That’s right! A Dragonslayer. A Knight-In-Shining-Armor!

YOU are the hero that will save your home from a plain, pale, dull, ugly, and boring fate! A future devoid of color. A future where the Princess (or Prince, if your house is a he) wears no Crown Molding.

In your tireless dedication to your quest, you scour the internet in search of the tools, weapons, and magic potions that will, in the end, win the day!

You Rock!

One of the advantages of my graying beard is that I can say things that aren’t, like, totally hip, and get away with it! Or at least think I got away with it! For example, I can refer to a kitchen island this way…

This island is HOT!

Now I know the look overall may not be just what you’re looking for. If it is, great, you found it! But what I’m really stoked about is the way they used two regular ole dressers to make the island. That rocks!

If I was the one who came up with this idea, I’d have to treat myself to a steak or something. This is a great idea! How quickly could you do this? A day?

9:00 am – Find old dressers at Goodwill or a garage sale

10:00 am – Pick up some spray paint and stencils at Michael’s or, what’s that big one we went to in Charlotte???…thinking…(have to go ask Kim) Hobby Lobby!

11:00 am – Furniture laid out on drop cloths, spray paint going mad.

1:00 pm – Paint is drying, and you’re off to a local granite supplier with measurements for a square slab of stone.

2:00 pm – How lucky are you! The granite supplier had exactly what you want in the scrap bin for $10.00 … this almost doesn’t seem real!

3:00pm – Since you’ve been working out, it’s no problem to throw that slab of stone on-top of your freshly painted island… and you’re done!

4:00pm – Relax, kick back, look at your handi-work, and wait for the family to come home and see what you did today!

See how simple that is!

Now you try!

pictures from DIYIdeas.com

If you ask me, chalkboard paint is in one of the coolest products ever! The uses are nearly unlimited! Check out these photos for some inspiration!

I love garages! So I’m starting with that! It may not be the prettiest place in the house, but lots of pretty stuff can get made in the garage!

I think these chalkboard paint cabinets are kind of cool! Look at how they let you easily indicate what’s in a drawer! I could use this to help me clean-up! It might help! Maybe…

photo:bhg

Martha Knows Best

Martha Stewart is so creative! I want to be like Martha. Sort of. In some ways.

Look what she did with these pots! I know it’s not technically remodeling, but I like to use term in the broad sense!

And that’s not all! She also was the first person I ever saw use custom color chalkboard paint! I’ve seen it since, but she broke the story!

How About A Chalk-Door?

I fell in love with what Melaine, over at My Sweet Savannah did in her kitchen the first time I saw it! Look:

And she’s not done with the chalkboard paint yet! She’s got some plans for this weekend that I’m sure she’ll be showing-off soon!

Melaine was so inspired by the Beam Me Up post over at RG:Lite that she’s got me designing some beams for her kitchen ceiling! Hopefully, we’ll get to that next week too!

Make Your Own Chalkboard Paint

In my searching around, I came across some simple instructions for making chalkboard paint. According to the folks at Lowe’s, you can make it out of any regular latex paint…

1 Cup Paint & Two Table-Spoons of White Unsanded Grout – Mixed Well

=

Custom Colored Chalkboard Paint

Round-Up Post in A Can!

So, now you have an idea for the Round-Up! I might give this one a try myself. Oh the list of “things I want to try here!” just keeps on growing! I better get busy!

Stay tuned! Friday is the Spring Remodeling Guy Round-Up and I’ve got a surprise in store for Monday as well! If you sign-up for the Remodeling Guy Newsletter now, you’ll hear about Monday’s surprise a little early! Besides, the Newsletter is a great free resource! Sign-Up here!

An angled bookcase can really add some unique interest to a room.

And the dark color looks great in this house. Gotta love that trim framing it all out! Looks like this house uses a crown molding at the top of all the door headers! Fancy!

I don’t know though… would the angle get on your nerves after awhile? I don’t even want to think about how you get that ballish globey looking thing to stay in-place.

Hey, they LOOK cool and that counts for a LOT!

photo: BHG.com

I love the look of glass doors on cabinets! The picture above is particularly appealing to me because I like the woodwork of the cabinet itself.

I’ve had the same discsussion a hundred times over the years: “Glass cabinet doors or not? Practicality vs. Beauty” The feeling that many folks have is that if they have these glass doors, that they’ll have to keep them looking like this cabinet. Perfectly arranged with nothing but pretty things inside.

I wonder if that’s true. I suppose a glass cabinet door does tend to steer you away from keeping Fruit Loops right there in front. (what’s that dude’s name, Toucan Sam?… I like him) But I like the openness of them myself.

In fact, it’s really becoming more common to see kitchens with open shelving where upper cabinets would have gone.

We have these same dishes and we have a white kitchen (for the time being, until I can build my dream kitchen) but we only have a couple of open shelves. We keep the dishes on the open shelves and bury the plastic cups and paper plates in the cabinets with doors!

In my estimation, this kitchen shown here would only have enough storage capacity for about 18 hours worth of food for our boys. But it sure looks great and it would be much easier and less expensive to build.

At today’s crazy cabinet prices, the kitchen above looks like it would save at least a couple thousand dollars in cabinetry cost, possibly much more!

So, what’s the vote? Glass doors, open shelves, or cover it all up…. maybe a combination of all three. Share with me your wisdom!

photos: House Beautiful

More Great Kitchen Remodeling Posts

Replacement Kitchen Cabinet Doors — An Alternative to New Cabinets
Banquette, Booth, or Built-In? Cool Kitchen Table SeatingBump-Out Additions — Small Spaces , Big Impact

I love an island kitchen! They work for a number of great reasons and the creative opportunities abound. Here are a few examples of great kitchen islands:

Great Stone!

I really like the way the stone counter looks in this kitchen. The light color works well with the creamy color cabinets against the dark wood floor. I also noticed the open shelves on the end, and I like the undermount prep sink!

Great Woodwork!

I’m a wood guy. I love beautiful woodwork and one of these days I’ll get around to photographing some of my own work. Given that bent, I love this island. To me, it looks like art. Functionally, I like the space available underneath so you can sit around it and eat! Something like this wouldn’t cost much to have made. It’s relatively simple!

Great Feeling!

One of my favorite functions of an island is that they provide a place to congregate in the kitchen. People love to hang out in kitchens and islands provide a place to do just that! This one offers seating, storage, and a huge counter space. Looks like a huge kitchen and I gotta say…LOVE that blue cabinet! And the yellow walls…dark floors too!

Great Table!

An island doesn’t have to be a specifically designed cabinet. Some of the best kitchen islands anywhere are really just tables, placed in the kitchen. I love the idea of a kitchen with a table right in the middle of it! When you see that, you know you’re in a home that values family, freindships, and time spent together.

Well…Just WOW!

There aren’t words for this one. How cool is that? Cha Ching! $$$

If you have an empty space in your kitchen, maybe you ought to go island style! Thanks to Julia for hosting Hooked on Fridays at her awesome blog, Hooked On Houses!

We’re Hooked on REAL Islands at Forever Wherever! Great pictures…go see.

So, which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments. And everyone is welcome to comment! If you have any questions, just ask me there. I’ve been answering questions inside the comments and that seems to be working well, so I’ll try and keep after it!

If my title has brought you here wanting to read about baseball, Kim has a post about the Tampa Bay Rays recent trip to Punta Gorda. Our town is so cool! They just up and had a parade on a Thursday afternoon for the team.

There is always something going on here. Today, all within a five minute walk from our front door, there was an Antique Car Show, a Seafood Festival, and a Farmer’s Market downtown. But we didn’t catch those today…I’m really hoping the Seafood Fest is a two day one.

We were busy with some Spring Training of our own! Check this out:

That’s my younger son, Jacob, learning how to use a circular saw! That’s the spring training I mean. We were all out working on some cool raised planter boxes for Kim and Jacob’s latest pet project, a huge, but tiny, vegetable garden.

We made great progress and when it’s done, I’ll show you some pictures of the entire process. Isn’t he looking sharp?

Have a great weekend! And don’t miss those new RG Specialties… see the menu bar on the far right or check out this post.

“The Key” is to think like a kid! That is SOOO easy for me to do, just ask my wife! Take a look at our younger son’s room in the last house:

Now, while I’m not so proud of the photography skills, I’m dang proud of the room. Key features?

• The Bed – A REAL Jon-Boat – I had to remove the window to get it in the house!
• The Boathouse – Made of real bamboo, he can play (or sleep) on the roof which sports 3″ thick foam. Had to run to Miami for the bamboo!
• The Dock – Finely aged 2×6′s bought for next to nothing because according the manager of the lumber yard they were “good for nothing”.
• The Jungle – on the walls was provided by some amazing artists and includes a huge gator, snakes, birds, frogs, palm trees, and lily-pads. It’s amazing!

I’ll need some better pictures to show you our older son’s room…it’s a old fishing shack right out of the woods…super cool! Coming soon!

Here is the tree-house:

Pretty neat, huh? Truth be told, this is NOT my tree-house, this is just an awesome tree-house someone else built! But I do love tree-houses and I built a nice one for my buys, but I don’t have any pictures!

I wasn’t always a blogger and I never knew I would need all these pictures one day!

Think Like a Kid

When designing a space for kids think fantasy! Eliminate obstacles and imagine, imagine, imagine! I’m 100% all for throwing reason and practicality completely out the window when designing kid’s rooms and tree-houses…keep the goal very simple:

Aaaawwwesoommme!

I’ll get some pictures of my other son’s room up soon. If you want to see some more cool tree house pictures, take a look at this post Kimba did a few days ago!

Hey Crew!

Check out the pictures that popped up in my inbox yesterday! One of the regulars here at Remodeling Guy, NC Jill, gave her powder room a makeover and here are the before and afters.

Before

After:

Jill and her husband did a great job! She took advantage of some great ways to do a quick remodel (they did this over a weekend!):

• Paint – cabinet and walls
• New Fixtures – Faucet and Lighting
• Spa-it-up (is that phrase trade marked by The Nester?)
• Added art to the walls and some great personal touches!

The outcome is fabulous and shows that a few simple changes can make a huge difference!

Take a look at a post I wrote about bathroom quickies here.

Jill doesn’t spend ALL her blog browsing time here at Remodeling Guy… no way! She gets inspiration from other great blogs too. The inspiration for this work also came from these great blogs:

• Nesting Place
• Southern Hospitality
• A Soft Place to Land

I just looked at all of these blogs and they have some great stuff up today! You should take a look!

Great job Jill and I’m sure your husband is to be commended for a good bit of hard work and giving up some weekend time!

On The Road

I’m heading out of town for a few days, so I’ll do my best to stay on top of things around here, but no guarantees! (spoken like a true contractor)  Check back for the winner of the cabinet door contest and if I see any cool stuff while I’m riding, I’ll give you some pictures!

Best to all of you!

No Pressure.

Maybe if my parents had given me a dresser like this one, things would have turned out differently!