Faux Finish Floor

Faux Finish Floor, originally uploaded by Mrelia.

Last November, we had a busted feed line to the dishwasher which flooded our downstairs and totally trashed the laminate flooring.

We plan to eventually put down a good quality wood-type flooring, but the budget for that hasn't happened yet.

Last week I found a can of concrete stain on clearance at Lowe's for $5, so I did something to make the concrete a little friendlier.

I think it's a fair improvement over this:

Chairs before & after

Chairs before & after, originally uploaded by Mrelia.

This is an example of my smaller projects. These took just a few hours to do. The hardest part was getting the paint to come off the legs without damaging the chrome. I actually ended up using a razorblade to carefully peel the paint away since the stripper just made everything really goopy and even harder to remove.

I got these from a freecycler a while back. The chrome was painted over with brown enamel and black spraypaint. The horrible yellow vinyl was cracked. The previous owner had put some padding on the backrest in preparation for upholstering - but she never got around to it. This picture shows one stripped and reupholstered. They're both done now...I had juuuuuust enough of the vintage fabric to do both.

It only took a few hours to do this. I settled down in the living room and watched my shows.

Needless to say, I've thoroughly Scotchgarded the things.

'Allo!

I'm not a natural blogger; I'll admit that from the start. My routine is fairly dull: I get up in the morning, get the family ready for work and school, do some housework, go to work, come home, visit with family and go to bed. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I have no illusions that my thoughts are particularly unique or interesting to others. I have no passion for politics, celebrities or fashion.

So what am I blogging and why?

I'm always working on some little project or another. Sometimes making something. Sometimes fixing something that's broken. It's one of the few things about me in which people actually seem to show an interest. So, I thought I might start documenting my projects -- past and present.

I'm hoping that projects may be interesting, provide inspiration or serve as cautionary tales.

We'll see.