The picture of the back of the mirror will show you the original color.

I removed the red ribbon and the screws from the back of the mirror. If you want to turn the mirror into a chalkboard then you can fit a piece of wood to the frame or you can just use the cardboard. I opted for the latter. Spray the cardboard and the frame with primer.

Follow up with the color that you chose for the mirror and chalkboard paint for the cardboard. The main reason that it took us so long to get around to this project was that we were’t sure what color we wanted the frame. We should’ve just done it since we can always repaint, but we were back and forth between a statement color, silver, trying to silver leaf, or white. I think this is a great choice for us for now.

Here’s the final product.

And here it is in action.

These are the sneak peak from our fabulous photographer Mary Sledd. If you’re in the Austin area and looking for a photographer I definitely recommend her. When I get a bit more time I’ll write more of a review.

What projects have you been putting off for awhile? Is there anything that you think would really motivate you to move forward with them?

]]> http://www.startingoutsavvy.com/2010/04/mirror-to-chalkboard/feed/ 7 http://www.startingoutsavvy.com/2010/03/bathroom-makeover-chapter-two-shades-of-grey/ http://www.startingoutsavvy.com/2010/03/bathroom-makeover-chapter-two-shades-of-grey/#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:18:41 +0000 Jamie Lee http://www.startingoutsavvy.com/?p=1087 I will warn you that this may be one of those epic books that has about 700 chapters. Hopefully not. I mentioned yesterday that taking off the door to the linen closet (To be clear, I’m not talking about the actual bathroom door. I’m open to a lot of things but no bathroom door is definitely not one of them!) was a huge turning point for us. It instantly went from a giant unconquerable task to something that we could manage one step at a time. Why did we think it was such a turning point? See for yourselves.

Before:

After:

Doesn’t that feel a million times more open?  Imagine Peter and me sitting on our bed a about midnight on a Friday night. I say, “It’s just so cramped in there. That door gets in the way.” And then Peter exclaiming, “Let’s just rip it off!!” Here’s an action shot just for fun.

Unfortunately, removing the door left us with huge slits and holes in our door frame from where the hinges used to be.

The holes can be easily patched using wood filler. I put some in each hole, making sure to pack it into the small crevices in the back.

After letting the wood filler dry for about 24 hours, I sanded off the excess, and then repeated the process. If I was going to do this over again I would have put an insane amount of wood filler over the hole so that when I sanded it I wouldn’t have to add any extra. The reason being that making wet wood filler attach to dried wood filler is much more difficult than when it is all wet. I ended up battling the bits that were falling right off onto the floor.

When the holes were patched and the door was off for a few days, Peter and I couldn’t bare to look at the awful wall color any longer. For some reason, the linen closet was painted a terrible yellow color. You’d really have to see it to understand just how bad it was. I’ve attached a photo below but it really doesn’t do the color justice. If you want to get an idea imagine urine mixed with whipping cream and then covered it with high glass paint. It was really that bad!

Anyone who knows me well knows that grey is my absolute favorite color. (I remember asking a friend of mine if it was OK to paint my entire house in different shades of grey. The short answer is no but I still believe I could make it work.) After a trip to Home Depot, we brought home a few paint swatches and taped them inside the closet to get a better idea of what the paint would look like.

Wondering what we chose? You’ll have to come back to find out, but since I forgot to take pictures when we first removed the door, the after photo at the top will give you a sneak peak of what’s to come.

What’s going on in your bathrooms? Many of you are probably following Meg’s bathroom reno. Heather wrote in yesterday saying that she has an embarrassing bathroom as well. Does anyone else have anything to share? Or does anyone else just want to help me encourage Heather to post her bathroom photos? (Misery loves company.)