Updating Bathroom Tile with Grout Refresh

April 2, 2013 By Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since the hubs and I have done any DIY around here, but we are getting back into the swing of things (or well, he is…not so much me. I’m directing from the couch ;) )! We are mainly focusing on sprucing up the place a bit to prep for baby and the house guests we will be having for the summer. Our plans are simple and just involve a little paint and minor, budget-friendly updates!

The one room in our townhouse that wasn’t fully updated prior to us moving in was our downstairs half bathroom. The previous owner had replaced the sink, but that was about it. We gave it a little makeover last year, but the one thing that’s bugged me since moving here over 3 years ago is the tile and awful stained, dirty looking grout that would not come clean regardless of what cleaning product I used. We had debated re-tiling, but the tile itself is in perfect condition…and there’s no sense in replacing something that doesn’t really need it. Especially when we hope to move soon (<—-I’ve only been saying this for 2+ years).

Recently, I came across this little gem of a product.

Mapei Grout Refresh. I had read some reviews about it on other blogs, and finally decided it was time to try it ourselves. People……….this stuff is amazing. I mean, actually amazing. Like…I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Please excuse poorly taken iPhone photo, but this is the only example I have of a before and after.

 

CRAZY, right?! I mean, the tile looks brand freakin’ new. Best part? It cost $12!

I was going to attempt to tackle this project myself, but Pat felt the need to get his hands on it and get to work. So naturally, I let him finish the whole floor :) The directions were easy to follow, and it was really easy to apply. Pat used a toothbrush to apply the product directly on the grout in between each tile. The one downside?  It was a little time-consuming on our part (or Pat’s part) because our bathroom tiles are sooooo small. But, hey it got done. And looks awesome!

I feel like I have a whole new bathroom! I’m seriously planning on Grout Refresh-ing everything I can get my hands on. Our shower tiles are next on the list!

Have you tried Mapei Grout Refresh before? What were your results like? 

Can’t wait to share more of our budget-friendly DIY with you!

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I have not been compensated for this post. All opinions of Grout Refresh are my own. I just highly recommend this amazing product and felt the need to write about it. :)

From Our Hiding Place

Filed Under: Bathrooms, Budget Friendly, DIY, Home Makeovers Tagged With:

Paint Dilemma

June 7, 2012 By 19 Comments

If I could change one thing about our past as a married couple, it would be that I would’ve never spent a ton of money on furniture. I wasn’t into DIY when we were first married. I thought the only way to get nice furniture is to go to Pilgrim Furniture City, Raymour & Flanigan, or Ethan Allen to spend way too much money on it. I remember walking around Pilgrim searching for a dining room set HATING everything I saw, and wondering why it was so hard to pick something out.

Ever have that problem?

We finally settled on this one. For $1100. Ouch.

 

(Please excuse this ANCIENT picture of our dining room. I clearly need to update our house tour photos!)

Not bad at all, minus the price. It was actually Pat’s choice…probably because I was being so incredibly indecisive about everything and he wanted to get the day over with. And I do really enjoy this set. I love the contrast of the dark and white wood, and the clean lines. However…………………

Something happens when you live in a house with dark furniture and you have a tornado dog and crazy cat.

Scratches. Scratches happen. A LOT of them. All over the place.

Enter my dilemma. I’ve been wanting to paint our dining room set white and distressing the edges for a while now. I’ve come up with a minor list of pros and cons to the job, and while I have a feeling I know what the better answer is, I need YOUR help on deciding. I need that little push that I’m so hesitant to give myself.

Pros of painting my $1100 dining room set white:

  • no. more. scratches.
  • distressing the edges actually allows for the furniture to be further damaged without it being noticed
  • brightens up our dining room!
Cons:
  • I can’t change it back.
  • It may take FORever.
Okay, that’s not really a valid list. BUT, I feel like in my head it totally makes sense to paint the table. I’ve discussed it with Pat, and as usual he has his “I don’t care what you do just as long as I don’t need to lift a paint brush” mentality about the issue.

So HELP ME! Would you repaint it knowing how much $$$$$ was spent on it? Is it worth the labor? Leave me your thoughts in a comment below!

And stay tuned because next week I will *HOPEFULLY* have another video tutorial (one where I say “um” a lot less) about using this awesome stuff…

Plus lots more fun stuff coming your way! :D

Filed Under: Dining Room, Home Makeovers

The Start of a Craft Room

December 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

If you’ve been following us for a while now, then you might have realized a while agothat we never revealed our guest room makeover. Well…that’s because I never really finished it. You see, we were housing a piece of furniture for friends of ours that I realized was no longer my taste in furniture. And while it was such a GREAT piece for storage….it wasn’t “me.” We were holding it for them until they moved into a larger place, as they quickly grew out of their condo with the addition of two of our favorite little boys :) Sadly enough, they have recently moved back to their original home in Florida before Christmas :( And we sent their furniture with them, of course.

With the piece out of our guest room, we have realized we have way more crap than we thought. I have yet to figure out where we are going to store all of our books, but realized that the majority of the crap the piece was holding was my craft stuff. Apparently, craft stuff builds up. Quickly. Can you relate?? And we decided we REALLY needed a piece of furniture there to hold it all.

Pat always yells at me because my designated craft area is our nice, expensive dining room table – which he picked out.  It’s an easy craft area, as it has a huge work space and I have a prime view of the television. But, I completely understand that I’m running the risk of some serious table damage by continuing to craft in the dining room. SO…instead of spending money to buy a piece of furniture that will suffice as a craft table, I decided we can build one to replace the piece in our guest room. Which means our guest room will become a half guest/half craft room. Which one day will become a baby room…(but that’s for a little ways down the road still ;) ).

Here are some desk build plans from Ana White’s amazing website….can you guess which one we are building? :)

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And if you follow me on Pinterest, then you’ve probably seen the craft room pin-spiration I’ve been pinning recently. If you don’t follow me yet and we have similar tastes, you can follow me here. :) Here are some recent finds that I’m pulling my ideas from…

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Stay tuned!

And a special thank you to the wonderful comments some of you left me regarding our sweet Mia girl. I can’t even begin to express what your prayers mean to us. She has been doing surprisingly well, and continues to be our crazy girl! Thank you, thank you! :)

Filed Under: Guest Room, Home Makeovers, Pinterest
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