Project 1 - The bathroom
Although so far I have only completed decorating the ceiling, But I thought I would put it on this page as it is a bit out of the ordinary.

After living my house for 3 years I decided it was time to decorate the bathroom. The ceiling in the bathroom was covered in polystyrene tiles which over time had become all cracked and looked fairly horrible.
I removed the tiles to discover that the plasterboard was very uneven and had had section replaced due to the bathroom being extended in the past. There were also 3 large holes.

How to remove polystyrene tiles click HERE

After looking at the different options I decided that it would be nice to have a go at pine cladding the ceiling.

Because I like listening to music, even when having a bath or shower I thought it would be a nice and unusual feature to fit some speakers into the ceiling.
I found that he best option was to buy a pair of speakers from a local car radio fitters shop.
The speakers I selected (Pioneer TS-E1660 130W 4R Two way system) were made of a rubberised mineral fibre material so there would not be a problem with moisture damaging the cones of the speakers.

I had heard from different people that had varnished bathroom ceilings, that the varnish had darkened very badly and how it looks horrible now. Because of this I decided to ring up Ronseal to ask advise. Thankfully Ronseal told me that I need to use a water based varnish to get around this problem. Well after more than 8 years the ceiling is still an even colour so they were obviously correct.

Because I was fitting loud speakers into the ceiling it was important that nothing vibrated, To get around this problem I used silicone rubber sealant on every single joint between surfaces. Also I filled all gaps between the battens with flame retardant foam. It was worth going to such lengths to reduce resonance otherwise it would be really annoying if it vibrated when you played music.

Andy's guide on how to remove polystyrene tiles

1) Use a standard wallpaper stripper to hack off as much as you can to start with.
2) Remove as much of the actual polystyrene as is possible before continuing.
3) Now use a hot air paint stripper gun to heat up the tile adhesive and use the wallpaer scrapper to slide it off. Be careful not to overheat the plasterboard or it will burn.

Note : It is best to have a water spray bottle handy just in case it catches fire.

4) Once you have removed the adhesive you can sand it down ready for painting or wallpaper or cladding.

Project 2 - Renovation of Dining room table and chairs

When I moved into my new house I had no dining table or chairs, Rather than buying a brand new one I decided that I would have a go at buying an second hand one and have a go at renovating it.
I visited a local second hand furniture store which had an old drop leaf dining table for £30, It was old, very dirty and the varnish had all peeled away in areas but it looked quite solid.
I then also found a set of 4 dining chairs for £25 which were a light coloured wood with horrible black vinyl seat covers which were all ripped and had cigarette burn holes in them.

Restoration carried out as follows.

1) Take the table apart - Three hinges on each leaf
2) Remove oil and general dirt from all the surfaces.
3) Using chemical varnish remover, Cover all the parts and scrape off when it has finished.
4) Using a coarse sand paper remove all the areas of varnish that have not been removed.
5) Using various grades of sand paper, Rub down all the surfaces. For all "main" surfaces use a very fine paper. (This was the main time consuming part but the end result is well worth it)
6) Clean the surfaces with spirit to remove all dust, Sand again and repeat the cleaning with spirit.
7) In a dust free room apply some wood dye (using a rolled up cloth). The wood dye I used on the table was Colron Indian Rosewood dye.
8) When it had dried apply the first coat of wood varnish. The varnish I used was Ronseal Hard glaze clear gloss varnish. Allow to dry.
9) Using a combination of wire wool and fine sand paper remove all blemishes, If you do not do this then as more and more layers of varnish are applied
they will show up worse by the end.
10) Apply a further 2 coats of varnish and follow step 9 between each coat.
11) When the final coat had dried I reassembled the table using the original hinges and screws and waxed the whole table in a quality wax.

For the chairs I performed the same steps. The original vinyl covering was stapled to a wooden base. I removed this and had some seat covers cut out of foam.
I placed these onto the wooded base and used some cotton fabric as a cover. I then used a 10mm staple gun to fix the edges of the fabric underneath the seat.