What paint should you use for a bathroom?
Like those luxurious, steamy showers? That’s precisely why you should use a semi-gloss or glossy latex paint in the bathroom. If you’re repainting over semi-gloss already, you must prime the wall first or your paint won’t stick because, simply put, “Paint doesn’t stick to a shiny surface, especially if you know you’re painting over an old oil paint,” says The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. Water-based paint on top of oil is a “nightmare.” So prime, prime, prime. And if you see mildew on the wall (especially common in high-moisture areas like bathrooms as well as on north-facing walls) you must kill the mildew before you paint -- otherwise you’ll end up with mildew growing in the paint, which is harder to kill. Scott recommends using bleach and water to kill it or a cleaner with “mildewcide” in it, then let the surface fully dry out. To be safe, use a mildew-resistant paint like Behr’s Premium Plus Sateen.
What are the basics of kitchen decorating?
If you have the funds to update your appliances, go for it. The appliances are focal points in a kitchen, and ratty ones will draw the eye, even among the chicest decor. Los Angeles interior designer Jennifer Delonge prefers stainless steel appliances, “which make the kitchen feel fresh and new,” she says. If you have budget constraints, Delonge suggests introducing stainless steel in smaller appliances, like the toaster, coffeemaker, or blender.
When it comes to decorating, remove everything you can from the kitchen counters and walls. Only bring back the things you love (and, by the way, need). If you’re not using your KitchenAid mixer often and it’s not adding to the look of the kitchen (a cobalt blue one may still add charm), store it. Then, says Delonge, introduce color. Hang colorful kitchen towels on a new towel bar. Or place a cotton throw rug by the sink or kitchen island -- one you can hang to dry if it gets too wet. For some colorful wall decor, spray paint some small picture frames in bright red and hang six of your favorite recipes -- or family photos or edgy black-and-white landscapes -- on the wall.
Finally, soften the room with a lamp: “We have a pretty lamp on our kitchen counter,” says Delonge. “It seems odd, but the lamp makes it feel more like a room than the overhead light does. It really warms up the kitchen.”
What paint or wallpaper should you use for a kitchen and backsplash?
You always want a semi-gloss or high-gloss paint for a kitchen so you can clean up those pasta sauce splatters with a few easy swipes of the sponge. Make sure you allow the paint to dry fully before applying a second coat. “Standard drying time is eight hours before a recoat,” says The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. “That’s based on 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity.” But bathrooms and kitchens may be more humid than other rooms in your house due to showers, sinks, and dishwashers, so allow extra time in these rooms.
With wallpaper, choose a glossed pattern with a print in scale with the size of your room, i.e., a small print in a small kitchen and a larger print in a large kitchen. A large print in a small kitchen will actually make your room look smaller. If you don’t have much surface area to cover, you might also consider using glossy shelf paper in lieu of wallpaper. Or here’s a unique idea. For added drama, choose a fabric you love (and you can choose a more expensive one, as kitchen wall space tends to be minimal between the cabinets and countertop), then glue it up and cover it with custom-cut plastic Formica that you can clean. It’s like framing the wall as a piece of art.
The best gift you can give your kitchen walls? Tiling. It’s easy to clean and lasts the longest, says Paul Ryan, host of Kitchen Renovations on the DIY Network. His suggestion for ramping up the look: “Choose a premade tile medallion for a focal point on a tile backsplash. They’re predesigned small tiles on a piece of mesh, so it looks like you worked for hours. It gives you a very dramatic look for less time!”
What does it mean to reglaze the bathroom tub? Can we do it ourselves?
Reglazing a tub involves spraying a new glossy coating onto your tub made of either epoxy or urethane (the first lasts up to three years, the latter close to 10). And yes, you can choose a new color, which means you can turn a peach or moss green tub into sparkling white. “It’s what hotels do when their tubs and showers start looking old after seven or eight years,” says real estate agent Karen Norris, author of The Real Estate Survival Guide: Secrets, Tips & Lies from a Beverly Hills Super Agent. She’s familiar with the company who performs this service for The Beverly Hills Hotel. “It only costs about $250 to $500 to reglaze the tub in a couple of hours, and it looks like a brand new bathroom!” This is something that should be done professionally. If your tub has been reglazed before, they’ll have to remove the prior glaze before installing the new one (at an added cost). Some tubs also require sandblasting at an added cost if your piece is chipped or requires smoothing out, but if you just need a surface makeover, reglazing is a cost-saving solution for a bathroom that needs a facelift.
How do we build or create a laundry area that’s clean and cute?
First, paint or wallpaper the walls with a calming color to make the room feel beautiful and peaceful (think sea-foam green, French blue, or coral pink).
Next, choose shelving to fit over or next to your washer/dryer, like The Container Store’s Elfa racks in white or chrome (prices average $100 to $500, thecontainerstore.com). The slatted shelves provide storage yet keep the room feeling open. If you have room, give yourself a hook for your ironing board (purlbee.com has instructions for you DIYers to make your own ironing board covers in pretty patterns). Add a plush rug to the area, which will make your toes happy and keep clean socks that fall onto the floor spotless. Your best bet? FLOR tiles, which are 12- by 12-inch tiles made of rug that allow you to create your own size and pattern. You can pull up the tiles one at a time to dry or clean them (flor.com; Martha Stewart now has her own line through the company).
Finally, treat yourself to a beautiful laundry basket -- perhaps wicker or woven, or even a sturdy white plastic one, so you may actually enjoy picking it up. And keep in mind that you can do all these things in a small space too. “We turned a closet we had in our guest bathroom into the laundry area. We added a rack system on the inside of the door where we put our detergent and dryer sheets,” says Betsy, a 36-year-old mom of two in Massachusetts. “We miss the storage space but preferred having the washer hidden. And you know,” she adds conspiratorially, “when guests come over, we can throw piles of clothes in there and shut the door!”
How do you apply wainscoting to walls?
The short version? With glue, nails, care, and precision. Really, though, the process isn’t too difficult, says Tom Silva from This Old House.
Step one: “You get four by eight sheets and attach them right over the plaster walls.” (You’ll lose just 3/16 of an inch thickness, he says.)
Step two: “Open the wainscoting packages and leave them in the room you’ll be putting them in for 72 hours before you begin the project,” says The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. Why? Because wood expands, bends, or shrinks according to its environment, and you must “allow the wood to acclimate to the temperature in the room,” says Scott. “This is a major deal.” She’s seen people stick the wood in the garage for a few days, pull it out on Saturday for the project, and the wood buckles, ruining the project. “Moving the wood from a cold area to a heated one will change its size. Don’t forget this,” she says.
Step three: Plumb the walls. Make sure the walls are even, without dips or gaps, or the sheets won’t apply evenly. If you must, sand down the bumps. If you have concave dips in the walls, “fur them out” with furring strips, says Scott. (These are slices or pieces of wood or metal that you nail to the wall to create an even surface.)
Step four: If you already have a baseboard, celebrate and skip this step! If you don’t, use a level when you apply the baseboard around the room so you can line up the wainscoting along the entirety of it. Finally, nail or glue the sheets to the wall along the baseboard (important: use product-specific glue!), and top it with the chair rail. Congrats -- you now have a whole new look!
We’re renovating our bathroom, and I’ve heard it’s not too expensive to add heating to the floor. Can we do it ourselves?
You heard right! Typically, radiant heat mats are installed between the subfloor and the tiles. There are a number of companies who make these, including Warmly Yours and NuHeat, both of which provide rolled-up heat mats with electrical wire running through them, much like electric blankets (warmlyyours.com and nuheat.com). The process involves hot gluing the mats to the floor, tiling over them, and wiring the mats and the thermostat to your electricity system. Warmly Yours provides an online estimate so you can check pricing; matting for a small six- by six-foot bathroom, for example, may cost just under $400, but most average bathrooms might run up to $1,000. It’s a doable project for DIYers (though the electrical wiring should probably be done by an electrician).
Some floor heating, however, is made from a product with hot water running through it, which you don’t want to attempt to install yourself, says The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. “Someone who puts in floors like this for a living can do it in a few hours, but for the amateur, it can take many hours and a lot of aggravation. There are certain tasks best left to the experts!”
What are our options for giving our bathroom a new look?
If you don’t have the finances (or time) to redo your tiles, try a quick but big fix by changing out the bathroom vanity and/or medicine cabinet. And think creatively, as one South Orange, New Jersey, resident did: “We bought a dining room hutch piece at an antiques store for $95 and a new sink from The Home Depot for $180 to drop into it,” says Amy. (The original hutch was dark wood, she says, but she painted over it with a clean, fresh taupe.) “The sink came with sizing instructions, so we cut out a hole in the hutch with a jigsaw, dropped the sink in, and cut holes for the faucet. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.” The couple hired a plumber to install the fixtures. As they didn’t have a recessed space over the sink, they purchased a new mirrored medicine cabinet. “I found a knockoff of a $200 Restoration Hardware cabinet for $100,” says Amy, which they simply hung on the wall in place of the old one.
If adding a new toilet (and tossing out the ugly mustard yellow one) is on your list, don’t get stuck with an ill-fitting throne. Beforehand, measure what’s called the “ruffin,” which is the distance from the wall to the bolts on the toilet, explains The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. “That size runs from 10 to 12 to 14 inches. If you measure wrong, your toilet may hit the wall without lining up with the bolts, and you’ll end up with a two- to four-inch gap between the toilet and the wall -- and a toilet you can’t return.”
We can’t afford new kitchen appliances, but is it possible to replace the fronts of the ones we have?
Yes, but it’s not necessarily as affordable as it sounds, warns The Home Depot’s Judy Scott. The main company in the field is Frigo (frigodesign.com). They offer custom replacement panels for your refrigerator and dishwasher. The panels come in various colors and materials, which include metallics, acrylic glossy colors, stainless steel, black chalkboard material, as well as wood panel overlays (so your fridge could have the same beveled wood as your cabinets). The items must be custom (as everyone’s appliances are different), which adds to the cost. As Scott says, “They’re very expensive.” Panels for a dishwasher may be as cheap as $150 but run as high as $399, which is the cost of some brand-new dishwashers (the lowest-end GE dishwasher sells for $259). But for a design-happy kitchen owner with some extra cash -- or owners of a well-working, high-end washer desperate for a new look -- this option is perfect.
How do we best decorate our guest bathroom?
Decorate the bathroom with one thing in mind: making guests feel comfy and right at home. Start with a soothing color palette, like a coat of cornflower blue or lavender paint. Then add a storage area where you can keep folded towels and washcloths in plain view. “I put two glass shelves over my toilet and piled fluffy towels on them, and the glass helped the room feel open rather than cluttered,” says Katherine, 28, from Long Island, who recently redecorated a very small bathroom. Put a pretty hook or two on the bathroom door where guests can hang their wet towels or bathrobe. If you have a small two-square-foot space in the room, consider putting a beautiful guest chair there with an upholstered seat as a place where your guests can set their towels or bath kits. Furniture will enlarge the feel of the room (really, it will!), and the fabric on it will add warmth.
Another tip: Rhode Island resident Nicole, 34, stocks up on bathroom items while turning them into part of the room design: “I keep a linen-lined wicker basket beside the toilet filled with rolls of toilet paper so my guests can see they’re not going to run out. And I put new cotton balls and Q-tips in cute blue glass jars I bought at a vintage market, which are lined up on a shelf beside the sink.” Keep the vanity and sink area as clean and empty as possible for your guests. Consider a pump hand soap instead of small designer soaps that get messy and may make guests feel awkward about using them. Then, just before your guests arrive, light a scented candle (leave the matches!) and a fresh flower in a bud vase so the room feels like an instant escape.
by Amy Spencer
6/2/08
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