I made so much progress on my studio office area cabinet doors and drawer fronts this weekend! I’m feeing so motivated, and so excited to get these cabinets done so that I can be one step closer to having a finished studio.
On Friday and Saturday, I worked on the backs of the doors and drawer fronts — sanding the primer smooth with 220-grit sandpaper, spraying the first coat of paint, sanding again, spraying the second coat of paint, spraying the first clear coat, sanding again, and then spraying the final clear coat.
Saturday night, Matt asked me what my Sunday was going to look like, so I was going over my day — church in the morning, come home and make him lunch, go to lunch with my mom and brother, then come home and make him dinner. Then I said after all of that, I planned to work on my studio cabinet doors and drawer fronts.
When I said that, the expression on his face got really sad. I asked him what was wrong, and he said, “I just feel so bad that you have to work on a Sunday.” I responded, “What do you mean have to? I don’t have to do anything. I want to work on those! I’m so excited about getting those cabinets done, and I love painting! This isn’t work for me. It’s fun!” 😀
Even after all these years, I still don’t think he completely understands my love for some of these things I do. Sure, at times, it can seem like work, and I want to procrastinate and avoid it. But when I really start seeing progress on a big project, it gets exciting and fun. And that’s where I am now with these cabinets.
I had high hopes that I’d be able to finish painting and clear coating the fronts of the cabinet doors and drawer fronts, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to. But I did get the primer sanded, and then get the first coat of paint on everything.
I had plenty of time to get them finished last night, and the weather was absolutely perfect for painting, although it was a bit windy at moments. But for the most part, it was perfect. It got up to 85 degrees yesterday, and even after the sun went down, it was very comfortable outside.
And I really love painting. I actually watered down the paint just a tiny bit (which I’ve never done before when using my little sprayer), and the paint was going on so beautifully. I didn’t use the Critter brand sprayer this time. I needed to buy a new one, and the Critter brand had gotten ridiculously expensive. So I bought this K-Grip siphon spray gun instead (affiliate link). It’s literally the exact same thing as a Critter, except that it’s still reasonably priced, and it comes with a plastic jar instead of glass, which I actually prefer. This one doesn’t break if I drop it. The glass jars break 100% of the time, and I’ve dropped a few of them over the years.
So anyway, I was making such good progress, and I was really hopeful that I could get them all finished with a second coat of paint and two coats of General Finishes High Performance Topcoat (affiliate link), which is my go-to clear coat.
But unfortunately, I had one thing working against me last night — crane flies. They were everywhere. If you’re not familiar with crane flies, they’re large, very delicate, completely harmless flying insects that are annoying more than anything else, because they seem very clumsy, like they can’t really control their flying. And they show up in droves at this time of year after the sun goes down.
So after the sun went down, here they came, attracted to the lights in the carport. They were continually flying into me, flying around my face, flying into my hair, and worst of all, flying into the wet paint. And once they’re there, there’s no getting them out of the paint. They’re way too delicate to pick them out of wet paint. So my only option was to wait for the paint the dry, and then brush them off and sand the imperfections in the paint.
So unfortunately, I had to give up after the first coat of paint was done. I was so disappointed. I really wanted to have all of the doors and drawer fronts painted, clear coated, and ready for gold leaf today, but it looks like these little bugs have put me one day behind. It’s not a big deal, though.
Okay, moving on to another item for my office area, I want to show you something I found so you can tell me your opinion. As I shared last week, I’m going to be building a bridge with cubbies between the two side upper cabinets. That will look like this…
And then I had decided to use two table lamps on the countertop, and to use my floral print on the lamp shades. It would look something like this…
I had decided not to do pendant lights in this area for two reasons. First, I have a pendant light above my desk, and I didn’t want three pendant lights in such a small area, especially since two would be the same, and the third (the one over my desk) would be completely different. And the second reason is that I would want any pendant lights over this countertop to match the pendant lights over the other countertop. I bought these years ago, and then actually took them apart and combined parts from two different lights to make one light. So these pendant lights aren’t something I can just order more of. And I haven’t been able to find any that look similar enough for my liking.
But look what I did find. Sconces! I found them on Amazon (affiliate link), and they look so similar to my pendants!
They would need to be painted and gold leafed to look like the pendants, but I can’t believe how similar they are! I mean, they’re not exactly the same shape, but they’re pretty darn close!
So now I’m not sure if I should do the sconces, or stick with the table lamps with the floral shades. I like both options a lot, but I’ve always loved using sconces where I can find places for them. Now I’m torn.
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 M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.