My "Grown Up" Bathroom Renovation! Amy Howard Paints!

Hey y'all!!

Anyone in the South enjoying the weather?

Yeh. me too. Tongue in cheek.

Honestly, if I was not doing Advocare and drinking this stuff called Spark?

No really, my big butt would be sitting lying on the couch all day long.

Shout out to my son Greg Boggs for getting me on it.  He has told me about it for years and I've gone yeah, yeah..

Now he's like "Mom, I'm not telling you I told you so, but..."

and, extra credit goes to the 7 lbs. I've lost!!!

Anyway, back to my bathroom renovation.

If you've read my blog for a while you know that last year I did a little "updo" on my bathroom.

Hubs and I have separate bathrooms.

Which I love btw.

But, when I re-did my bath last year I guess I was in a "cutesy" mood.

I guess I've grown up in the last year.

Really all I did last year was paint, change the shower curtain and add a few towels.

But....I was still left with the irritating, cheapest, ickiest condo grade melamine cabinets that you can have.

Well, I'm here to tell you, even though those melamine cabinets are the worst EVER, you can make them look better.  (I hate two cheap decorating things....Wire shelving WTW were they thinking with that stuff? And melamine cabinets) 

So, I decided to give Amy Howard paints another chance.

I gave Amy Howard a scathing review after trying it on a lamp.  I will tell you that the company read my review and sent me all new paints clearly outlining how to use the paint.  I thought that was so gracious BTW.

 I never got that project done, but I'll give you my opinion of Amy Howard paint after I show you the pics.

So, here we go.

First here was my bathroom re-do that I did last year.

As you can see...the grey wall paint that I used gave off an ever so slight green tint.

That's just ONE thing you have to be careful of when choosing your grey paint.  So, when I added yellow accents, it just exacerbated the annoying green.

Lived with it...for a year.

I mean really nothing wrong with it at all.  I just wanted something a little more sophisticated. (and less green looking)

These are the original cabinets.

So, first let's start with the cabinet clean out.

OMG.

That's really all I can think to say.

honestly?  this just makes me mad at myself.

how many bags DO I need?

Think I used these maybe 5 years ago?

Oh, and yes, I tried fake eyelashes once...

um....hum....I really don't know what to say about this.  All I know is that when I took one of the drawers out, this was stuck in the back...

I really am still at a loss for words.

If you didn't get a good look at it, here is another picture....

OH look!!! That's part of my potty seat that I used after hip surgery. I used it to store stuff.

Really?  I know my friend Elizabeth is gagging at this point.

Two tissue holders that I will never use.

Coins from Atlantis...

And a few treasures that I forgot all about!  My daughter's graduation pearls, a sapphire ring that we gave her when she was 16.

I've been looking for these for about a year.

Oh! forgot I had these too!!! Brown cultured pearls.

Why? I mean really why in the world have I kept this stuff?

So, the cabinets were cleaned out and organized.  The only thing I kept were things that I have used in the past year.

Everything else went in the dumpster.

Including that hair extension....

This is what I used

Luxe Grey

by Amy Howard

www.amyhowardathome.com

Now.  first of all. Shake, shake, shake that can up.

After you shake that can up, get an old wooden spoon and stir, stir, stir it up.

After you do that, get an old whisk and whisk it!

I'm serious. It's pretty thick paint.  And if it's been on the shelf a while it will be worthless if you don't stir it up well.

This was one of those pain in the butt things.  I know you think you can paint those doors and drawers without removing them, but you would be a cheater if you did.

So, I painted the frame out, the drawers, and the doors.  It took two coats of paint.

That really was not dark enough for me.

So this is what I did.

I got this:

and I had some wall paint that I used in the other parts of my condo.

I mixed about a cup of glazing and a cup of this dark charcoal paint.

I also added about 1/8 cup of water to this mix.

I used my whisk to stir since I had already ruined it (it's okay, I didn't like that whisk anyway)

Using a big fat mop brush, I quickly painted this mixture over my completely dry paint.

Using a LINT free rag, I quickly wiped it down.  Now, glazing does not dry super fast.  However, this all needs to be done in one movement.

If you go back over this after you've glazed, you will ruin it.  Also, finger prints don't really look all that great on a cabinet.  Make sure it's completely dry before touching.

Patience friends!  Patience.

After buying a new shower curtain, new ivory bath mats, and some ivory towels, I have my new "grown up" bathroom!

Another shot.

okay, so really, I realize that this picture does not show the depth of the color.

So, here's a closeup:

So fun!

The only thing I have left to do is add a crystal chandelier to finish up my project.

(there was only so much I could do in an afternoon....)

I'm getting this one off eBay!

So, the down low on Amy Howard paints.

There is a big difference between Amy Howard paints and Annie Sloan.

There are different uses for each paint.  AS is a chalk paint which will give a chalky appearance.  That is not what I wanted with my cabinets.

I found that as long as I kept mixing and stirring the Amy Howard paint it went on smoothly.

I still have a bit of an issue with the "One Step" name.

That says to me that it's one step.  Like goes on and bam, your done.

No, it takes at least two coats, maybe even more.

Amy Howard definitely gives a more sophisticated look in my humble opinion.

And she does a really great video on her web site to help you with the process!

Plus, there are many, many fun things you can do with Amy Howard paints.  Like the dusting powder, antiquing mirror product, spray lacquer, etc...

Hope you guys have a terrific day and thinking the weather is going to clear up today!

Thank goodness!!!

xxxooo

kb