Monday, November 19, 2012

The Master Bathroom Project | Adding Framed Mirrors (Part 6)


Ok.

This is blog post #6 about the Master Bathroom Remodel. I went from the easiest part (painting) to the hardest part (creating our own framed mirrors with backlit LEDs). If you need to catch up on what we've done so far, check out my previous posts:
Instead of the long mirror going across the entire vanity, we wanted to replace it with two smaller framed mirrors centered over each sink basin. In addition, I had the bright idea of back-lighting the mirror with LED lights. (I drew my inspiration from the back-lighting in this Kichler lighting video.)


Preview of the final result

Pretty cool idea eh? Well I thought so too until we had to start putting it together. We could have easily just bought a framed mirror... or even a pre-built frame itself! But, no... we decided to build everything from scratch and things were a little more complicated than expected.

In the end, we were happy with the finished product, but I'll at least suggest buying a framed mirror to minimize your frustrations. :)


Would you like to join in on the framing, mirror, and LED fun? Here's how we did it, so you can DIY:

PART 1 - Building the Framed Mirror

SUPPLIES:
DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1 day

1. Cut the MDF casing 2 inches longer than the dimensions of the mirror.
The mirror was 24" x 30" in our case, so we cut two pieces that were 26" and two pieces that were 32" for one mirror. We cut the MDF casing 2 inches longer so that was a 1-inch clearance around all sides of the frame.  This allowed us to have space to adhere the LED lights to the wood. To cut the 45 degree angles, we used a miter box and hand saw.


Measured the MDF
Cut the MDF using a Miter Box and Saw. It's a fantastic tool.
Note: Make sure that when you are cutting, you are paying attention to which edges you are cutting from. The thicker ends of the MDF casing should have more length than the shorter ends because it will be on the outside of the frame. We weren't  paying attention and cut it incorrectly. We didn't have enough extra wood to cut an entirely new piece, so we had to fix it by gluing some pieces together.

Our mistake. So we had to glue two pieces together and paint over the seam...ugh

2. Paint all sides (even the back!) of the casing.
It's important to paint all sides of the casing because the mirror will reflect whatever color is on the inside. (Again, we didn't do that, so we had to make some adjustments...you'll see what I mean later.)

You will see that we painted these before we cut them. That was a mistake.
Plus we only painted one side of them. Another mistake.
3. Let it dry and do a second coat, if needed.


4. Piece and staple the frames together.
Layout the frame, face down. Staple the backs together with the staple gun.

My handy dany staple gun. (Notice that the backs are not painted. They should be.)

5. Attach the mirror to the frame.
The mirror came with mounting clips typically used to screw into the walls. If you just reverse them and screw them into the wooden frame, you can easily mount it. You may need to buy shorter screws though (hence the 1/2" wood screws on the supply list).


These little clips were meant to hold mirror to the wall.

Well, we didn't find these clips until we were attaching the mount to the mirror (Part 3 of this entire ordeal). So we tried to glue the mirror on instead. The guy at Home Depot recommended some all-purpose, extra strong glue to us... it did not work! We glued the frame to the mirror multiple times and it still wasn't sticking. If only we had found the mirror clips sooner!

Our attempts at gluing the mirror failed miserably. Every time we thought the glue was dry, it wasn't.  Even after we clamped it and weighed it down with the heaviest things we could find in our garage, we still had not luck.

This process seems simple right? It is, but we had a lot of trial and error with glue and other aspects. Once the frame is done, you are now ready to attach the LED lights.



PART 2 - Attaching the LED lights

SUPPLIES:

DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1-2 hours

1. Orient the framed mirror.
Figure out the location and orientation of each mirror. It is important to determine which part of the mirror is closest to the outlet. Therefore, you can lay down the LED rope light with the plug oriented closest to the outlet.

2. Attach LED lights.
Attach the LED lights with either a glue adhesive (LiquidNails) or mounting clips. Depending on taste and preference, you can use the mounting clips that are supplied with the rope lights. The mounting clips raise the LED lights off of the mirror a quarter of an inch, which will be visible when mounted on the wall. The glue will also hold the mirror in place, but you are going to run out of hands to hold the LED rope in place while the glue dries. Note: Do not try to use any other glue! Liquid Nails is the best.

At this point, we hadn't bought the liquid nail adhesive so we were using hot glue, the home-depot-"recommended"-glue that failed, the staple gun and tape. Not the best use of resources or time. 
Hot Glue!

Staple Gun!

Tape! All failed. 
The LED rope lights came with mounting clips, which we didn't find until after we had finished this process. This was the second time that we didn't dump out all of the materials in a package.  Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me. I learned my lesson! Next time I vow to dump out everything in the box before I start putting things together.
PART 3 - MOUNTING THE MIRROR

SUPPLIES:
  • LiquidNails adhesive
  • Clamps
  • Four 8" 2x4 wood blocks
  • Two 16" x 20" particle boards
  • 1" x 2" x 32" furring strip
  • 2.5" wood screws
  • drywall anchors
DIY STEPS
Time frame: 1-1.5 days

1. Figure out how much clearance you need for the LED light plug.
Weirdly, the LED plug was like 3 inches long. This meant that the mirror needed to be at least 2.25" off of the wall because the recessed outlet went in .75". So we had to build a mount that pushed the framed mirror off the wall at least 3 inches. We designed a mounting mechanism on paper and a process of assembly to best adhere the mirror to the wall.

The plan and the measurements.

It took a lot of time to figure out the best method. We were actually going to nix the entire LED light idea because the technical skills required seemed to be beyond our capabilities, but we decided to push through it.


2. Cut your wood pieces.
We measured out the dimensions of each of the materials (indicated above), clamped it to a stable horizontal surface, and cut away! We also sanded off the excess frayed edges.

Measuring the particle board to be 16" x 20".

Power tools. Yessss! There will be 2 of these boards.

Cutting the 2x4s to 8" pieces. There should be 4 of them.

Using the reciprocating saw to cut the furring strip into two 16" pieces.

Sanded off the excess frays.

I was pretty excited. I got to use my rotating and reciprocating saws for the first time!


3. Mount furring strip along the top of the particle board.
Line the skinny side of the furring strip with LiquidNails. For more stability, also drill three (approximately) evenly spaced holes to screw the particle board onto the furring strip. Drill and screw in from the particle board side, not the furring strip side.

Glue the furring strip onto the particle board.

Clamp them together.

Flip the boards over from the orientation in the picture above. Drill pilot holes and insert screws through the particle board into the furring strips.
Finished mirror mount. Well, one part of it.


4. Measure the location of your particle board on the backside of your mirror.
Through a lot measurements, we found the best location for the particle board mount so that we were maximizing the usage of the stud locations. Once we had those measurements down, we traced the particle board onto the back of the mirror using a permanent marker. Make sure it is level!

We had to do a lot of measuring in this project...

5. Glue on the particle board to the mirror.
LiquidNails is your best friend. Squeeze that stuff within the boundaries of the outline you just created on the mirror. Attach the board with the furring strip pointing up. Let this dry for 16 hours!

Once it's dry, it's not going anywhere.

Tip: Find something heavy to put on top of it. This will distribute the glue and ensure that the mount sticks to the mirror back.

6. While the glue is drying, measure the mount location on your wall.
Take accurate measurements of everything! How far away is the mount from edge of the mirror? How far away is the mirror from the wall? How high is the mirror above the wall? Write it all down and begin to pinpoint the locations on your bathroom wall.

7. Attach 2x4s to the wall with the screws.
We used 4 screws per 2x4. Where the 2x4 is not directly over a stud, pre-drill holes and insert drywall anchors. Make sure they are level with each other, otherwise be prepared for a lopsided mirror.

We put in dry wall anchors where the blocks were not going into studs.
Drill at least 4 holes in each block for the screws. 

Make sure they both are level. We used that thin piece of wood shown so we could determine the levelness since we didn't have one of those big levelers

About 16 hours after you've glued the particle board to the mirror back...

8. Slide the mirror onto mounted 2x4s.
This is the last step! Place the mirror onto both of the 2x4s and (as best as you can) nail the furring strip onto the 2x4s. This will secure the mirror to the wall. We tried to put at least 2 nails in each 2x4.

Hammering it in was a bit difficult. There wasn't not a lot of clearance to hold the nail up and hammer at the same time. But we eventually did it.

Plug in the LED rope light and you are ready to go!!


Shot with main lighting

Shot without main lighting.




TOTAL COST: $155


OVERALL IMPRESSION
The project turned out to be a little pricier than anticipated. If we ever do this again, we'll have to do some better research on LED backlighting. I think I would also shop around for better LED lights. These lights were too warm in color and kind of finicky to stick on. If we had just built the frame and the mirror (and had the right glue and dumped out all the materials from the get-go) this project may have been a little more manageable.

Also since we didn't paint the inside of the frame beforehand, we had to figure out how to hide the ugliness. We had some rope handy, so we spray painted it and hot-glued it onto the frame. Quick and easy fix, but obviously not ideal.
"The Ugliness"... you can see the inside wood color through the mirror's reflection. This is why it is important to paint all sides of the frame.

Rope.

Spray painting the rope.

Hot gluing the rope to the mirror.

Ugliness gone! Trimming the frays

You live, you learn...

Finally! It's done!


At last, we are getting to the final touches — putting up the sconces and shelf!

The light is near! Now it's time to get some rest...

{Rashida}
Posted by at 6 comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Top Ten Trends in Kitchen Design

On Monday night for my Materials and Resources class (INTD 60), we visited Kitchens of Diablo in Danville, CA. The showroom was beautiful — showing a lot of variety in designs from the modern kitchen with clean lines to the traditional kitchen with grand embellishments and wood detailing. Shelley Lober (the owner) graciously hosted us and provided a lot rich information, showcasing her depth of knowledge in the field. I learned a lot about the trends in Kitchen Design.

So... I bring to you the TOP TEN TRENDS IN KITCHEN DESIGN as told by Rashida.

1. Traditional kitchens are a thing of the past. Go contemporary!
People are now into clean, sleek lines and easy to clean surfaces. All of the extra embellishments and ornate wood carvings are phasing out. This extends to the hardware, cabinetry, and counter-tops. Of course, you have to know your client. Given the location of Kitchens of Diablo, their clientele is not the "trendy" type so they have to cater to their audience.

Too ornate and too much wood detailing. Beautiful but not trendy.
Traditional in every sense of the word.
Contemporary kitchen. Some contemporary kitchens go a little too far into the space age (or the 70's...think Austin Powers). This is a livable contemporary space.

2. Parlez-vous français? Non! French Country kitchens are so passé!
Again, they are too ornate and often times use glazing.

Can you spot the glazing?
I guess the french like this mint color or something

3. Glazed cabinets? Not anymore.
The rustic, worn, distressed look of cabinets are staying where they belong... in an antique shop. Good thing we didn't apply the optional glaze coat on our cabinets in our master bathroom remodel.

These cabinets definitely look old. I thing this look gives too many extra features that aren't needed for a kitchen.
The glazing kind of makes the cabinets look fake.
4. Bullnose counter-tops are also old news!
Variations of straight edges are more popular for counter-tops  If you absolutely must have a rounded corner, go with an O'Gee or Pencil nosing.

Bullnose corner! Don't do it!
Other corner types. Try them out!

5. Gray, gray everywhere!
Paint is going gray. Cabinets are being stained and/or painted gray. Flooring is becoming more gray. DuraSupreme (a prominent cabinet provider) has their line of gray cabinets. Do you? (This trend is so prominent right now and I am so glad! I love gray!)

Stunning!
If you can't go with a full gray cabinet, there are other options. Cabinet manufacturers are now coming out with a color called blue corn (left). So instead of the coffees, chocolates, or espressos in cabinets, the trend is to see cabinets that have a tint of gray in the stain.

6. Soft-close drawers are replacing the standard drawers.
Sick of your kids slamming cabinet doors shut? Well this can be prevented with new drawer technology. At a certain point away from the cabinet, the drawers glide shut instead of slamming shut. BluMotion developed this soft-close technology.


7. Lower cabinetry and drawers should not be repetitious like the upper cabinetry.
Lower cabinets should not repeat a consistent pattern around the kitchen. Instead, there should be various sized drawers and/or cabinets.

Don't do this. The lower cabinetry is a series of drawer cabinet, drawer, cabinet, drawer...

These are updated cabinets, but still repetitive.

There are full banks of drawers and full banks of cabinets. Beautiful!
Breaking repetition is not just for aesthetic purposes, but for practicality and functionality as well. Which brings me to #8...


8. Lower cabinets are being replaced with drawers.
Drawers are much more functional than cabinets for the lower levels. Gone are the days of laying on the floor trying to find that one pot cover that is stuffed all the way in the back of your cabinet. Get off the floor with your dignity in tact!

These are alright, but that means it's a two-step process. You have to open the cabinet doors first, then pull out the drawers.

The center island is full of drawers!

9. No more visible frames. Use full-overlay cabinets.
People no longer like to see the support of cabinets. They just want to see the drawers and the doors, creating clean lines.

Huge drawers with no visible frame.

And finally, the best for last...

10. Touch cabinets!
This is by far the coolest thing that I have seen. BluMotion created a cabinet that opens with a light touch anywhere on the cabinet. For all you techies out there, these touch cabinets are a must have! For creatives out there who are trying to get their techie significant other to get involved in the design of their new kitchen, show them this and they'll happily get involved. It is a little pricey right now ($1700 just for two mechanisms), but once the price comes down, I am sure they will be all the rage.

So with all that said, I think I found my dream kitchen in the display room of Kitchens of Diablo.



It has darker brownish-gray wood with full overlay cabinets/drawers. Horizontal clean lines with the hardware.  Soft-close drawers with two BluMotion touch cabinets. An island with cool grayish-blue cabinetry. And a really funky glass counter-top for the island.



Not to mention there are many drawers for pots/pans, baking sheets, garbage cans, and even a counter-top garage for small, portable appliances. But one of the best parts is my new love, porcelain wood tile. It looks like wood, but way easier to maintain (more on this later).




Dream big everyone!

{Rashida}

Posted by at 3 comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)