diy and laundry room redo

As I mentioned in my last post, I wanted to knock out a few projects around the house before Kate's birthday party.  About 3 weeks left to go and I'm proud to say I conquered both of my projects with plenty of time to spare! 

A side note quickly, I wanted to pass along the link to one of my favorite DIYs that I've done on Stockpiling Moms so far.  I used this same technique to make the EAT letters in our kitchen.  This post was Easter themed, no judging that I'm already a day late. 

http://www.stockpilingmoms.com/2012/04/diy/

Okay, back to room redos.  The first room I tacked was the laundry room.  Our laundry room is a small room right off the garage so not only do we do our laundry there, it's a mud room of sorts, I keep a calendar handy so I can see as I'm walking out the door what bills need to be paid, and last but certainly not least, it houses my husband's kegerator.  It's not my ideal spot for it, but until we can tackle the garage and get it organized and cleared out I was informed it has to stay there for the time being.  Trust me, I've already got big plans for that tiny space it will free up when the kegerator is back in its rightful place...in the garage.  I have a little wire rack for laundry detergent and dryer sheets and such and if I can swing it, I wouldn't mind having a little stool or some kind of small chair so you can sit and take your shoes off.  Or, let's be real honest, it will serve as a place to dump stuff (i.e. my purse).   But, anyhoo, until the day when the kegerator triumphantly makes its return home, I'll deal with the hops and barley smell that greets you everytime you walk in from the garage. 

Before....blah

Other side before

First order of business was paint.  I used the paint that I had left over from the kitchen peninsula and barely squeezed out enough to do this room.  Thank goodness it was a small room and the paint covered well, I got away with only 1 coat.  The color is Grand Hotel Mackinac Blue by Valspar.  I'm starting to get a crush on Valspar paint too.  It covered our new construction drywall well and costs way less than my other crush on Sherwin Williams paint. 

I already made hubs put up this message board wall when we moved in so I could keep track of everything, so the frame just got a quick coat of Martha Stewart's Punch mixed in whatever the cheapest paint they had at Home Depot. 

Next we took down the ugly white wire shelving that was in the laundry room.  Since the laundry room can be seen from the kitchen I wanted it to look as pretty as the kitchen.  I bought 3 corbels and a 6 foot piece of MDF board from Home Depot and painted those bad boys with the same Punch by Martha Stewart paint. 

Once the paint was dry on the walls and on my shelf, Joey got busy and hung everything back up on the wall.  I put some laundry room-ish items in jars for the shelf and put some rolls of paper towels in that basket that I spraypainted yellow.  It's actually a refrigerator basket that I found on the side of the road by someone's house when we lived in Erlanger.  Their trash, my treasure.  I love that thing.  It's already been several colors, but yellow has by far been my fav! 

The rug is from Urban Outfitters and they must have read my blog post about that tree shower curtain and how mad I was and must have been scared.  I swear I ordered that rug on a Thursday and it may have been on my doorstep by Friday.  If not Friday, for sure Saturday.  Crazy. 

To finish off the room I added this friendly little reminder as we walk out the door every morning.  I totally think it's worth seeing everyday, because sometimes let's face it, I just don't want to be nice.  But, as I've learned, there are lots of people out there who are facing some things in their life that are really not nice, so if I can be nice to just one person who's otherwise having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, then it makes it worth while.  I saw the tutorial for these letters over at Life As a Thrifter and actually may need to go to rehab to curb my addiction to silver spraypainted/anthro knockoff letters.  You will see them again in a little room tour of Kate's bedroom to come sometime soon.

So, that's it for now.  Phase II of this project will be to replace the white 6 panel door leading into the hallway of the house (not the one leading into the garage) with an old friend.  Yes lovelies, the screen door is making a come back.  We had a screen door on our pantry in our old house and it is patiently waiting for a new paint job and some new hardware. 

Phase III of the redo, several years down the road, will be to replace the flooring from linoleum to some fun black/white hexagonal tile. 

So, there you have it!  Way too much information about our lil ol' laundry room!  Next up, a powder room revamp.