Recently, my husby and I worked on an overhaul to our laundry room. We moved into our house about 2 years ago, and didn't do anything but put our stuff into the laundry room. We used the existing shelves and didn't change a thing. Like every good project, here are the before pictures. No filter - just a glance into our disorganized and yucky room!
We started with taking everything out of the room, although I took this picture before we moved the washer and dryer out. Then we took everything off of the walls taped off the edges. We fixed the drywall holes and sanded them down. We were ready to paint!
(The picture below does not show the drywall fixed.)
Next, we painted. We purchased the color "Sun Ray" about a year ago. We didn't get to the project then like we'd hope, so it sat until recently. As we started painting, we realized HOW BRIGHT it really was. We actually ran out of Sun Ray and had to go get more, and while we were there, we bought a gallon of Yellow Corn paint-and-primer in one can. We left one accent wall of Sun Ray and painted three walls (with two coats) in Yellow Corn.
We had to gather our materials. We bought wood for the shelves, L brackets, a giant pegboard, pegs, crown molding, paint, a light fixture, dryer vent things, and more. We also bought new fixtures for the room, like light switch covers, an air return, door handle and hinges, for the little details to brighten the room. In this picture, Dan was not smiling. He thought that, after spending a vacation in Disney World the week before, that I was too "picture happy" and he was through with that.
Next, we put up shelves. We put one on the left wall and three up on the right (Sun Ray) wall. Dan measured and cut the wood, and then I painted it with interior semi-gloss ultra white paint. We used L brackets to put up each shelf on the studs. Dan had to be a little creative on the bottom shelf, since we needed access to the water spigots. He created a little trap door that lifts up so that we could access the water knobs if we needed them.
After that, I painted the peg board while Dan measured and cut the crown molding for a boarder. We used
this tutorial to help get us going with the framing process. He mitered the corners, which was a little tricky with just using our circular saw. When it was dry, we glued the molding onto the board. We put yearbooks on the frame to help it dry nice and tight to the board. When it was dry, and from the back to the front, we used the staple gun to staple the frame to the board.
We put some heavy books around the frame to help the glue adhere to both sides. Year books and old college textbooks were the heaviest books we have. You James River or Centreville people out there may recognize those books!
Then, we added the wall frame to the left wall. We used 3 1"x2" pieces to hang the board to the wall. I used
this tutorial to give us an idea on how to do it. We screwed the board into the wall pieces, and we were done! I wish that I had painted the wood behind the board to be the same color just so it blends in a little more. It's not really noticeable with everything on the board, but I still regret it.
The last big construction project was building the kitty litter box holder. We had them in an unused bathroom, but that was not where we wanted them full time. Dan designed a two level box to hold each litter box, and fit next to the dryer. It's on castors so that we can roll it in and out when we need to clean up the litter.
Another detail we chose to include was to paint the washer and dryer. Currently, it was 1970s off yellow/tan. they had a fake wood panel on the top- very classy. We bought appliance paint and got it tinted a light gray. Lowes couldn't tint it as much as we wanted because it would compromise the special paint properties. We were able to get a light gray, which made just the difference. We lightly sanded them, and then applied the paint with foam rollers. It was surprisingly easy to paint them.
Pounce de Leon is always curious about our home projects!
Most of the construction was now done, so we started focusing on moving our items into the room in an organized way. JoAnn's conveniently had a sale on baskets, and all of them were 40% off! Needless to say, I made several trips. I also visited Hobby Lobby sales to get some neat glass bottles to store all of my laundry items, such as homemade detergent, vinegar (fabric softener), bleach, and baking soda. I got a frame for
this printable I wanted to incorporate, and two little decorations - a bird and a sign. We started hanging things on the board and putting things in baskets. I created chalk labels for the baskets, made with Hobby Lobby vinyl labels, wood pieces, hot glue, and twine.
Another little detail I wanted to incorporate was an on-the-spot handy ironing board. I rarely take the time to iron button plackets or pockets like I should. I decided to create a ironing board that will stay on the dryer. This will make it really convenient to iron little things quickly! I used this tutorial to make it. Here are the process pictures for it.
Here is the final room!
