For Sale By Owner 28; Shop Link Up Party

Sponsor time, if you would like to become a sponsor click here.

Welcome to our newest sponsor:

 

WallQuotes.com

Make sure if you are looking for some great gifts for friend and family that you check them out!  Pre-Designed Wall Quotes & Vinyl Wall Art- These unique vinyl decals range from single words to detailed wall sayings, are embellished with different fonts and styles, and are divided into easy-to-browse categories.  They're happy to send you free vinyl decal color samples so your wall quotes are the perfect color; see any ordering page for details.

Remodeling Networx

Remodeling Networx is a free service that enables homeowners to submit a request online and get contacted for a free estimate from up to four of our remodeling contractors. All of the contractors in our network are licensed and approved and offer a full range of services from repair work to complete renovations and remodels. Homeowners can then decide which contractor they would like to use for their project. There is no commitment or obligation in using our service—it simply provides a valuable resource for a homeowner to find a reliable contractor.

The Big Clock Store

The Big Clock Store offers hundreds of clock options from formal to children's clocks.  Their clocks make great gifts for weddings and house warming gifts.  And best of all, if they don't have what you want, work with their designer to customize your own.  You need to see what they have, click over to their site, you will be amazed!

 

Your Architectural Portraits

Last but not least my husband's little side business of custom architectural home portraiture.  This is a great gift idea, and or a fun way to memorialize your family home.

Okay now, this link up is mainly for cottage industry shops.  Families working at home etc. 

A way for people to find what you are selling.  It doesn't have to be an etsy shop just FYI!

Rules to participate-

  I invite you become a follower or subscriber of the blog. 

1. It is required that you be the owner/operator of the shop

(doesn't have to be etsy!) that you link up.

2. It must be a family friendly items for sale.  

3. This party is not for DIY projects, if you would like to link a project go here.

If this party helps to build your business, 

I hope you will consider advertising on Remodelaholic, 

check out this link for prices and options.

Please try to continue to spread the word so that we can keep this party going.  Write a post about it one your blogs with a link, and let your friends with shops know about it so they link up.

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Faux Painted Brick Over White Fireplace

Faux Painted Brick Over White Fireplace

contributed by Pretty Handy Girl

This is the first in a five part series on renovating our living room:

1. Faux painting brick over a previously painted white brick fireplace (this post)
2. Lightening up a room in 5 steps
3. Painting decorative graphics on a wall
4. Preparing to Install Antique Heart Pine Floors (and living to tell about it!)
5. Installing Heart Pine Floors and the Final Reveal

I know the trend lately is to paint fireplace brick white. Especially if the brick is an ugly bright red or some other ugly color. I'm pretty sure that is why our fireplace was painted in the first place.

Before Shot

But, the fact that our fireplace, mantle and the built-in bookshelves on both sides of our fireplace are white, made for an overwhelming amount of white on that one wall. I thought about painting the mantle, but only briefly. I really wanted the warmth and contrast of bricks to set off all the white in our living room.

I stumbled across a few websites showing painted brick here and here. Then I thought, "If someone can do it, then there is a 95% chance that I can do it too!"

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but in the end I am amazed by how real it looks. And, how easy it was to do! The true test came when I fooled the builder of our house (he has lived on our street for over 30 years) into thinking I had stripped the paint off the bricks! Sweet success.

This is a relatively easy project. It took several hours, but can be done in sections.

Materials Needed:
TSP cleaner
Scrub brush for use with TSP cleaner
Drop cloth
Newspapers 
Painters Tape
Paint Roller and Tray
Stiff 2" paint brush
Car wash sponge or large 6" x 3" sized sponge
Spray bottle with water
7 paper plates
Rags for clean Up
Acrylic Paint (see below for colors)

Before you do anything, buy some TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) cleaner at the hardware store and follow the directions to clean your brick. Be forewarned that you may actually like the color of your bricks once they are clean and dry! If you still hate the color, proceed...

After working up a test board by playing with several color combinations, I chose a warm brown brick color. I also tweaked my mortar color before painting it on my fireplace.

I covered the mantle and bookcases by taping newspapers to them. Then, covered the floor with a drop cloth.

I mixed up a small container of my mortar color. I used some leftover latex satin taupe paint from our other house and added some black and a little dark brown to achieve the perfect mortar color.

My color looks like this warm gray cement color:

I painted all the mortar areas between the bricks with a 2" paint brush.

As the mortar color dried, I mixed up a bucket of my base color for the bricks. Then poured it into a paint tray.

Then, I laid out my seven paper plates and filled the first one with a deep chocolate oops paint (Valspar Latex Eggshell Chestnut).

And poured a half dollar size of the following colors onto the other plates (one color per plate).

I used a paint roller to roll the base color onto small 3' x 3' sections of my fireplace. (Don't worry if the paint doesn't soak into all the grooves. Some of the white showing through made my bricks look old and rustic.)

While the base color was still wet, I covered my sponge with the Chestnut color. Then dipped the sponge into one or two of the brick tint colors. I sponged one brick at a time using the same color tints sporadically around the wall. Keeping the brick colors varied and random make them look real!

When the sponge needed to be reloaded with paint, I began with the chestnut color first, then added one or two new color tints to the sponge. You will have to refill the paper plates as you use up the paint.

I kept working in small sections, to be able to work while the base color was still wet (use the spray bottle of water to lightly wet the bricks if it dries too quick).

The best part was that if I didn't like a color, I could go back over it and try a different tint. Notice how I randomly dispersed the darker brown bricks. This is key to having a realistic look.

On the hearth I had to press more gently with the sponge since the mortar lines on our hearth were almost level with the bricks. I kept a wet rag near by to wipe up any wandering brick paint.

Close up picture of the bricks.
Notice how the white specks showing through really make the bricks
look like they are re-claimed and rustic.

After Picture

Daylight picture after decorated for the holidays.

I can't believe what a huge difference painting the bricks made in our living room. It warmed up the space and actually made our fireplace recede into the room. Let's take one more look at the before and after:

Side note: The latex and acrylic paint has held up great (even after several fires using our gas logs.)  If you need to paint the bricks inside the firebox, you will need to use paint that is heat tolerant.

And for those wondering how long this took. Including the prep work (cleaning, taping, mixing colors) it took about 5 hours total. Not too bad since I'm a night owl and could watch DIY network while painting!

Be careful not to put anything heavy on the hearth for a few weeks while the paint hardens.

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Faux Painted Tile Backsplash

Faux Painted Tile Backsplash

contributed by Sawdust And Embryos

I know, I know... it's Monday. But be of good cheer! We've got a backsplash to share! And we're really excited about this one!

Sarah's been wanting a backsplash in her kitchen for quite some time, but with the business of life and having other projects taking priority, the backsplash has been sitting dormant and on the back burner. Or, I guess I should say: 'on the wall behind the back burner.'

Sarah has a sage-green-thing going on in the attached dining area, and we collectively decided on a color palate for the backsplash to include smokey grays and sage green! We love it when we can change things up with color instead of the typical beigy browns! The gray/sage combo has just the right amount of class and color without being obnoxiously funky. We love it!

The camera didn't pick up the sage very well.  Sad face  :(

You can see the sage better in this photo.

Dear Green,
Thank you for existing. Your such the perfect combination of blue and yellow, and you come in so many different shades... from celery to olive, mint to kelly, sage to hunter... (speaking of hunter green, do not EVER pair it with peach or light pink). Thanks again green, you rock my world.
Love, Bethany

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Remodelaholic's Anonymous 48; Blog Link

*** FYI- Please visit Polly Want A Crafter blog party on Mondays. 

We have a button for the party.  The code is in my sidebar! Please add it to your blog or the post somewhere so other people can find out about the party and join in.  I would be very thankful!

Grab a feature on button if your were featured.  Not sure if you were featured?  Just scroll back through this weeks posts.  (if you have ever been featured, please feel free to take one too!) 

By linking to the party you give Remodelaholic full permission to feature all or part of the linked post on this site or one of our sister sties. 
All featured posts will be credited to the original author and linked to said post. 

Here are the party guidelines:

1. Please become a follower or subscriber of the blog FIRST !!

2. Please link to something that is relevant to this blog's topics (up to 3 links per blog). For example, a remodel, before and after, recipe, craft, DIY project, show us what you are working on. Please no businesses or etsy shop links.

3. Link to the specific post, not your homepage!

4. Add my button to your blog's sidebar or the post so more people can hear about the party... The more people that see the button, the more people that will see your posts and blogs!  

<center><a href="http://www.remodelaholic.com"><img border="0" src="http://i866.photobucket.com/albums/ab229/remodelaholic/RemodelaholicPartyFriday.jpg" /></a></center><br /><br /> <br /><br />

5. Please check out the link before you and make sure to leave a comment!   On that same note, I want to apologize for not being able to comment on each and every linked blog.  I have come to the decision that in the interest of my daughter/mommy time that I can't comment on each link.   I hope you will be understanding!

***Please don't repeat the same link each week!! try to keep the info new thanks!!!

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