Week Thirteen: Closing

Last Wednesday we finally closed on the new house (hurrah!), so now it's officially ours to move into (and, just as importantly, decorate as we like). Unfortunately I didn't get around to shooting quite as many pictures of the new house as I would have liked this past weekend, so a complete tour will have to wait for next weekend, but I thought I'd go ahead and give you a taste of what the finished house looks like.

Above is a picture of the kitchen -- I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since I had rather limited choices for finishes. The light fixture/pot rack above the island is my favorite element and I really think it finishes off the space quite nicely. As for hardware on the cabinets, I've decided to go with these (both available at Lowe's and Home Depot):

The pull will go on each of the drawers while the knob will be on each of the cabinets. It's definitely a modern look, but I tend to prefer a more modern look in a kitchen, and I don't think it's so modern as to be incongruous with my generally more transitional tastes. I couldn't believe it when I counted it all up but it looks like I'll have to purchase 14 pulls and 23 knobs for the kitchen alone; Dave is going to have quite a job installing them all next weekend. [Love you, honey!]

Also on tap for next weekend is painting the dining room. I bought a gallon of trim paint that matches the existing trim to paint out the lower third of the wall to mimic wainscoting. Above the chair rail I'll be using Farrow & Ball's Drawing Room Blue. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

On Saturday morning while I was at a bridal shower, Dave was nice enough to install the sconces I bought to replace the cheap-looking brushed nickel ones the house came with. Here they are in the master bath -- basic, but pretty, and certainly a better match to the bronze faucets and shower door than the brushed nickel ones.

The major project we undertook this past weekend though was painting my study. While the footprint of the room is relatively small, the soaring ceilings meant that we had an awful lot of square footage to cover -- and on a 14' ladder to boot! I'm so thankful that this is the tallest room we'll be tackling in the near future as it's definitely nerve racking to be up painting that high. In the end though, I'm really pleased with the result: it's exactly what I had in my mind and the dark walls really emphasize the height of the room. I also absolutely love the way the color looks through the french doors (which are on your immediate left as you walk in the house). Once we paint the dining room blue, I think the rich colors will balance each other and be a great contrast with the neutral hallway.

Some friendly advice though: painting a room deep eggplant [I used Benjamin Moore's Purple Lotus] is just like painting a room red. You'll need at least two coats to get the saturated look you're after. We didn't prim first (the paint was brand new after all), but it probably would've saved us a bit of time touching up at the end. For the first time I also sprang for low VOC paint and I will say it made a huge difference as far as smell went. The paint is virtually odorless and what little scent it does have is actually quite pleasant. While that may or may not have long-lasting impacts on my health, it obviously made it much more pleasant to paint in a confined space for hours on end.

Before I left for vacation I ordered this chandelier from ZGallerie (which is currently on back order). I can't wait to get it in so I can install it and see how it looks in the space. Not only should it up the "glam factor", but it will provide substantially more light than that undersized flushmount.

The next few weekends will largely be taken up with painting, installing hardware, waiting on various deliveries/installs and, of course packing (which I have yet to start -- yikes!). If I seem a little distracted between now and D-day [August 15], you'll know the reason and I hope that you'll forgive me.

Filling In the Gaps

Over the last two weeks, Dave and I have been sprucing up our pine floors, which run throughout the majority of our house. While pine's heavy grain has a beautiful and rustic quality, it's a relatively soft wood, and as a result can be a major pain to deal with. Indentations from dogs, cats and high heels have all made their marks on our floor, but I'd really just consider that some "character".

The real problem has been in between the wood. Since these aren't engineered planks, there's no interlocking system keeping them next to each other; the floor boards are just nailed straight into the subfloor. And so, as our house has settled (which all houses in Houston inevitably do), the boards have spread apart. The prior owner had filled many of these gaps with wood filler, which was stained to match the floors' finish. And that was fine until Olivia came on the scene. Last spring, Olivia managed -- I'm not quite sure how -- to actually eat most of the filler in the wider gaps. Suddenly, the floors started to look like this:

Not horrible, but definitely noticeable, especially when you repeat this over, oh, 800 square feet of exposed floor. Fearing that the only way to properly fix the floors was a full-on refinishing (which would require (a) removing all our furniture and (b) more money than we wanted to put into fixing the problem), we put off doing anything about it for months. Recently, however, as we contemplate a move (more on that later), we decided it was time to face the music. Luckily for us, the music was pretty sweet: the floors could be fixed without refinishing; some wood filler was all they needed. Encouraged, we decided to tackle the project ourselves. First stop was a trip to Loew's for the necessary supplies.

In order to fill the spaces between your floor boards, you'll need some wood filler. We stumbled on Elmer's Wood Filler, which comes in two convenient sizes depending on the size of your job. This stuff works great. Like their school glue, Elmer's wood filler is water soluble, which makes for super-easy clean up (no worrying about getting the filler all over your floor -- you can just clean up at the end with a mop, water and a little elbow grease). To apply the filler, simply use a spackle knife and smooth some of the filler over the cracks, sweeping perpendicular to the crack/hole. Keeping smoothing the area over with your spackle knife until the filler is flat with the surrounding area, applying more filler as necessary. Since the filler will reduce a little bit as it dries, you may need to come back with a second application for deeper crevices. Once we finished applying the filler (and cleaning up), our floors looked like this:

We let the filler dry overnight before we went back over it with a Mimwax wood finish stain marker (we used "Early American" finish), which works just like any other paint pen. Staining the filler was actually far more tedious than applying it in the first place (though clean-up was -- as usual -- my least favorite part of the whole process) and I managed to get it all over me. Because of the huge area we had to fix, the entire process took us several weeknights and a good bit of a Saturday, but smaller jobs could easily be tackled in an afternoon. But the finished product turned out pretty well I think:

In the above photo, you can see how beat up our floors really are in some places, but I think the filled crack blends in pretty well, don't you? As a warning about the Mimwax stain markers: they don't go very far; in fact, we ended up running through a half dozen of them during the course of the job, so I'd suggest buying several if you're doing anything more than a minor touch up or two. Additionally, I thought the stain was rather transparent, so we ended up having do go over most areas several times to get the right depth of color.

Now that we've finished the project and our cleaning service thoroughly cleaned the floors, I'm really happy with the result. It took a good bit of work, but by doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money on labor and in the end spent less than $100 on the necessary supplies. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner!

A Tale of Two Chairs

When I worked at the Big Firm, I never would've had the inclination to spend my precious free time (what little I had, anyway) refinishing or recovering old furniture. But, since joining the Energy Company, I find myself with both the time and -- quite unexpectedly -- the desire to do just that. I blame my new found DIY-ness in equal parts on Bravo's Top Design and Design*Sponge's Before & After weekly feature.

Last fall I began stalking Craigslist looking for a cheap chair or two to tackle. I figured if I bought the chair cheaply, I wouldn't be devastated if I ended up completely wrecking it. After a week or so of searching, I stumbled across an ad for two Mid Century Modern chairs ($30 each/$50 for the pair). I figured for that price, I could afford to mess up. Luckily for me, the girl selling the chairs lived only a few blocks away. Two days later, I had my chairs. Of course, it took a while to figure out what precisely to do with these chairs, but once I did, the process for each (although different) was pretty simple.

Chair #1

This first chair was a real find. While I lack the expertise to say for certain, it is at the very least an extremely close replica of the Saarinen Executive Arm Chair with wood legs. Even the original fabric (a tweedy bright blue that had faded to a dull green grossness) looked like the fabric these chairs were originally issued in. What's insane is that the licensed versions of this chair retails on DWR for over $1200 -- and I paid $30! When I saw this chair on Craigslist, I was so excited I was almost frantic, completely afraid the chair would get sold before I could get to it (or that the seller would come to her senses and relist for much, much more). Once I got the chair home, it was evident that the existing fabric was going to have to be replaced -- it was in horrible conditions. Additionally, one of the chair legs had lost part of its veneer and was pretty beat up. And so, in case I was dealing with the "real thing", I decided to let the professionals tackle the job and sent the chair out for a proper reupholstering (though I did attempt to refinish the legs myself first -- directions below). The fabric I used is called "Esha" by interior designer Annie Selke, which is available through CalicoCorners. Esha is also reversible, and I think the reverse of the chocolate/slate would make for a fun (and coordinating) pillow.

The Refinishing Process:

Refinishing is actually a lot like painting and really no more difficult. I first removed the chair legs (which were simply bolted to the bottom of the chair). I then sanded down each leg with medium-grit sandpaper to remove the original finish as well as smooth out all the nicks and dents that are inevitable in a vintage piece. Sanding the legs down by hand is definitely a tedious -- and messy -- process. I would recommend sanding outside and, especially if you're working with a piece that was painted or varnished, wearing a mask. Once the legs were sanded, I cleaned them off with a damp rag (you don't want any grit remaining when you start staining). For stain, I used Minwax in Red Mahogany (to coordinate with my Salvation Army desk), which I picked up at Home Depot. I chose a darker stain than the original finish because the legs were in such bad shape. Minwax Polyshades combine polyurethane and stain in one step, but you could obviously go with just a stain if you don't want the top coat. To stain the legs, I used a small paintbrush. The key to staining is to coat the wood very lightly -- you don't want to just slop the stuff on as you'll be left with inevitable drips and an uneven finish. Minwax recommends doing two separate coats, and using a fine-grade sanding paper in between coats, to get the best finish. I actually ended up just doing one coat and was happy with the result.

I am sure some purists will bemoan my decision to go with a print and not simply match the original fabric, but ultimately I decided to go with what I like. I don't see any real harm in that since the piece can always be recovered later and the original fabric was unsalvageable. Of course, having a piece professionally reupholstered or refinished can be expensive, but in this case, I got the chair so cheaply that even when including the cost of fabric (4 yards) and the cost of reupholstery (almost $200), I am still coming in far below its true value.

For the story of Chair #2, please click on "Read More" below.

CHAIR #2

Since chair #2 was a simpler shape than #1 -- and probably worth a whole lot less -- I decided to tackle the reupholstering myself. First though I sanded and stained the frame (following the general instructions above) with my husband's help over the course of a weekend and probably 3 or 4 hours. The fabric for this chair is called "Pinecone" and I scored it on sale at Pottery Barn. I bought two yards to be safe, but probably could've made do with only 1 yard. Total cost (including stain) came to about $60 for this chair. Chair #2 now sits happily next to the windows in my study, overlooking the backyard.

Reupholstering:

Reupholstering a chair is a lot like gift wrapping -- only with fabric and a staple gun instead of paper and tape. Definitely nothing to be intimidated by. I first unscrewed the seat and backrest from the frame with a screwdriver. I decided to just put the new fabric directly on top of the original but before recovering, I Febreezed the old fabric and let it air out overnight to eliminate any musty odors. If the original fabric is particularly nasty or the stuffing is worn out, you're going to want to remove the original fabric first and/or re-stuff. I find a flat head screw driver is the best tool to remove old staples. Once the old fabric is off, you can fluff up the seat with a new layer of stuffing (available at most craft or sewing stores).

Using the seat cushion as a guide, I cut out the necessary fabric, making sure to allow several inches of overlay on all sides. Using a staple gun, I then began stapling the new fabric to the underside of the seat -- starting in the center point on one side and then the center point on the opposite side ensures a snug fit. Remember to pull the fabric as tautly as possible as you work. From there, continue stapling to the corners, making sure to flip the seat cushion over periodically to check for any folds or creases in the fabric.

For the backrest, I followed a similar pattern but since the underside of the backrest would be visible, I folded over the edge of the fabric before stapling it to create a clean finish. Fortunately the sides of the backrest were going to be hidden by the wooden frame, so I was able to hide most of the staples there. For those few visible staples on the underside, I went back and dabbed a bit of White-out on them to help them blend in with the fabric. If you're working with a darker fabric, a sharpie would do the trick as well.

I am really happy with how both chairs turned out -- they both add a more personal touch to my home. Plus, every time I look at them I feel a sense of pride for finding two ugly chairs most folks would've just dumped and made them work for my home. And of course there's the satisfaction that -- with respect to Chair #1 anyway -- I got a really amazing deal on a piece of design history. If anyone else has some repurposing/reupholstering stories they'd like to share, please let me know. I'd love to hear all about it.

How To Remove A Large Bathroom Mirror

A few weeks back I posted a quick tour of my master bedroom and bathroom and Jamie left a comment asking for more details on how we removed the large unframed mirrors and replaced them with more updated framed mirrors. In light of the rather comical way we ended up going about removing the mirrors (and the after shots that I'm actually pretty proud of), I thought the answer merited its own post.

As an attorney (albeit one completely uneducated in personal liability), I do feel a duty to warn the general public that the way we went about removing these mirrors was, while in keeping with all the best HGTV has to offer, dangerous. After all, we're talking about breaking glass here. Accordingly, the general counsel (me) here at Odi et Amo advises you to consult a professional and, should you elect to undertake this project without the aid of such professional, proceed with caution at your own risk.

With that out of the way, let's get down to business. When undertaking any home improvement project, it's imperative that you outfit yourself accordingly:

This is what my husband wore the day we removed the giant mirror in our guest bathroom. Because you'll be dealing with a mirror that may (either intentionally or unintentionally) break, it's important to wear long clothing (samurai print optional), close-toed shoes, gloves and protective eye gear (which I promise Dave did wear, but is not modeling for us here). Because we had to break our mirror due to its weight, Dave also wore his Bose noise-cancelling earphones to reduce any hearing damage -- I suspect you could get a similar effect with plain old earplugs, or even earmuffs.

Now that you're looking professional, you can move on to the task at hand. You'll first need to determine how much glue is holding the mirror in place. If there's a lot of glue, you may need a crowbar (in which case you'll need to tape the mirror in a cross-hatch pattern first to reduce breakage). With the mirrors in both our bathrooms, there appeared to be little, if any, glue in place so it was mostly just a matter of unscrewing the brackets (easily done with a screwdriver). If our mirrors had been scaled normally, we would have simply unscrewed the mirrors, removed them, and replaced them with the mirrors of our choice -- unfortunately, the course of home improvement projects never does run smooth.

For us, the snag came in the sheer size and weight of our mirrors. The mirror in our upstairs' bathroom was approximately 7 feet long and 3 feet high. I'm not sure how that works out in terms of weight, but I'd imagine several hundred pounds as the combined force of David and I couldn't so much as lift the mirror an inch, let alone lift it off the wall, onto the ground, down the stairs and out the door. Since we're both rather impatient and disinclined to seek outside assistance (even when required), we pushed on undeterred and decided we would just break the mirror into pieces and transport those pieces outside for disposal. As when you have to resort to a crowbar to pry a mirror off the wall, whenever you decide to break a large mirror up into smaller pieces, it is wise (a relative term here) to first tape the mirror -- we used blue painters' tape -- in a cross-hatch pattern to prevent splintering and help the mirror break up into larger pieces. I'm not familiar with the science of it, but trust me, it makes a difference.

Of course, when breaking a 21 square-foot mirror, it's best to keep pets and children as far away from the chaos as possible (our animals were all safely in the backyard). Dave also broke the mirrors with the doors closed to avoid any pieces unintentionally flying into the hallways. After a break or two, Dave and I would stop and clean up the pieces as we went. All told, it took us several hours to break the mirror in the guest bathroom (and another afternoon a few weekends later to break the two mirrors in the master bath). We ended up storing the mirror shards in the boxes that the new mirrors came in for disposal (particularly convenient since those boxes were lined in Styrofoam, thus reducing the likelihood any jagged edge would poke through).

A word of warning: While I am not particularly superstitious, Dave and I did break these mirrors just a few weeks before Hurricane Ike hit Houston and Lehman's bankruptcy hit the nation. While I'd posit the classic statistical maxim that "correlation does not equal causation", I feel compelled to confess this unfortunate bit of timing lest further mirror breaking by well-intentioned DIYers triggers some sort of apocalypse.

But let's move on from such depressing topics and take a look at the guest bathroom "after" shots, which were well worth a few minor cuts and some sore muscles (though quite obviously not hurricanes or economic meltdowns):

The mirrors we replaced our contractor-grade mirror with are the Hutton mirrors (size small) from Restoration Hardware and are the same mirrors we used in our master bath. The hanging equipment and instructions included by RH are very detailed and easy to follow and hanging these up was no big deal. Also, since RH has been running pretty steep discounts and shopping incentives almost continuously since last summer, you can probably score them at a substantial discount (we gout ours for $100 off). At the same time we did this mirror project, we also painted the bathroom from a dull beige to a light blue-gray (Benjamin Moore's Feather Gray). Bath towels are just basic black towels from Pottery Barn -- a hint from Martha actually, who argues that darker towels and linens are great for guests as they hide stains and look fresher longer. The shower curtain is the Dobby-Stripe shower curtain in ash from Restoration Hardware. The canisters on the counter and the large canvas print of the stack of art books are all from Pottery Barn's summer 2008 collection and the artwork (entitled "Bird in E Minor") between the mirrors is via Wall Blank.

The books that bind us

The historian (and sentimentalist) in me loves making photo albums. The way I see it, there's little point in taking pictures in the first place if all your photos are just going to sit on your computer -- or in a shoebox in your closet. Personal photographs should be used and enjoyed. I have a photo album for each year from my senior year of high school through first year of law school (for trying to do the math, 1998-2004), and every time I look at them I'm honestly really thankful that I took the time to put them together -- they all bring back such wonderful memories. For my mom's 60th birthday, I made her an album using MyPublisher that pulled together family photos dating back to my parents' engagement. The task of scanning the several hundred pictures I pulled for the project was Herculean, but again, I think it was well worth the effort as now my family has (for the first time) our family photos sorted and arranged -- and outside Tupperware!

Back in November, I came across Rag&Bone Bindery via Decor8. Is anyone out there familiar with them? Before I found them on Holly's blog, I'd never heard of them, but it looks like they've been around since the late 90s. Rag&Bone Bindery is a company owned by husband/wife bookmakers out of Rhode Island and they make the most beautiful handmade books, journals and photo albums. Sure, they're a bit pricier than your Walmart versions and not as efficient as Snapfish or MyPublisher (both of which are better tasked with larger-scale photo projects), but I like supporting small businesses and artists (bookmaking is, after all, an art). Beyond that, I think beautiful, handcrafted products can be more inspiring -- and a lot more fun -- to use than their "made in China" counterparts. In any case, lured in by Decor8's 20% discount (now expired), I decided to purchase Rag&Bone's digital scrapbook ($39) in this Amy Butler print:

I thought this fabric would be the perfect home for my Hawaii vacation photos (which I took back in May of 2006 and 2007, respectively, but never got around to doing much with). When you purchase the digital scrapbook, you're also gaining access to their online print center where you can easily create customized scrapbook pages from an array of templates (including their "Aloha" templates -- how serendipitous!). Once you've uploaded your photos and inserted any desired text, you simply print out your creations onto the included paper (conveniently sized at 8.5x11) and insert the pages into the book -- et voila, you've made a beautiful scrapbook without any glue or scissors. I've already ordered several more to make additional vacation albums. For those who prefer the "old fashioned way" (or are working with older, non-digital photos), they carry traditional photo binders ($52) and large paper page albums ($78) (which are more like traditional scrapbooks) as well. All of Rag&Bone's books come in an array of beautiful fabrics and are hand made. Given the time and effort that must go into making such quality books, I'm pretty impressed with their ability to keep their prices relatively reasonable.

I wish I had known about Rag&Bone Bindery before I got married as they also make lovely guest books ($48), which can be beautifully inscribed (for an additional fee):

And for the new (or expecting) moms, I really love baby's first book ($68). Bound in ribbon, it includes fill-in-the-blank pages for some family history and all of baby's major milestones. I think this would be a truly awesome baby shower gift (and no, I'm not pregnant, but I do have a few friends who are and this is giving me ideas!):

For new moms and dads (and grandparents), the brag books ($34) are small and portable enough to keep at the office should anyone so much as mention children. I'd keep one around with pictures of my darling Olivia in it but for fear of major teasing!

Make Your Own Place Cards/Stationery

Last Saturday my sister and I hosted (courtesy of my father's monetary support) a 60th birthday party for my mother at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Sugar Land, TX. The sit-down dinner was for nearly 30 people and my father insisted that a proper seating chart (along with place cards) was an absolute necessity given the size of the group. Of course, since my father is one to make decisions but promptly delegate any work such decisions necessitate to others, the effort of arranging the guests and getting place cards fell to me (my sister had already done a good deal of work in coordinating the menu). With only two days until the party, I didn't have time to have my favorite graphic designer work up place cards so I hit up my local Target to find suitable fill-in-the-blank style place cards. After spending twenty minutes walking up and down the stationery/craft aisles, I couldn't find anything that would fit the bill, so I decided to make some up myself. Fortunately for me, Target carries a lot of really nice scrap booking and paper items and I found this lovely set of 5x7 decorative paper for less than $5 (for a pack of 48):

Since the paper is too flimsy to stand up when folded on its own, I also bought a package of cardstock in an array of browns to use as the base (and to create a nice contrasting border). Then it was only a matter of assembling some supplies that I had around the house to create some cute and simple place cards that looked pretty professional (if I do say so myself) and didn't take much time at all once I figured out exactly how I wanted them done. Of course, there are an almost infinite number of iterations that this project could take, but I think these cards would also make for lovely and personalized stationery that you could use yourself or make 6 or 12 (or 20) and give away as a gift.

Materials:

1. cardstock (or other heavy-weight paper) -- depending on the size of the decorative paper you're using (and how large you want your border to be), you'll probably get only 1 or 2 cards per sheet.

2. decorative paper -- I used 5x7 paper that was probably intended as matting paper for photographs (which means it was acid-free), but you could use 4x6 or 3x5 if you want the cards to end up on the smaller size. Buying smaller-sized paper also saves you the extra step of having to cut this paper down to size as well.

3. glue stick (or two) -- for 28 cards I went through a glue stick and a half so be sure you have some extra on hand if you're making a lot of these.

4. ruler or straight edge -- I used a leveler, which has the added benefit of being heavier (and therefore easier to cut against).

5. xact-o knife -- these babies just work so much better than scissors in terms of getting a clean edge. Whatever blade you use, don't forget a cutting board or other protective surface to keep your lovely table looking...well, lovely!

6. computer and/or pen -- I actually used both. I made up the labels on the computer and then used a gel-pen in gold (which came in a large pack of 48 but are also available individually or in small groups) to trace over the labels to add some dimension.

For instructions and the shots of the finished products, please click "read more" below.

To avoid having the extra step of cutting the decorative paper, I just left it as-is (5x7). I then placed the decorative paper on the cardstock and measured a 1 cm border around the decorative paper with the ruler, marking off where cuts would be necessary with my pencil (so I could go back and erase the marks once the paper was cut). Then using the leveler as a straight-edge, I cut along the 1 cm borders with the xact-o knife and then glued the decorative paper into place and folded the sheet in half like so:

Because my handwriting isn't wonderful, I decided to go ahead and type/print everyone's name out on the cardstock (which is conveniently sized at 8.5x11). To make the labels more decorative, I also used an oval shape, but you can try any shape you want. I then printed out the labels onto the cardstock in brown ink to reduce the contrast and traced over the names/ovals in my gold gel pen to add a little "razzle dazzle" (to quote Nigella, the domestic goddess herself). Of course, if you can skip the tracing bit if you print out the labels in a higher contrast color or simply don't want to bother with this step.

The last step is simply cut out the labels -- I used scissors since I find them more adroit at handling curves, but I leave that up to you -- and glue each into place. And ta-da, you've got yourself some place cards (or stationery or whatever else you've come up with):

The $25 I spent at Target would probably make up to 50 cards. At 50 cents a card, you can't beat it for personalized cards. Of course, if you give this project a shot, snap a few pictures and send them to me -- I'd love to see how it turned out.

Crafting Mishaps

I'm not sure if folks are generally aware of the fact that sealed granite is not completely indestructible. It is, however, mostly indestructible. If you're curious, the only thing that can really eat away at polished granite is hydrofluoric acid -- and unfortunately, I recently had to learn this lesson for myself. A few weeks ago I was inspired by Eddie Ross to try my hand at etching a silhouette onto a mirror (see his really cool project here). I had some cheap Ikea mirrors already up in my entryway and decided to etch each of them with a small silhouette of my dachshund Olivia. Over the course of a few weekday evenings, I managed to etch all 4 mirrors following Eddie's thorough instructions. I think the finished product is pretty cute, don't you?

Alas, in my rush to clean up, I left a damp rag on my granite countertop that must have had traces of the etching cream I had used. The next morning, when I moved the rag to the sink, I noticed that my granite now looked like this:

It's a bit hard to tell from the picture (black granite is highly reflective), but the Armour Etching Cream left that white blotch right next to the sink. Honestly, if I had given it any thought at all to the matter, I would've realized that anything that can permanently etch glass or a mirror could quite possibly etch other materials (like, say, polished stone) and been more careful. After many applications of marble polish (recommended to us by a local stone dealer), it still looks like this. I am now afraid we'll have to bring in a professional to re-polish that area of the counter. Sigh. Suddenly, my little cheap-o craft project (mirrors + etching cream = $25) is looking like it's going to cost us. So, while I definitely encourage you to try your hand at etching, I would highly suggest you keep the etching cream as far away as possible from your natural stone surfaces.