Bathroom and Kitchen Remodels with Gel Stain!

General Finishes Java Gel Stain. $30 for a quart on Amazon. (Not an affiliate link) We had just enough to do our downstairs bathroom, upstairs main bathroom, and the kitchen. With a little left for touch ups. A little goes a Loooong way!
It says you don't have to sand (if you don't sand do very thin layers until its the darkness you want.)
Use a old t-shirt, old sock, or something similar and wear rubber gloves (you can get a box of surgical gloves or cheaper ones at Sams club, Costco, probably even Walmart, probably Ace Hardware,etc)
We found it took a lot longer to dry if we used thicker layers and we decided to sand the kitchen ones just until the top finish was off. It cut the drying in half by sanding a little. (80 grit sand paper and a hand sander made it quick work!) It soaks into the wood more when sanded. We did 1 thin layer on the back and on the front we did a thin rubbed in layer then used a foam craft brush for the 2nd layer so it looked more even.  I think if you rub in each layer really well,letting each layer dry completely (not sticky at all) and do very thin layers you can get away with not sanding.

 Kitchen BEFORE

(Boring and dated, yuck!)

AFTER!!

So inviting, modern, and beautiful!

After a couple weeks here is my feedback on the durability:

It's absolutely amazing! 

I'm never using paint again! 

I did not use a top coat because it has a beautiful Satin finish already and it says you don't need a top coat so I decided to test it out in the bathrooms and kitchen. 

So far I have seen 

NO SCRATCHING,

No CHIPPING,

MESSES ARE EASILY WIPED OFF,

NOT AFFECTED BY OIL OR WATER!

I even had two cabinets that scratch against each other every time they open and close and I haven't seen a single chip or scratch yet! Once the paint dries and sets it's extremely durable! 

Note: We took off the pads/rubber things that make it so they don't bang shut and got new black pads for the back once we finished. They were only a few dollars at the hardware store. I'm sure Walmart would be even cheaper. I had enough for everything. 

We also got some pulls on Amazon.

The crystal looking knobs HERE

And kitchen and bathroom pulls HERE

I also got some silver knobs for the bathroom we didn't redo HERE

If you want the more modern look you can do these pulls: HERE

We picked up a updated $10 faucet for the bathroom upstairs as well at Walmart. 

My decor on my shelf was from things I'd collected over the years. The words we got as a wedding present, the shaving stuff we inherited from my husbands grandpa, the glass serving cup I get a 4 packs at the Dollar Tree for $1 (I love them!) And the little cup was an old candle holder I cleaned out. The jar is just a old jam jar.

Any other thing you'd like to know where I got them please let me know! I will be happy to share my secrets!

*UPDATE* I recently found this link about this lady who used milk paint and a top coat on her cabinets and didn't have to sand or prime! Might be a good option for you if you want a lighter color. She used General Finishes Milk Paint and Top Coat. Prob won't save as much as I did but it was still a good option if you're after ease. Here's her blog link here

(NO AFFILIATE LINKS)

Recent DIY Projects

I love how this Brush Holder turned out! I did regular pockets instead of clear and my customer requested the "towel" fabric to wipe off her brushes. Otherwise I would have just used cotton. Oh, by the way, my lovely Mother made this! I only designed it! She's simply magic!

We got this swimsuit for my daughter but it was WAY too low cut so my amazing Mother (again) saved the day and whipped up the cute little frills! I didn't get a picture of it on her but it's ADORABLE let me tell ya!

Being around paint right now (I'm prego) isn't very fun. So again my Mother saved the day and redid this sewing cabinet for me!

And wahla! She's also fixing up the sewing machine for me! I'm SOOO Excited!! Ya, can anyone say Best Mother EVER!

The paint color on this was from Ace Hardware-Its called "Poolside Blue" It's actually a Benjamin Moore color but I had it mixed into the Clark+Kensington base because I already had that base. It can change the color slightly when you do that but it was spot on in this case!:) I had the Interior/Latex/Flat Enamel & then added a clear top coat.

Again, another cute "just whipped this up" from Grandma! She wanted to make her PJ bottoms into shorts so she cut the legs off and said, hey these would be perfect to make skirts! So AWESOME transformation from pant leg to skirt!:)

So here's another amazing redo from my mother! She surprised me by doing it while I was gone! TOTALLY love it! I need to put the before on here but I need to find the pic first!

 

A little rope for the pulls and this whole project was MAYBE $0.50-$1.00 total! 

We got a quart of paint for free from Ace Hardware during some event they were having, got it tinted to the color we wanted for free, and had the rope on hand already. And the actual "dresser" was inherited so nearly no cost to us! I forgot to add the color paint is Clark+Kensington in "Moody Blue" (67-D) from Ace Hardware.

And it's a Interior/Latex/Flat Enamel. I believe she added a clear top coat too to prevent scratching.

All finished! (Special thanks to my dad for putting the pulls on:)