Laundry Room Redo :: Modern Industrial :: For the love of Navy

Modern Industrial, is that even a thing? I don't know, but it's the best way I could think to describe our new laundry, which I LOVE!!

Since we've moved into this house, this room has been the bane of my existence. There's no way we could have expanded the room because of the layout of the house. Plus, tearing out walls and such isn't high on my husbands to do list. SO....I remodeled.

My biggest issue with this room was that I couldn't put a laundry basket in the room and open the washing machine at the same time, so all my baskets had to sit in the hallway. It was a major pain in the butt. So I had this whole plan about stacking the washer and dryer, adding countertop, etc, but the layout of the plugs wouldn't allow for that. (see my frustration with this room so far? It just won't cooperate!) Ultimately I decided to take out one of the existing cabinets and call it good because Chris (my husband) said that would be a quick easy solution.

Well.....it wasn't. Once we had the cabinets and the countertop ripped out, Chris kept adding things to the list like new tile, because that's so easy. Then, how about a new countertop, I asked, because this one really isn't very pretty. Next, Look Chris! Isn't this backsplash that goes all the way to the ceiling such a great idea? Oh yeah, and I totally need shelves.

Okay, I'll stop talking and get to the fun stuff. Here are the before and after pics!

Doesn't this just look like the saddest room ever?! And since it's the place I spend a ton of time, it needed to stop sucking.

Sweet hubby taking out cabinets:)

My hallway for the duration of the project. The price we pay for happiness.

Here's the tile that Chris picked, from Home Depot, naturally. As you can see, we still have a few things to finish up, baseboard, cabinet trim, etc. 

Again, this is another Chris pick, he liked the look of the industrial plumbing pipe instead of the regular pole. I like it too.

I'm not sure why this little guy makes me so happy, but he does! I keep my dryer sheets in it and it makes me smile.

Just a shot of the stuff on the cabinets. I've ordered a bunch of antique clothespins that I'm going to stuff in one of those glass jars, and I'm thinking about the other. Probably however, those shelves will end up with laundry sitting on them. The baskets are for the boys socks and undies. I've used those for a while and love them. I'm also working on a piece of artwork for that blank white wall, but haven't finished it yet.

Chris and I made this countertop. He bought 2x12's and I stained and finished them after the distressing. Then he put it all together and installed it. The shelves are made the same way. I painted the cabinets with 3 coats of Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint in Artissimo. LOVE IT!

One of my most favorite things about the laundry room is the subway tile wall. I love the dark grout against the white tiles. I think it adds a little somethin', somethin'.



So that's pretty much all she wrote! It's brighter and more functional, and since it's completion, Chris has done all the laundry. Win/Win for everyone!:)

Award Shelf Tutorial::Oxygen is Overrated

My fifth grade son started swimming competitively since we moved to Minnesota last November. Since then, he's earned quite a few ribbons and we need a place to show them off! He's had this one blank wall in his room forever because I haven't known just what to do with it. Now I know!

 

So here's how I built the ribbon holder and shelf. I had my husband bring home a few things from Home Depot:

• 1x10x6 cut in half, then one of those pieces ripped down the middle. So now I have a 1x10x3

 and 2 1x5x3.

• A few miscellaneous pieces of Simpson Strong Ties to add the "metal" to the shelf and serve as the shelf brackets
• 1 small can of stain
• 1 pkg of screw in hooks (mine came with 8 which worked out perfectly)
• 1 pkg of screws
• 1 pkg of saw tooth picture hangers

Once I stained my two boards and left them to dry, the hard part began. I CANNOT free hand anything. So I looked online for how to make a stencil. You might already know how to do this, or have stencils that you love. I did not. So...I found this website called RapidResizer.com and they create stencils for you to print off and cut out. You could actually do this with any printed font, but since it was my first time, I used their site. The only limitation to this site is that it prints everything to fit a standard piece of printing paper. So if you split up your words, it can be difficult to get them the same size from one sheet to the next.

The picture above shows one of my words cut out using a plastic sheet protector I had in one of my drawers.

 

Below it the printed out and traced around paper that RR gave me. I had to take the middle of the O and the E's and tape them onto the board to work them into the stencil.

 

And if you're wondering, no it wasn't hard, but yes it took a while and yes my hand cramped!



Here is the board once I placed my stencil and blotted my white paint onto the board. I didn't take any pics of the actual painting, sorry! You can see in the very first picture that the painting isn't perfect, but I think it looks great for making a stencil out of a sheet protector. Besides, in this house: We don't do perfect!

Next I lined up my little screw in hooks every 4 inches (that worked out nicely).

Then, I got a little ADD and a little excited about the "hardware" so, I abandoned the little hooks and started screwing in my strong ties. I just love the look these give to the shelf. Very industrial.

Next, I screwed in the little strong ties to use as my shelf brackets. They worked great and were easy to install. I attached the shelf to the board and then went back to my little hooks.

 

I used my exacto knife to put a little dot where each hook should go, then I just twisted them in. Very easy.

I put 2 picture hangers on the back and I'm about finished.

I recruited my husband for hanging the shelf because I hate doing it. Not really sure why, but I just like to watch him do it:).

And there it is. Every time I walk by Chase's room I see it from the door way and am very pleased with myself, HA!

Chase loves the shelf and is already pumped to get to his next meet and try to bring home some more ribbons!