Budget Friendly Dry Wall Repair How To

Hello Friends!  Now that I have done as much as I can do on my own with the kitchen makeover, I have decided to move on to the closet in the office.  I say "office" but it is really a bedroom that I have been using as an office.  I suppose that many of us have had to commandeer a space in our homes as an office space.  Unfortunately, the shelf in the closet wasn't really meant to hold heavy office supplies such as reams of copy paper and client files.  Over time, the brackets holding up the shelf had begun to tear away from the drywall.

The shelf itself, which was nothing more than a pressed melamine board, had also begun to bow in the middle.  I don't know why I left it so long.  I think I was a little intimidated at the thought of removing it.  It is the second time I have had it repaired and the contractor who installed the current shelf had assured me that it was never going to rip out of the wall.  Famous last words, right?

Funnily enough, taking everything down was a breeze!  The screws and anchors had torn so far out of the wall that it wasn't difficult at all to dismantle.  Unfortunately, when I took everything down, gaping holes were revealed.  The holes went right to the other side of the drywall.

Can you believe that I remembered that I had the very things in my toolkit to effect the necessary repairs?  Really, it was a bit like finding a spare can of paint in the exact right shade to paint out the blue stripe in my kitchen makeover which you can read about here.

Yes, there is such a thing as a wall bandage!  Basically, it is a self adhesive fiberglass mesh that you place over the hole which provides extra support.  First I filled the hole with as much drywall compound as I could.  Then I cut a generous sized square of the wall bandage and placed it over the hole.  

I used a putty knife to trowel on the drywall compound.  

If you can't find wall bandages then self-adhesive drywall joint tape is basically the same thing that comes in a roll instead of sheets. 

 I did find that the tape was much less sticky than the bandages so it didn't adhere to the wall as well.

Once the mesh has been completely covered by the drywall compound, sand it smooth.  Repairing dry wall is a much more cost effective option than tearing it down and installing a new sheet of drywall. Also, it is something that you can do yourself that doesn't really require any specialized skill set.   Now I can move on to the next phase which is planning drawers and shelves for the closet.  It is a bit of a conundrum because I want drawers and shelves to hold office supplies but which can be repurposed down the road to hold clothes.  Also there has to be some hanging space so that the closet can be used for hanging clothes later on if need be.  I don't want to do what I did last time which was to put up another shelf and pole.  I would love a closet that looked like it had custom built-ins in it similar to California Closets but that is not in the budget.  Speaking of budget, the cost of the repairs was a big fat donut as I had everything I needed on hand.  I can't wait to move on to the next phase. Stay tuned for that!

Budget Friendly Kitchen Makeover How To During Lockdown

Hello Friends!  I hope that, wherever you are, you are slowly emerging from lockdown.  The city that I live in is still in Stage 2.  Now that we are have been spending so much time at home, the comforts of home have never been more important.  Finally, I have the time to attend to those repairs that have been  pushed to the back burner for years.  Although I would love to gut everything and start fresh, my minuscule budget didn't allow for it.  Not only that, I had no idea how to manage social distancing with any contractors that I hired as I live in a condo and not a spacious home.  The kitchen cabinet doors were in dire need of repair but I had 15 (!!) cabinet doors and 4 drawer fronts to contend with, all of various sizes.  I checked budget friendly sites like Ikea to see if I could purchase new doors but I was unable to find anything that was even close to the sizes that I needed.  After much research, I turned to Amazon, who is fast becoming my new bestie, and ordered several rolls of matte white veneer.

I chose matte white because the kitchen doesn't have any source of natural light and I felt that white cabinet doors would help to bounce light around.  There are a variety of textures and colours available, such as a faux wood but the veneer is essentially a plastic contact paper so I figured that faux wood would look...well...glaringly faux.

The cabinet doors have to be clean of any grease or dirt.  Trust me when I say that even the tiniest speck of dirt will cause an air bubble to form around it. I was pleasantly surprised  to see that the rolls were made in Germany so I was assured of quality.  There are grid lines printed on the backing paper to help you cut straight lines.  Keep the backing paper on until you begin to apply it.  If you completely remove the backing paper before application, there is a greater likelihood of air bubbles forming.

I used a rolling ruler to help smooth down the veneer as I was applying it.  I pressed down firmly on the ruler while holding the veneer up and away from the ruler.  I found that the backing paper peeled away on its own simply from the forward motion of the ruler.  I used a utility knife to trim off the excess around the edges.  

You can reposition it a few times if you find that you have made a mistake but the more you manipulate it, the greater the chance of air bubbles forming.  I had a can of spray glue at the ready but I found that I didn't need it.  Any air bubbles can be gently massaged away.  Remember to pull it tightly around the edges as air bubbles tend to form along the edge.

Refinishing the cabinet doors actually went quickly once I became familiar with how to apply it.  The fact that the doors are flat without any moulding or protruding trim really helped.

The next thing I tackled in the kitchen was the blue bulkhead.  The blue stripe running along the top of the upper row of cabinets had always vaguely bothered me.  It had been painted blue a long time ago on the advice of a real estate agent but I just found that it had no relation to the other elements in the kitchen at all. During my lockdown decluttering efforts, I found a barely touched pint can of paint in a closet along with brand new rollers and brushes.  Finding that can of paint, in the same shade as the rest of the kitchen, was like finding gold.  No need to mask up and go to the hardware store with the sign on the door that said "5 minutes max."  I don't know about you but I am fairly certain that no one in the history of humankind has ever been able to choose a shade of paint and get it mixed up in under 5 minutes.  I had everything I needed to paint over that blue stripe without spending a dime!

Before:

After:

I am so pleased with how it turned out.  The kitchen looks modern and refreshed and has a more cohesive look. The rolls were around $19 each and I needed 6 rolls.  Expensive for what is essentially contact paper but much cheaper than getting new custom doors.  I think that this is a good option if you are a tenant or if you are looking to refinish cabinetry on an extremely tight budget and have no prior experience or special DIY skills.  You don't need any special tools except a pair of scissors, a utility knife and a ruler or something similar.  Best of all, it was a project that kept me occupied and sane during these troubled times.

ASMR Fruit Smoothie Video

Hello lovelies!  I mentioned in my previous blog post that I was enjoying making fruit smoothies in the morning.  I use frozen fruit chunks which is wonderful during these hot hazy days.  I use a fruit juice as my liquid base but you can always use a milk base (dairy or plant based) as well.  I really don't know why I was so intimidated in the past.  I think I thought that I HAD to incorporate fancy supplemental powders into the concoction.  The great thing about smoothies is that you can customize it to your own individual taste.  It is virtually foolproof as there is no cooking or baking involved.  I find the process of whizzing it up to be meditative and relaxing and now it is something I look forward to with anticipation.  The video is pretty much self explanatory which is why there is no voiceover.  Enjoy!