My Kitchen Counter DIY Disaster

February 4, 2016 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

The title is a a little misleading as my kitchen counter DIY was not a total and complete disaster. In fact, everyone that enters my kitchen say they love it! But I think they are straight up lying to my face.

Before we even bought this house I knew the counters had to go. I don’t totally hate laminate, but our counters were this terrible blue laminate that I wasn’t feeling. After reading countless blog posts talking about using Ardex concrete feather finish to give your counters a concrete look, I was totally confident my kitchen could look amazing.

Here is what my kitchen looked like before:

I decided to jump headfirst into the project one Friday afternoon and as soon as I put the first goop of concrete on the counter, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. It was really hard to spread out and get it even on my counters. It was IMPOSSIBLE to get it to look right on that little lip on the wall. I kept going hoping it would get easier and it did get a little better after I was more used to it.

After putting the first layer on and letting it dry you have to sand it down. That process is when I realized I had gotten myself into a lot more than I could handle. The mess was insane and I was having a giant panic attack. I didn’t take a whole lot of pics of the process, but here are a few.

So after three day’s of layering and then sanding, I decided to call it quits on just half the counters. After I sealed it, it actually didn’t look half bad and I thought I would finish the rest of the counters one day when I could handle the mess again.

I used a super food safe sealer, which looking back was silly. We don’t ever cut directly on the counter, so I could have gone with something less food safe. About three days after our project we started getting huge stains on the counter. Three months later here is what it looks like.

NOT GOOD. If you have the patience and get the right sealer, I would really recommend this project for a cheap way to update the counters. I am not patient so that was my first mistake going into the project. I also hate create giant messes, and having everything in my kitchen covered in dust was not good for my sanity.

So whats next? We are getting poured concrete counters made right now! The actual stuff, not this fake powder stuff. I’m really excited about it, even though it is not cheap. I’ll keep you updated!

Current Living Room

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

So more than half of the stuff in my current living room is for sale, so I wanted to take a few pulled back snaps of what it looks like now. Fleastyle took some great pics and did a home tour including my dining room and a few kitchen pictures, so please be sure to read her article!

Picking Wood Look Tile

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

When we bought our house the floors were not really a selling point. The main living space has laminate, which luckily is not super ugly laminate. The bedrooms have carpet, which I HATE. I am not on the carpet train. Sure your feet have something warm and fluffy to walk on, but its typically ugly and just waiting to be stained.

We planned to eventually replace the carpet, but our plans got moved from the future to the present after the introduction of a new kitten.

She make look cute, but she is a little monster and decided she didn’t like the carpet one bit. I’ll spare you the gross details, but our bedroom carpet had to be removed immediately.

We considered hard wood for about 3 seconds, but with four cats, tile is a way better option. Tile is wayyyy more durable than hardwood. You can spill liquids and don’t have to worry as much about scratches. With the wood look tile we could get the best of both worlds.

I didn’t want to spend more than $2 a sq foot, so we headed to Floor and Decor to see what options they had. Floor and Decor has some pretty good options, but there are ENDLESS wood tile options at other retailers as well. You can end up spending a lot of money getting really quality wood look tile.

I knew I wanted something not too dark and something with a lot of pattern variation. I bought samples of these three to see how the looked in my home.

The one on the left was the most expensive at $2.29 a sq foot, but it had the most pattern variation and grey undertones. Even though it was over our budget, we decided to “splurge” since it would only end up being about $200 extra in total to go with this one and we liked it so much more than the others.

We got a few quotes on getting the tile professionally installed, but tile laying is expensive. It would have doubled the cost of the project to get it professionally done. My Dad has some previous tile experience, so we decided to do it ourselves.

Up next: Carpet Removal!

3 Stupid Easy Christmas Decor DIY’s

December 16, 2015December 17, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

I just wanted to share a quick post in which I brag about my three stupid easy and cheap Christmas decor DIY’s. You can easily spend butt loads of money making your house ooze Christmas cheer, but I don’t have butt loads of money. I have the opposite this year owed to the whole buying a house three months ago so I looked for a few cheap ways to help my house get into the Christmas spirit. Continue reading →

My Haunted Side Table and Favorite Vintage Stores

November 19, 2015November 20, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

Filling your house with vintage furniture is never the easy way to go, it is much easier to pop into Ikea and get a new chair. While buying something new is easier and cheaper, going vintage just adds so much character to your house. It might take months or even years to find the perfect piece, but it is SO worth it.

Last weekend my mom and I took a trip to Dallas Market Center for a vintage show. I really wasn’t expecting to find anything for myself as I thought the prices would be high, but right away I found an amazing deal on a bar cart and then when we were about to head out my eye caught a pretty unique side table. I asked the dealer how much he wanted and he said “first I have to tell you the story.” Continue reading →

A Bathroom Refresh

November 18, 2015November 18, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

An old friend of mine contacted me after seeing a few of my blog and Facebook posts and asked if I could help give her guest bathroom a refresh. Even though I have no experience in design and absolutely zero training, I thought about it for about ten seconds then promptly said YES. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to tell another person what to buy? DREAM SITUATION.

She didn’t want to do any major construction, just give it some new life with paint, new lighting, and some styling. Here are a few before pictures of the bathroom.

The bathroom certainly is not terrible. It’s probably what most of our bathrooms look like. For someone who doesn’t want to gut a bathroom, there are a ton of simple changes you can make to make it feel brand new.`

My plan is pretty simple: update light fixtures, paint walls, paint cabinets, new hardware, style with some accessories. There is a faux brick floor, so I had to keep that color in mind when deciding on paint colors for the wall and cabinets. The walls have a VERY heavy texture. It’s the heaviest texture I have ever seen and removing the texture wasn’t in the budget for now so I suggested a bright white to hopefully camouflage the texture as much as possible. I also recommended a light grey for the cabinets to give the bathroom some color.

Here is some of my inspiration pictures that show the feel we are going for.

We are in the early stages for this bathroom refresh…pulling products and accessories. I’ll give y’all an update soon when paint goes on the walls!

Don’t Settle For Bad Lighting: My Art Deco Entryway Chandelier

October 30, 2015October 30, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

Let me show you why sometimes hoarding is a good thing. You may have noticed in my entryway makeover post, which you can catch up on here, that I did a little lighting update. The flippers made some “interesting” choices in lighting, by “interesting” I mean they went to Home Depot and bought the cheapest lights available. This meant there was a cowboy light in my entryway.

Now i’m not completely against bringing in some more western influences into my home decor. In fact, I have a cowhide rug that is one of my most favorite things, butI really wasn’t feeling my cowboy light. Luckily, past me thought ahead. Continue reading →

Three Small Decorating Accessories I’m Loving Right now

April 11, 2015April 12, 2015 ~ mollymathias89 ~ Leave a comment

These days it seems like it’s all about the little things. All the decor mags are publishing cute little vignettes all around the house. You need accessories for your bookshelves, coffee tables, bar carts, china cabinets, credenzas, etc. That’s a lot of little stuff! One of my favorite layering accessories is brass. I LOVE BRASS. I love that it’s shiny and makes anything look super fancy. Brass fingers? yes I will have you. Brass baby sculpture? Give me that now. Large brass Victorian boot? I WILL GIVE YOU ALL MY MONEY. Corey doesn’t get my fascination, but who makes the decisions around here anyways?

I got this fabulous boot at an estate sale a few weeks ago. The woman that owned this house was really into Parisian flair. I spotted this boot across the room, quickly shuffled over, and cradled it like a baby. I whispered sweet nothings to it until I saw the price tag of $25. Yes I love brass, but I am also a rational human being.

I slowly put it back while weeping silently. I must have been causing quite a commotion, because a sale worker came over and offered it to me for $5. So naturally my sad tears changed to happy tears and now I can cuddle and whisper sweet nothings to my boot whenever I want.

I paired the boot here with a geode picture holder (SO GOOD) holding the cutest little picture of my husband that has ever been taken. Look at that little suit and bow tie!!!!! My second favorite accessory of the moment is pottery. Each piece is different and provides great texture and color to any space.

If I see any pottery at a sale, I buy. I buy all the pottery. These two have great colors and I love the shape of the tall blue one. I can use it as a vase for some small cool flowers, or just layer into my bookshelf as is.

There are all kinds of shapes and colors out there, so keep your eyes peeled and start your collection NOW! My third favorite accessory right now is vintage cocktail glasses. If you have a bar or bar cart you NEED cool glasses. And if you don’t have a bar, then what are you doing with your life? Even if you don’t drink, you can come home from work and pretend to be Betty Draper while sipping some cucumber water from a fancy glass with geisha’s on it.

I am so guilty of buying any cool cocktail glasses I see. Just right now in my possession, I have glasses with mushrooms, bamboo glasses, and watermelon ombre glasses. I can’t have enough. They add such a fun spirit to your room, and can display your personality immediately.

These glasses have images of Geisha’s on them and are the perfect size for a rock and a splash of whiskey. Do I sound classy yet? Sure I am usually drinking wine from a plastic cup, but at least I have pretty glasses on my bar cart! Just keep your eyes open at those estate sales. Search through those gross kitchen cabinets and you too can start an unnecessary collection of vintage cocktail glasses! Never skimp on accessories throughout your home. They add personality to your home in small ways with big impact!