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Laundry Room {shelf behind washer and dryer}

Remember this mess?

This has driven me nuts since we moved in and I discovered that all the “necessaries” behind the washer and dryer were not covered up by the washer and dryer. And it looks gross–I don’t know what sprayed in that box back there, but that is NOT water. And I refuse to clean that. I don’t like cleaning my kitchen sink, much less climbing back there and cleaning that out. Nope. Not doing it. Now I don’t have to!

Here’s some pictures of the build. Read More…

June 18, 2011

Laundry Room paint color

Well, I had planned to paint above the board and batten in the laundry room. We’ve lived with that color for about 10 years now, and I thought it might be nice to change it up a little. But now I’m rethinking that–I’ve had several people contact me for the paint color. So here it is–and I think that repainting that room will be at the very bottom of a very long list now

Benjamin Moore AC-35 Valley Forge Tan

I think it leans more toward taupe than tan though.

I’ve been busy finishing up some stuff in the laundry room this week, and starting on my daughter’s room. I’ll post my progress with both soon!

June 10, 2011

DIY Wall Art

I love to see artwork up on the walls, but I don’t particularly enjoy purchasing something that doesn’t have any meaning to me or my family. So our walls have been somewhat bare for awhile, but I’m gradually working on it.

This wall art we have had for a long time–before we had a digital camera. My mom has a particularly artistic eye and I knew she could get some great shots for us to hang up, so I bought a roll of 35 mm film and asked for some wall art. This is what she came up with and I love it.

Close up of fencing

June 9, 2011

Pottery Barn Inspired bench for the Laundry Room

I mentioned when I started the View from our “Front” Door series that we needed a place to sit in order to take off or put on shoes in the laundry room. I’ve been looking around for inspiration for awhile–going back and forth between complicated and simple. Complicated would have involved drawers and more decorative sides that would hide our shoes that accumulate in that spot. Simple was this:

Pottery Barn Norfolk Bench

I didn’t want something heavy looking in there, so I chose simple. This retails for $499 plus whatever else they tack on (shipping and handling?). For that price, I would include shipping if I ran things, but I gave up running the world to stay home with my kids, so whatever.

Supplies: Read More…

May 23, 2011

A Sign for the laundry room!

Well, the DIY project that kept talking to me got loud enough that I just had to do it, even in the midst of the 10 week thing I have going on currently. I got it done this weekend and I am really happy with it. Trouble is, it has my family name on it, so I can’t reveal the entire thing. I doctored the pictures a little, but it loses something in the translation. Let’s see what you think.

Here’s what I started with:

My mom gave this to me a LONG time ago (I've admitted I'm a pack rat). This is a canvas she started of me and my brother holding my baby sister.

April 3, 2011

Board & Batten {post 5} The reveal!

Done! The board and batten is done!

I’m going to admit something other blogs may never do–I had an evening with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach because I had most of it up and I wasn’t loving it. Literally a sick stomach. I was SO SO SO sure that I was going to be absolutely bonkers in love with this when I was done and I wasn’t feeling that. It felt too busy in that smaller space, and I was thinking that maybe I should have stuck with just an accent wall of it.

But it was mostly up, so I completed it, caulked it, filled the nail holes, sanded, and painted. And ate some Tums. I was liking it better, but I was also afraid that I was just trying to talk myself into liking it. Once I pulled up the blue tape on the floor I was feeling better about it. I started clearing out the mess of tools and miscellaneous clutter that happens during a remodel and felt better yet. Then I put the light switch covers back on and was well on the way to really liking it.

Remember what it looked like before:

And now:

April 1, 2011

Board & Batten {post 4}

This one is for Jaime, and I apologize that it took me a few days to get this out here. Jaime asked in a comment from a previous post about the top board in the board and batten:

Pink toes – question about your outer edges (corners) on the top boards – I think I see they are square cuts flush over each other and not mitered? I think this looks fine because that’s what my plan is too. Does is really look fine or should I bother to miter?

Yep, it is square cuts that butt up against the next board rather than mitered corners. I did this for a few reasons:

I was attempting to use only 1 sheet of 4×8 mdf and I didn’t have a lot of room for error
I don’t have a lot of experience with mitered joints like this, which meant I would probably have a lot of errors
I was a little afraid that the mitered joints using mdf might not be able to withstand the abuse they will probably take on the corners where these will be. Since mitered joints are cut at an angle, they don’t have the thickness the butt joints do. I haven’t worked with mdf prior to this, so these may be unfounded concerns, but it was what factored into my decision.

As far as whether or not they look fine, I’m good with how these turned out. They would be even better if I had perfectly matched up the ends. Most of them were really good, but I did have one that could have been better. Here are some close ups:

These were not painted yet (just primed), so the sheen of uneven.

March 29, 2011

Board and batten {post 3}

Well this project was just flying along when I finally hit a snag! The laundry room is right off our kitchen, so we put in pocket doors that would enable us to close off the laundry room due to noise or to lock in these two at night:

Sure, they look all innocent and cute here, but it’s not cute when the tiger one jumps on your head at 2 am. Why does he jump on your head you ask? Well that happens to be where the pillow is. Which he thinks is his. So in the laundry room they go.

Back to the pocket doors–these doors are housed behind this wall here:

March 28, 2011

Board and Batten {post 2}

Well I’ve sat here trying to think of a great way to start this post, and I’m at a loss. My brain is tired–I have just started a project that will last the next 10 weeks (nope, not the board and batten project!) and it’s not DIY, so I can’t even blog about it. AND I am obviously taking on the board and batten at the same time. I always have more energy in theory than reality.

So I’ve gotten some stuff done on the board and batten in the last day. Went to Lowes and got the 1/2″ mdf and had the nice man cut them in 8′ strips–4 at 4″ and 14 at 2″. That left me with about a 3″ extra strip. The cuts aren’t perfect, but I think they will do. I hope. I haven’t done anything with them yet, except this:

I had to sand them on the cut sides, prime them, sand them again on the three painted sides, and prime again. I assembly line painted the edges:

March 20, 2011

Board & Batten {post 1}

Hmmm, how to make this interesting. Board and batten news in blogland isn’t exactly new. You’ve probably already read a gazillion posts about it. Like Karla or perhaps Centsational Girl.

If you have managed to get this far into your existence without knowing a thing about board and batten, here is a breakdown from This Old House. Most people in blogland ignore 5)panel, 6)baseboard, and 7)shoe moulding, instead just painting the wall behind the batten the same white as all the boards you are applying and leaving the existing baseboards.

That’s as much time as I am going to devote to a tutorial since there is a plethora of information out there already. If you have a specific question, please contact me with the button on the menu and I will get back to you.

What you have to decide for yourself is: