A little while back I won an Instagram contest which was $125 for a DIY project. That got me thinking … what DIY project do I want to tackle next. I put up a poll on my Instagram page and 80% voted for the Laundry Room. Gotta give the people on the gram what they want, right? Little did I know this little room would give me nightmares!
I started thinking could I do the entire refresh for ONLY $125? I do love a good challenge so it was GAME ON!!!!!! I knew that I wanted a accent wall with faux tile but what I didn’t know is that wouldn’t turn out until Plan C. That hurt the budget A LOT!
Step 1: Build the wood top for over the washer and dryer. This was probably the thing I was most excited about because I was so sick of loosing socks behind the washer and dryer. It’s the little things sometime, right? My awesome hubby did all the wood parts. He measured out the top and then he cut trim boards (1′ x 3″ pine) to make a ledge around the back and sides to hold up the top. He then screwed those trim pieces into the studs around the edges. Once those pieces were secured we set the top part (3/4″ x 4 ft x 8 ft birch plywood) on.
Then he used a nail gun with finishing nails to attach another pine trim piece to the front giving it the illusion this was a thicker slab of wood.
He then moved on the shelves in-between. He made these a similar way with the ledges on the side (pine) plywood (birch) set on top and trim nailed to the front. See below.
Then I stained the wood. I mixed two stains together (classic gray and dark walnut) to get this look. Because I was staining two types of wood there is a little variation in color. This is the beauty of mixing the stains though I could go heavier or lighter on a certain shade depending on the need of the wood.
Next up was the cabinet. When we refinished our kitchen a few years ago we had a leftover cabinet. Thankfully it was something we held on to because it went perfect in this space.
Most of my home is filled with various shades of gray. What can I say I love gray! 🙂 I knew in this space I wanted a pop of color and something totally different. So off to Pinterest I went! I found some awesome green colors but when I went to Home Depot and looked at them in person I was not a fan so I picked a color there that I thought looked like the photo (this is the tricky part of photos with filters – ugh). Also TIP – you only need to buy a $3 sample of paint for this project. Yes, you read that correctly. Only buy the sample!
I went with the color Village Green by Behr.
Next up was the wall. UGH the dreaded wall. I thought I would try peel and stick subway tiles – that was a flop. I couldn’t get them to stick. I later read that you can buy an adhesive spray to help make them stick. It was too late for that though I ripped them down and moved on to wallpaper. HAHA that was funny. I bought 3 rolls but couldn’t get the lines to line up. Since it was a herringbone tile it was important that the lines line up. FACE PALM. Thankfully after a few days of cooling down I was able to return the un opened rolls and using the leftovers on my stairs. Shockingly that worked much better. I think because the space I was working with was so much smaller. Insert PLAN C – I decided to try a stencil and sharpie on the wall and IT WORKED!
I most definitely have some imperfections but I am ok with that! That’s part of the beauty of a DIY project! Some parts of the wall it was too hard to use the stencil in which I had to freehand ohhh the joys of a DIY project.
Last up was decorating the space. Some things I had already and some things I purchased new for the room. I have all items linked here:
Check out the before and after. Such a transformation!
Here is my supplies list with approximate costs:
- 3/4 in x 4 ft x 8 ft PureBond Birch Plywood = $56 (DANG YOU COVID AND YOUR CRAZY WOOD PRICES!)
- 1 in x 3 in pine boards = $28 (yup I am still made about the wood costs haha)
- Varathane Stain in classic gray and dark walnut = $0 (leftover from previous projects)
- Black Handles for cabinet = $9
- Back Tension Rod = $21
- Paint sample = $3
- Sharpies (4 pack) = $6
- Herringbone Stencil from Etsy = $25 (with shipping)
I did sadly go over budget a bit but I blame the wood costs and still overall I think this is huge transformation for around $145!
Check out more projects on my instagram: mitten_mack
