Laundry Room Remodel

I love many things about my job including my close commute, and the people that I work with, but all of these great holidays off (Happy Birthday Mr. King) are definitely my favorite perks to the job.

I spent the day organizing and cleaning my closets. I like to go through my clothes about every six months and bag a bunch of stuff up to send in for a donation. I love clothes and it seems that I never stop buying them, so in order to make space I must keep donating as fast as i purchase (which is a lot).... I usually wait until the Spring, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, my farmer and I are headed to Mexico in a few weeks. I used this as a great time to go through my stuff and see what else we need for our trip.

Onto my actual blog post. Our laundry room remodel.

I must confess, we actually did this last year. But today, as I was sitting at the kitchen counter sipping coffee and flipping through my planner (and Instagram) I peeked into the laundry room - then smiled.  It seems that this little room always gets cluttered with boxes, Christmas decor that needs to go to the basement, coolers, trash, etc.... It tends a to be a little catch all room of things that need to put away (AKA things that my farmer is supposed to put away)....

But today, this room was clean, the sunlight was pouring in and the best part - laundry was done. I was quickly reminded of that first little remodel that we did a year ago and I figured I would share it with you.

I have no REAL BEFORE pictures of this room. It was dark and dingy (the joys of moving in a bachelor pad) but I did have a vision for it. I envisioned exactly what it is today.

The walls were just oak paneling, so i started by painting those blue. I used the paint and primer in one (which i was a skeptic of) to hide the knots of the pine. It turned out great.

My farmer begged me to rip up the floor and lay something different. After all, I think the current flooring was from when my farmer's parents lived in this house after they first got married more that 35 years ago. I didn't want to spend a lot of money on it, I knew that it was only a matter of time until we looked into building our dream home (something we are in the early stages of designing) and this home would be torn down. Even if it ended up being a couple hundred dollars, it wasn't worth it to me. Instead I used what we had - white paint from the trim and light beige paint from, the walls.

The first step is to take a little mini palm sander and run it across the floor. Sand until it's a rough surface so that the paint can adhere to the floor. If you don't have a palm sander you can use good ole sandpaper.

Next clean the floor with hot soap and water, allow to dry then paint the whole floor with oil based paint. Allow this to dry for 24 hours.

The next morning I started painting, you can use a latex paint on this part. I decided to paint a check pattern on our floors. I am not known for my patience ( I am working on that in 2014) so my farmers help in this matter was imperative.

Once you have finished painting allow it to dry completely. I was not as patient with the drying (again...something I am working on) so I had to keep touching up places.

After your floors are how you want them to look apply 2-3 coats of a clear polyurethane. Once that is dry (i think i waited another day) you can get to the fun part and start decorating your new space, or in our case, at least get your washer and dryer out of your kitchen.

I got a simple jute rug from Pottery Barn. We walk in and out of this spot everyday, so I wanted a little rug to help with the wear. After all, my new fresh painted floors were still 35+ year linoleum.

One year later they are still looking great - and when this room is clean, the rest of my house feels clean.

I got this wire rack at Hobby Lobby last spring. It's great to keep things like hats, gloves, extension cords, koozie cups, plant food, etc, organized. I like it when everything has it's own spot.

This room gets great light, so it's where my little potted plants end up. Below is my African Violet that was looking dreary a couple weeks ago but with all of this sunshine it's really starting to bloom again.

So there it is. Our laundry room remodel - I must say it makes laundry a little more fun. Long ago are the days that laundry rooms were in the basement or a closet somewhere. As I mentioned earlier my farmer and I are in the early stages or designing our dream farmhouse and you can bet that my new laundry room/craft room will be a great one. Who knows, I may even decide to paint my floors in my new house too, well probably not, but if you need a quick and inexpensive change to a room I recommend giving this a try.

Have a great week everyone - and as always thanks for stopping by my blog. I have had over 3,000 page views, so please know that i appreciate each and every one.

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