Ami's Assignments: Week 8 (and 9...and 10...) Assignment

What can I say...I'm a bad blogger! :( My Week 8 Assignment got the better of me and became my Week 9 and 10 Assignment as well. In my defense I have one valid and credible excuse...SPRAY PAINT!!! If nothing else I learned one very valuable lesson from this assignment...I HATE SPRAY PAINT!!! As far as I can tell there is not one single benefit to using spray paint:

1) Ease of use? HA!!! Between having to wait for "perfect painting weather" days, all the prep work to protect everything you don't want paint on, and just the overall inconvenience of having to paint outside I would have to say this is not the case...at least for me. Using spray paint turned a two, maybe three day project into a two week one.
2) Smoother finish?? NOT!!! Between the drip marks, the splatter that comes at the beginning and end of the can, and the junk that accumulated on the cabinet while it was drying outside I definitely don't have anything I would consider smoother than if I had used a roller.
3) Fewer coats??? I DON"T THINK SO!!! I ended up using three cans of spray primer and almost four cans of paint for this tiny little cabinet. After three coats of primer (two coats, sanding, and a top coat) and three coats of paint with the same process, I am a little baffled by the claim on the can that the spray paint covers 2 x better. Better than what? Crayons???
4) Better Adhesion???? ONE WOULD HOPE BUT UNFORTUNATELY - NO!!! Even after all the prep work and coats, with proper drying times in between, areas of paint on the inside of the cabinet peeled off in chunks when I took the tape off that I used when painting the back wall of the cabinet. I'm not exaggerating when I say I cried! I almost scrapped the whole project and swore off painting laminate for good...but once my blood pressure came back down to normal I decided to head to the Depot to buy a sample of flat paint to match the Dark Walnut spray paint, grabbed a paint brush, and went to work.

All that said, the cabinet and the mirror are finally done. Yea!!!! Although I wasn't able to find a wallpaper that I liked, thanks to Pinterest I found something I liked even better. It would give me the pop of color I was looking for, and I would be able to match the green in my towels perfectly. It also gave me a fabulous finish for the glass in the door...thanks to Stacey's idea of replacing the glass. What is this fabulous find you ask? Cutting Edge Stencils!!!!

I chose the Casablanca Craft Stencil and tried using it on the back of the cabinet with a Behr Ultra Flat Sample in "Wasabi Powder." Unfortunately, the size of the stencil wasn't conducive to working in an enclosed area like inside a small cabinet and I just couldn't get the stencil to lay flat...even with spray adhesive. So I ended up painting the inside a solid green. But don't be surprised if you see me buying a sheet of plywood, stenciling the flat piece with Dark Walnut and Wasabi Powder, and replacing the current backing on the cabinet in the near future! :) I did use the stencil to etch the new glass I bought using a tutorial I found on Make It and Love It. The stencil definitely works better on flat, open surfaces!! And I would definitely recommend a lighter base color with a darker stencil color. With the dark brown base it was hard to get good coverage with the green. You have to use very light coats to prevent bleeding and I couldn't get good coverage. On their website they recommend using Benjamin Moore "Aura" paints because it has great coverage...may try that next time too!

To top it off I found the exact door pull I wanted at MyKnobs.com.

So even though it took longer than I expected, I am thrilled with how the cabinet turned out!! Take a look and let me know what you think...

The mirror was much easier than the cabinet, thank goodness!! I ended up priming it and painting it with the same spray paint I used on the cabinet. Then I went over it with my Mercury Glaze from Martha Stewart. I'm still not 100% sure I'm digging how it turned out. I'm thinking I might do one more coat of the glaze to lighten it up a little bit, but I decided I should wait a little bit to see if it grows on me. I don't hate it...I just don't know that I LOVE it!! Do you???

With all this complaining, I almost forgot...The Crates!! I did two like in the Master Bath but I'm thinking I need one more. The toilet in this bathroom is shorter and farther from the wall so I'm thinking a third one will be good...especially since storage is such an issue in this bathroom. In my "spare time" (a.k.a. someday...) I plan on making some fabric boxes to fit in the top and bottom crates (two each) so I can use them to store less attractive goodies (i.e. Make Up and other primping supplies). I ended up staining them with the Espresso Stain but decided not to do the Mercury Glaze. I liked how the darker stain went with the dark cabinet. Plus, since this bathroom is not nearly as "Bling!" as the Master, I thought the glaze might just be overkill. Do you agree?