I have come to the realization after many home improvement projects that if you want to save money during your remodel you must take the time to find deals and coupons. I don’t have the luxury of just going out to my favorite store and spending without any (or very little) regard for price, sales and coupons. But the good news is that with the wonderful World Wide Web we have these deals and coupons right at our fingertips.

We live in NJ but travel to Pennsylvania and Maryland quite often. We have found some great deals in Hagerstown, MD. It’s funny I remember that town when I was a child – we would always stop there on our way to visit my grandmother in Virginia. Finding deals and coupons for your local area businesses is a wonderful to save money and to support your local businesses in these tough economic times. Baltimore is also a great town to shop for deals and also grab some great seafood!

Oh I wish my bathroom was this big but sadly it is isn’t - it’s a tiny little bathroom in a 100 year old house. In honor of me finally getting off my butt and ‘remodeling’ my bathroom after 2 years of living in our house I am officially declaring March 2009 Bathroom Month. I am on a limited budget so my remodel was an economical one. I antique crackled my cheap bathroom vanity which came out wonderful!

Every homeowner wants to have a space that is distinctive to their personality. The bathroom is the perfect place to showcase your unique personality. I have a bad habit of judging someone’s taste and style after taking a trip to the rest room. After all, one’s bathroom says a great deal more about your taste and personality than most other rooms in your house.

There are three main factors to take into consideration when personalizing your bathroom: layout, size and style. Finding an “inspiration” piece is a great place to start. For example, in my bathroom remodel I focused the color and accessories around my brown and teal shower curtain that I absolutely love. Other ideas for inspiration include artwork, a bathroom vanity, a gorgeous bathroom faucet, even a picture you find in a magazine. Tailor your inspiration to your specific tastes and needs.

For inspiration books and magazines on decorating are a wonderful place to start to generate plenty of ideas. I keep a notebook of all my inspiration pictures that I take from books, magazines or websites. I start off without any filtering then review over and over until I have made a decision. I am fickle like that - one day I might love a French country style then the next day I’ll hate it and want a more modern style so it helps to keep all of my inspiration pictures together and review often until I have finally made a decision.

Give careful consideration and thought before you begin your bathroom remodel - you’re going to change the look and feel of your house when you remodel your bathroom. Remodeling my bathroom was hard work (painting in my little tiny bathroom wasn’t the most pleasant of all jobs) so you want to choose something that you are willing to live with for quite awhile.

When planning your remodel take into consideration the amount of space that you currently have. Often rooms lack space and storage so the remodel is a wonderful time to install new storage into the décor. Changing the floor plan in the bathroom is usually a very expensive endeavor. So to avoid such a costly endeavor there are many storage options on the market today such as over the toilet storage pieces, shelving, baskets - be creative and don’t be afraid to experiment! These are all important considerations that will help you design your bathroom so that it is stylish, personalized and functional.

I would highly recommend discussing your design plans with your family members. I know that if my husband hates the color I am painting I will not hear the end of it for years. Their input can offer valuable insight into what areas are lacking in your bathroom.

My grandmother used to say perfect planning prevents poor performance. The more careful and thought out the plan the better. Plan for design, budget, space, layout and style and enjoy your new bathroom.

Technorati : bathroom remodel, budget home improvements, design, diy projects, remodel, small bathroom remodel

Well I lost all of my previous posts due to some mean hackers out there! Oh well - nothing wrong with new beginnings

I finally had it with my gross bathroom. I haven’t remodeled one thing since we moved into our house 2 years ago. I figured it was time to start but my cheap husband wouldn’t buy me a new vanity. I decided to try crackle our cheap oak vanity using brown and teal. I love the brown and teal color combination. Here is a step-by-step method of how I did it.

Supplies needed:

• Paint primer (eg. Kilz)
• Crackle - I purchased a small jar at Home Depot for about $15. This is in the paint section near the faux painting supplies.
• Paint - 2 different and contrasting colors. I used brown and teal.
• Polyurethane - a small jar is fine since you really don’t use that much. I used a semi-gloss finish.
• Paint brushes
• Sandpaper

1. Remove hardware and door cabinets.

2. Lightly sand to remove the shine and funk.

3. MOST IMPORTANT STEP SO DON’T SKIP IT …. PRIME! I used a primer that I had in the basement which was tinted with brown. Let the primer thoroughly dry (a few hours at least)

4. Put on 2 coats of the base color. This was teal in my example. Let each coat thoroughly dry.

5. Now its time to put on the crackle. Be generous with this stuff and work quick. It did seem to dry quick and get sort of sticky so work somewhat fast. Let this thoroughly dry as per the directions on the can.

6. After the crackle layer is completely dry apply your top paint color (brown in my example). This is the really cool part. I didn’t try to be perfect when I painted this layer. If some of the teal shown through that was fine. When the top paint layer starts to dry it crackles so that the underneath paint color shows through. Voila .. you now have an antiqued, crackled cabinet.

7. The next step is to polyurethane. I let the paint dry for 24 hours before I applied the polyurethane. The jar said to apply 2 coats but since this is a bathroom cabinet and I really don’t like a super shiny look I only applied 1 coat. If these were kitchen cabinets I would definitely apply 2 coats because my kitchen cabinets get so much more abuse.

Well that’s it. Please let me know if you have any additional suggestions. My next project is to crackle my kitchen cabinets.

Technorati : antiqued cabinets, bathroom remodel, crackle cabinets, diy projects, home decorating, how to crackle cabinets