Weekend Warriers

What a whirlwind weekend we had here. We FINALLY got around to our 'construction project' in our laundry room. This is what we had before: Plain white walls. It's also something that you will not see a lot of in our home. (As you might have noticed from previous pictures:)

This is the only part of our project that brought us any worries. As we may be "weekend warriors", but we still don't like to mess with electrical stuff too much.

But in this particular project, it couldn't be avoided. Although, no worries; we are all just fine. Not even a minimal shock was encountered. (Well except for the fact that the project went so smoothly, we finished on time, and on budget...THAT was a shocker indeed! HA!)



So we started with plain white walls. The laundry room is only 7x6feet. I wanted it to appear larger. So, I designed the following plan:

We took beadboard. (Note: it's unfinished in this photo...but not for long!) We ran the beadboard up 6' tall. (This brings your eye up-giving the ILLUSION of extra space.) We did 5"baseboard along the floor and ran another piece of 5" baseboard up along the top of the beadboard-giving it a more complete finished look. And now for the surprise of all surprises....I LEFT THE ROOM WHITE!!! No, really I did. In fact, I painted the beadboard and baseboards a super high gloss white in oil base paint. Although, you know me, I couldn't leave it entirely white, had to give it a little color-but just a dab. I used some leftover wallpaper and put it up strategically around the room and spackled all around it. TRYING to make it look like stone popping through the walls. I REALLY, REALLY like the way it turned out. But I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Take a gander and tell me what YOU think:This is a close up of the top portion of the wall. My faux stone look. ;) Or I guess my faux-paux stone look, if you don't like the look of it! :)

See how the tall beadboard brings your eye up. Makes the space a little less claustrophobic.

And check out these crisp, clean white walls. Ooooooh! So shiney! So CLEAN looking. And what better look for a room where you wash clothes, than a CLEAN look. ha!


I gotta say, I have already tried out the new laundry room. I've done up 3 loads of clothes today. While doing laundry is never a fun task, this room makeover has made the task ALOT more pleasant! Isn't that what it's all about? Making life just a little more pleasant?!

As you might have noticed in the above pictures, my laundry room opens up to another small room. This 4x6' space was originally meant to be a PANTRY on our floor plan. Can you imagine? WHO needs a pantry that large? Well, not us. The pressure to keep it fully stocked with food would be enough to put yours truly into an early grave. So, when we built the home; we had them leave this room bare-except for the phone and electrical outlets we had them install in here. We got a lot of strange looks when we made that request I'll tell ya. But we took what was supposed to be a pantry, and turned it into a home office space. How's that for thinking outside the box?! (We did not do this project this weekend particular weekend however. We're not THAT ambitious! ) Anyway, since it connects to the laundry room I wanted it to have a cohesive feeling. So we did a similar design. Actually, it's almost the same exact design...except I antiqued it. Instead of a clean crisp feel, I wanted it to have an old world feeling. Like a French chicken coup feel. (Not that I have ever been to France, or frequented chicken coups often....but I digress.)

Here's the desk area. With my homemade bulletin board. The desktop will EVENTUALLY be redone in a nice granite....but that is a long, long way down the road. It works just fine for right now.

I bought these cheap bookshelves (and I mean cheap-$15 each) at a discount store. And I refinished them. Any of you who are fellow Christopher Lowell fans, will know this next step. I took these melamine shelves, sanded them, added crown molding on top, primed them and then refinished them in this antique finish. Here's one:

And here's the other:











Notice the open wicker baskets? Remind you of chicken nests? Notice the chicken and birdcage accessories? Are you feeling it yet?!! (Or are you noticing all the clutter I need to organize and put away?! LOL!) Anyway, I painted the ceiling chocolate. It really makes it nice and doesn't close in the space at all. Ricardo also put up a small ceiling fan in this room for me. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm all about ceiling fans and air flow! Gotta have it!!! AND to take it to the final step, REALLY make it FEEL old world...I did one more thing. I painted the walls chocolate, then crackle finished the walls with a white top layer, (note: it says that the treatment is not recommended for walls-but I like it alot in this space...and I'm a rebel; no one tells me what I can't do! ha!) Here's a close up of the crackle:

Do you like it? NOW it has that old French chicken coup feel huh? I think it took it to the next level. Again, it has the tall beadboard and crown molding. So, even though the rooms are opposite in look they do flow easily on the eye from one space to the next.

So that is our weekend project. And, this is the two spaces I spend many, many hours a week in. I know it may not be everyone's style, but it is really cozy and comfy to me. Makes paying bills and doing laundry ALMOST fun!