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If you are poor and lazy like me, you can still have a sweet home theater lighting setup. No wiring, no cutting sheetrock. The electronics are available at x10.com for under $100, and the can lights are $15, available at some Home Depots. Step 1: Take your wall switch, and put it on the wall. They will transmit through most walls.   Step 2: Plug in your receiver (not shown, it's behind an antique radio), and set your lamp units' knobs to the correct channel. Now plug in your lights, and hide them behind your furnishings, potted plants, that sort of thing. You can have as many receivers on the same virtual circuit as you like, and as many wall remotes as you like. You can set multiple rooms too, and even control everything with your computer (too much for me, but it's capable if I wanted to).  Step 3: The X10 kit comes with a universal TV remove, which can also control your lights. The lights are also dimmable by any of the remotes. Calibrate it, and enjoy your new glare-free television viewing. Added bonus: keep it behind a fake plant or tree, and it casts cool shadows on the ceiling, giving your room a sort of upscale hotel ambiance.   Other projects: The hall table or whatever you call it. I bought this cheap at an antique show, because the marble top had broken during shipping. I had some leftover travertine from my shower project, so I stuck them on a piece of plywood and grouted them.  Floor tile. Loads of it. And it was cheap, too. Whenever you think you can't afford something nice, take a deep breath and keep looking. These were $1.29 a square foot. BTW, this looked horrible under the store's metal halide lighting, but installed in my house it looks awesome.  Kitchen cabinets, countertop, and backsplash. You may feel depressed when you watch home improvement TV shows. "Jim and Anne are on a budget though--this kitchen remodel has to stay under a tight budget of *only* $30k dollars! Let's see if our experts can help them out!" Ugh. The cabinets were pink. I scrubbed them down, used liquid sandpaper, BIN primer, and oil-based paint. Now they're shiny and white. The countertops were perfectly functional, but an ugly gray. I roughed them up with a sander, and stuck 25 cent 4"x4" tiles to them. I did the backsplash with the same tiles, and threw in a few Mexican talavera tiles to match the floor ($2.50 each). The grout is stainproof epoxy grout from Lowe's. It cost more than the tile, but I can't recommend it enough. Regular grout will get grungy over time and darken. Look in a restaurant, whether McDonalds or a 5-star restaurant--they ALL have black grout for this reason.  BaronVonBigmeat fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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Jan 8, 2008 04:16
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EigenKet posted:This and what you posted in your thread are just incredible. Thanks! But that's not my thread.  I did have a similarly massive project though.First, let's start with the "before" pictures.   Yikes. Let's review what I had to start with: * Peachy cabinets, only 32" tall * Cabinets way too small for 2 sinks, leaving zero room for any freaking drawers * Pink carpet * Vulgar tacky medicine cabinets, to make up for lack of drawers * Cheap unframed slab-o-mirror * Cheap faux-marble counters * 1970's fluorescent light * Incredibly stupid closet size there on the left--5' x 5'. Think about it. You have overlapping closet rods, so you don't get 10' total linear space for hanging things. You get...5 feet, maybe. And it prevents you from having enough room for a real set of sinks. Meanwhile, a huge expanse of wall on the left goes unused. Whoever drew up the plans for this house was dumb. What do we do about it? First, we start drinking alcohol. Then on a whim, we plunge in and go past the point of no return, in a project we're not entirely sure how to finish:   But luckily, it's not a structural wall, so putting up a new one is just studs and sheetrock:      More remote-controlled dimmable lighting. Very sexy, but I wasn't smart enough to do a google search for "remote dimmers" at the time. I got in the attic and ran wires through the wall. Good god, what a chore.  The bathroom:    Grouted and sealed, with new fixture handles:  The living room, minus pink carpet:  The new floor. This is laminate, designed to look like Merbeau or Brazilian mahogany or something.  A warning to potential rennovators: I bought my house from a middle-aged couple who were pretty proud of the money they spent. I nodded politely while signing papers, and didn't have the heart to ask them why their house couldn't sell. They spent a lot of money...on crap. If you're going to spend money, make it look right! Except for the travertine shower, I really have not spent gobs of money. Even that was under $1000. Before you start doing stuff, have a rough idea of what you want. There are loads of books on design and decor, and most of them suck. They're just random collections of pictures. If you're clueless about design, but want maximum results for your money, there is one book I will recommend: The Seven Layers of Design He breaks things down into seven parts so you know what's missing. If you've tried to make your joint look nice but something seemed missing, read this book. Once you read it, you will be much better at looking at a room and seeing what's wrong. (For example, lighting is one layer. Don't have all your light coming from one central fixture. Have half coming from the ceiling, and half coming up from the floor, or from the walls.) Other than that, find a book dedicated to homes that match your style. In my case, a book on Mexican kitchens, and a book on Tuscan homes. Copy their furnishings and/or paint colors. And get a book on home staging, people actually get paid to take non-selling houses and tart them up so they will sell. And remember, just because your wife/girlfriend thinks she has a knack for decor, doesn't mean that she actually does. Just like most men think they know how cars work, but they don't really. Blindly follow her advice, and you may end up with a jumbled pink mess like the house I bought at a discount price. BaronVonBigmeat fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Jul 19, 2010 |
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