We have a lot of honey-colored oak in our house. And while real wood is nice...I'm not a huge fan of the color. After a lot of research on the internet for changing wood color, I happened upon General Finishes Java Gel Stain. It is a very, very thick, dark gel stain (like a cross between a stain and a paint). If you've ever looked for a way to make oak look like a darker wood, you might have seen it. There are tons of tutorials (this one was the best I found).
I decided that before we changed our entire kitchen, we would try it out on our bathroom first, since it was smaller and less visible to people. This was actually pretty simple to do. The first step was to take off all the doors and drawer faces, and then remove the drawer slides and the hinges so I could get at the wood. I sanded off the shiny top coat first, which ended up being no small task with the grooves on the doors.
After that, I pulled out the stain. It is SUPER thick. I applied it with an old sock (worn on a gloved hand, so no stained fingers for me), and I put FOUR coats on to get it to the color I wanted. You really only need to let it dry about 24 hours between coats, but because I was doing it in the evenings and we had a new baby, sometimes it was longer. Also, because it is winter, I had to let it dry inside. I set up a table in our half bathroom, but it only fit some of the pieces, which means the whole process took me three times as long as I wanted it to.
Comparison: sanded v. one coat of stain
In process: first coat
Rare action shot: finishing up coat #1
The fourth coat ended up being more of a painting process than the usual wipe on / wipe off of stain. After the fourth coat, I let the pieces dry for 5 days before applying two top coats of a satin polyurethane gel.
No top coat on left | Top coat on right
Then everything was put back together. I think it turned out really well, and determined I would also do the kitchen cabinets, as well as the upstairs bathroom and the banister. I may also end up doing the kitchen table and chairs too. Those are all way down the line in my priority list, though.
Finished product
(planning to paint the trim white)
At the end of 2015, I made a plan - it had a bunch of house projects on it, and they were grouped together into months. The idea was to complete each project in its appropriate month. I even gave some projects multiple months, because I knew I was under-estimating the time it would take to finish them.
Well, I'm done with January's projects (soft-close drawers and cabinets / king bed headboard) and February's projects, which I'm going to tell you about today. But March? April? Nope. May/June? Started on it. July? Half done! August? Not even on my radar anymore. September/October? Maybe one part out of five. November/December? Not likely.
Anyway, so ever since I saw The Holiday, I have wanted motorized blackout roller blinds. You know, from this part:
Now, I didn't go that far - no motorized blinds (I looked into it, and it'll happen someday). However, I did install custom blackout roller shades. "But Adam, aren't those expensive if you buy them custom?" you ask. They sure are, if you buy them! But I made them! "Wouldn't it have been easier and taken far less time and effort if you bought them, though?" Stop asking silly questions.
Anyway, on to the windows. Kristen and I like it dark when we sleep. It also helps when Kristen gets migraines to be in a super dark area. So what I did was make roller blinds that would fit our bathroom window and our sliding glass door (the two areas that let in light to our room). Then I did the same to our spare room and the girls' bedroom upstairs. I left them off of the office window (fourth bedroom).
To start, I did a ton of research. The key components to a good roller blind are:
1. Tube: preferably aluminum, which is expensive, so I ended up going with PVC) - I bought this at Lowe's
I used PVC pipe for the roller blind - you can use any
diameter you want, as long as it fits your clutch hardware.
2. Roller blind clutch and attachment hardware: this is the part that is inserted into the tube on either end and has the string that lets you pull it up and down - I bought this online from China for less than $2/set
Clutch hardware from China
3. Blackout fabric: not "room darkening" fabric - bought this at JoAnn's with coupons (as it can be pricey)
This is the fabric rolled out using tape to temporarily connect two pieces.
We ended up doing the sliding doors as two separate roller blinds.
4. Channel: this is for the blind to roll down in, to block out light at the edges - I accomplished this with vinyl "J channel" and T channel (used for tile floors), epoxied to the old PVC vertical blinds I took from the sliding glass door area, cut to fit the windows
Channel is the key to a dark room, and is the trickiest part.
I'll spare you most of the details, but I cut the tubing, mounted the hardware, had to jury rig the clutches to fit (dang mm-to-in conversions), experimented with making and mounting the channel, had to drill out a rusted bolt from my sliding glass door so the handle wouldn't obstruct the blinds, be super careful about cutting the fabric, and deal with all kinds of other complications. But...I finally got them up and they work great.
Pre-channel mount in the bedroom
Final blinds with curtains as well
Now, I'm fully aware that my solution isn't perfect - it doesn't completely block out all the light, and it's not nearly as pretty as the professional ones. But it still works pretty good, and I did it for a small fraction of the cost of the custom blinds I will someday have in a future house.
This is the brightest time of day, without the curtains too
