I am so excited to start posting ‘after’ photos here again! The house tour was fun and all, but I could really use some pretty in my life again. :)
I teamed up with The Home Depot, Maytag and Tide to celebrate a summer promotion where if before August 2 you buy a select Maytag washer and a 150 oz bottle of Tide, you’ll get a $100 Mastercard gift card. My part of the celebration is sharing my laundry room redo along with my best tips on renovating a laundry room on a budget. The extra exciting part is The Home Depot, Maytag and Tide are giving away a Maytag washer and dryer and year’s supply of Tide HD that comes with a laundry room design plan courtesy of yours truly, AND, wait for it… $5,000 to do it with! So fun, right?
But first, I want to show you what Michael and I were able to do on a tight budget in our sad, green checkered laundry room.
I was tempted to start from scratch in here. But when it was time to figure out a budget for this room redo we were also picking out floor$ and front door$, so I was like, yeah… you know what, we’re going to just paint everything in here and see what happens. :)
The walls were painted Benjamin Moore’s Cashmere Gray (one of my favorites – it’s a soft green-blue gray) and the floors were painted two and three shades darker on the same card. I think keeping the paint colors in the same color family helped the floors to not look so crazytown. I used water-based alkyd paint on the floors which holds up as well as oil-based paint, but dries lightyears faster and is a breeze to clean in comparison.
Other things that were painted in the room besides the walls and floors? The ceiling fan (just white spray paint!), the cabinets (Ben Moore’s White Dove in semi gloss), the mis-matched new hardware (three cheers for gold spray paint!), the IKEA woven baskets (spray painted tomato red!) and the new light fixture above the window (made the green line on the globes with green nail polish!).
We purchased a few new things for the room to make it more functional. I found the pull-out spray faucet for a great price on eBay and let me tell you – it is changing my life to have a deep utility sink and a really amazing faucet in my laundry room! :)
The sad before:
There wasn’t really a space to add a hanging bar in here, and seriously who doesn’t love a rolling laundry cart? So when I stumbled across this laundry butler online that was exactly counter depth, it was a no-brainer purchase.
You can see here above how we opted to take off the doors on part of the upper cabinets. Here’s what the uppers looked like before:
My sweet and totally ripped sister, Ali, basically karate chopped her way through the bottom shelf so we could get it out of the cabinet frame. True sisterly love right there.
Once the doors were off and the bottom shelf was out, we could fill the holes and sand the imperfections and then touch up the paint. I discovered my new favorite putty/patching compound
We added a little furring strip to the bottom of the cabinet and to the fronts of the top shelf to finish off the edges. This helped the shelf look SO much better.
We also painted the backs of the shelf the color of the wall. I think between that and the addition of the furring strips, the cabinet started to look like a wall shelf instead of uppers without their doors.
We added a furring strip to the bottom of the upper cabinets on the other side of the room too, just to help finish those off as well. I wish we could have replace those doors so much, but I think the white paint helps clean them up a lot and they’re not so, so country now. Compromises for the budget! :)
In the upper cabinets above the appliances, I modpodged the backs with neon gift wrap from Homegoods (the best place to buy wrapping paper IMHO).
I also added cork tiles to the insides of the doors for pinning up little reminders and momentos that make me smile while I’m reaching for the detergent.
I needed some cheap wall art in the room so I did my $4 print trick using a quirky image I found online of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire.
I also made a sunburst-esque mirror out of laundry clips from IKEA that I thought turned out pretty cute. The arc lamp is from Homegoods. I found that little chair at Goodwill for $15 and reupholstered it in some Dwell Studio fabric from Home Fabrics in Mesa that was about $7/yd. Love that store so much.
I think my favorite project in the room has to be the new countertops though. We used a concrete product called Ardex Feather Finish to resurface the old laminate. I’m excited to share the tutorial!
The concrete made the room feel instantly more modern.
Wow, this looks amazing Jenny! You are an inspiration for sure. Thanks for always giving us great design, ideas, and DIY! Thankful for you and your blog.
Happy Weekend!
Wow, this looks amazing Jenny! You are an inspiration for sure. Thanks for always giving us great design, ideas, and DIY! Thankful for you and your blog.
Happy Weekend!
You did a FANTASTIC job!! I especially dig the resurfaced counters, it really looks like concrete. Isn't it amazing what a little paint can do? Your post is very timely for me, as I am in the middle of my own laundry room redo! I've finished laying the new floor and painting, and am now getting to the "fun stuff", decorating! I'll be posting about my redo this coming week at http://www.theyearoflivingfabulously.com if you're curious. Keep up the great make-overs! -Marie Vlasic
You did a FANTASTIC job!! I especially dig the resurfaced counters, it really looks like concrete. Isn't it amazing what a little paint can do? Your post is very timely for me, as I am in the middle of my own laundry room redo! I've finished laying the new floor and painting, and am now getting to the "fun stuff", decorating! I'll be posting about my redo this coming week at http://www.theyearoflivingfabulously.com if you're curious. Keep up the great make-overs! -Marie Vlasic
I can't believe you accomplished SOOOOOO much so fast?!?! Wow! I am inspired. This looks better than my kitchen…and all you used was paint? Holy cats. Amazing!
Thanks for the inspiration!!!!
Wow!! So impressive! Looking forward to seeing more "pretty" :) Have been enjoying the house tour, but can't wait to see what you do with what you have. If the rest is half as amazing as the laundry room, we're in for a treat! Thanks for the opportunity to enter the contest. My laundry room has been in need of help for quite a while and it's so small that the layout keeps stumping me. Would LOVE your design help even more than the cash!
incredible! i dont even know what the point of doing a total reno is when you apparently make a DIY project look this good. cant wait to see the concrete counter tutorial. (biting my nails)
Get out…I love the floors! I am inspired to PAINT my entire laundry room AND kitchen after seeing this. I am looking forward to the counter DIY
The whole makeover is fabulous, but what you did with the brick floors is truly inspired.
Camille
This is the 5th time that I have come back to this post to just admire it. You have such talent my friend! To be able to turn the room into amazing on such a little budget. So great! I can't WAIT to hear about the countertops. I have some dated, faux wood counters that need to be replaced desperately. This could extend their lives with a little bit of lipstick. Thank you for being so great!
I can NOT wait to see your tutorial on the counter tops. I've been really interested in the whole Ardex thing, so I am psyched. The room is gorgeous, and looks so expensive!
Wow! I am loving watching you make this new house "you". Thank you for thus giveaway and all you do on this blog.
Wow it looks amazing. If the rest of the house looks as good as this it will be incredible. Loving reading your blog.
Wow it looks amazing. If the rest of the house looks as good as this it will be incredible. Loving reading your blog.
Jenny,
How did you get so smart and creative at such a young age! :o)))
I love all your tricks and tips! Keep them coming!
~ Becky
Woah, Just catching up here. This is aMaZiNg seriously.
I don't even really have a laundry room. Just a "dump it all" nightmare.
Love everything you have done!!!!
I hope you post about the floors. Can you just paint the brick or do you have to sand the finish? Looks beautiful. I love the spray painted bins.
Hi, I was wondering if put anything in between the wood and the washer and dryer surface? I have recently as similar style and want a counter type space on top but do not want to scratch the top of the washer and dryer if the board slides around.
Love it!!!
Lovely what you did to those floors. Love the colors and the pattern. What a great idea to improve that awful, weird brick. :)
I cannot WAIT for that countertop tutorial! Your room looks great– so many good ideas here!
Love, love! The counter tops and paint color are awesome! The artwork is eye-catching too…as most wouldn't think to place such art in a laundry room. Can't wait to see more of this house demo!
Crazy good transformation. How did you paint all those separate tiles on the floor?
Crazy good transformation. How did you paint all those separate tiles on the floor?
Jenny I would love a tutorial on how you painted the floors!!! We are moving into a rental with brown 70s tile and would love to paint them because they are actually a cool shape!!!
Hi Jenny,
Great "afters"! We have a large laundry room, but I can't keep it looking cute because I need the space too much for non-cute items. For example, all of our cabinets are filled with paint (now that we live in a climate where it's too hot to store paint in the garage). What do you do with all of your not-pretty stuff, if not stored in the laundry room? And, since I'm on topic – where do you store paint?
Hi Jenny,
Great "afters"! We have a large laundry room, but I can't keep it looking cute because I need the space too much for non-cute items. For example, all of our cabinets are filled with paint (now that we live in a climate where it's too hot to store paint in the garage). What do you do with all of your not-pretty stuff, if not stored in the laundry room? And, since I'm on topic – where do you store paint?
Amazing Job!! I love the counters, I've been thinking of that same project, thanks for confirming it looks great! The floor looks so good and the green stripe on the light using nail polish- genius! Love it all!!
You continue to be one of the most inspiring bloggers out there. I'm always blown away by what you accomplish and you make me feel like I could jump in and actually get something done. Count me as another one who'd like more detail on how you painted the floors.
This is incredible! I was wondering what you were going to do with awful brick pavers, but lo and behold, you made them into something amazing! And the counter tops! I've been waiting for a DIY concrete kit, and they look amazing! Great job! I'm really enjoying this reno process of your new house =)
This is incredible! I was wondering what you were going to do with awful brick pavers, but lo and behold, you made them into something amazing! And the counter tops! I've been waiting for a DIY concrete kit, and they look amazing! Great job! I'm really enjoying this reno process of your new house =)
Gorgeous! I love the Gene Kelly print. So fun.
Totally amazing!!!! I absolutely LOVE it and your blog!!! You are a super DIY Dynamo!!!!
Wow, I have kept coming back to this post the last couple days – it is SO GOOD! Definitely one of my favorite room redos ever and I just can't wait for each of the individual DIYs (I hope you do one on painting cabinets!) and I hope to do a makeover of my own laundry room eventually. Such great inspiration Jenny – you knocked this one out of the park! It seems like so much work though – I'd love to know roughly how long each of the projects took when you do your DIY posts.
Hi Jenny! Would you post a cabinet painting tutorial? Also, did you paint the cabinets or do the cement counter first?
Oh wow that's impressive! the result is amazing!
I don't know how you do it, it all looks so easy with you. I wish I were more like you.
Btw, the piture of Kelly/Astaire is so great! I want it! where did you find it? I couldn't find a big enough one to print!
thanks ;)
scaricare musica
Love this room. You were so brave and did such a great job! I would LOVE to give this giveaway to my mom. She is the best and her laundry room needs some TLC!
I'm so jealous!
SO inspired! Love it.
Jenny, this doesn't even look like the same room. Your floor looks amazing! I really love the Benjamin Moore Cashmere Gray in here and would love to feature this on my paint color blog, Involving Color. Let me know if you're interested!
how do you daily clean the floors after you painted them? I always steamed mopped mine but I haven’t done anything to them yet. I don’t want to mess them up. How should I clean my painted linoleum floors?
I AM IMPRESSED! IT LOOKS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IN A FABULOUS WAY!