$25.93 Worth of Changes in the Laundry Room
Last week, I shared the sad state of our laundry room. The room was graced with dirty beige wallpaper hosting some lovely rose colored flowers that weren’t roses (those tricky wallpaper designers…), not-so-fresh cabinets, and dirt streaked beige walls. In case the picture doesn’t let you in on the room’s (former) dirty little secret – it was totally hot for dirty beige. The room never felt clean, no matter how much I scrubbed the surface area. And one of the last rooms in your house you want to give off the aura of filth is the laundry room, seeing as how it’s primary purpose is to serve as a place to wash and dry clothes. To review – new tiled floor, mutant wallpaper, and extremely functional storage. And was it ugly. As in U – G – L – Y, you ain’t got no alibi ugly. But not any more!
Why hello there, you little clean looking space…how you doin’?
The previous owners had left behind a gallon of high gloss white paint and a gallon of primer so we lucked out and saved some money in that department. To paint the cabinets, I followed the steps provided by Young House Love. It really does make a difference when you properly sand, prime, paint, and seal cabinets, and even though I was tempted to cheat – I did the right thing to ensure a lasting finish. As you can see, I chose not to replace the hardware at this time. The existing hardware actually looks quite nice with the painted cabinets and just seems like an unnecessary expense right now.
It is amazing what a little paint can do, isn’t it? I detailed my wallpaper removal trials and tribulations last week. In effort to save the unprimed drywall, I sealed the wallpaper with KILZ oil-based sealer, used joint compound on the seams, and then sanded until my arm felt like it was going to fall off. Let me tell you, using an oil-based sealer in a room with virtually no ventilation is not a pleasant experience. Because Clay was away, I worked well into the night after little guy had gone to bed. The fumes are no joke and I really made an effort to limit Weston’s exposure. After the sealer was dry and no longer smelly, I used joint compound and a trowel to created textured walls to match the non-wallpapered walls in the room. Finally, I mixed a couple of existing leftover paint we had to get this soft blue/gray combination on the walls.
I followed his technique and then incorporated somethin’ somethin’ of my own.
The posters and bulletin board were in our art stash, which equals free wall decoration.
In case you were wondering what our clothes see when they emerge from the dryer…
And finally, the countertop and backsplash. I was unable to get to these beasts as part of my original deadline and that is okay because I really want to explore options and see what will work best for us at this point in time. I am still leaning towards painting them until we can save for a new countertop but I am not 100% sold on that idea…yet.
So there you have it – the laundry room progress. It certainly feel cleaner in here and I like to think that our clothes are happier. Whenever I walk by the room, I turn on the light, look in, and smile. And smiling when doing laundry is always a good thing. So far, I have spent $25.93 on the laundry room makeover, well under the $75 budget and gives me some wiggle room with the countertop and backsplash. Not too shabby.
- Kilz Oil Base Sealer, 1 Gallon – $14.29
- Trowel – $4.75
- Joint Compound – $6.89
- Paint Supplies (tray, roller, brush, etc…) – FREE (already own)
- Blue/Gray Paint for walls – FREE (mixed two half gallons of leftover paint)
- White High Gloss Paint for Cabinets – FREE (previous owners left behind)
- Artwork – FREE (already own)
TOTAL (so far) – $25.93
