First Post, First Time DIY Project.. Oh the Things I Have Learned

by Cheri Reichart

6 Materials

I had a boring old plain Jane beige 80's bathroom. I desperately wanted to do something but had never done anything other than paint a wall.
I had to look up on youtube how to put a drill bit into a drill. So many lessons I learned in doing this. Trust me when I say nothing went right the first time. This site and all blog DIYer's sites provided me with the courage to give it a go..
I have now tackled the entire house..Yikes!
The different things I did.
The miracle of paint. I painted the entire tub area, the floor, cabinets. Textured my walls with drywall mud, made a concrete counter top and replaced all faucets and made a mirror mosaic on the existing plate glass mirror.

first post first time diy project oh the things i have learned

The 80's have called... My beauty before.

The heavy splotches on the wall is the drywall mud that I experimented with to create texture.

I added black stain to my concrete sealer to give the counter a glossy black look.

Took the mirror off my medicine cabinet. I use it now to showcase funky perfume bottles.

Oh the thrill of the mosaic mirror.. Piece by piece and I learned by trial and error what works best.. A tip.. don't use Gorilla Glue Epoxy. Who knew? I thought glues and epoxies were the same...not..

My best results came from using custom ceramic tile mastic.

Beautiful black shower.

Big and best tip... Prime, Prime, Prime. Spend the money buy great polyurethane.

Paint let dry and seal before sanding and doing other things.

I had no idea that when I sanded my concrete counter tops that the dust would adhere to the paint in the tub and tile and create pits and mars throughout. Yes I had to redo the entire tub.

My thoughts... oh it has to be easy to replace a faucet....

Reality. Not always. Look at your fittings underneath the sink. Mine were old and corroded and did not come off easy. Two days after using a sledge hammer, a regular hammer, WD 40 and a hack saw and reading every tip online I bought a dremel and a pipe cutter to get the old faucet off. Tears and frustration do not work.. I was lucky I didn't damage any of the lines in my desperation to get the old lines off.

Enjoyed the project?

You can do it! Saved to your projects

Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info

Frequently asked questions

Have a question about this project?

Ask a Question

3 of 24 questions

Joe Jones on Sep 25, 2018

You also said invest in good polyurethane what did you use it on?

1
Bzm11686139 on Sep 25, 2018

The mirror is amazing and the medicine cabinet-turned-shelf is quite nice. How are your black surfaces holding up? I have found that my dark surfaces show more dust and dirt than medium colors.

1
Linda on May 19, 2023

Good job!

0