Drum roll please……The laundry room is done and looking fabulous!!! I can’t believe how much that space has transformed from something boring, to being the most beautiful room in the house. We took on the laundry room thinking it would be an easy remodel. You see, we were currently renovating our sunroom when the challenge started. We had been working on it for a several weeks, so it didn’t seem fair to use that room for the challenge. We had completely closed the porch off to make it an add-on to the house. There was a lot of work involved in that process, so you can imagine the look on Alan’s face (while he is tiling the floor) when I told him I want to take on the challenge for another room. But we never turn down a challenge and we always go big. So here began the process of finishing not one room, but two rooms in a course of 8 weeks.

At first it was going to be a simple fixer upper, it’s a small laundry room after all. Little bit of paint and maybe a built in bench……but that’s really just too easy. On the left side on the room we painted cabinets and moved the cabinets up all the way to the ceiling to gain back a foot and a half of wasted space.  We moved our washers cold/hot intake and drain down a few inches so we could add the countertop that we built. We added a natural wood paneled wall, added a clothes hanging rack (which is really a towel rack), and then there’s the sink. If you’ve been following a long with us you know the whole process we went through. I had in my mind to do something unique with our sink. At first I wanted to refurbish a cast iron sink, but I was surprised at how expensive those old sinks sell for. A friend gave me the idea to buy a concrete sink, but those are also very expensive. So of course my DIY mind said I can make that! It took only a minute to convince Alan to take on the challenge with me. Of course with a custom sink, we needed to build our own custom base and since there wasn’t a current sink there already, we needed to re-route all the plumbing. Of course Alan and I are just that stubborn and determined and never hire out, so we did it all ourselves. It’s a doable project and I want to see other DIYers take on the challenge. Check out the tutorial and send me a pic of your finished product.

 

The right side of the room was a completely blank canvas, which allowed for a lot of creativity. Alan made the two tall cabinets with nothing to go off of but my chicken scratch. Checkout our cabinet tutorial.  Little side story, while buying the wood at Lowes, a guy asked what we were making and when we told him he was like “you know you can buy cabinets?”…. um yeah, but what’s the fun in that when you can make them! Plus, we had very specific dimensions, which would make for pricey cabinets. We did a floating bench between the cabinets and added some fun angles cuts and wood details. The panel wall above the bench was free since we were able to utilize leftover wood. We bought some Hearth and Hand hooks, because those Gain’s know what they’re doing. The art is a DIY plaster picture and frame. Inside the cabinets I did a DIY pattern with a sponge to add a unique look when you open the cabinets.

The door leading to the garage was a plain, boring door and we couldn’t have that with all the other pretty details of the room. We added trim and some paint and it did a number on giving the door personality. We bought our light fixtures from Habitat for Humanity and eBay. The rug is from eBay as well. It is my first vintage rug to own and I love it. It adds so much character to the space.

What do we have left to do? I am very picky about my baskets and haven’t found what I want in the cabinets. I will probably end up making my own baskets, so stay tuned for that. After placing in my rug, I don’t love the throw blanket and pillows with that, so I will ended up switching those out. Other than those little cosmetic details, we’re DONE. Check out our reveal video below!

Go check out the other incredible ORC participants reveals at Better home and Garden’s page.