Colorado Reno- Project 1- $500 Laundry Room Makeover

I will cut to the chase with our finished product! But do not be deceived, many many hours went into this over the course of this past month.  But the heavy lifting of ripping up the existing floor, prepping the subfloor and laying the tile happened in about 3 days total.  We could not be happier with this cheery laundry/mudroom now! In the midst of my chaotic and NOT organized (yet) new home, this little room brings me a smile whenever i pass through it from that garage door entry.

Renovating is my mission, my passion, and something that I have faith will financially pay off once we move again(fingers crossed!).  But see, when we did this the first time, we waited until the very end of our stay to renovate things to sell our home.  And while it was still fun, I realized I seconded guessed myself WAY too much and should have gone for it at the start so we could have enjoyed all our improvements as well.  I have much more confidence in myself and dear husband now, after all I went to 4 years of interior design school right? 

So with this house, we started working our way through the projects from the outside in.  The house is not what I would call a "fixer upper" by any means- but it needs cosmetic help in all the right places that will pay off later- kitchens, baths, floors.  So we invested in a few key tools which we found on the cheap at a pawn shop actually- Tile Saw, Miter Saw, Drimmel tool, and we borrowed our awesome neighbor's brad gun (Mr.Ralph is the best!). Starting on the laundry room allowed us to practice our DIY skills on a low risk area too.

We started out with the laundry room because 1. our lovely movers failed to bring our washer and dryer anyways. 2. HELLO 90's border and blue vinyl floors. But you know it had good potential with lots of storage.

Laundry BEFORE! hard to even see how bad the vinyl floors were.

For our first tile floor hubby and I rocked the herringbone pattern.  Laying tile is tiring and thank goodness I had my awesome husband for the measuring and cutting.

This is an IKEA glass message board which I added a "self serve laundry" graphic detail from this great Etsy shop :Toodlesdecalstudio Shop

Total cost $14 for glass board, $15 for decal

 By adding a small 1x2 to the left side of shelf- the width was perfect to add this wire bin by Allen Roth at Lowes, which slides out for easy access to my laundry goodies.

Now we have a place for mail, shoes, two laundry basket spots, and more!  And it all looks pretty clean and tidy when you walk in.  My favorite part of this shelf are the roll out wire shelves I added because Ev now puts her shoes away and on all by herself!  

 After we had it almost done, I decided it was missing some contrast and a shelf for the items you reach for most when you are doing LOADS of laundry - and we do lots and lots of loads here between the 4 of us! So we followed a simple DIY tutorial by Young House Love and I love love how it turned out.  Tom cut it (he does all the cutting because I have a fear of power saws) and I stained it with this easy to use gel stain.  The color is called Prairie Wheat and it really shines with a nice golden hue which I like. http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/09/come-pet-our-tile-the-musical/

I added some pretty bowls- One for stray kid socks and one for loose change and such.  Oh and I couldn't resist adding an extra motivator to my laundry routing : Key Lime Pie Marshmellows! That may or may not have been a mistake to show Ev.

 The beadboard was all cut to size at Home Depot.  Tom cut the 1x6 which is topped with a 1x2 picture ledge.  We replaces the baseboards with simple 1x3 MDF.  Brad gun was used to adhere it all to the wall very quickly.

Material Cost Breakdown:

• Tile: Daltile Porcelain plank style, on clearance at the showroom from a return: $75 or $1.88/sq ft
• Cement Board Thinset,  Grout, Sealer: $100
• Beadboard, 1x6 and 1x2 and 1x3 MDF): $75
• Pine Board for shelf: $17
• Gel Wood Stain in Prairie Wheat: $16
• Paint : $40
• Allen Roth Sliding Wire Shelves (x2): $40
• Basket and square laundry baskets: $20
• New Ikea Hardware on cabinet doors/hooks: $10
• Fun Laundry accessories from World Market: $30
• Tiled subway backsplash+ Mastic: $30
• Ikea Sign and Etsy decal : $29
• New Doorknob (which i need to switch out again on both doors) $20
• LABOR: $0!!!
• TOTAL: $500

Tools :

Miter saw

Ocillating tool

Tile Saw

Brad Gun

Drill

Let me know what you think! And if anyone has any ideas to get our dryer vent not to take up so much room please let me know!

~damsel in a mess