Mission Cabinets: Day 3

On my third afternoon in the laundry/mudroom I finally got to add the final two coats of white glossy paint. Hurray!

I'm telling you, watching HGTV is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when DIY around your house.
New kitchen in 45 minutes? Check!
Entire house remodel in a weekend? Check!
In reality, everything takes just so much longer (*cough* staircase .... *cough-cough*) and that discrepancy between your HGTV experience and real life can sometimes be overwhelmingly frustrating.

Anyways, I finally got to paint the cabinets a clean, fresh, bright glossy white!

It's nothing really to write home about - no fancy-schmancy design fit for a magazine - but it makes our small laundry-mudroom look so much lighter and feel so much bigger already - something this narrow passageway jam-packed with functions sorely needed.

Here's the other half of the room with the new counter top in place and painted the same glossy white as the cabinets. The utilities aren't pretty to look at and I have ideas to cover them up but I love-love-love our electric water heater (tankthetank.com) - endless hot hot water and a teeny footprint, for the win!

Ages ago I'd picked up some cabinet knobs at Michael's (the craft store), for no particular project really, and I thought they might work in a pinch here, so I marked the drill holes.

And drilled holes into the three cabinet doors. I don't know but there's little more anxiety-inducing than drilling into freshly painted (or new) cabinet doors ... eeep!

Aaaaaand up close and personal. And labeled, just in case you get confused and can't figure out whether to push or to pull to open the cabinet door ... heh.

Tada!
Looking at my "Three of Three" for our laundry/mudroom

 Laundry Room
1. paint (cabinets, tabletop and part wall)
2. install door knobs
3. create a 'backsplash' (backing, curtain, something) to hide the utilities

I'm getting really really close to wrapping that room up soon!

A thing for knobs

The more time we spend with the Ugly Duckling, the more she reveals little things to us. There are things that need to be taken care of (the stack), things that need to be "babysat" (the roof) and things that simply need some freshening up and cleaning (everything else) but every once in a while, amid this truckload of work, I discover those little details that make this house special to me 9and so far has proven to be rather elusive on camera - maybe the house is simply photo shy, who knows?).

While painting the little man's cave I noticed that his door knob was different from any other I'd seen. At first passing glance I thought it was simply caked on paint until I looked closer. Under layers of paint, a delicate filigree pattern was hiding in plain sight.

[Before]

[After]

Isn't it pretty? I simply reached for the deglosser and gently wiped down the front of the knob, and the paint wiped off fairly easily. It's a beautiful Eastlake style pattern. Of course, there's not one to match this one in the whole house and while I still have to snap pictures of a few more knobs to document all of the different styles, here're two more to entertain you in the meantime

Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom