up) and got back to scrubbing. This was one of the only times I’ve felt thankful we don’t have more cabinets!

I’m not sure it’s totally necessary to use both TSP substitute and liquid sandpaper, but I’m glad I did because once I was done I was confident I was starting with the cleanest surface possible without sanding.

Just over here huffing some fumes

Once the liquid sandpaper was finally done, I started priming. I realized at this point I would need to work in two phases, since I didn’t have enough space to lay out all the cabinet doors for painting at once.

Glamour shot. HGTV where you at?

One coat of primer done, one to go

I primed the first set of doors using two coats of Zinsser Smart Prime and called it a night.

It was supposed to rain all weekend, but the next morning I woke up to sunshine. I decided I needed to capitalize on the good weather as my chance to start spray painting the cabinet hardware. I’m willing to try a lot of crazy things, but spray painting indoors isn’t one of them.

I would have loved to swap out the hardware for something more modern (and still may, eventually), but remember, we’re on a budget here. Instead, my solution was this $6 can of satin nickel spray paint.

After seeing the grime that came off the cabinets the night before, I thought it was probably a good idea to pre-clean the hardware before painting it, too. I mixed up the TSP solution in a plastic cup and used an old toothbrush to scrub down the hinges, handles, and 100 itty bitty screws. Yep, gross again, but at least having them nice and clean made me feel better about not buying all-new hardware.

Once the hardware was clean and dry, I laid it all out in the backyard and sprayed the first coat on.

Push screws through a sheet of tin foil to keep them in place while you spray them!

I’m all about working with what you have, and what I had here was a trash bag, some bricks and a torn up cardboard box

With the first coat of spray paint on the hardware done, it was time for the big moment: applying the actual paint to the cabinets. Eeek!

The paint I picked was Behr’s Alkyd Satin Enamel, which is made specifically for cabinets, in the color ‘Pencil Point.’ It’s about $40 a gallon, but the paint guy at Home Depot assured me it was a much better option than the cheaper alternatives and so far, I believe him.

Since my cabinets were ancient and had a lot of imperfections (scratches, dings in the wood, etc.), I used a satin finish so it would be more forgiving. If you’re painting newer cabinets that are smoother to begin with, I think a semi-gloss would look great.

This color isn’t what I expected; on the swatch it looked straight charcoal, and I even compared several to make sure I got the one that looked the least blue. In person, though, this came out a deep, smoky blue-grey. Although it wasn’t what I expected, as soon as I saw it on the cabinets, I loved it!

I used a paint roller to apply the paint to the cabinet doors and drawer faces. On the cabinets themselves I used a paintbrush and went over the top with a roller to get rid of the brush marks, which worked great. I did two coats of paint with about three hours of dry time in between each. I’m pleasantly surprised with how smooth and even the paint went on, especially since I did the minimum amount of prep work.

Remember how I mentioned doing the doors in two phases? Well, when the first set of doors was dry to the touch, I was a little over-excited to see what the finished product would look like and started to hang them back up immediately.

I thought they looked awesome! But I realized pretty quickly I should have let them dry longer, because they instantly started sticking when the door or drawer would close, which pulled off little flecks of paint (you can see one of those spots where the cabinets meet in the image above). Damnit.

For the second set of doors, I let them dry for two full days before re-hanging them and they were much less sticky. I highly recommend waiting at least 48 hours before re-hanging your cabinet doors.

In addition to the cabinets, I also covered the countertops with faux marble contact paper. That was a project on its own, which I wrote about here.

I still need to add window coverings, some greenery and a few other touches to complete the space, but it’s getting there. (If you’ve been following some of my other projects and are wondering why I didn’t update the kitchen floors along with the floors in the rest of the house, it’s because the subfloor in here needs repairs that a contractor will probably have to tackle before we do anything cosmetic.)

All in all, this project took me a weekend plus extra dry time on the second set of cabinets. Even if you have a larger kitchen, I think you could absolutely make it through this project in a weekend with two people working on it.

It’s been about two weeks since I finished the cabinets, and my husband and I are both loving the transformation! Our kitchen feels so much lighter and more modern. It’s amazing what a coat of paint and a few small tweaks can do. Would you ever paint your kitchen cabinets yourself?

Materials To Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets:

• Savogran TSP Substitute
• Klean-Strip Liquid Sandpaper
• Zinsser Smart Prime (I got a quart but was scraping the container toward the end, so you’ll probably want a full gallon)
• Rust-Oleum All-Surface Spray Paint in Satin Nickel
• Behr Alkyd Enamel in the finish of your choice
• Roller Brush Paint Kit
• Small and medium Synthetic Paint Brushes with angled tips
• Mineral Spirits for brush cleaning
• Painter’s tape
• Drop cloth or newspaper
• Pack of scrubbing sponges
• Gloves

Check out my kitchen counter transformation using contact paper in this post!

The post How To Paint Your Kitchen Cabinets Yourself For A Total Transformation appeared first on Cabana State Of Mind.