It all started with the floors.
A few years ago we tore out our carpet and put wood down. We never finished. There were issues. There were matters of my measures and cuts as well as transition pieces. When we decided to have a party for my cousin, I knew I had to decide on something and get it done. So I figured out what I would do.
1. On all the pieces between wood and tile flooring, I would put a wood strip. (One of the T-shaped things that matches the flooring.)
2. Between the white trim and wood I would put quarter round to paint white.
3. The main issue I had... a tile step-down to the wood, that I decided to use the quarter round that matched the flooring and put it between the white quarter round. That might be a little hard to understand but you'll see a pic in a minute.
So I called someone to do the job and he measured and told me how much of what to get. Simple. Next step, call Lumber Liquidators (where I bought my flooring) for the coordinating trim. Here's where it gets fun. While they did have the 6' piece of quarter round I needed at the tile step-down, they didn't have the T pieces I needed for the tile (I don't remember how much it was exactly but I know I needed about 36'.) The closest store was New Jersey. Now what? I decided I couldn't have the matching bamboo but would have to buy the stuff from Home Depot and stain it to match. Yuck, but okay. Wrong again. I couldn't find it anywhere. Just when I was about to pay WAY too much and have the stuff shipped from New Jersey with Lumber Liquidators, I remembered a carpet store pretty close to my house. If they offered wood, they probably offered trim. I went in and not only did they have it but they stained it for me at no extra cost. I knew it would be different because my floors are bamboo and the trim is not AND I really didn't think the stain was matchable. (In my house it looks like it has a little mahogany in it but in the store you see definite green and black... it's weird.)
Anyway, I ended up saving more money that way and now my floor is finished. Here's my solutions.
The T's between the wood and tile
the threshold and quarter round painted white
and the quarter round at the step-down from the tile. What was originally going to be a piece of coordinating quarter round put down between the trim's quarter round ended up being one long piece. I taped off the ending points of the trim and painted white, then did the same with the stain.
This is where a discovery was made. I might not be the best at painting or any of this home improvement stuff but my stained quarter round matches REALLY well with the bamboo. Seriously, look at my stain compared to the others. I might have missed my calling. Once I realized what a whiz I am at stain matching and blending, I went over some of the stuff they did. (Not much, just a few touch ups)
And that was most of the flooring situation. In my next post, if the wounds aren't still too fresh, I'll try to explain how the trim turned into almost everything else being painted. There really is a good explanation.
