Cleaning and painting old kitchen and bathroom handles or knobs

My kitchen cabinets are old. Really old. Like, falling apart old In a previous post, I discussed how I used shelf paper to try and fix them up a bit. Then, one night, I grabbed a handle to open one of the cabinets and felt a gritty, nasty texture under my fingertips. I removed the handle to clean it with a sponge and was disgusted to find that the backside, which was solid black, was actually a brassy gold color once the black was scrubbed off. It was really, really gross.

I wanted to get all-new handles, but these cabinets are old enough that the handle screws are spaced 2.75" apart, while handles nowadays are 3". Either I could find handles spaced 2.75" apart, which is nearly impossible without paying way more than normal or using handles from equally-old cabinetry, or I could drill new holes in the cabinets, which is not only unattractive, but also not an option as I am renting. Plus, handles can be pricey to begin with and I had 16 to replace. So I decided to just clean up the current handles and repaint them.

First was the cleaning period. I looked up a lot of stuff on the internet and found that a lot of people use tarnish remover, with varying, sometimes disastrous results. I didn't want to go to the store, and I didn't want to risk ruining these handles altogether, so I decided to take a different route.

I mixed lemon juice and baking soda in a 2:1 solution (start with 2 tablespoons lemon juice to 1 tablespoon baking soda), and used both a rag and a kitchen sponge, dipping them in the solution and just using elbow grease to scrub scrub scrub. I'll warn you now, this method takes a long time.

I decided to also do my bathroom handles, and after some scrubbing (and only after scrubbing, the year was absolutely not present before scrubbing), I found that the knobs had a year of 1960 on them. Geez.

Once the knobs and handles were reasonably well-scrubbed (an evaluation that got more lax as time went on), it was time to paint. 

I got a can of gold Ace Metallic Spray Paint from the hardware store (I had a $10 off coupon to Ace Hardware in my USPS change of address kit, which was awesome). I didn't want to change the coloring too drastically so I just opted for a chrome-y gold. I wish it had been a bit more chrome-y than it ended up being though. I might have gone with something brighter and different if I hadn't been tired when I was at the store.

The spray paint was awesome. It was almost like magic. I'd do a quick spray, and all of a sudden, all of the handles were bright gold!

The paint said it was dry to the touch after one hour, and ready to go after 24 hours. I waited the full 24 hours before flipping each side over to spray a new coat.

Aren't they pretty? I did install a few handles, but the paint did not feel ready for strong gripping even after 48 hours, so I'll wait a few more days. The last thing I need is for the paint to get fingerprints on it while I'm trying to screw them on. But overall, I'm quite pleased with the project, and at least now I won't be getting 50 years' worth of grime and dirt on me whenever I touch them.

End of an era: Repurposed vintage hanging ceiling light

If you've followed my previous blog posts, you'll know that my new place has almost no overhead lighting in any of the rooms. I found a hanging plug-in lamp on Craigslist last month for $15 and decided to reinvent it. It is definitely a neat space-age vintage piece, but it had unattractive 70s orange and puke green colors going on. Actually, my family lived in a house when I was younger that had a lovely carpet in this color scheme.

Anyway, my general go-to colors are turquoise and orange (or variations, such as coral and teal) so I decided to use translucent glass paint (like stained glass paint) to paint a turquoise blue over the green plastic discs. BUT, that was a failure because the paint was too thin to cover up the green. So I dug out my standard acrylic paints and just painted the discs opaque orange and turquoise. I finished it with a high-gloss spray to keep the paint from chipping. It turned out quite nicely. Here's a finished picture (I started this project before the blog, so I have few in-progress pictures)

My next issue was what to do about the chain. It was a white crackly color, probably chipped and scratched from years of use. I really wanted to get a new chain, but (shock) hanging chain lamps are not common now, and replacement chains are either very expensive, too short, or even uglier than the current chain. So one night I decided to just paint the chain. It was impossible to remove it from the intertwined cord without it being a major production, so I painted the chain while still on the cord. Note that you really do need good-quality glossy paint for this. Mine was still the cheap stuff, so I painted a few feet (using a thin paint brush), then sprayed it down with the gloss, then painted a few more feet, and sprayed it down. It took a few days and it's not a quality job, but I just wanted this lamp off my living room floor. As you can see, it's not perfect:

Finally, I had to figure out how to hang it. I couldn't find any studs on my ceiling (long story) and the lamp weighed about 8 pounds, making it too heavy for basic screw hooks (which are generally rated for up to 5 pounds), so I got a large ceiling hook and toggle bolt rated for up to 15 pounds. It required drilling a 1/2" hole in my ceiling, so I'll be filling that one with putty before I move again. The hook was also an unattractive, basic Walmart issue, so I painted it bright orange to contrast with the cord. I used two smaller screw hooks to hold the chain and painted those as well. 

Then, I hung it up!

I love how colorful it is and I like the colored chain especially. The opaque discs do seem to limit the lighting a bit, which is fine for the ambience of a bedroom, but I may remove the discs altogether in a few months. We'll see. Thanks for reading!

DIY jewelry holder for the eclectic, colorful person

I made this jewelry holder nearly a year ago when I realized I had a little wall space but no table space, and lots of jewelry. The nice thing about this is that you can customize it for your needs. I used handles for earrings, dowels for bracelets, and knobs for necklaces. So for instance, if you don't have bracelets, you can skip the dowels, etc You might also want to simplify things and either leave the board unpainted or just use one or two colors.

Supplies:
1. Two equally-sized pieces of wood from the hardware store (mine are 3/4" thick, 3.5" wide, and 24" long. Just random pieces of wood that I pointed to and the employee cut them for me).
2. Assorted drawer knobs and handles, and/or wall hooks (I started by looking at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby's selections, but they were expensive, so I stopped by the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and found a whole bunch of different sizes and varieties for a quarter or two apiece)
3. 1/4" wooden dowels (I found mine in the Walmart kid's craft section.)
4. Acrylic craft paint (Don't be afraid to get decent quality stuff. You want glossy, not chalky or matte, or you'll be doing coats and recoats all day. I used cheapo 69 cent stuff and wished I had spent a bit more on the glossy paints)
5. High-gloss acrylic spray/sealant

Equipment: Power drill with assorted drill bits up to 1/4" and screwdriver bit; Paint or sponge brushes; screws and fasteners for all knobs and handles; sturdy wood screws, two for each piece of wood; sandpaper.

Process:
Basically, I sanded down the boards and painted them. I actually used sample pints of house paint from the hardware store. They were about $4 each, but I probably would have been fine just using the tubes of craft paint, it didn't take much to paint the boards.

I then cut the wooden dowels in half (get a saw if you have it. It's just easier) and smoothed and rounded the edges with sandpaper

Then, I washed all of the knobs/handles and painted all of them, plus the dowels. If you're like me, you'll want everything to be a different color. I ended up alternating the colors of the knobs, handles, and dowels so I had about one for each color.



Because I used cheap paint and I didn't want it to chip off every time I removed a necklace, I sprayed all of the components with a high-gloss acrylic spray. If you have never used this type of spray, take a few days with it. Spray down one side and let it sit for a day before turning the knob/handle over to spray the other side. Even if it FEELS dry after an hour or two, it still takes a day to harden completely, and WILL meld itself right up against the surface you turned it over on if you did it too soon. Do not try to skip this time process or else you'll have a mess.

This was my first time using my new power drill, so I'll share a few tips. If you're experienced with with a drill, you can skip this section.
1. Don't just dive in with the biggest drill bit and try to drill a hole in the virgin wood. It's going to heat up the bit and the wood and basically destroy the bit if you run it too long.
2. For the wooden dowels: Make a small hole with a tiny drill bit, then gradually increase the size of the drill bit up to the 1/4" bit.
3. For the knobs and handles with screws: Again, make a hole with the tiny bit, but then you can usually use the screw with a screwdriver bit and drill it in from the back. If the screw is flat and not pointed, then use the same method as the wooden dowels, stopping when the hole is big enough for the screw to go through. Because you'll put the screw in through the back and then twist the knob on from the front, you don't need to worry if the screw hole is bigger than the screw itself.
4. Have an old cloth handy and wipe the wood off the drill bit every time it goes through the wood. This is vital to keep your bit from overheating. A bit of oil will usually come off the bit, so make sure it's an old rag or cloth, not your clothing or carpet.
5. Safety, safety, safety. Please read the instruction manual for your drill before using. Wear eye protection and always make sure your drill is in the locked position when not in use.

Once all of the holes have been drilled and the knobs/handles have been attached and the dowels have been shoved into their holes, it's time to install your jewelry holder! I used a level to make sure my boards were straight, then just drilled two screws through either side of the board and drilled them into the wall. Took about ten seconds.

When I moved, I just unscrewed the boards and laid them flat in a shallow box with all the jewelry still on. In the new place, I screwed them in their new location and except for a few pairs of earrings, everything stayed in place!

Let me know how your attempt turns out!

Five End of Summer Reading Recommendations

Maybe I'm just a book nerd, but over the years I've noticed a pattern in my reading habits. During the school year, I tend to read very light "chick lit" types of books that I can just pick up and set down without getting too sucked in. When summer starts, I'll move to more engaging romance or fiction novels that usually keep me up at night. But as summer winds down and I start getting antsy for school to start again, I start looking for slightly deeper, "educational" type books, such as historical fiction and memoirs. I still like to be entertained, so I rarely make it all the way to straight nonfiction or the like, but I definitely go out of my way to find books that will teach me something about another culture, time period, or lifestyle. I found all of these books as digital borrows through the local library. Here are five books that I read recently and highly recommend:

The Midwife of Hope River: A Novel of an American Midwife
by Patricia Harman
Review: Set in the beginning of the Depression era, this novel follows a young, liberal  midwife in Appalachia with a shrouded past. Written by a longtime midwife, this book is excellent for anyone who wants to learn more about the art of childbirth (and you'll find it CAN be an art) and/or life of the everyman during the onslaught of the Depression. It also discusses the anarchist trends of the 1920s, which isn't much discussed in the history books. Perhaps it is geared more towards women, but it is primarily written as a historical novel, not as romance, despite the presence of a story arc involving romance. The mysterious past subplot bears little impact on the story, but it doesn't necessarily detract from it either, and provides an interesting element. Overall, the book is enjoyable and not a time waster. It is a little slow to start, but once I got about a third of the way through, I was hooked.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie
Review: This book is a semi-autobiographical novel based on Alexie's upbringing on the Spokane Indian Reservation. As a disclaimer, I am from the Spokane area and am Native, so I'm familiar with the Spokane rez. This was nevertheless a fascinating book for me because it is so blunt about Native struggles, such as alcoholism, poverty, and poor education on Indian reservations. It follows a high school boy who decides to transfer from his dead end high school on the rez to a high school in a nearby white town, which makes him a pariah on the rez, but ultimately opens the way to a better life than what his parents have. It is supposedly written for youth ages, but I enjoyed it and I recommend it for everyone, Native or not.

Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
By Jenna Miscavige-Hill
Review: For those who are curious about the Scientology religion/cult/group, this is an excellent book to scare you away from it. It was written by the niece of the current leader of scientology, but it is most interesting because she was raised in Scientology from birth. It is alarming to learn about these secret and hidden Scientology lifestyles because they are so contrary with what "normal" life is to most of us. For instance, at age 6, Jenna was sent to a special camp/compound with other children of Scientology leaders to essentially be raised as a miniature adult and manual laborer. Her entire worldview was based on the beliefs taught by L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer, and it wasn't until she was an adult in a forbidden relationship that she began to truly question the oddness of her life. She is now an outspoken opponent of Scientology, and most of her family members have left the religion as well. A fascinating book for anyone who wants to know more about life inside Scientology.

Dreams of Joy
by Lisa See
Review: A next-generation sequel to See's novel Shanghai Girls, it is a standalone book featuring a young woman (daughter of one of the sisters in Shanghai Girls) who leaves her life in Chinatown, Los Angeles, to newly Communist China in an effort to find her biological father. Her mother follows her to China and experiences her own rebirth in her home country while trying to find her daughter and bring her home. Covering a three-year period, the point of view shifts between mother in Shanghai and daughter in one of the countryside communes during Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward, an ill-designed economic expansion attempt that led to the largest famine in history. It is engaging and well-researched by an author known for her novels set in Chinese culture. If you are a stickler for continuity, you might want to start with Shanghai Girls, but I was most interested in the perspective of life in Communist China, so Dreams of Joy was my start point.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
Review: The most nonfiction book of any in this list, journalist Barbara Demick interviewed and shared their stories of six North Koreans who grew up and lived in the most closed-off country in the world. She tells the stories within a chronological format, shifting between subjects as necessary to tell the everyday experiences of North Koreans during the dictatorship's rise to power and shifts in control. It can be a little slow at times, particularly when Demick diverges to convey historical context before starting into a subject's story, but ultimately it is an eye-opening glimpse of life from the perspective of former North Koreans who have since defected and left the country. I also recommend watching National Geographic: Inside North Korea, a documentary (currently on Netflix Instant) that features secret footage taken by a journalist crew posing as assistants for an eye surgeon volunteering his time to perform eye surgeries on a thousand people in ten days. One thing is for sure, there's nothing communal about North Korea's political structure except the exaggerated difference between the haves and the have-nots.