Thursday, January 31, 2013

Moving In Tips-Nasty Bathroom Cabinets

With our daughter in a new house and so many projects to do, I thought I would share some of the things we are fixing up as we go. Fortunately, she didn't have to move in immediately, since she is living with us. So, we can go in a fix things first, then she can move in. Her house is about 25 years old and was all builder grade quality when new. Now it's old builder grade in lots of ways, with some really nice quality in others. I  will get to those areas as we go, but now I'm gonna show you how I fix some things on a budget.

The bathroom cabinets are the originals, and the floor of the base cabinets (under the sinks) were disintegrating. That lovely old particle board only holds up so long after shampoo and cleaners spill on it. As I was scraping up the nasty residue, the particle board fell apart. Ugh...


She does not have the budget to replace the cabinets, so while we were at Home Depot we picked up some peel and stick tile at 30 cents a square foot.

I'm not really in love with the fake wood look, but it was the smoothest and cheapest choice.
I thought there was only 12 in a box, so I made her buy two boxes. Wen we got it home, I realized
there were 45 pieces per box. Bonus,some of this is going in the return to Home Depot pile.

I cleaned the cabinet bases as well as I could, first with a vacuum, then with a wet rag.
I started laying the tile in the left front cornet of the cabinet and
 just matched the edges up until I got to the pipes.

Then, I took the paper I had peeled off of the first tiles and used it as a template to cut around the pipes.
I had a handy dandy utility knife and just cut the paper to fit.

It cuts very easily with my super sharp utility knife.
Be sure you don't use an old blade, it is no fun to tear tile.
The pieces just break out after you score it.


Slide the cut out and it should fit right in.
I cut of a little piece of the excess and filled in the side.

I had to cut a narrow strip for the side since the cabinet was wider than two feet.
Now it is clean and smooth with no more sawdust.
And, you can wipe up any spills without a mess.

Wah Lah! Clean and fresh cabinet bases on a budget!
Thanks for visiting, hope this is a help to some of you on a budget as well.


I'm sharing this tip at: Beyond The Picket Fence Visit thecsiproject.com
The Self Sufficient HomeAcre

3 comments:

  1. Nice! Much prettier, and those tiles are great! :-) Thanks so much for sharing this at The CSI Project!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks so nice and so much better to clean...great idea!

    ReplyDelete