First things first. Thank you very much for all your feedback about studio cabinets! I haven’t had a chance to read all of them yet, but I’ve read about 75% of them, and I’m starting to get a sense of what I want. I’ve narrowed it down to three options, and I’ll try to do some mocks this week to find the three best options. All three options include white upper cabinets, but differ in the color of the lower cabinets. I lean heavily in one direction, so the mocks should clear everything up and make the decision easy.
Now on to the progress of the home gym. I checked things off my punch list, and I really feel like I’m home now, so that’s exciting.
If you remember, I ordered four frames from Michael’s, and they all arrived damaged or destroyed. Every single one of them. So they sent me four more, and these arrived safely. So I got the stains last night. I want them to be walnut to match my WaterRower and dresser. I had already stained two of the frames Dark Walnut, but I was never satisfied with that color. It turned out darker than the actual walnut in the room. You can see the color of the stain in the two picture frames below.
So I ended up sanding the stain color on the frames, and used Varathane Special Walnut on all six frames. The color is better, and a true walnut color, but it is still very light and very red.
Finally I added a little (maybe a teaspoon) of Dark Walnut to the Special Walnut and mixed it well. They are different brands, but both are oil based, so they mix well.
I gave the frames a light sanding with 220-grit sandpaper and then applied a second coat of mixed stain, and it came out very close to real walnut. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty close!
I let them dry overnight, and I can get the pictures framed and hung now.
I got my neon “Sweat The Crazy Out” sign this week, and was very anxious to hang it in the closet area. I absolutely LOVE this! š I ordered a gold yellow color, but I’m sure it’s orange. I don’t care, though. The orange on the sign (when the sign is on) is actually the same orange as my Bellicon rebounder. So it was perfect.
I also hung the TV on the wall, so now I just have to wrangle the cords. And as you can see in the picture above, I have an idea to add metal shelves on wheels on each side of the wardrobe and TV. I thought it might be a better use of space, and then I would look for a place to hang the mirrors in the main part of the room.
Well, I don’t like the look of the shelves there. And while I think the shelves help, I don’t think I need a lot of shelf space in this room. So I decided to use the shelves in the storage closet in my studio, and I’m going back to the plan of hanging mirrors on each side of the closet.
I would like some shelves in there, though. So I decided to add some shelves to the ends of the closet perpendicular to the back high wall of the closet, as shown below. (That picture might be clearer if I hadn’t leaned the mirror against the end wall, but hopefully you get what I’m saying.)
So things start to fall apart here. The biggest things I still have to do are paint Matt’s exercise bike, and then stain the bars for the Swedish ladder and get them installed. There are many more small projects, but I call for reinforcements in at least one of them. My mom said she would cover my curtains for me, so that would be a big help. And then I thought about getting a handyman to come and put the ceiling fan and light in the entry. Those are just busy work type projects that I can delegate to someone else so I can focus on other things and move this process along faster. But it’s coming!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has MS and is physically disabled. , so I do most of the work at home by myself. You can learn more about me here.
I hope you’ll join me on my DIY and decorating journey! If you want to follow my projects and progress, you can subscribe below and get every new post sent to your email inbox. That way you won’t miss a thing!