Time for another issue of Everything For The Home, the newsletter that keeps you in touch with the latest information about products for your home, courtesy of www.HomeStyleChoices.com.

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What's In This Newsletter

I don't usually write these newsletters with any particular theme in mind but if I had to choose one for this month I'd have to say it's heavy on the 'do-it-yourself' subject.

Despite official rumors the economy for most of us is still as lethargic as my 15-year old in the morning but that doesn't mean we have to put off sprucing up our homes. A little elbow grease and some products that give us options might be just what's needed until the bigger home renovations can be fit it.

Refurbish Your Cabinets For The Cost Of Paint

Tiling Without The Messy Adhesive

What's New At HomeStyleChoices.com

Refurbish Your Cabinets For The Cost Of Paint

See if this scenario sounds familiar. You have older cabinets in your kitchen and you're just not feeling the love for them anymore. They might be in good shape structurally but they're just too dark.

Or it could be the bathroom cabinets. The finish is worn or the wood just looks dated.

Regardless of whether it's the kitchen or the bathroom, it's just time for a change.

Tearing out the old cabinets and installing new ones is certainly an option but if you don't have the stomach or the budget for this, there are other alternatives. The one that's easy on the purse and comes with a pretty good track record is simply to paint them.

"Well that's nothing new," you say, and you're right, it isn't. But the key here is to get great results, not just the look of old cabinets that have been whitewashed.

If the thought of painted cabinets conjures up images of buying whatever paint is on sale and living with brush-marked cabinets, think again. There is a way to get good results and end up with refurbished cabinets for a fraction of the cost and effort it would take to replace them. It comes by way of a couple of paints specifically designed for cabinets and trim and made to optimize the end results.

The two paints I'm talking about are called CabinetCoat and Ace Cabinet, Door & Trim Paint.

Both of these paints are designed to provide a very smooth washable surface that's durable and will stand up to the environment that cabinets live in. What's better and even more important is that they're made to adhere to the existing finish of cabinets, which are typically either varnished or painted wood.

CabinetCoat is made by Insl-x, makers of other paints and specialty coatings. It comes in a satin finish and is available in about 30 colors starting with white and moving on into the pastel shades of the spectrum. It has low VOC (volatile organic compound) characteristics at 50grams/liter, which is below the Green Seal™ standards for non-flat paints and coatings. According to Insl-x, no primer is needed if CabinetCoat is used on top of existing finishes.

The other product that targets this particular painting niche is Ace Cabinet, Door & Trim paint. It's available from the paint division of Ace Hardware. Like CabinetCoat, Ace's Cabinet & Trim paint is low on the VOC scale coming in at 50 grams/liter. However it differs from CabinetCoat in that it has more of a semi-gloss finish. What makes this particular paint handy is that it can be tinted to match other colors within Ace's color palette and it can be matched to colors from other brands or samples.

The price for a gallon of CabinetCoat is about $45 whereas the Ace Cabinet & Trim is slightly cheaper at roughly $25 to $30 per gallon.

Surface preparation is key to the success of any paint job and it's no different with these paints either. As I mentioned earlier, CabinetCoat can be applied over existing finishes but they need to be cleaned of any residual grime, grease and oils. A light sanding of the surface to be painted provides a good mechanical bond for the paint too. In either case it's best to follow the recommendations provided by the paint manufacturer for best results.

So, if you're cabinets are looking tired but they're still solid, a good coat of paint might be what's needed to give them and your kitchen or bathroom a fresh look. It's certainly cheaper than new cabinets and less expensive than cabinet refacing.

You can find out more about CabinetCoat along with technical information and color choices at the Insl-x website. There's also a dealer locator function on the website to help you find local retailers that sell the paint. It's available from various online retailers as well.

Ace's Cabinet, Door & Trim paint is available at some Ace Hardware store locations but not all. It might be worth calling your local store to see if they carry the product.

For some real-world experience with one of the products, here's a link to a blog written by someone who's used Ace's cabinet paint. She includes some good tips on her own experience working with the paint.

Tiling A Backsplash Without The Messy Adhesive

If you've ever thought about tackling a tile job, particularly something like a kitchen backsplash, but the thought of mixing the mortar and getting it right held you back, there is another way.

There are several products on the market that offer easier methods to set tile, doing away with the traditional mortar/thinset bonding agents. Instead, these products use mega-sticky adhesive sheets. I guess you could say they're sort of like double-sided tape.

You apply the adhesive tape to the countertop or wall then stick the tiles to the adhesive sheets. You still have to grout the tile but the adhesive sheets do away with the need to mix the mortar to its correct consistency and all the cleanup that process entails. You also don't have to wait before you grout like you normally do with standard thin set mortar.

The two products are called SimpleMat and Bondera. Both products are similar but one differs from the other in the range of applications. SimpleMat is advertised as being just for tile countertops and backsplashes. Bondera on the other can be used in showers and other vertical wall surfaces and in wet applications.

For DIY'ers this sounds like a handy step forward in making a typically messy and time consuming job less so. I can certainly see the merits of using these products for a backsplash or a tile countertop. (However if you opt for a tile counter, more power to you. I think they're annoying given all the grout lines that trap stuff when you try to wipe the counter clean).

The Bondera product touts itself as being fine for use in a tile shower. It does this by means of sealing tape that's applied over the joints in the adhesive sheets.

I haven't tried either product though I must say that the intent seems like a good approach, particularly for an application like a kitchen backsplash. For a tile shower I'd still be inclined to go the old-world way and use a mortar adhesive base. Maybe it's just my "overbuild it" engineering background that gets a little uncomfortable with using sticky adhesive sheets in this application.

The other benefit advertised with these products is the fact that they can be applied over just about any other type of surface, including old tile. That might make them more palatable for people who don't want to deal with removing the old surface before installing the new tile.

A few more restrictions that go along with these products include tile size and thickness. Tiles need to be bigger than 1" by 1" and no thicker than 1/2". Mosaic tile sheets are OK provided they have an open mesh backing so that the tile itself will contact the adhesive sheet. Mosaics with a thick/tight mesh backing aren't recommended because the tile really won't bond to the adhesive tape (and those tiles aren't stuck to the mesh backing very well either).

I can see how these products can save some time and cleanup compared with using a traditional mortar base, and that might be just what some people need. Then again, conventional thin set mortar might give the traditionalists among us a more warm and fuzzy feeling about the solidity of our tile. At the least, these products offer an option for someone still on the fence about whether to do it themselves or to hire out the job.

You can find out more about Bondera at the Bondera Tile Mat website. Bondera's available only in New England Lowe's stores at this time though you can buy it from Lowe's online.

The SimpleMat website can be found here and it can be bought at The Home Depot. You can see some user feedback on the SimpleMat product at this Home Depot link (click on the "Reviews" tab).

What's New At HomeStyleChoices.com

Here's what's new at the website:

The Latest Blog Entries
(You can see them at the Home Design Blog page)

Choosing The Right Backsplash (..Or The Right Anything)
Choosing the right products for your home encompasses several facets including knowing what's available and not getting too tied up in making the 'perfect' choice.

Doors That Save Space
There's another type of door design that helps minimize the wasted space that's typical with traditional swing doors. No, it's not a pocket or sliding door either. It's the Ergon door and utilizes a double swing motion that works well in those tight spaces.

Is It Time For A New Garage Door?
Blog post announcing the new article about choosing new garage doors (see the link below under "New Web Pages and Articles").

A Better Downspout Extension
Downspout extensions do a great job of directing the rainwater away from your home's foundation but they can also get in the way. This nifty retractable downspout extension rolls out to distribute the water when it rains and then rolls up by itself once the rain stops.

Stuff Happens (To Any Product We Choose..Even Wood Floors)
Another of my "stuff happens" rants chronicles how things will inevitably happen to the products we choose to put in our home. Here's an example of how our new wood floors 'took it on the chin' (but bounced back).

A Copper Kitchen Sink...At A More Affordable Price
I came across a sale of Whitehaus Copperhaus copper sinks at an online retailer for a fairly reasonable price for these kinds of sinks.

The Completed Remodel - Before And After
Blog post announcing the new article about my own home remodel (see the link below under "New Web Pages and Articles").

Kohler Smart Divide Sink Review
Blog post announcing the upload of a new article reviewing the Kohler Smart Divide Sinks (see the link below under "New Web Pages and Articles").

New Web Pages and Articles
Choosing Garage Doors

The Completed Remodel Before And After

Kohler Smart Divide Sink Review

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Robert Levesque
Founder & Publisher
HomeStyleChoices.com

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