Faux Granite Counters ... Continued!

Following up from my previous post, I decided to follow through with my kitchen counter. I chose the gold color, since it goes best with the neutral colored cabinets and wood trim. If you did not read my previous post, you can find the product info at http://ezfauxdecor.com/. I had some good luck shopping on EBay for discounts and deals vs. buying directly from their website.

KITCHEN BEFORE:

Wish I had an up close shot (I took this when I first moved in), to show how the counters looked like
they were previously owned by Edward Scissor Hands

PROGRESS:

Don't mind the mess, but these are actually all the materials you need for application:
1) Water in a squirt bottle
2) Hair dryer (to make the film more malleable to mold around corners)
3)Squeegee and razor (included with film)
4) Scissors to trim

This took a few hours for me to install, had some boo boo moments, but the best part, is that I could peel off the film and reposition it. My counter is a weird shape, not quite an "L", I had to work with a lot of angles. So, I had to install the film in three different pieces around the sink. I cut the lines cleanly, and matched the "grain" of the granite as best I could, and you can't tell it's three separate pieces, unless you look, very, very closely.

The instructions said to remove the sink for the cleanest application and also to not worry about water getting underneath the film. I looked under the sink to observe what I would have to do to achieve this and quickly said "Eff that!"

Plus, I later found that the sink was adhered to the counter. So even if I did remove all the plumbing, garbage disposal, and water hoses, I wouldn't have been able to lift the sink out if I tried. I was glad I didn't.

The sink was the hardest part, since I had to try to precisely cut along the curved corners. But once I messed up one, I learned, and the other 3 corners were cake. I was able to "band-aid" my first mistake with a piece of extra film, you really can't tell. Then I sealed (as instructed) with some clear silicone (3$ Home Depot) to protect the film from water getting into the exposed edges.

KITCHEN AFTER:

                                                                                                                                                                    The kitchen really made a nice transformation. The counters look like the real thing don't they? It is even reflective like real granite.

Overall this cost $80 for 12ft of film. I landed a deal off EBay and got it at 20% off. Whoo hoo!  I had about 2ft of film left over - I ordered extra since, knowing me, I might make a few mistakes with trial and error. I have seen videos on you tube and such where people have spent less for smaller kitchens. Not too bad!

Best part about this is, I can peel it off when I move. Although, I don't plan on moving for a while, so this is a good, inexpensive way to "remodel" a rental.


Here it is, side by side:

Update: I moved in Feb 2015 - I was able to peel the faux granite film gently with a heat gun and then cleaned off the adhesive residue with rubbing alcohol. Overall it held up well for the two years I was there and it was easy to remove!

This product = more options for people who rent

OK, So I came across something AWESOME:

I know what you're thinking, "Big deal, random pic of a granite counter...."

Go to EzFauxDecor for product detals

Believe it or not, this is a faux granite film, waterproof, scratch, and heat resistant. You stick it on, and peel it off when you don't want it anymore! This is a renter's dream! ... well mine at least. So many possibilities, they have faux stainless steel too for your appliances. You can check it out/buy it here.

When I rented my house, I was not lucky enough to get one of the units that had the remodeled kitchens (aka new, matching colored appliances, and granite counter tops). Instead, I have the old, wood counter tops that someone had previously decided to use as a cutting board. You can't tell right off, but the counters have slices and scratches all over it. Painful to see, since the kitchen is one of my favorite places in a house, and where I spend a lot of my time. So my wheels started turning on what I could do to cover this up.

I saw some great stuff that people have done with contact paper through Apartment Therapy, but contact paper on n a busy kitchen counter may not last very long... but I googled "faux granite contact paper" anyway....

I just have to have it. You can order samples for $10.00. So I DID. The prices seemed reasonable to me so, its worth a try. With affordable products like this for home-makeovers, projects, and decor, my rental challenge has been easy peasy.

Come back later to see if follow through with this product on my entire kitchen (AKA one counter top).



Perfect Poached Egg



I used mozzarella, parsley, and smoked sun dried tomatoes.



Poached eggs are a great change up from the usual scrambled or fried. I made a quick breakfast using left over veggies and herbs from dinner and it turned out great!

To poach an egg you will need:

Egg

2 tbsp white vinegar

Small/medium sized pot filled with water about 3/4 full

Small, shallow bowl

Whisk

Slotted spoon or spatula

Spoon

1) Heat the water at medium heat, careful to not let it boil, if it does start to boil, lower the heat a little so that the heat from the stove does not created bubbles.

2) Crack an egg in your small, shallow bowl

3) Once the water is hot, apply your 2 tbsp vinegar into the pot

4) Whisk vigorously to create a whirlpool "current".

5) Quickly (and gently) pour in your egg in the direction the whirlpool is swirling so that the current pulls in the egg. The vinegar causes the egg whites to coagulate and wrap around the yolk

6) Gently stir with spoon to keep the current moving

7) Let the egg cook for 4-6 minutes, depending on how runny you like your yolk.

8) Gently remove with your slotted spoon/spatula and apply to your dish/toast/muffin

9) Add your veggies/garnish and enjoy!

DIY Necklace Organizer

Since I have moved, all of my necklaces/accessories have been living in a shoebox. I was going through my jewelry this weekend, and got very frustrated with all of the chains that got tangled. So, I decided I needed to come up something that would separate and organize them.

In my old apartment, I used tacks inside the wall of my walk-in closet and hung them there, but I didn't want to do that again. I remembered I had left over cup holder hooks and wood boards from previous projects so I got to work on this DIY project. This took about 45 minutes to assemble.

I had two scrap 11 inch boards that I sanded. I knew I wanted a "weathered" texture to it, so I tried this new trick I picked up, by using a candle. You rub a candle against the edges or details of your wood piece and then paint over it. After the paint dries you use sand paper or wire wool and the paint will "peel" off the areas there are wax, creating a distressed finish.

I mixed a few colors of green to match my mint
colored curtains

After the paint dried, and distressing was completed, I measured and marked with a pen where I wanted to insert the hooks. I pre-drilled holes with a drill bit one size smaller than the hook screw size. Then I screwed in the hooks with ease.

I installed the wood boards with two wood screws onto the wall, then painted over them so they would blend in with the rest of the board.

Hang your necklaces and now I have a tangle free, organized display of my jewelry!

A little green here, a little green there...

I admit, I love the color green. I seem to have found myself always incorporating this color into decor, wardrobe, and my cooking (I'm always throwing spinach in something). Green is at the top of the list of favorite colors. Yep - even made it on my blog layout.

Maybe, I like the way how it easily blends in with neutrals. Whatever it may be, it has made its way into my home decor color scheme. Keeping true to my promise not to paint the walls, pops of green in my neutral colored home are to be found, here is my progress so far...

Dining Room BEFORE:


Hey look! It's my boring dining room light - guess I had a "before" picture after all!

 

PROGRESS:

 

Added curtains, gives the room a nice elegant look, as well as a privacy  for guests bunking in the living room. Getting a larger couch soon to accomodate more seating!




Glass vases: $5 (Hobby Lobby 50% off store sale )

Basket : $4 (Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon)

Silk Hydrangeas: Dollar Store! (I used 6 stems/3 EA vase)

Moss: Dollar Store (2 bags)

Faux Pears: $3 (Burlington Coat Factory clearance)

Place mats $1 (Burlington Coat Factory clearance) 

Much more progress to come - but I only have a certain budget each month. I'd say it is coming together nicely though. Come back to see the living room and bedrooms!


What colors inspire you?

Dinner with friends

One of my college team mates is in town for work and since I hardly get to see her I thought about doing a little something more personal than going out to grab a bite to eat.  My other team mate, who lives around the corner, was available too, so I was very excited for a mini lax (that's short for lacrosse for you non lax folk) reunion. I wanted to make something quick and delicious! Here is what I came up with:

Drink: Strawberry infused moscato

(Reminiscent of our cheap strawberry wine shenanigans in our college days!)

Very easy to prepare - Just slice up your fruit or fruit peels and pop in the bottle - let it infuse overnight in room temp, and pop in the fridge to chill a few hours before serving. You get an added light fruity flavor to your favorite wine!

Next time I think I want to try some muddled raspberries, blackberries, or as Ashleigh recommended, mango! Janney was too busy enjoying the wine itself to make any suggestions, haha.

Appetizers:

Whole grain crostini with roasted garlic and olive oil

Roasted Garlic (made the night before)

Whole grain baguette

Olive oil

To make roasted garlic: Slice the tops off whole garlic cloves, peel off the outer layers of skin leaving one layer or two behind. Place in some tin foil, drizzle some olive oil and sprinkle with a little sea salt, pop in the open for 45-60 min. I found that 50-60 they come our caramelized and mushy, if you like your roasted garlic a little firmer for slicing, keep watch around 30-45 min mark for your preferred texture. For my crostini, I wanted it mushy so that I can spread it on like butter.

Slice baguettes at an angle for an oval cut and use pastry/basting brush to apply light coat of olive oil. Set on cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set your oven to broil and place your cookie sheet on the top rack. This is going to be very quick to lightly toast the crostini (I don't like it too hard) so make sure you WATCH your oven until the edges are browned, then remove from oven.

Take your roasted garlic and squeeze out onto a plate, or bowl, and take a butter knife and spread that garlicky goodness onto your warm toasted bread. I roughly chopped up some parsley and sprinkled over for garnish.

Caprese salad bites:

Mozzarella Pearls (usually in the deli cheese section)

Fresh Basil

Cherry tomatoes (sliced in half)

Sweet balsamic reduction sauce

Olive oil

Pretty simple, just assemble each ingredient on a toothpick, drizzle some olive oil and balsamic reduction sauce.

Watermelon and mint salad with sweet balsamic vinegar sauce

Watermelon (I bought pre-cut at Publix)

Fresh Mint

Sweet balsamic reduction sauce

Cut the watermelon into bite sized cubes, and sandwich a leaf of mint between two cubes. Drizzle with balsamic reduction. I love this, its so clean and refreshing!

Sweet balsamic reduction sauce:

(I made the sauce the night before)

Balsamic Vinegar

Sugar

Water

In small saucepan, pour in 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup water. Whisk around to dissolve sugar a bit. Heat on high until it comes to a boil, then set heat to med. Stirring occasionally. The sauce will reduce to a thicker consistency within 15-20 minutes. Around the 10 min mark, I reduce the head to a low simmer and watch for the next 5 minutes on how thick I want the sauce. I dip a spoon in the pan and if it coats thickly and doesn't run off too fast, its ready.

Entree:

Roasted Shrimp Scampi with whole grain angel hair pasta and Parmesan Frico.

Sorry no picture here, my pals dove into it so fast I wasn't able to snag a pic. But it was delicious!! I made a creamy scampi sauce, I don't have an exact recipe since I kinda just threw ingredients into a saucepan and just went with it

Dessert:

No Bake Strawberry Icebox Cake



I got this recipe courtesy of Pinterest/Apartment Therapy. You can find the super easy recipe here.
The food was great, we all got to catch up and reminisce with stories with the prefix of "Remember when..."
Just reminds me of how lucky I am to have met these girls and that I was able to spend four awesome years of my life with them 24/7 (the good and the bad!). The team runs, puking on the sidelines from deathly sprints, late nights up to no good, memorable achievements on the field, and most of all that bond that is more than just a friend, these girls are my sisters for life.

So glad I put this together! This may become a tradition every time my friends pop into town.

Faux Capiz Shell Chandelier

This post will be short and sweet, since I found an awesome tutorial that explains it all perfectly.

My dining room lighting was ugly. It was bothering my eyes every time I was in that space. I wish I took a picture to show you what an eyesore it was. But it had to come done ASAP. I took it apart and immediately felt better, but I had no idea what I was going to replace it with... the ceiling was just there, light-less for about a week.

I went to a few stores and nothing stuck out enough for my to buy. I saw this tutorial floating around a while ago on faux capiz shell chandeliers and I noted it, but didn't have motivation at the time, and was also indecisive on what I wanted.

Well, after a week of no lighting and squinting my eyes to read under my lamps, I found motivation. This project is time consuming, but well worth it, I think.

I know DIY is not anything new, it was posted in 2010. I'm late to the DIY circuit, sheesh where have I been?

Design*Sponge -Tutorial

I caution you to not use a circle punch (this was mentioned in the tutorial, but I was stubborn) wax paper does not return great results with this tool.  My circle punch and I got in a fight, I barely made 30 circles in about an hour. Too long. Good thing I had a 50% coupon for JoAnn's this month and purchased a Martha Stewart Circle Cutter - it worked awesome. Sorry circle punch - you're fired.

I was able to cut through four sheets at a time - making the second round much quicker! My rate was about 60 circles per four sheet stacks - I was ready to sew em together in an hour.

Materials needed. Not pictured: Iron/ironing board, hot glue gun,
sewing machine

I didn't use ribbon as the tutorial shows, but I saw examples of others where people used a sewing machine to link the capiz "shells" together. I liked that better. It was easy, you just feed the circles through one behind the other. I made a few really long chains and cut them into increments of 5 when I was done with sewing them together.

I used a 10" hanging garden basket from WalMart I got for $2. I also did not paint it since, I forgot about that step, and I did not have any paint on hand. Oh well! I thought about getting a bigger basket, but man, you have to cut a lot of circles for this one!

Approx. 250 circles later .... Let there be LIGHT!!!

Dining room progress!

























Total cost for me: $18

• New basic ceiling light canopy $6 (I tried to disassemble the old one, turned out it was attached to the pendant, dang it)
• Circle Cutter $10 (50% off)
• Basket $2

It looks very chic with my dining table, I am very happy for my newly found motivation to make this. Thanks Design*Sponge for your awesomeness!