Back to the delusions, bigger than ever

👊👊So after thinking about it and making a few mistakes with previous choices (door knobs) I decided the best way to do this DIY business is do it by room. Since this will be my first total room remodel I picked the laundry room. I suggest any newbie DIY'ers attempt this room as the starting line. First of all, it's a room that most people don't see coming into the house and second it's usually pretty small which means it won't cost a lot of money if you do mess it up and have to call a professional in to fix your mistake! That's my theory! Or at least that's what makes me feel better with tearing apart a brand new laundry room. Now, my laundry room isn't anything special, it's small and cramped and pretty much my least favorite room in my house. It is clean and new, it's freshly painted and looks crisp and white. But my family's organization skills is not to be desired and I'm ashamed to say that even my family can make a shiny new laundry room look like a dump. I've always wanted those $300 washer and dryer pedestals since our last house and never got them. I need storage and organization in that space more than anything. My laundry room is pathetic, new and shiny, yes, but pathetic.

 

 

 

I started trolling Pinterest again. I once saw a family room wall accented with wood planks and was convinced I must do that, considering my family room wall is quite large I was a little afraid to dip my feet in that pool right outta the gate, instead I came up with the idea of doing it in my laundry room. I started looking for examples and was soon filled with the visions of how I wanted my laundry room to look. I saved pin after pin but found my inspiration picture really had nothing to do with a laundry room. The rest of my inspiration for this project was saved on my Pinterest page here Mo's Laundry Room Redo Inspirations

 

 

I loved the overall look and feel of this space. 

I found some blueprints for a washer and dryer pedestal and got busy. The link is here DIY Washer and Dryer Pedestal blue prints I followed the instructions and ended up with a few fixable mistakes. (Like not cutting my 2x4's wise enough and came up short. 

 

I took my circular saw and cleaned off the edges that were over lapped. I also went a little nuts on the screws so I had to use a lot of wood putty. I had a small assembly line going for that. 

 

I wanted to dress it up by adding some trim. I suddenly got some "stugots." HERE'S A TIP:  when cutting outside corners of trim, even at a straight 45 degrees lay it on the miter saw flat, the same way it'll go up on the wall, beam, post, etc. and make sure the cut starts after the exact length you need. I blew thru almost 5 feet of wasted trim trying to figure that out.

I then got the idea to use standard cheap baseboards to trim around the bottom and top. The top portion I flipped upside down to create a lip to stop my washer from wiggling off the side when I overload it, (which I do constantly) 

Then I started to stain it. Here's another tip, I used wood glue and a brad nailer for the trim and wood glue doesn't stain like wood, so if you get crazy like I did and it leaks down on any area that you're staining it will stand out. So I stained and re-stained and sanded and re-stained until I read the wood glue instructions and realized why I was having the issue. 

 

 I tried to fix it by using white washed pickling by Minwax

 
 But I hated that even worse, maybe it was the fumes in the closed garage but I stayed up for hours that night (I think, that night is foggy in my memory, maybe I passed out in the corner for a few hours) anyway I ended up just painting over it all with a dark brown and called it a day. I almost wish I would of just painted over it with a white and I probably would of ended up with the look I was going after. But I called it good enough and moved on to the stencils. I used 2" stencils and acrylic white paint to put the wording for the laundry baskets I want to put under it, "Darks" "Lights" and "Towels." 

(Excuse the puppy, he wouldn't move) but you can see what I did. The wood on top of the pedestal is what I used for the shelves and plank wall, that will come next.

 

So I read lots of things on these planked walls. Lucky for me I had some left over tongue and groove engineered hardwood floors my builder left in my attic that they had to replace and redo my entire floor with a different color so these were just left and never would be needed. I tried to sand off the finished side. I don't know what they make or deal that stuff with but it wasn't coming off. Which worked for me anyway because I read that working with tongue and groove planks was easier if you laid them backwards, something about the way they folded inward. So I sanded them down. I noticed this fine thin cut marks in the planks at certain locations and after staring at the planks for hours on days it occurred to me that they were pre-measured cuts for the installer. (Not important to you, but that was driving me crazy trying to find out what the heck they were.)

 

 I got my supplies ready, a cheap sander, mask, safety googles, gloves and a small plastic banquet table I got at Walmart for $29.99. 

 

 

 

I stained them with three different Minwax color stains. No rhyme of reason to it, just did a few of Jacobean, a few of Special Walnut and a few of Coffee Bean then I'd do it all over again. I'd wipe the stain off sooner on some and let it sit longer on others before wiping it off. I didn't spend a dime on this wood so it was a pure experiment with nothing to lose and as mentioned before I struggle to see things in my head as I'm doing it. Without the finish product to see and touch I struggle to see the vision! I then used the white washed pickling and wiped that off immediately, some I kept a "smudged" look, and some I used the "dry brush" technique to show the grain of the wood. Once all was dry I beat the heck out of each plank randomly with a small wrench to dent it up and use me Minwax Polycrylic to seal and protect the wood. All together the process took me about 2 days but only because of the drying times. I sanded off the Polycrylic and re-applied another coat until I got the look I was seeking.

This is before the Polycrylic 

 

 

And this is after, again I still couldn't imagine just how it would look together, so after the Polycrylic dried I laid them out on my banquet table to try and force a visual.

 

 

Next I had to think of shelves. What would I do for shelves? I couldn't take that plain one down and not have some type of storage in there after all this. I searched "Laundry Room Storage," and up popped black piping used for shelves and shelf support. I thought it was genius! I figured I could make a small folding area and a few shelves and support them with these black steel pipes. How hard could it be? I just finished creating a washer and drying pedestal from scratch, I started with nothing but plywood and 2x4's. And I just created a kick ass accent wall with the backside of left over wood floor that I think is gonna be perfect. Black pipes? Easy Peezy! 

So I headed to Home Depot and loaded up on 3/4" flanges, different length nipples, tee's, elbows and connecters, some black spray and 2- 2"x 10" x 10' pine and had Chuck at  Home Depot cut them down. (Chuck and I have seen a lot of eachother this past month and I get the sense his opinion of me has changed over the course of the weeks from doubting ability, serious risk, completely insane, to now optimisticly hopeful.) One board I had him cut three  30" boards for my folding table and the other board I had him cut two 48" pieces for shelves. I loaded it all in my car and off I went with Chucks usual "well wish wave" and worried eyes. As soon as I got home I spray painted all the pipe pieces since I knew that would take awhile to dry. Then I got busy on the shelf wood. I sanded them and beat them with my trusty wrench and hammer, stained them with the special walnut stain and sealed them with the Polycrylic like I did the wood planks. I used some left over small 2x4's to attach the three 30" boards with screws. I should have taken pictures of this process but quite honestly I didn't know if it would be used or if I'd end up buying some distressed looking shelves on Esty. But here are a few pics where you can see how they turned out and my struggle with the black pipes, which I will get into a little later. 

 Above- pipes painted and this is where I'm laying them out trying to map where and how they would go. 

Below- pipes painted and I'm still trying to figure out where and how they should be placed.

Here is another few pictures of the selves after they were sanded, stained and beaten down. I finished them with two layers of the Polycrylic stuff too and I loved the smooth finished feel it gave them.

Now at this point you may be wondering why I haven't started putting the stuff in my Laundry room yet. Mainly because I am terrified and the second reason is because my family can not go without a laundry room longer than 12 hours, therefore I planned to get everything ready to be installed and put together and then just like a genie granting a wish have a brand new room to stand back and admire.


The terrified portion comes from actually having to demo things within the space, it's do or die moment now. I was in fact at that moment, I gave myself a little "Rocky pep-talk." (hey, I'm Italian, we do that for many situations and this one seemed better than ever, it worked for Rocky every time.)


So with huge doubt and false believe oozing from my pours I walked into my laundry room, said under my breath, "here goes nothing," used some muscle to push the washer and dryer to the front of the small space. I used a razor blade to cut through all the caulking on the pre-existing shelf and used a plaster knife to wedge in between the wall and shelf to pry it away as much as I could. I then fit the back side of a hammer to pry it off even more. Let me tell you, the ruckus I made hammering and pulling that shelf off was unbelievable. That thing was cemented on there it felt like. At one point my husband heard a large crash and ran into the room, eyes wide open when he sees this;

He yells, "my God, look at the wall, do you know what you are doing?" Offended and sweaty I snapped back, "yes of course I know what I am doing, do you think I'm tearing holes in this for fun? now get out of here and don't question me!"
I bend down to breathe through the hyperventilation I was experiencing and quietly say to myself, "holy crap, I have no idea what I am doing!" But at this point I am too invested not to continue and trust me I thought of many ways I could wash my hands of this mess I created but I forged on.
I spackled the wall to fill the holes after I removed the rest of the shelf. I let it dry until the next day and sanded it down. The back side of the wall would be covered by the planks so I tried not to focus too much on that but the sides I painted over and smoothed out. I gathered my ladder, level, brad nail gun and a pencil I stored in the bun of my hair and hauled it into the space. One by one starting from the top and working across and down like you would read the pages of a book I randomly put each plank on the wall.

Slowly I started to see my vision come alive. I was instantly in love. I had found my calling, I was the cool kid in class,,,,,,ok ok let's not get crazy. But I was proud and suddenly my confidence shot up ten-fold and you can bet I tried my hardest to not act "surprised" that it came out so darn good in front of my husband. Even though inside I was in disbelief that I pulled it off this far. I noticed I seemed to be running low on the wall planks about 1/3 of the way, could my math be off when I figured out the square footage? Probably. So to be safe I decided to call in some muscle to bring the pedestal in and put my washer and dryer up on it. I thought if I was gonna run short I needed to cover the areas that would be exposed first and leave the area behind the washer and dryer for the end in case I did run out. 

 
I had the husband hook up the washer and dryer and finished the "planking." I also started with the folding shelf by attaching the flanges (round anchors for the pipes) and making sure they were level. 

 

 

Which brings me to another point. This will be the last time I ever do any project with those pipes. They look great and are very cheap but I can't tell you how many issues I had working with these things. When you paint them and then screw them together they stick and it's like hell trying to get them apart if you need to add more or take away a piece. They are heavy and bulky so plan where they will go and how even before attaching them. Even after I thought I had it figured out I didn't and you can't measure levelness of the pipes because a small turn 20 degrees changes the whole thing. But with a little improvisation I eventually came to a conclusion I could live with. 

 

I used an extra shelf board I had from poor pre-planning and made an extra sign that I saw on Esty for lost socks. And I funny sign I made as an inside joke between my husband and I. (I don't really punch anyone in the face in my home) I also stumbled across a great idea for a lint box. Which you can find the instructions here:

 

 

 

Next up is waiting for my new rug to arrive, my distressed wood chandelier and the sliding barn door. 

 

 

The barn door and Craftsman Trim will be on its own post. I'm still undecided on whether I want to take a trip to Old Home Supply Company in Fort Worth and look for an old vintage door to refurbish like she did in this post on Pinterest 

Or build it from scratch like this post 

 

More to come on the next post and you all will see the complete finish product.