This is such a simple project that you’ll be mad that you waited so long to do it! When all is said and done, the hardware to rewire a chandelier costs $2.50-$3.50 depending on if it has a ground wire or not.

Then, there’s just the cost of the chandelier. That can obviously range depending on how good of a deal you find, but it can be quite inexpensive, and can even be free!

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Find a chandelier to rewire

Find a chandelier at a garage sale:

The first time I did this project, I happened upon a sort of ugly chandelier that had really good bones at a garage sale for $40. There was no way I was spending that much, but I thought I might be able to talk her down and then talk my hubby into doing this project for me. My daughter’s 13th birthday was coming up and I wanted something spectacular for her dinner al fresco.

They accepted my offer of $20 and my sweet husband was able to pretty easily rewire the chandelier. Unfortunately, the way Ryan did it was to use an old extension cord and piggy back the wiring into the chandelier. It totally worked, but I would not recommend doing it this way. I don’t think it’s a fire hazard, but it looks a little janky.

It worked for home use and the girls had a wonderful night!!! Please don’t mind the grainy iPhone pictures!

We went on to use it in the huge tent we had for our son’s graduation and it was stunning. I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off that day so I didn’t get any photos of that one. But it added so much class to the tent and made it seem quite fancy!

Side of the road finds:

The second time I rewired a chandelier was this year. I was driving down the road and wouldn’t you know that I saw a chandelier with bulbs in it just laying in the garbage?! I figured that if it didn’t work after I rewired it, I’d just throw it in my own garbage and I would only be out $2.50. But it worked!!!!!

If you’re on the lookout, you just might find something on trash day. Make sure you look at the bones and not the color OR the lamp shades. Look beyond that to what it could be. Vision to see beyond is crucial!

Can you believe someone was just throwing this little beauty out!?

Resale or online options for chandeliers:

Resale and online are probably the best possibilities for most people. It’s more likely you’ll be able to purchase one quickly. I found my final chandelier at Salvation Army. ReStore is also an amazing place to find chandeliers. They have a ton of building type materials at their stores.

I also did a quick scroll on Facebook Marketplace and there were so many options near me! Craigslist and Offer Up are great choices too. The best thing about Offer Up is that they send you a notification any time someone lists an item that you’ve been searching for!

The one benefit of buying resale is that they are likely to take it back if you purchase it and it doesn’t work. I haven’t had that happen yet, but it might and that’s good to have in your back pocket.

This chandelier I got for $6 at Salvation Army. They had been asking $13, but it was more elaborate and one of the upper arms was broken. I got it for less than half price and took it home and removed the upper arms, added greenery, rewired it, and it was perfect.

I may spray paint the whole thing black to match the others, but for now, it works great.

Make the chandelier pretty!

Now is the time to make any modifications to your chandelier. With the first one I purchased from a garage sale, I removed the shades and ordered Edison Bulbs instead of using traditional bulbs. I thought it gave it a better look since the bulbs were going to be exposed when the shades were removed.

I also painted that one. It was a super ugly brown, so I used a hammered metallic spray paint to give it a fresh new look. I hung it on a garden hook I had and that made it very easy to paint all the way around it at once.

I also took toilet paper and stuffed it into the light bulb holes to make sure no paint got onto the contacts for the bulbs. It’s super easy because when the paint is still wet, you can just pop them out, so the paint doesn’t dry and and cement the toilet paper into the light bulb holes!

How to Rewire a Chandelier

Once the chandelier looks how you want it to look, the rewiring takes about 5-10 minutes. I’m not joking! It’s so fast! I’ve included a video of my hubby rewiring a chandelier using a 2 prong plug. I purchased this from Amazon for $2.39. It was such a steal!

If the chandelier has a third cable, or a ground wire, you can purchase a 3 prong plug. I also purchased that from Amazon for $3.29. I literally cannot believe how cheap and easy it it to rewire a chandelier! If you do have the third uncoated wire, just order this 3 prong plug and follow the addendum at the end of the instructions.

Step by Step Instructions on how to Rewire a Chandelier

Step One

Decide if you’d like to keep the upper housing on the chandelier. Usually there is a part that you screw into the ceiling. This part is kind of nice to give you a firm way to attach it to a tree or to wrap the extension cord around. However, if the branch you’re using is very high, some people might not like the look of that piece just dangling there.

We decided to keep ours on and it didn’t bother me, even though I’m a perfectionist. My concern was that there was nothing to attach the extension cord to, so you can’t really have a chandelier dangling from an extension cord without attaching it to something.

On the other hand, if your tree branch is low, or if you’re putting it inside and attaching it to a cup hook in the ceiling, then removing it would work just fine.

Step Two

Make sure you have fresh wire ends. You may be in luck and just have fresh wire. But if the chandelier was in use before, you will probably need to expose fresh connections.

To do that, simply use wire strippers and cut the sheath surrounding the wire. Then slide it off. Then just cut the end of the wire to leave about 1/2″ of nice new wire. I tend to spin this a little if it’s a compilation of little wires to make sure they are all in a nice, tight grouping.

Step Three

Once you have the wire stripped, use a screwdriver to push the little yellow piece out that says REMOVE. Once that is done, the two prongs should fall out as well.

Step Four

Loosen the screws on each of the prongs. Don’t take them completely out. Just loosen them enough so that the thickness of the wire can slip in there.

Step Five

Slide both wires through the bottom of the plug and out the top. We got all the way to the end and realized we had not done this and had to take it all apart and redo it! So don’t skip this step!

Step Six

Slide the exposed wire through the bottom slot on one of the prongs and then use your fingers or needle nose pliers to make the wire into a C shape. Hook the wire around the shaft of the screw. Then use a screwdriver to tighten the screw and secure the wire.

It doesn’t matter what wire you put on which prong if you’re using the 2 prong plug. Either way you do it will be fine and will complete the circuit.

Step Seven

Once you have attached the wires to the prongs and tightened the screw to secure it, slide the prongs back into place. Then add the piece back in that says REMOVE. Make sure it fits nice and tightly.

When we did this, we did have to maneuver it around to make sure that it all fit back in snugly.

Step Eight

Plug it in and admire your work! Can you believe you did that? You’re basically an electrician!

MODIFICATIONS FOR THE 3 PRONG PLUG WHEN REWIRING A CHANDELIER

There are just a few modifications if you are using the 3 prong plug. The first is that you don’t push a REMOVE piece out. Instead, you unscrew it and the entire housing comes out in one piece (which is actually way easier!)

Secondly, the bare wire that is the ground wire will be attached to the round prong. That’s it! The other two coated wires still get wrapped around the prongs on each side. Once you’re done attaching all 3, just slide it back into the housing and tighten the screw!

How to hang your rewired chandelier

This first chandelier had a VERY short section of wire at the top. Since the plug was so close to the top, I decided to use zip ties to attach it to the branch. I would totally recommend black, but I only had these white ones on hand.

After I attached them, I just clipped the ends of the zip ties and it worked perfectly.

This long cord is my favorite because it gives you so many options. I saw that it had a ton of wiring, so I didn’t cut it down and just put the plug at the end of the long wires. That way, I was able to wrap the chandelier wires around the tree branch to keep it tightly in place.

Then I just attached a black extension cord to that and wound it around the branch and the trunk of the tree. It really blended right in.

So what do you think? Can you tackle this project!? I think you can!

Pin for Later

The post How to Rewire a Chandelier (Easily!) appeared first on Little Reasons.

I developed a furniture salve recipe to update some antique furniture. I didn’t want to mess up the original finish, but also didn’t want to spend almost $30 on one tiny 8 oz size tin of the Wise Owl furniture salve. Instead, I made one myself and I absolutely love it!

Why wood salve?

I first encountered wood salve when I was watching the Instagram stories of one of my favorite furniture restoring influencers. She showed a product called Wise Owl furniture salve that she used as a safe step to refresh the inside of the dressers she refinished. It looked like an absolutely amazing way to revitalize wood. But when I looked up the price tag for this Wise Owl furniture salve, I was shocked. There’s NO way I could spend spend that much on something I could see myself using often.

What do you use wood salve on?

I love to thrift for the best furniture finds and spruce them up. Paint them. Strip them with oven cleaner. Do anything to make them look new and updated. And I’m always looking for new ideas to rejuvenate items are too vintage for me to want to mess with the finish on them.

For example, we have a stunning piano that needed a little loving and I wanted to keep it just like it was. I also had a beverage cart that I’m sure is from the early 1900s. While it isn’t exactly my taste, I didn’t have the heart to take a sander to it.

I needed a solution that filled in some of the imperfections, while giving it a little protection from future nicks and water marks. I knew a something like the Wise Owl furniture salve was what I wanted to use. But I also knew that if I was going to spend $30, I was going to invest that into ingredients to make my own!

Years ago, I made a healing salve and loved the butter texture. It was a bit creamy and not sticky or oily. It seemed perfect to repurpose for this furniture ointment project. I set to work using the ratios from the original recipe and swapping out oils and waxes I knew would be beneficial for furniture. This is what I came up with and I’m SO in love!

What you’ll need for furniture salve:

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Sometimes I just want to rejuvenate, protect, and seal the beautiful wood pieces. This is exactly what this furniture salve recipe will do for you. Without the high price tag, making your own natural furniture salve is the best value for the most product. My natural formula is derived of simple ingredients with no nasty fillers:

Ingredients for my hemp seed oil formula -contains:

Natural Oils

Hemp Seed Oil – The high hemp seed oil content of the salve puts moisture back into the wood and conditions it. While hemp seed oil alone would do a good job, it’s runny and hard to use. Additionally, there’s no water protection to prevent future damage because it doesn’t have wax which leaves a layer on the wood to safeguard the piece.

Coconut oil – The coconut oil formula conditions wood, much like the hemp oil does. Coconut oil is also a natural super oil because it has bactericidal properties – protects the wood. Also, because it’s solid at room temperature, this small amount of coconut oil adds firmness to the salve and gives it a butter texture.

Natural Waxes

Yellow Beeswax Pellets – Beeswax is amazing and helps the furniture salve to leave a thin coating on the wood making it more water resistant – provides protection. You could absolutely use melted regular beeswax, but it was important for me to not have to clean any pots or spoons. I just wanted to be able to measure the pellets right into the jar and melt it in the mason jar I’ll be using to store it. Because beeswax tends to make SUCH a mess, I avoid making things with it. So this option of pellets allows me to use something I’d normally avoid.

Candelilla Wax – Candelilla wax is another natural wax that helps to seal the wood to protect it from future damage like water rings. I used a flaked version of this so, again, it doesn’t need to be melted before being measured.

Scent

Essential Oils – My favorite salve scents are lemon and lavender but you could use any kind you’d like for an amazing smell.

The benefits of furniture salve come because we use such amazing, natural products to make it!

How do you make wood salve?

I wanted this process to be as mess free as it could possibly be. I HATE to clean up after melting beeswax. When I’ve made lotion bars or lip balm in the past, it’s a horrible chore to clean up afterwards. Additionally, you really need to have special pans and tools that you only use with beeswax because it never really comes off!

Makeshift double boiler:

So I decided to create a double boiler type system. I put a pot on the bottom, with an inch or so of water. Then I put all the ingredients into an 8oz mason jar and put that into the water. I made sure the water and the jar were room temperature so there wouldn’t be any breakage from adding a cold jar to hot water.

Heat ingredients

Measure the hemp oil, coconut oil, beeswax pellets, and candelilla flaked wax into the jar. Turn the fire on low and allow it to completely melt. Use a bamboo skewer to stir the mixture, so you can just throw it away afterwards.

Clearly, we were all out of bamboo skewers so I used a pencil! I wiped it off and resharpened it when I was done. Not ideal, but I didn’t want to wait to make this until conditions were ideal!

Add scent and cool

After it’s all melted, add the essential oils to make your favorite salve scents. I used 15 drops total, but it doesn’t have an incredibly strong scent, so I think you could definitely use more. Put it on a cooling rack to cool until it’s room temperature. Then it’s ready to use!

What is furniture salve used for?

This natural furniture salve recipe has a multitude of uses. Its easy application will make you want to use it on everything! It creates a very soft sheen on raw wood or finished wood. It’s strong formula contains natural products that make it perfect to use in place of furniture wax.

It’s such an amazing natural alternative to so many products. I think once you try it, you’ll see that it has endless applications!

Using furniture salve on stained wood to polish furniture

A good reason to make this furniture polish is to go over the top of a piece that’s already finished. Simply use a 0000 steel wool pad or a natural bristle brush and apply furniture salve in circular motions. Don’t use too much because you’ll be wiping off the excess. You can always add another coat, so less is more.

Add another coat if needed and after allowing it to sit for a few hours to soak into the wood, buff off the excess with a lint-free cloth. This soft cloth is the last step to leaving a soft sheen. It’s so easy and provides a natural sealant to your stained wood.

See how it works!

Here’s a quick video of me adding the furniture salve to a vintage beverage cart in two different places. There’s actually quite a bit of damage to this cart, but I was shocked at how much better it looked! I would never want to claim that it removed markings or scratches or water rings, but it goes a long way to disguise those marks and give future water protection.

I was using my iPhone this particular day, so the photos aren’t spectacular, but I wanted to make sure I documented the before and after of this piece. There’s a beautiful wood and glass tray that sits on top, but the underneath was kind of a wreck. Here’s the before.

And here’s the after photo with two coats of furniture salve on top. You can see that the wood damage around the edges is still pretty rough. However, the middle section is drastically better! It even brought back the original color of the wood finish!

Once I placed the beautiful tray back on top, the damaged edges don’t even show, and the newly beautified center part of the beverage card shines through!

Such a small investment to take a piece of furniture I was ready to get rid of and turn it back into something I love!

Using furniture salve on unfinished wood

I love to use this furniture salve to give a light finish and natural sealant to raw wood. Use this natural bristle brush to apply the furniture salve in circular motions. I let mine sit for a few hours to let those natural oils soak in. You can do more than one coat for extra protection if you’d like. Then within 24 hours, polish it with a lint-free cloth. This soft cloth will remove the excess furniture salve and leave a soft sheen.

You can also use this natural alternative after you stain wood as a final layer in place of polyurethane. I think you’ll find this furniture salve to be a perfect way to seal and provide water protection for your raw wood or stained wood pieces.

Using furniture salve over chalk synthesis paint or mineral paint

Another way this furniture salve recipe can be used is as a top coat on chalk synthesis paint or mineral paint. While mineral paint does not usually need a top coat, a wax can deepen the color and give a protective coat on the painted surface. Chalk synthesis paint DOES need to have a top coat and this furniture salve darkens and protects the chalk paint.

Using furniture salve on metal

Another way to use this is to clean up and rehydrate older metal. I think you’ll be shocked at what a difference it makes on antique metals to shine up the beauty of years of patina.

Other uses for furniture salve:

I did some research online and looked at the benefits of Wise Owl furniture salve on common household areas and thought I’d try it with mine too. It worked like a charm! There’s so many other ways to use this furniture salve recipe!

Here are some of them:

Rehydrating the old vinyl interior dashboard of your car

Using it on trim on the exterior of the car

Shining up stainless-steel appliances – it makes it SO pretty!

Your kitchen sink (mine is enameled cast iron and it works great!)

Applying it on hinges to fix the squeaks

Sealing the inside of antique drawers to help mask unwanted smells

Shining up foggy headlights

Benefits of furniture salve:

Outside of what we’ve already discussed, this furniture salve has plenty of benefits for your skin. It feels great! All the natural ingredients make it an excellent hand moisturizer and cuticle and nail treatment. Isn’t that crazy?!

Is furniture salve the same as wax?

It’s similar but quite different. While wax gives water protection, it does not usually hydrate and condition the wood. It simply adds a protective coating. Similarly, oils and wood conditioners moisturize the wood, but don’t protect it. This furniture salve is the best of both worlds. It’s soft and easy to use – unlike hard waxes or runny oils. Plus it adds moisture to the wood, while leaving behind a protective layer of wax.

Can I make different furniture salve scents?

Yes! I love to make this natural furniture salve in a variety of scents. The essential oils smell great and make your wood pieces smell great too! You could make calming scents like lavender, sweet orange or chamomile. For a broad appeal try vanilla, tea tree, lemon, peppermint, or bergamot. Alternatively, you can make a traditional masculine scent with patchouli, cedar wood, spruce, or frankincense. I think you’ll find that adding a scent gives you aromatherapy enjoyment! I’d love to hear what new furniture salve scents you make!

I think this natural furniture salve will really up your refinishing game! Get together with your friends and divide the cost of the items and make a few batches to split. Then you can get in a girls afternoon and go home with something super useful!

Furniture Salve

This furniture salve helps to protect your wood, and can even fill in some of the unsightly rings and marks on your wood surfaces!

• 1/2 cup hemp oil
• 1 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1 Tbsp beeswax pellets
• 1 Tbsp candelilla wax
• 10 drops lemon essential oil
• 5 drops lavender essential oil

To make

1. Fill bottom of pan with about an inch or two of water.

2. Add all ingredients (except the essential oils ) into an 8oz. mason jar. Place mason jar in pot with water. This will act like a double boiler.

3. Turn burner on low and the water will heat up, allowing contents of the jar to melt. Use a bamboo skewer to stir the oils and waxes until they are melted. Make sure not to get the water from the pot into the jar!

4. Remove the jar from the water, add the essential oils and give it a stir.

5. Allow the mixture in the jar to cool completely.

To use over a finished piece

1. Use a 0000 steel wool pad to get salve out of the jar. Gently rub the surface of your wood with the steel wool and salve in circular motions, working it into the wood.

2. After you’ve worked the salve into the wood, polish it with an old white tshirt to remove any extra salve and polish the surface.

3. Repeat if desired.

For unfinished wood

1. Use this brush to apply the furniture salve in circular motions. After it sits for a little while, polish it (within 24 hours) with a white t-shirt rag. I use something like this because they are clean and lint free.

For use with Chalk Paint

1. Another way this furniture salve recipe can be used is as a top coat on chalk paint or mineral paint. While mineral paint does not usually need a top coat, a wax can deepen the color and give a protective coat on the painted surface. Chalk paint DOES need to have a top coat and this furniture salve darkens and protects the chalk paint. 

For Antique Metals

1. Another way to use this is to clean up and rehydrate older metal. I think you’ll be shocked at what a difference it makes on antique metals. 

Other ways to use this furniture salve recipe

1. Rehydrating the interior dashboard of your car

   Using it on trim on the exterior of the car

   Shining up stainless steel appliances

   Applying it on hinges to fix the squeaks

   Sealing the inside of antique drawers

The post The Best Easy Copycat Wise Owl Furniture Salve Recipe appeared first on Little Reasons.

When I first saw this on Instagram, I was mesmerized by the look it gave the wood. It was almost like the wood was bleached. I also was totally inspired to do some of the pieces that I have been avoiding refinishing…you know the ones with nooks and crannies that you’ll never get the finish off?

I’ve had adorable mismatched black chairs in my dining room for about 6 years. It was a great option to have a ton of chairs and not spend a lot of money. But I was getting sort of tired of them and wanted to make a change.

Then I remembered that I was at a friend’s house when her neighbor came over and offered her these chairs. So ugly, but the BONES are stunning!!! He offered them to me too and I took them in a heartbeat!

I can tell you that my husband was thrilled that I brought 6 chairs home and then left them in the basement for multiple years. (can you feel my sarcasm?!) But that story ends today! I decided I if you could use oven cleaner to strip furniture, then I would use that method to make these beautiful!

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How to know if a piece is right for the oven cleaner method:

I have normally used Citristrip in the past when I’ve stripped furniture. It works so well for big surfaces – like tables. But for something like chairs that have so many twists and turns and tiny spots, oven cleaner is perfect.

I’ve used it on 2 projects, and walked a friend through the process as well. She’s a wedding planner, so she refinished this piece to use as a wedding rental. Isn’t it stunning?

So her project turned out beautifully. The chairs were perfect. They were flawless. I couldn’t have asked for a better first project.

My second project was awful. I chose a redwood table. It had great lines but I didn’t like the finish. It was that highly lacquered red look. I had such high hopes! After 2 rounds of oven cleaner, that red was not budging. Not even a little bit! I decided to not waste much more time with that piece, because I’m not sure if it will EVER come off!

BEFORE

AFTER 2 ROUNDS OF OVEN CLEANER AND SCRUBBING

But it was worth a try! So this is my advice. Highly lacquered pieces might not work because you’ll spend the first few rounds just taking off the super thick clear coat. But it might work! So maybe try it and have a backup plan!

What you’ll need to use oven cleaner to strip furniture:

Oven Cleaner:

Oven Cleaner – Easy Off is what everyone on Instagram says you should use. But I’m frugal. I ended up using the Walmart brand and it worked perfectly!

When I was redoing my chairs, I used about 1 1/4-1 1/2 cans per chair. I had a lot of nooks and crannies and I’m a perfectionist, so I did about 3 coats on each chair.

Scrub Brush:

Scrub brush – I used a couple different brushes when I did this job. My favorite brush was one in the set I linked here. It has a handle which was so helpful when I was scrubbing. It also had a big end and a small end. I felt like that aided me in getting into the smaller nooks.

At the end of the job, I needed to use an old toothbrush because I had some spots that I couldn’t get with any of the brushes I had.

Mask:

Mask – Don’t be dumb like me and try to go mask free. My lungs killed for days afterward and I spent so much time googling to see if I ruined my lungs forever. I will never do this again without having a mask on my face to keep the fumes out.

Rubber Gloves:

Rubber gloves – These are a must! That oven cleaner is super damaging to your skin. Make sure you’re using rubber gloves. Again, I didn’t do this at the beginning, but I could tell it was not reacting well with my skin, so I busted out the rubber gloves and used them after that.

Blue Dawn Dish Detergent:

Blue Dawn Dish Detergent – I never ever substitute this part. I don’t know what in the world they put in this stuff but it’s AMAZING! So get yourself some because you’ll need it!

Sandpaper:

Sandpaper – the scrubbing and water tends to make the wood feel a little rough. I know other people don’t do this, but if I’m going to spend all this time refinishing chairs, they are going to feel amazing when you touch them. If you’re doing a piece people don’t put their hands on, you might be ok skipping this step. I used around 220 just to get it smooth.

Topcoat:

Top Coat – General Finishes Water Based Satin Topcoat is my obsession. I used it in my floating shelves in my kitchen (you can see that project Here!) and also on my bathroom vanity. Both of them have such heavy use and have held up beautifully. So I decided to use it again here.

Lots of people use the General Finishes Flat Out Flat topcoat and it’s stunning. It doesn’t look like it has any topcoat on it at all! But it still has all the protection of a poly topcoat. I think it’s a great option.

How to choose a piece of furniture to strip with oven cleaner

I thought I’d show you a few lovely before pictures from these chairs, along with a few close up afters. The finish was SO ugly! But train your eye to look beyond what you see – to actually see the lines of the piece. Look for furniture that is well made and has interesting features.

My goal is to have a unique home that doesn’t look like other people’s homes. And I don’t want it to look like a showroom floor from 2022. Mixing in these old pieces that are renovated to today’s styles are the way to make your home stand out from everyone else’s!

Do you notice the graceful curve of the front legs? That lovely line of the wood across the front of the chair? I knew those would all pop when the ugliness of dated stain and fabric disappeared.

Do you see the gorgeous back of the chair? The routered detail inside that figure 8? The shape of the sides of the back, how they go in? They would look so stunning when all that reddish stain was removed. Boy, was I right!

So just train your eye to look beyond the cosmetic ugliness and see the potential in a piece. Stain and finish can change but the bones of the piece cannot.

How to use oven cleaner to strip furniture:

Make sure to remove the hardware and seats before you start this process. I keep the screws in a labeled baggie so I don’t lose them. I’ll teach you how to easily recover the seats in another post!

Step 1 – Spray furniture with oven cleaner

Spray the whole piece with oven cleaner. Use a mask. Don’t be cavalier like me and regret it! Cover the whole piece. I even put another coat on areas that didn’t look good and thick. Then let it sit!

I did this on the driveway because it kills the grass. I found that out the first day I worked on one of the chairs – in the grass…. Don’t do that. Learn from my mistakes!

Step 2 – Put it in a shady spot

You want to make sure you protect this from the sun. It’s not good for the oven cleaner to dry on the furniture. You want it just to sit there wet and do its work. Unfortunately, you need the sun for drying the pieces after they are rinsed, but you really need to find shade for this part! So after the furniture is sprayed with the oven cleaner, pop it into a shady spot to sit.

Step 3 – Wait 20-30 min.

Take my advice and set an alarm and wait the full amount of time. I got lazy one day and I think I had only been waiting 10-15 minutes and it was so frustrating because the finish didn’t come off no matter how hard I scrubbed!

And conversely, I was walking my friend through this project and she forgot about it and let the oven cleaner dry for hours – which turned out to be just as frustrating!

So set a timer and wait the full time.

Step 4 – Scrub a Dub

You’ll need to put some effort into this part. Grab a bucket and fill it with water and blue Dawn dish detergent and some rubber gloves (this is a chemical!). Then use that soapy water on a scrub brush and scrub, scrub, scrub.

Honestly, after doing this on six chairs, I woke up SO SORE the next morning! You seriously use muscles you didn’t realize you had!

I tried to scrub with the grain. I figured that it was a bad idea to go against the grain. Also, be careful! I did this on my driveway and I was flipping these onto the top to try to get the legs scrubbed. Unfortunately when I was sanding them at the end, I noticed that the delicate wood being ground into the cement was not a good idea. It left some scratched up areas that needed extra sanding. Be careful as you go. Realize this is raw wood and could get damaged.

Step 5 – Rinse

Use a hose to rinse off all the oven cleaner and old poly and stain. Sometimes as you go, you’ll see a cloudy area. I found that to be a sign that I didn’t get that spot well enough. So you can scrub that a little bit more as you rinse it and sometimes that saves you another coat of oven cleaner. Get it good and rinsed off.

Step 6 – Put it in a sunny spot

After you get all the oven cleaner rinsed off, dry it as fast as you can to keep it from getting water spots. I found that I only tried to do this on sunny days so that I could have the quickest drying effect. Wood doesn’t like water, so you want to dry it as fast as you can!

Step 7 – Repeat until all old stain and poly are removed

Once it’s totally dry, you can see the spots that still need work. I did about 3 coats on each of the chairs. The great thing is that if you get a vast majority of the finish off the first time around like I did on these chairs, you don’t need to spray the whole piece the next time.

On round 2 and 3, I only sprayed oven cleaner on the portion that needed it. Remembering where you sprayed can be a problem. Once you start rinsing it, everything is wet and looks the same!

Step 8 – Sand

I used 220 grit sandpaper and gave the pieces a light sanding until it was smooth to the touch.

Step 9 – Use a protective top coat

I’m obsessed with General Finishes Topcoat. I used the satin on mine and it definitely changed the color of the wood. You might want to try the General Finishes Flat out Flat if you want to try to maintain the same color of the wood. That is what I’ve seen in the past and it really seems to work.

I personally loved the color mine ended up because it blended with our floor and piano much better than the whiter wood. But use whatever you’d like to topcoat it!

I only used one coat to begin with, but I think I’m going to go back and lightly sand between layers and do another 2 coats. If this was just a regular piece of furniture, I would not bother. But after sitting in these chairs for a while, I think I want to make sure it’s utterly smooth to the touch.

Final thoughts on using oven cleaner to strip furniture

I am SO happy with how this project turned out! I loved using oven cleaner to strip furniture! After doing it the traditional way in the past, I am thrilled that this was so easy and turned out so beautifully.

The chairs are completely unique and nobody I know has anything like them…which I love! I even took them outside for an outdoor dinner using my new rewired chandelier (I show you how to do that easily in this post!). Aren’t they so pretty?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this – and if you try it out, I’m all about feedback! How did it work for you?

Pin for Later!

The post Use Oven Cleaner to Strip Furniture the Easy Way! appeared first on Little Reasons.

My son’s graduation party was quickly approaching, and I knew we needed to update our downstairs bathroom flooring. The best option seemed to be researching different types of paint and choosing one that could go over tile and would hold up to a lot of traffic.

I researched for hours on Pinterest to find the best floor paint for ceramic tiles. I ran out to buy what I needed with a huge list in hand.

When I got to the Benjamin Moore counter at ACE, I told her what my project was and what I wanted to buy. This sweet girl looked at me like I had grown two heads! She told me that whatever I had read on Pinterest, she would NOT recommend me buying that product.

She said she would directly contact her Benjamin Moore rep and find out what they thought was my best option. I’m SO glad I took her recommendation instead of blazing forward with a paint that might not hold up!

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Why would I paint a ceramic tile floor?

Money

I think the best reason to paint ceramic tiles is the budget friendliness of the option. It’s so crazy that for under $75, and in one day, you can have a completely different look! Changing the floor totally transforms a room. While you can find paint at a lower price, I don’t think you’ll beat this one!

Time

We had a few areas where we wanted to get rid of the dated floors. Unfortunately, we had so much going on that we didn’t have the time to renovate floors. The thought of pulling out toilets and renting a wet saw and learning a new skill was completely overwhelming when we had so many other things going on! We just didn’t have time to replace a floor!

Lacking skills

I love to try new projects and don’t mind failing my way forward. I know not everyone is like that, and so they would much rather hire someone to replace flooring for them. This can be expensive, and sometimes cost prohibitive. It also adds frustration because your room is out of use while that is being done! That leads to the last area…

Tide you over…

Oftentimes, I see people doing a quick job like this in order to tide them over until they can do what they really want to do. It seems that homeownership has no end of projects! Sometimes a floor is not in good condition, or it’s just outdated and needs a quick cover up. That gives the time to focus on the bigger projects and spruce it up until you can address it.

This was the bathroom floor that we wanted to paint. It was showing so much wear after being painted by the prior owner. No matter how much we washed it, it always looked dirty. This little hack has been a GREAT way to tide us over. Once we are ready to fully renovate that bathroom, we can figure something else out then.

What is the best floor paint for ceramic tiles?

Without a doubt, I say the best floor paint for ceramic tiles is Benjamin Moore Command FloorPaint. The Benjamin Moore rep let our salesperson know that they were just releasing their commercial floor paint to their residential line and this particular product would be perfect for what we were looking for. It even comes in a range of colors so I was able to choose what color worked best for us.

Because it was brand new, I had to special order it. Even though I had to wait for it to arrive, it worth the wait! This is the paint that Benjamin Moore uses in manufacturing facilities where the lines run 24 hours a day and they don’t have time to wait forever for floor paint to dry. Plus, they need it to be super durable for use in high-traffic areas – they even have forklifts running over it! It’s also a paint that is approved to use in harsh conditions and extreme temperatures – like down to 35 degrees!

Those things work perfectly in the home setting too, especially one with heavy foot traffic. Who can be without a bathroom for very long? And who wants to be repainting things because it’s all scratched up? It needs to be a durable finish with kiddos and dogs running around! While some people may choose an acrylic paint or latex paint and then just use a clear topcoat, I feel that this is the easiest, quickest option.

How to use the best floor paint for ceramic floor tiles:

1. Sweep and Wash the Floor to be painted

I always like to start with a fresh, clean surface. I start by sweeping the floor and washing it just to make sure that I get any gunk off the floor. Mine had old paint on it and I just swept and washed it and didn’t treat it any differently.

2. Lightly Sand Floor

In this case, I was going over previously painted tiles. However, ceramic tile or regular tile also need to be roughed up in order to accept the paint.

Take a rougher sandpaper – like 80-120 grit and just scuff it up. I didn’t use a palm sander or anything. I just had a piece of sandpaper in my hand and tried to scuff up the surface of all the tiles. If you have a high gloss tile, I’d be more aggressive with the sanding to make sure you get a good rough surface for the paint to adhere to.

If you have a very large area, you may want to use something like an orbital sander or even a floor sander like you can rent at Home Depot or other local stores. But, if it’s small like mine, you can just use a sanding block or a square of sandpaper in your hand. It doesn’t have to be complicated. You just need to be able to get the entire floor scuffed up.

This step makes such a difference and will lead to a long-lasting result because it will allow your paint to adhere well. It’s worth it even if it takes a long time!

3. Wash Floor with TSP

Wash it with TSP after sanding. This is a cleaner that I use on most of my painting projects. It does a stellar job of removing some of the finish, in addition to making sure it’s completely degreased.

4. Rinse Floor with Water

You’ll need to rinse the floor once or twice just to make sure that all the TSP has been removed from the surface. I think I did this twice just because I’m paranoid and I don’t want to mess up a job just because I’m in a hurry!

5. Let Floor Dry

I tried to make sure my floor was absolutely dry before I put that first coat of paint on. You can even put a fan on the surface to get it to dry faster. I also kept the door closed on the room from this point on so that I didn’t get any dirt or dust particles and hair on the floor before I painted.

6. Cut in With Paint brush

It’s so exciting because with this paint, you don’t need any coats of primer before you start painting!!! So many floor coatings require a layer of primer first, so this cuts out that step.

*IMPORTANT* Make sure you are starting in a corner and working your way toward the door. The worst thing you can do is to paint yourself into a corner and then step over fresh paint to get out!

I cut in starting with the side of the room with a paint brush, using my Command Floor Paint. Then I used the paint brush to get all the lines between the tiles as well.

7. Paint Larger Areas with a Small Paint Roller

You can use a smaller paint roller to paint the tops of the ceramic tiles and to give a good roll over it all with the paint roller to make sure you don’t have any noticeable brush strokes if you’d like. I just used a brush since I had teeny tiny tiles and cutting in between them practically painted the whole floor!

Once you have this fresh coat of paint on, the next step is to let it dry!

8. Let the Freshly Painted Floor Dry for 1 Hour

I could not believe this part, but it was truly dry to the touch in less than a half hour and ready for a second coat an hour later! It’s a good idea to shut the door for this part as well, so no speck of dust or dog hair blows in on the freshly painted surface.

9. Complete 2nd Coat of Paint

The second coat is just like the first! I wore clean socks to make sure I didn’t track anything in on the floor as I got to work on the second coat.

10. Let Painted Floor Dry for 24 Hours

After the 2nd coat, I closed the door one more time and let it dry for 24 hours. Then it was ready to use! This was such a fast project because from start to finish, it took just over a day! I can’t believe I gave my floor a new life with less than $100 and one day!

The crazy thing is that it didn’t take much time and it didn’t need any clear coating in order to create a durable finish!

Resume Normal Use

I used the floors gingerly the first day because I was scared – but my kids were not. They just tramped on them like normal and they were perfect! The final result was just what I wanted. Inexpensive. Quick. Looks great.

I think this has been the best choice for our family. It has been the most durable paint we could have imagined! While it was my first time using it, I’m sure it won’t be my last time!

FAQs for the best floor paint

Can I use this on hardwood floors?

Looking online, it lists that it works well for wood, so I think this would work great on wooden floors that may be too damaged to refinish. Even if you’re looking to cover subfloor for a while until you put in the real floor on top, or if you just have a damaged wood floor where you’d like to keep the look of the small planks, or need to fill in big gouges with wood filler, this could be a really great option.

I had a friend once who had a damaged wood kitchen floor, so she painted a checkerboard pattern on it. This would be an amazing and durable option for wood floor paints! Just use a little green painter’s tape to mark off your squares and get painting!

I’m not sure if you have to take it down to bare wood, but I’m guessing you can just scratch up the surface like with painting the tile. If you try this as a wood floor paint, let me know!

Can I use the best floor paint on garage floors?

I have no idea how durable this would be if you’re driving cars over it or having pebbles scrape along the garage floors. But, my gut would say that since this was make for an industrial setting, it probably was designed to have forklifts and things driving over it. It’s inexpensive enough that I think it would be worth it to see if this is a durable floor paint that could withstand the type of use in a garage setting.

My biggest concern is that it’s only rated to 35 degrees, so using this on concrete floors in a garage may get too cold if you live in extreme temperatures. However, if you don’t live in cold temps, it might end up being the best garage floor paint! If you do use it, please let me know!

Is this a good bare concrete paint for basement floors?

I think this would be a good option for concrete paint. When looking online at the description, it says it works well for concrete surfaces and masonry. You may need to do a little research to see if there’s anything special you need to do to paint concrete, especially if it’s new concrete, but I think it would be a good type of paint to use as a concrete floor paint. Maybe it isn’t just the best floor paint for tile…maybe it’s the best concrete paint too! Let me know!

Can I use this floor paint on laminate floors?

I see no reason why this wouldn’t work well on laminate floors just like it does on other smooth surfaces. I would suggest doing all the work of scuffing them up with sandpaper and washing with TSP so you get a good bond with the base coat of paint.

If it’s a bumpy surface, you may need a different kind of paint roller cover that has a longer nap to get into all the grooves. But this is such a high-quality paint that I think it might be a great option.

How will I know how much to buy?

I am not sure how to figure out how much you’ll need. What I would recommend would be to have the square feet of your space figured out and bring that in to ACE hardware store or whatever home improvement store you’re buying the paint from. They are SO good at figuring things like that out. Just make sure that you figure in the second coat so you don’t end up with only half of what you need!

Do I need to put a top coat on the best floor paint?

Nope! Some types of paint require a semi-gloss top coat for additional durability, but you don’t have to do it with this one! Because it’s a high quality floor acrylic urethane enamel, it will work with nothing else on top!

Can I use it over paint?

Yup! I had previous coatings of old paint on our ceramic tile and it worked really well!

What types of colors and sheens can I get in the best floor paint?

Online, it mentions that this floor enamel comes in 5 premixed colors. If you want different colors, you can order it in any of the Benjamin Moore colors. It comes in satin and gloss but they do not carry a matte finish or a high gloss finish.

*1 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

In a scurry of activity before my son’s graduation party June of 2021, we painted the floor in the half bath on the main floor. This bathroom gets SO much foot traffic!

Not only does our family of 5 use it all day long – we homeschool so most of us are home throughout the day – but we also entertain a ton! We host a high school Lifegroup on Tuesday nights and our house has a revolving door for teenagers visiting our kids. So, we have more than our fair share of foot traffic in that room.

The crazy thing is that it still looks AMAZING!!!! I cannot believe what good shape it is in a year later. I thought there was a good chance that I would have to repaint it every year until we could replace it because it receives a lot of wear. But it looks like that will not be happening.

At one point, I thought there was a big scratch in the floor, but it turns out that there was just something stuck to it. I am actually completely shocked! I know Benjamin Moore promised it was amazing, but I’ve heard that before and have been disappointed by the results. So this was a very pleasant surprise for the paint to do exactly what they said it would do.

It’s not a paid advertisement. I just really am so happy that for once, a product did what was promised!! It was such a good choice for us! It really is the best paint for ceramic tile floors!

*2 1/2 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

This really is the best floor paint! It’s 2024 and I still love it! Last night we had 27 people in our home for high school Lifegroup, and it reminded me how well this floor has done with a heavy traffic area. It’s great. No chips. No issues at all. I’m seriously shocked that it has provided the best results we could have asked for!!! I cannot believe what a long-lasting finish this has given us for the last couple years!

*4 year update on the Best Floor Paint*

We are coming up on 4 years and this paint is holding up great. While I did see our first chips in the paint in front of the toilet where the most traffic is, I still think this has been an excellent choice. I never meant for this to be a long term solution for us, but I firmly believe that this was the best way to buy us time until we decided to redo this bathroom!

The post The Best Floor Paint for Ceramic Tile – Proven to Last appeared first on Little Reasons.

When I was renovating our kitchen, we decided to keep the same window, but just fix the broken glass pane. We found that it saved us hundreds of dollars to stick with the wooden window we already had.

I knew that if I could just build out the framing to make it look really special, it would be worth the savings!

Why not just buy new metal hardware?

One of the problems I ran into was that the hardware on the window was old and covered with thick coats of paint. Since our house was built in 1932, who knows when this window was installed?! Clearly long ago since it had been painted many times.

I went to tons of hardware stores and checked online and couldn’t find any window hardware that had even a smidge of the character of the hardware already installed on the window. They also looked SO cheaply made.

Additionally, all these new locks would have different placement for the holes, which could make things really complicated. The same thing happens if you’re replacing hinges and other hardware. However, when you use original hardware, it maintains the same placement.

So, I made a new plan. I decided that I would need to just work with what I had.

What is the best paint remover for metal hardware?

Would you believe that the best paint remover for metal hardware is water!? What? I couldn’t believe it! It turns out that heat + water + time = my solution.

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Step 1- remove metal hardware:

Remove the hardware from your door or window. Since this paint removal process takes a little time, it’s best to do a big batch of all the hardware at once.

You’ll also want to make sure you remove any of the screws and keep it all together. You won’t want to use different screws, since the originals match the hardware, and perfectly fit the holes.

Step 2 – set up tools:

You’ll need a small crockpot for this project. I have had mine FOREVER, but I linked one that is similar to what I used.

After that, fill the crockpot with water and set it on high. That’s it! Say goodbye to toxic chemicals. No need for rubber gloves. Don’t scrub. No elbow grease necessary. Just a crockpot and water!

Step 3 – remove the paint over time:

After turning the crockpot on high, add the hardware and screws to the water and set the timer for 4 hours. At the end of four hours, check the hardware to see if the paint is beginning to peel off.

Mine was done right at that 4 hour mark, but if it needs longer, set the timer for another few hours and check it again then.

On our hardware, it pretty much peeled right off, but you may need to use a toothbrush to finish removing the last of the paint.

Step 4 – shine up the metal hardware:

Shine up the hardware! My favorite trick for this is to use Barkeeper’s friend and a toothbrush.

I’ve used this a lot for brass/gold hardware and it’s amazing how it reveals. I think the modern day gold and brass hardware looks too bright and modern, especially if you’re renovating an older item. I love to just uncover the original metal that was on the piece.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photos of this part of the process! I use the powdered Barkeeper’s Friend. Get the hardware wet and sprinkle a little on. Then, use an old toothbrush and scrub away. It is amazing what a difference it makes!

Here’s some hardware that I’ve used Barkeeper’s Friend on. The one in the back is the old, worn one. The front handle has been scrubbed with a toothbrush and the Barkeeper’s Friend. I love that it leaves a bit of the weathered dark in the grooves. Above all, it helps to maintain the aged look, but brings it back to life!

Step 5 – reinstall metal hardware:

Lastly, just put it back where it came from! Because you are using the same hardware, you’ll be able to put it exactly back where it belongs. No measuring. No redrilling new holes. In short, just screw it back in where it belongs!

And you’re done! There’s just something about original hardware that makes me so happy! I didn’t spend any money, I didn’t have to reposition new hardware, and I maintained the integrity of the older home. It was a win all around!

So what’s your trick for the best paint remover for metal hardware? I’d love to hear!

Pin for Later!

The post The Best Paint Remover for Metal Hardware! appeared first on Little Reasons.

In the past, I’ve shared about how to make an inexpensive board and batten wall, and how to totally transform your living room by lime washing your fireplace. Today we are going to talk about another amazing home renovation project!

What is a heavy duty floating shelf?

Floating shelves became synonymous with farmhouse style. I’m not crazy about a rustic farmhouse look. But I LOVE a shelf without decorative shelf brackets to distract from what is piled on them. A heavy duty floating shelf is just a thick chunk of wood that’s attached to your wall and as a shelf, and has heavy duty brackets that are invisible. While some farmhouse shelves have ornamental shelf brackets, these shelves have an invisible bracket that makes them look like they are simply floating.

This post contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

What brackets are normally used for floating shelves?

There are a few ways to secure floating shelves and there are many types of shelf hardware that can be used. It typically depends on the look you’re going for and how much time and money you want to spend. I tend to want to spend very little money, but I want it to look very expensive. Not super easy to do! Here are a few of the shelf supports that can be used to mount floating wood shelves.

Floating box shelves

Some people build empty boxes that slide on to posts that are installed into studs in the walls. These are pretty and quite economical, but I wanted to use solid wood chunks, because I love the look of thick reclaimed wood.

Premade brackets for floating shelves

Another option for floating shelves is to install them with a hidden bracket specifically built to be invisible. This is not my favorite option.

First, these pre made heavy-duty shelf brackets are EXPENSIVE when you’re doing a job as big as mine. I wanted to spend my money on quality wood in order to make them look impressive. I din’t want to spend a lot of money on the bracket arms that no one sees.

Second, they can look really bad. The metal is pretty thick on these brackets, so they should be set into the tiles or routered into the back of the wood shelf. If you don’t do that extra step, the wood doesn’t sit flush with the wall and it looks very “homemade”.

Hovr bracket system

There’s another floating shelf bracket that looks like it would work well. It’s called the hovr bracket system and is more of a slide on type bracket. The drawback to this option is that you have to have a router to inset the slide bar into the shelf. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a wood shop in my house. My tools are a bit limited, so I skipped this option.

What is an inexpensive option for heavy duty floating shelf brackets?

I went back and forth on my bracket system. My husband begged me to consider using some sort of corbel or black bracket to hold them up since that would have been easy. But I had my heart set on a particular design for our kitchen and to do that, we could not have black brackets showing. Sorry, honey!

I found the perfect solution to build the best floating shelves! I decided that I would use solid steel 5/8″ threaded rods that are 12″ long and I picked them up at my local Home Depot. Using a drill bit to drill directly into the 2×4 stud about 3-3 1/2″ would give me the rod support I needed. Then we would drill into the shelf to an approx. 8.5-inch depth and then slide the shelf on.

I figured this would give me the most sturdy shelf I could make that would hold a lot of weight, while providing the look I was hoping for.

How do I install heavy duty floating shelf brackets that are secure?

It’s actually not hard at all to install the heavy duty shelf brackets this way. I found that the most complicated part was

1. making sure we drilled straight into the studs
2. tiling around the holes

If you aren’t tiling all the way up your wall like I did, you will save SO much work!

Supply List for Heavy Duty Floating Shelf Brackets:

5/8″ threaded solid steel rod – Under $3 each!

Hammer or mallet

2×4 chunk of wood

1X2 piece cut the same length as your shelf

3/4″ drill bit – or 2 if you mess up like we did

Electric drill – helpful if it has a level installed on it

3″ thick wood cut to size for shelves

General Finishes Water Based Satin Polyurethane

Determine Length and Prep Shelving

In order to make these look substantial, it’s best to use wood that is about 3″ thick. It’s also easier to drill into a piece of wood that is that thick. If you’re drilling into a 2″ shelf and your drill bit is 3/4″, it doesn’t leave much room for error.

I felt like it was worth spending the money on amazing wood because this is a statement piece in my kitchen. I’d normally have put cabinets there, so this was actually cheaper than doing that.

Cut the shelves to size and get them sanded and ready to install.

Where do I find reclaimed wood?

I located local reclaimed wood shops online and called around until I found a shop that had wood 3″ thick and at least 9″ deep so my dinner plates would fit on them well. It took some calling because that’s kind of a unique size wood, but I found it!

I drove an hour each way to get the wood for my shelving and I don’t regret it one bit! The only thing I regret is not taking my husband’s truck to pick it up.

The owner of the company used a chainsaw to cut the wood to length so I could fit it in my car. His cut was off by 3″ on one shelf! That meant that I had to cut another shelf 3″ shorter so they would line up. Kind of a bummer. But in the end I barely notice it now.

Just know that it might be worth it to bring a tape measure and circular saw if you need to cut them to length to fit them in your vehicle.

Determine the Height of the Floating Shelves

There’s not a set distance above the countertop that you have to have your first shelf. We decided that we wanted our lower shelf at around 20-21″ above the countertop. The next shelf we placed 16″ higher.

Our shelves are taking up the whole wall, and we were only installing 2 on each side. Because of that, we wanted to make sure they covered a lot of the wall space, while still being low enough to reach.

One thing to make sure to know is that if you have 3″ thick shelves, you need to realize that they will be 1 1/2″ above and below the rods. Same thing with the upper shelf. So take that into account when you are deciding the distance between the rods. It won’t equal the distance between the shelves.

Mark the Studs for Rod Placement

This is probably the most important part of the job. Studs provide the rod support that you will need to hold the weight of the shelves. I’m not sure if you would do it the same way if you had solid walls, something like brick. You’d have to do some research to figure that out. But in a regular drywalled wall, the studs provide the support. NEVER use drywall anchors to secure floating shelves.

At the time of the picture above, we had built our countertops and installed the green board and were adding the cement board. We marked the studs at this point because we weren’t sure how strong the stud finder was and if it would go through cement board.

Make sure to mark the studs on both sides. So make a mark where the stud finder starts beeping and another when it stops. That should show you the exact placement of the stud and allow you to drill right into the middle of those two marks.

Drill Holes 3″ Deep into Studs

We used a cordless drill for this portion. Our drill happens to have a level on it, but if yours does not, you can just set a small level on the top to make sure you are going in nice and straight. Since you’re drilling in far, you want to make sure they are all really straight and not tipped. We used a 3/4″ drill bit that created approximately 19 mm holes in which to place the rods.

Use a long drill bit to drill in 3-3 1/2″ into the stud. You’ll want to make sure you drill in far enough because the last thing you want to do is to find out your holes aren’t deep enough and you have a gap between the shelf and the wall.

Finish the Wall around the Holes

Finish the walls after you drill your holes. Paint it or tile it. If you choose to tile it, you can use a tile cutting drill bit to drill through the tiles to give you the ability to slide the rod through that as well.

Slide Rods into the Holes

Slide the rods into the holes after the wall is either painted or tiled. Because we used a 3/4″ drill bit, ours slid right in. We had thought we would want to glue them in, but the tension when we added the shelving kept them in perfectly

Make Template on Scrap Wood for the Floating Shelves

We decided to make a template on scrap wood and drill the holes in the 1×2. Then we slid that over the rods to make sure it was perfectly aligned to the rods for that shelf. We did that 4 times – once for each shelf.

I could just kick myself for not taking a picture of this process. It is exactly what you would imagine, though. I held the 1×2 (cut the length of the shelf) exactly where I would want the shelf to be, but below the rods. Then we marked the 1×2 with the rod placement. We drilled holes through the middle and then tried it on for size by sliding the rods into the holes.

The reason we decided to do a template is because each of our shelves cost about $75 for the wood, or $300 total. We did NOT want to drill 9″ into that wood and then realize we were slightly off. So this extra step took some time, but it was well worth the effort. Each shelf we made ended up fitting on perfectly.

Use Template to Mark Holes on Floating Shelves

We used our template to mark the holes on the back of the shelves. Make sure you remember what side was facing the wall so that the proper side of the template is against the wood. We spent too long verifying that we were putting the template on the end of the wood correctly. Measure twice, cut once, right?

Drill 8″ into Floating Shelves

Make sure your drill bit is long enough to go in 8-9″ and drill away! This part was a little harder than my husband anticipated. Again, we used the level on the drill to make sure he was going in straight.

The spoiler is that he didn’t get it perfectly straight. However, it turns out that when that human error makes them a tiny bit off, it creates tension on the rods when you install them. In a funny turn of events, this is what made ours fit so tightly and not need to be glued!

Tips:

Have an extra drill bit on hand!

The wood we had was white oak, we think. It was SO hard and we broke one or two drill bits along the way.

If drill bit gets stuck…

Yes. This happened to us and it was SO frustrating!!! It turns out that after spending hours trying to get the drill bit out, my husband found a video that explained that the sawdust can sometimes make the drill bit seize up.

We ended up using a skewer and sticking it in there to loosen all the shavings up and it worked like a charm!!!

Since prevention is better than dealing with a problem once it happens, we realized that drilling a little at a time, and then turning it upside down to get the shavings out of the hole as we went was the best option. Once we went slowly and cleared the sawdust as we went, it kept it from reoccurring.

Fit Rods into Shelving Holes and Pound in With 2×4 and Mallet

This part is so fun! Slide the shelves onto the rods. They should fit tightly. Then take a large chunk of a 2×4 and pound that chunk of wood to get them to go on. The chunk of wood spreads out the pressure from pounding and keeps the shelves from getting damaged.

Finish Heavy Duty Floating Shelves with Poly

We pounded them on until they were a couple inches away from the wall. Then I finished them with 5 coats of General Finishes water based satin poly. I wanted to wait to do this until we had mostly installed them. That way if they got a little damaged, it was before I put all the work into putting polyurethane on them.

Pound in the Rest of the Way After Completely Dried

After they are completely dried, use the same method to finish pounding them in until they are flush against the wall. Be very careful not to damage the coat of poly. Now your hidden bracket is fully hidden!

Remember that it’s reclaimed wood. It’s not going to be absolutely perfect. I could drive myself crazy if I wanted to by seeing a slight gap like this one because of imperfections in the wood.

But honestly, I think the whole point behind using reclaimed wood is to give new life to something that may have just been discarded. It’s a beautiful thing!

So that’s it. Using this heavy-duty shelf bracket was so easy and so inexpensive. I’m SO glad we did it!

FAQ’s

What is the weight capacity for the heavy duty floating shelf brackets?

Since I made these myself, I don’t have a package that tells me the max weight load for my shelf hardware. However, the Shelfology website states that each stud that you utilize will give a 45-50lb average load capacity. Therefore, with 3 steel brackets on each, the shelves I built should be able to handle 135-150lbs.

How do these heavy duty floating shelf brackets hold up over time?

It’s been 2 years since I installed these shelf supports and I think they were a great choice! They have definitely stood the test of time and are still just as solid and sturdy as the day I installed them and they are one of the most beautiful aspects of my kitchen. People are consistently wowed by them and I cannot believe that such a big visual impact could be made with such a small investment.

What if I don’t want to do that much work?

I get it! This is a ton of work! While I believe the payoff is well worth it, the time investment is significant. You could always pay someone else to do it, but the savings you would have gotten by using these heavy duty shelf brackets would be negated by paying someone else.

You could also use some black shelf brackets like this to secure them and just have brackets that are not invisible. Honestly, I have these exact metal shelf brackets on my shelving in our kitchen nook and they work perfectly and hold a ton of weight. It might be a little lighter duty because just the screw is going into the stud instead of an entire steel bracket, but it has worked well for me. It’s a different look, but I love it nonetheless.

I want to make corner shelves. Will these heavy duty floating shelf brackets work for that?

Absolutely! As long as you have studs to utilize on both of the adjoining walls, you should be able to use this same system to make corner shelves pretty easily.

If you try these heavy duty floating shelf brackets, I’d love to hear about how it went!!!

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Why should I Limewash my fireplace?

When we moved into our home in 2016, I absolutely LOVED the beam that served as a mantle.  Honestly, if I had been able to choose it, I wouldn’t have chosen anything else!  One thing that I didn’t love about that area was how hidden the beam looked because it just blended in to the brick work.  Additionally, I thought it felt so dark and gloomy, and I absolutely hated how there were two different textures and two different colors on the wall.  With the cream colored rocks and the dark brick, it looked disjointed and visually busy.  

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Why didn’t whitewashing work?

I originally thought I would whitewash the brick, so I tried an area using some watered down white paint I had on hand.  I felt like it covered too well and it didn’t match the color at the top. Additionally, it didn’t give me the option to distress portions, so it felt very flat and dimensionless.  I’m actually embarrassed to say that I left it like this for about 2 years because I didn’t know what to do!

That’s when I ran across Romabio limewash.  I saw bloggers using it for exteriors of homes and fireplaces and I figured for under $50, what could I lose?! My daughter and I grabbed the supplies, taped off the fireplace mantle and the walls and set to work on our own limewash fireplace!

A complete list of instructions is listed here on Romabio’s page.

What supplies to I need to limewash a fireplace?

1. Romabio Classico Limewash – I used Bianco White
2. Masonry brush – I used a cheap version like this
3. Spray bottle
4. Painters tape
5. Plastic drop cloth
6. Bucket
7. Plastic scrub brush
8. White Vinegar
9. Ladder

Prep Work for limewashing a fireplace:

Step 1:

We began the prep work for the limewash fireplace with taping off the adjoining walls. I would absolutely recommend this, because it gets a bit sloshy and will fling onto the wall, so having the crisp edges there will help. Then we used a plastic drop cloth and blue painters tape. We taped it along the bottom edge and around the mantle to seal them off and to protect them, as well as creating a crisp edge.

Step 2:

The Second step in the process is cleaning the bricks. This part was annoying but necessary. Funny thing is that the Romabio site never mentions cleaning the brick, but everywhere else I looked said you should. So I figured an extra half hour of work was well worth the effort if it means I get a better finished product!

How to clean a brick fireplace for limewashing

1. Mix 1 part white vinegar with 1 part water in a bucket ( I used a 1 gallon ice cream bucket)
2. Use a stiff bristled brush to scrub the brick
3. That’s it! Ready for limewash!

Let the limewashing begin!

After the brick is good and clean, you’ll want to dilute the limewash according to the package directions, which can be anywhere from 50% to 100%. I used equal parts limewash and water and then mixed it forever with a paint stirrer! It took a while, but I didn’t have a paddle for my drill. I used at least 3/4 of the limewash for the project and still have a bit left over.

Now you can get to work adding the limewash to the fireplace! The brick needs to be wet in order to absorb the limewash, but not soaking wet. So first, spray a section of the brick with the spray bottle. My daughter and I worked in tandem on this next part. I’m a perfectionist, so I used a smaller paint brush and got in the cracks to make sure it was all covered. Then my daughter came behind me with the masonry brush to do the large sections on the tops of the bricks.

And then you just do that over and over and over again! It’s actually a perfect project to do while listening to your favorite audiobook or podcast. We had Hallmark movies playing in the background and it took us 1 1/2 Hallmark movies to complete the project. 3 hours isn’t bad!

You’ll want to keep damp towels on hand for this part. The masonry brush with send speckles of the limewash onto the walls, especially if you’re not careful. I just kept the rag on hand when I was close to the edges to clean off the wall immediately and keep it from drying.

Distressing the limewash fireplace

The last step in the process to distress the bricks. This can look so different depending on your individual preference – some people who love a more painted look don’t remove any at all. I didn’t take any off the upper portion and did a moderate amount on the brick portion. I didn’t want it heavily distressed because I wanted to make sure the colors were consistent on top and bottom. If I had a fireplace made completely of brick, I may have really gone for an old-world very distressed look.

It’s pretty easy to distress. Once it’s beginning to dry but not wet to the touch, you can begin. We actually finished the whole main part, and went back to where we started and distressed from there. Then we did the lower hearth and did not distress that portion. Just use your spray bottle and spray it with water and then scrub the brick with a damp towel to scrub off however much you’d like to remove. When using this on an exterior, you can use a power washer, which really takes that limewash off in sections. Since you can’t do that indoors, you can mimic that a little bit by making your spray bottle have a stream instead of a spray. That should help.

It’s not very stressful, because with this product, you can just put a bit more limewash over it if you feel like you went a little too far. Additionally, if it all dries and you want to distress it a bit more, you’ve got a few days to go back and distress it.

So this is what our limewash fireplace looked like immediately afterward. I loved it from the second I finished it! One thing that surprised me is that if you look at the picture above, it looks REALLY distressed. Once it dried, it was more white, as you can see below. So if you want a very distressed look, just go to town! You can always add a little bit after you see what it looks like the next day.

My limewash fireplace 2 years later…

I took all those pictures in November 2019, so by the time I’m posting this, I have over 2 years to look back on the process and reflect on what I would have done differently.

Negatives:

The biggest issue was that the hearth in front of the fireplace rubbed off because people always sit there! Unfortunately, it did come off on people’s pants as a chalky residue. I had considered using the limewash that I had left over to touch up that area, but I anticipated that we were fighting a losing battle. It will just come off again.

The thing is…it doesn’t really bother me at all. I don’t like things to look absolutely perfect, so I think it looks a little weathered and I’m ok with that. BUT I wanted to make sure I mentioned it because not everyone would be a fan of that! For a lot of people, it will not be an issue because the brick ends at the floor and doesn’t jut out like mine does.

However, if you’re going to utilize it on an area that will get use, go into it knowing full well that it will show the use and abuse!

I’ve included some pictures below that were just taken on my cell phone in late 2021 that show the wear after 2 years to give you an idea of what I’m speaking about. So judge for yourself if that option might work for you! Now on to the positives.

Positives

The positives are abundant! I loved this product. I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat! Not only was it under $50, but it gave a drastic change to my room and it only took one afternoon. It’s not often that you can affect that type of change with that little time or money. (by the way, this is NOT a paid advertisement! But if they want to send my free product to do the exterior of my home, I won’t turn it down!)

This is another one of those projects like my board and batten wall where people don’t walk in and say “I love your fireplace!” But those two inexpensive projects changed our house so much that almost every person who comes into our home for the first time mentions that it’s beautiful and reminds them of Chip and Joanna Gaines. So, I’ll take that! They also often ask us where we got the beam in the living room, which means it finally pops out like I was hoping for!

So do you think you’ll have the guts to give your fireplace a little facelift? If you do, I’d love to hear about it!

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Why make a diy board and batten wall?

When we moved into our home, I wasn’t sure what to do with this little room. We have a piano on one side and this tiny wall on the other side where I had a dresser to hold crafting supplies. It worked fine until we painted our main floor grey and we realized when the grey was against the white, it read blue and looked like a baby boy room!

I immediately took the dresser out, sold it online, and replaced it with some chairs I inherited from my uncle and created a seating area. But because the room was so small and tall, I could NOT figure out how to decorate that wall. Nothing seemed to look right.

I had a pretty unique leaded glass door that I thought of hanging on the wall with a wreath on it. It was definitely not the right look. I decided that what I needed was visual interest on the wall to create the decor, instead of trying to hang actual things on the wall to take up the space. Enter a diy board and batten wall!

How to make a diy board and batten wall

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Step one: Paint the Wall

Paint the wall. This seems like a no brainer, but if you don’t think about it and you wait to paint until afterward, you’ll be trying to use a roller in those little squares and it will be such a pain! This step ensures that the process goes really quickly. *as a side note, please excuse my photos! Most of them were taken on an iPhone at night in a room with no lights. Not the best photos for sure!*

Step two, place the 1×3 trim boards:

After the wall is dry, you can begin placing your wood. There’s lots of ways to do this. I decided to use 1×3 pieces, but I wanted it to be a super fast project. So instead of using the cheaper option of unfinished wood 1×3 trim boards, we chose the pre primed trim boards. We saved 2 steps since they were already sanded and primed, which was totally worth the extra money we spent!

The primed trim was around $8 each instead of $4. While it was double the price, we only needed 6 boards, so the extra $24 we spent allowed us to get this done in 24 hours, which was way more important on this particular project. You can absolutely do it a bit cheaper by choosing the 1×3 boards that are not pre finished.

Even with the more expensive wood, because we had a small wall and already had the paint, spackle, and brad nails, we came in at right about $50 to do this project. $50 and one day’s work! So amazing!

Vertical pieces:

I drew a simple sketch on one of the pictures in my phone so I could see what it would look like on the wall. I loved this layout, so we set to work placing the pieces. We did the ones on the sides and top first. After that, we eyeballed the placement of the center vertical pieces.

We decided that we wanted a larger center space instead of dividing it into equal thirds like I had in my drawing. Once we got them about right, we measured to make sure they were both the same distance from the edges and nailed them in place with our compressor and brad nailer. You could absolutely do this with a regular hammer and brad nails too!

Horizontal pieces:

Next we chose the placement for the horizontal piece. This was the most tedious part because we had to cut three separate pieces to go between the vertical boards. It’s not hard, just annoying!

Step 3, filling the gaps:

At this point, you might be getting scared because it looks like junk! As careful as we were to get the cuts the right length, there’s always going to be gaps. Additionally, we live in a 1932 house, so the ceiling and walls are never totally level. See the big gap at the top and sides? It’s going to be just fine, I promise!

Spackle:

We used a putty knife and this spackle to fill in the nail holes and the gaps between the boards. You could use any kind of putty, but this kind we used has the primer built into it. So we saved the step of priming all those little spots! Totally worth it!! Once you’ve puttied, let it dry while you apply the caulk.

Paintable Caulk:

We used paintable caulk to fill those gaps on the top and sides and it was super simple and made it look complete and polished. After applying the caulk, use a damp towel to run over your caulk line while it’s still wet to make it nice and pretty. Trust me. Don’t skip this step! Look at the gap on the top right. See how it’s filled in but the gap on the left still looks awful? That’s the difference of doing this quick step. Paintable caulk rocks!

Step four, sanding your diy board and batten wall:

The spackle dries really fast and you can go over it super quickly with a sanding block to get it all smoothed out before the final step. You’ve already smoothed out the caulk with the damp towel, so that should be perfect and ready to go.

Step five, priming and painting your board and batten wall:

The last step is to paint! You can skip priming and head right to the painting portion if you bought pre primed trim and spackle with primer built in! Otherwise, you’ll need to prime the boards and spackle before painting. Kilz is my very favorite primer. Once I didn’t prime the walls where we had fixed some holes. It was AWFUL! The paint soaks into those spots and looks absolutely terrible. I guess failure is a great teacher 🙂

It’s a pretty quick step to brush the paint onto the board and batten pieces. That’s all there is to it. Can you even believe how easy that was?! We began late evening and finished it by the next afternoon. I never believed it would be so simple to make such a big impact!

The crazy thing is that people are constantly commenting on how beautiful this room is, but they have never mentioned the board and batten wall. It’s one of those things that makes an unbelievable difference, but no one can really put their finger on why that room is so spectacular!

Have you ever made a diy board and batten wall? What are your best tips? I’d love to hear them!

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There was a tall skinny table — just what I’ve been looking for to go in my back room for seed trays.  Last year the huge 6 foot table I used was so intrusive!  This is perfect and the legs unscrew to store underneath.  I might throw a coat of Annie Sloan chalk paint on it to jazz it up after my seedlings are tucked into the garden, but for now it meets my needs!!

There were a couple great chunky boxes that had sooooo much character!  I’ve been needing some storage things for my gardening supplies and these are perfect.

…and a long, skinny box that’s divided into thirds that fits my seed packets perfectly!  I’ve been trying to organize them well, but until now I haven’t found something that was just right.  I guess God knew exactly what my little gardening spot needed.

So my encouragement is to see what others think is trash — or what someone is selling on the cheap at a garage sale, and think about how you could make it into a treasure!

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I began with an old wooden window and attached a fall wreath with brown velvet ribbon.  I put a tack through the inside of the loop so it can’t be seen from the front.  Then, I filled a pitcher with fall colored silk flowers.

The pumpkins had me stumped a bit because I felt like with the tall window, I needed more height than just setting them on the shelf.  So I used a tall candlestick and also a thing that used to have a topiary in it.  The topiary bit the dust, but I thought I might be able to reuse the base for something.  I think it worked great!

I used this site for the Thanksgiving printable and popped it into a frame I had laying around with my extra home decor stuff.  There’s gobs of other free printables on Pinterest if you just search for them.

So there you have it!  Super cute.  Super inexpensive.  Super festive.  Happy Thanksgiving!

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