Laundry room makeover (in progress).

[rubytue]

H is wrapping up the basement work, and I’m off all week. So since I am itching to move upstairs, I started on the laundry room today. So I thought I work post a thread as I do it. What can I say, I’m an old blogger 😂

This is what I started with. It’s a one butt laundry room, and when you open the doors, there s no place to stand and sort. Or if you sort, you can’t open the doors and stand there, because the sort piles are there. *sigh*

My plan is to move the washer and dryer to the back wall. The washer will go to the right of the window. There will be a counter stretched across above the washer, under the window, and to the wall. The dry will either go under the window or on top of the counter above the washer. It’s gonna depend on how tall that ends up and if I can reach the dryer. This is totally a “design-build” project. But I’m convinced moving them to the back wall will gain me usable floor space. 

Walls will be a bluish-sage with gray undertones. Cabinets, probably white shaker. But, design build - so I need to see the machines in place before I can plan out cabinets. Plus, stacking vs side-by-side affects that. 

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[rubytue]

The coolest part is that this is *my* project. 95% of stuff in the house is I point, and H does. But this one is mostly me. And it’s been awhile since I’ve done a project. I did get his help moving the machines and removing the cabinet. That cabinet is an old-school, 60s, built-on-site. It wasn’t a cabinet that could be unscrewed, removed, and reused. We had to go HGTV on it. *sigh*. No rubies were harmed. 

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[rubytue]

This is where I finished day 1. Clearing out and drywall repairs. I was hoping I’d be able to paint tomorrow, but it’s going to need a couple coats of drywall mud. So…. We shall see what happens tomorrow. Probably just sanding, another coat of mud, and the counter build. This is where I finished tonight. 

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[deadwing]

Looks like a good start! I look forward to more updates, especially once you've painted. Bluish-sage sounds very pretty!

[rubytue]

Nov 10, 2022 7:24:12 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Looks like a good start! I look forward to more updates, especially once you've painted. Bluish-sage sounds very pretty!

I’m hoping for the best. That’s how I would describe the paint chip/sample. The spot on the top of the can looks more what I would call sea green. 🤞 it works itself out once I put it on the wall. 

[deadwing]

Nov 10, 2022 8:35:32 GMT -5 rubytue said:

Nov 10, 2022 7:24:12 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Looks like a good start! I look forward to more updates, especially once you've painted. Bluish-sage sounds very pretty!

I’m hoping for the best. That’s how I would describe the paint chip/sample. The spot on the top of the can looks more what I would call sea green. 🤞 it works itself out once I put it on the wall. 

Paint can be so challenging!  I went through something like 6 samples for my living room in this house to get the right light/neutral grey.  One shade looked mint green in some lighting, but was a perfectly lovely grey in other areas.  Hopefully you're happy with this color when it's on the wall!

[rubytue]

Day 2. It’s more than it looks like bc I am coated in drywall dust. Sanding, another coat if mud (walls were a mess thanks to that site build cabinet of 50+ years of paint). We have the supports for the table in and I started staining the boards. 

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[Pibs]

I can't wait to see how it turns out! That was the first room we redid when we moved into this house. It looks like our rooms are a similar layout, except that our window is all the way in the left corner. We don't have space to put both the washer & dryer on the window wall, and the window is low enough the machines would have partially blocked it. We decided to stack our washer & dryer and add a sink with the counter continuing under the window. The washer & dryer were delivered/installed/stacked on a sunny day in Portland winter and once it was done we were like "Crap, that blocks a ton of light" so we ended up unstacking and scrapping the sink. Ugh.

We've used IKEA cabinets in both of our laundry rooms, and their kitchen builder tool is pretty helpful to plot and scheme.

[rubytue]

Day 3. First coat of paint, still drying so hopefully will be less splotchy when it dries and we get a second coat on. I need to put a coat of poly on the shelves, but OMG painting when you are 48 takes so much more out if you than I remember. But it’s been 10-12 years since we last moved and painted rooms 😫

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[rubytue]

The good news, the paint darkens as it dries. The bad news, it’s a perfect example of the sunk cost fallacy. Because it’s way more minty than I wanted. H keeps saying it looks like toothpaste. I did the hallway, because the plan was to extend the color into the kitchen. But nope. That said, it’s sunk cost in the laundry, and will be fine for the laundry. It does coordinate with the backsplash tile I’ll be using in the kitchen (and any left will backsplash the sink in the laundry). But, it will stay in the laundry and I’m back to the drawing board for the kitchen.

[rubytue]

Day 4. I’m getting a bit 😬 that we will be done tomorrow. But, we got the support wall built, and I found some scrap wood in the basement (old trim we removed when we redid the sunroom) to ship lap the visible side. H decided he needed to remove the wall in the garage to do some electric and plumbing.  I was hoping we’d be a bit further, but I do think we will have the counter tomorrow. Hopefully. I had to restain the boards, which means I can’t poly til morning. And then they need to cure. That’s probably going to be the thing that holds us back from putting appliances back tomorrow. 

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[rubytue]

Well, it’s Sunday evening. I have to go back to real work tomorrow, and we didn’t get the appliances back in 😭. Partially because of issues with stain/poly dry times and partially because I kept interrupting the electrician and he didn’t get the outlets in (or the plumbing done, I was going to skip moving the plumbing, but someone wants to do it right, since he took the back side of the wall out). But it’s so close! 

The table… I did like 90% of. Had toe learn to use the nail gun. But I planned it out and put it together. This is a feat because most projects are me pointing and H doing. 

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[rubytue]

We just put the dryer on it’s shelf! 

We’d have been done if we went with my theory, which was just to get longer hoses and run them to the old connections. H insisted on doing it right and moving all the plumbing, electric, and the dryer vent. While I know he is right, the backlog in dirty clothes is building. And then there was more drywall repair work 😫

FWIW, I added drawer slides to my shelves, so they are now pull out shelves. 😁

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[darby]

Yay!! Hooray for progress! Pull out shelves is a great idea!

[deadwing]

Pull out shelves are awesome!

If the dryer is on top, why isn't the plumbing below the shelf for the washer?

[winecat]

Nov 22, 2022 7:35:05 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Pull out shelves are awesome!

If the dryer is on top, why isn't the plumbing below the shelf for the washer?

The drain has to be a certain height from the floor so below the shelf likely would have been too low. You also don’t want to block the shut off valves in case you need to shut them off in an emergency.

[rubytue]

deadwing , what winecat said. At least I suspect. Not a choice I made. And I just asked H and he said “because the drain’s gotta go above the washer, and so you can reach without stooping to cut off when we go on vacation.” There May have been an eyeroll on that one, because he thinks I’m overly cautious. But I’ll take it.

edit, he also said something about seeing 42” somewhere. Maybe in code, maybe on the box that the cut off box came it (we bought a new one instead of reusing). I also questioned his drain above the washer bit, bc it wasn’t in a previous house we had. In short, it seems to come down to something about 42” somewhere, and that’s about the height it was before and seemed like a good place. He’s an electrician that can repair plumbing, so he doesn’t do things that seem outside the norm. And the valves are typically easily reachable. So… bam! 

[deadwing]

rubytue, winecat, makes sense about the draining! I'm reasonably handy, but I am not very familiar with plumbing.

[rubytue]

Oooo. Just googled. Drain has to be 30” from the floor for top load washers. We have a front load, but it makes sense to keep it that height for long-term reasons. And that makes sense, because you would want the drain higher than the highest level water could be in the washer, or else it might suck it out.

But also, sticking with consistency, because it was probably that height for a reason.

[winecat]

deadwing- I learned the drain height issue the hard way. lol I kept getting water backing up into my dishwasher and one of the first recs I found was that the drain line could be installed incorrectly. Mine was about 6 inches too low so I repositioned it so the top loop was high enough and it was fine from then on.

[rubytue]

Day 17 (of planned 5 😭).

H is still fiddling with the plumbing. He is putting in a second slop sink in the garage, using the lines here. Which has been 90% of the delays. We were about to put the sink in, but two of his joints leaked when we turned on the water. But, at least the big picture is becoming obvious. 

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[deadwing]

Its really taking shape! Definitely looking more functional than the original layout. The pink flamingo sign is a cute touch, too.

[rubytue]

Nov 27, 2022 11:48:24 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Its really taking shape! Definitely looking more functional than the original layout. The pink flamingo sign is a cute touch, too.

I may have ended up leaning into it much more than planned. I found some cute, retro flamingo fabric from spoon flower that I will be making a Roman shade with. And I spray painted the hanging hardware flamingo pink.  I do have a thing for a bit if kitch. In small rooms. 

[nicolewi]

I like the flamingo sign, too!

[mrsd2006]

That looks great. I'm so jealous of people who are so handy around the house!

[rubytue]

40 days people. The world was flooded for the length of time til we finished this 😂 Well, technically, we still need a wall cabinet. But otherwise, DONE. 

And, given that it’s been a working laundry for some weeks, the final picture already has crap on all the shelves. So no Pinterest ready pic

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[thejackpot]

Looks great and so functional now. Love the pop of pink! Flamingos are a fave of mine and it's fun to see them used like this-kudos!

[nicolewi]

Congrats! I love the retro flamingo stuff.

[rubytue]

Dec 19, 2022 22:38:38 GMT -5 thejackpot said:

Looks great and so functional now. Love the pop of pink! Flamingos are a fave of mine and it's fun to see them used like this-kudos!

Thank you! I found the sign for the door and loved it, so I kind of leaned in to the kitch. Hell, it’s a laundry room. Not like a great entertaining space. A fun oasis to smile while doing an annoying chore that never ends. Plus, it took the farmhouse down a notch. My house is mid-century, with MCM aspects (but not true MCM). The whole modern farmhouse, which the wood shelves borrow from, does not fit. 

It’s so weird how pictures really flatten all the stuff in the room, like adding 10 pounds to people, it feels like it adds a bazillion pounds of clutter. I feel like it looks much more cluttered now, but in reality, there is room to turn around with your arm extended. And, of course, that before picture was after we cleared the clutter. Suffice to say, it was jammed with crap. 😂

[mrsukyankee]

Looks fabulous. And I am fully jealous!