Showing the Laundry Some Love, Laundry Room Remodel

Hey everyone, I am Sausha from {show & tell} I started my blog just a couple of months ago and I am loving it.  I love sharing my ideas and especially love the huge number of ideas that I get from all the other blogs!  I love to build, decorate and re-design my new home to add some charachter and some style.  I am constantly changing things up and I love it - although my husband may not, but he does loves to tell everyone "hey, my wife built that!".

And, can I just say that I was so excited and honored when Cassity asked me to guest post for her.  My blog is just a couple of months old and this is HUGE for me!!!  I feel like a total blog star :)

Ok, onto the project.  I actually did these built-ins for my laundry room about a year ago.  I didnt have this little blog back then but I knew one day I would so I took some pic's along the way.  I have definately learned with blogging the more pic's along the way, the better but this will give you a good idea of how I did this.  It took about a day to complete - start to finish, so not too bad.  I learned some things along the way and actually helped my friend build hers a few months ago.

It all started with this plain, boring, standard builders laundry room....

I gave her a little and some attention and turned her into this...

Of course the biggest thing that I did was build the storage cabinet under the washer/dryer.  I also added bead board on the walls and capped that off with some molding.  I have painted the room about 5 times - still not lovin the color but it works for now until I am ready to try it again (good thing I like to paint!).  FYI the paint color now is smoked oyster by Valspar - its a good creamy mocha color.

Heres a little play by play of the building of the built-in...

I started with framing it out of 2x4's - 2 layers to build it up a little

I added 2x4 posts (doubled up again) to all four corners and then built an identical platform for the top (with some extra cross braces).  I didnt attach this to the floor at all but did nail the back part to the wall for extra support.  Really the weight of the washer and dryer keep it from moving around.  The platform is super strong, I cant even count the number of times that I have had to climb up on top of the washer/dryer (yes, for all that painting!) and it supports me just fine.  It isnt going anywhere!!!

 

Both the top and bottom have 3/4" sheets of MDF.  Notice the cutout for the vent -  I let my hubby do that part to make him feel like he contributed!!  Oh ya, I'm nice like that :)

 

I ran molding along both the top and the bottom edges to cover the 2x4's.  I also covered the 2x4 posts with MDF and then capped those off with a little decorative trim to pretty it up :) 

 

You can see the finished post here..

   

If you notice in this pic I brought the top piece of molding up about and inch above the base just in case the washer wanted to go crazy and shake on me - luckily I have never had an issue with this, but if it did this would prevent it from shaking itself off. 

Recently I replaced the standard silver builder rod and brackets with a wooden rod that I painted black and some wooden brackets that also got a coat of black paint. Before...
Along the way..
 
After...I think it makes the space look so much better, a little more like a room, less like a laundry room.  Functional things can definatley look good too.

   

Another fun thing that I added was an old shed door.  It was red, so I just painted a very thin coat of white paint and then sanded it down to let the red show through. Before... 

 

After...with a huge willow wreath, I really like the natural element in the room 

 

I just recently I added some vinyl lettering to the built-in so the kids could easily sort their clothes...we'll see if this works!?!  You can see that I have a ton of laundry to do...but that can wait :) 

 

Another fun thing that I love in the room is the old green ladder.  I got her from my grandmas barn and left it in all its chippy, old layered paint, maybe a little bird poop glory!!  I love this ladder - recently I used it in my daughters room for blankets but it wasn't needed anymore so I moved it in here.  I do alot of stuff around the house so I love having a small ladder thats easy to get to.  Plus I love the little bit of color that it adds the otherwise very neutral room.

   

So perfect - I am seriously in love with this ladder :)  You just cant fake a paint job like that!  

Ok, now just some random pic's of the laundry room, just for fun! 

 

Oh yeah, I definatley changed out the builder light for this antique chandelier (that I got for $15!) - love it!!

 

  

 

So, thats it, thats my laundry room.  I really love this room, and I am so happy that I made this room into what it is.  I was very proud of myself, its one of those ideas that I came up with on my own and got to it!   A lot of us spend a lot of time in our laundry rooms, so why not make it into a space that you like to be in.  I will admit that doing laundry is a lot better than before (though, I still don't love it!).  I love having the baskets under the washer/dryer - I think it was a perfect solution to my laundry room issues.  And, it is something unique and so much better than the drawers that you can buy - which dont have any real storage and they are crazy expensive for what they are (in my opinion of course).

Because I know there will be questions, here is a little break down...

cost -

I used a lot of what I already had on hand, but I figured it out and you could totally do this for less than a $100 - that would include your trim, paint, 2x4's, all that good stuff.

Dimensions - 66" L x 36" W x 19 1/2" H

Total overall height including washer/dryer is 5 feet - perfect for my 5'2" self!

Color on the walls is smoked oyster by Valspar

***I actually did a post about this laundry room on my blog {show & tell} a while ago and after a couple of weeks of me posting it, I found my laundry room on several "chat" sites/forums talking about the built-ins.  Mostly people were talking about the safety of the platform mainly it being wood and a fire hazard and if the structure was strong enough.  I have no idea why this would be a fire hazard, I am sure millions of people have there laundry rooms on wood floors/subfloors, etc. and it is fine.  The dryer doesnt heat up enough to cause a fire so I have no idea why this would be an issue?  And as far as the strength of the platform, I was very cautious of how I braced it and added plenty of supports.  Like I said, I have had to climb on top of this thing more times than I would have liked to and it is very durable.  It doesnt move at all - the washer and dryer are so heavy that it keeps everything in place.***

Well, thats it!!!  Thank you so much Cassity for chosing me to guest post - I am very honored! 

And come stop by my blog {show & tell} for some more fun stuff :)

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS ROOM!

Aren't You?

Seriously, if you read another remodeling blog let it be 

Show & Tell, she is incredibly good at what she does.