May 1, 2018

Laundry Room DIY Makeover

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This is a project that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I kept seeing all these cute laundry rooms while browsing on Pinterest and I was so envious. It took a while, but I finally completed the Laundry room makeover and I’m excited to share it with you today!

I had an idea of what I wanted to do in the room, but it still took me awhile to get this project completed because it was so intimidating thinking about all the work I would need to put into it. Turns out it was not that hard at all and I did the whole project for under $200! Here’s my inspiration next to how the room started:

Step 1:

When we bought the house we had to have the plumbing redone because of insurance and because of that there were patches all over the house. We painted the entire house when we moved in, but the laundry room was last on that list.

I took down the existing cabinets, which is actually much easier to do than you would think. It’s always interesting taking things down and seeing the past paint choices of previous owners. In this case at some point someone thought it was a good idea to have an orange laundry room! (forgot to take the picture before I started painting, oops!) I also had to take down that locked (with missing key) box in the upper left. It was the control center for the old alarm system.

From there I painted the room with the same grey we used in the rest of our house. If you haven’t noticed grey is my favorite neutral. The color is Sparrow by Behr paints. Just having the entire room the same color already made a huge difference.

Step 2: 

I decided that I wanted to have some kind of accent on the wall behind that washer and dryer. My first thought was to do an accent color, but I wanted something more. I decided to go with decorative wallpaper. I’ve never decorated with wallpaper before our last house had tons of 1970 wall paper we had to take down and that kind of turned me off to it. It seems to be making a comeback and I have seen so many beautiful patterns. It took me a while to find one that I thought would be good in this space but I finally found a Moroccan tile pattern on amazon that I loved! I also went with traditional wall paper instead of the easy stick paper because it’s half as expensive.

Hanging wall paper (is that even the right term?) is pretty easy. Basically you paint the glue on the wall and then lay the wall paper and smooth it out with a smoothing tool. The hardest part is making sure to cut the paper even and line up the pieces so you don’t notice the transition. I found that using my rotary blade and mat that I bought for sewing worked great for this.  I was a little worried that it might look cheesy because it’s not real tile, but I loved how it turned out.

Step 3:

I bought the cabinets unfinished from Home Depot and painted them. There’s is the option to purchase them finished but it’s $30/each extra for that option compared to $6 extra for spray paint. Before spray painting them I added the wood pieces to each of the sides for shelf support. I just screwed them on from the inside. I did a quick sanding sanding the entire cabinet so that the paint would stick, then I spray painted them and they were ready to to be hung up in the Laundry room.

I’ve also never hung cabinet before but these cabinets were made for easy hanging. There is a wood piece that you attach to the wall and then there’s a bracket on the back of the cabinet that hooks into the wood piece. Then I just added two screws to the bottom of the cabinets to secure them to the wall. Ideally you want to attach the cabinet to the studs in the wall, but sometimes it doesn’t line up right for that. In those instances it’s important to use the correct anchors. You don’t want to come home one day and find your cabinets have fallen off the wall. My personal favorites are self drilling drywall anchors.

Step 4:

I made the shelves by cutting down popular boards I got  from Home Depot. I originally was just going to lay the the flat shelves across the middle, but when I put them up I decided I needed to add a front piece like in my inspiration picture. It just didn’t look finished with out the front piece. I used wood glue to attach the front and nailed it together on the ends then clamped it overnight to let it dry. I filled the crease where the two  pieces met with plastic wood. Once it dried I sanded it down smooth and then stained the shelves in Minwax Special Walnut.

Step 5:

The last piece of the transformation was to create the folding table to go above the washer and dryer. I don’t actually fold the laundry in the laundry room, I actually am not that good at folding the laundry in a timely manner at all. I just think the folding table adds a finished look to the room. It gives a solid counter for decorations or storage also. The problem was that I wanted a wood counter top, but actual butcher block is expensive and hard to find in the dimensions I needed. In searching for other options I decided to go with common board plywood. It’s able to be stained and thick enough for my purposes. Home Depot even cut it down to size for me, which was great because I don’t know how I would have gotten it home otherwise. Best part is that it was only about $40 for the piece. Pro tip: If you measure out that you need 6 feet cut your piece about a quarter inch shorter. I didn’t and it took a lot of maneuvering, sanding and shaving to make it fit.

Step 6: 

The last step was the fun part! Putting the room back together and accessorizing the room. I started where I start with almost all of my decoration projects with my Cricut. I made a sign that expresses everyone’s thoughts about laundry. One for all those single socks I always seem to find in the laundry. (Seriously, where do the missing socks go?). The last one I made because we always enter the house through the laundry room. The last sign I found while browsing at a store that just opened up here, AT HOME. I thought it was funny and fit just right in the spot that needed filling.

The final Reveal: 

I love the way it turned out! It all came together just how I envisioned it. Our laundry room isn’t very big so it was hard to get a good picture for you but I tried to get the best angle. Here’s the before, after, and inspiration side by side.

Have you don’t any DIY projects lately? Let me know about them in the comments below. Up next I’m working on turning all my t-shirts from the races and walks I’ve done into a quilt. I’ve been wanting to do this forever. Now that I’ve spent some time learn how to sew over the last year I’m ready to take on the challenge. Wish me Luck!

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