Discount Laundry Room Re-Do

OK! I did it! I did it! I did it! It was agonizing and probably the hardest room to do in the whole house despite the fact that it's the smallest next to the bathroom. I actually re-did the laundry room with a little help from my mom and my husband. I had to do a low budget, low dust, and most of the time low noise re-do. We have since we moved in re-done every room in the house except the garage and the laundry room until now. The garage even got new insulation and drywall a few years back. The laundry room was the pits though. Honestly, I could have cared less BUT it is right off of the kitchen and the door is open the majority of the time so I had to look at it and it was so gross. If you haven't seen the before pictures check out my original laundry room post called Val's Big Idea. I wanted to get this room done forever and my deadline was to get it done before Thanksgiving when we were having 20 people over. It had never been properly painted since it was built. The popcorn ceiling had cobwebs loaded with dryer lint hanging from it. The light fixture was from the 70's and so ugly. The one outlet in the room had only one working receptacle in it. The light switch was completely dirty and grimy like one in a car repair shop and had been clawed at by a large dog from long before we moved in. The blinds we hung needed to be shortened and the AC drainage hose was grotesque transparent vinyl that was loaded up with dirt and mineral deposits, was barely attached and had become a toy for Little Buddy.

Anywho, I couldn't go hog wild patching and sanding due to noise and dust with a young toddler in the house. So I did my best and used a wet sanding sponge for most of the evening out of the plaster patches. I asked for gray paint on Freecycle and actually received some fairly quickly. When I picked it up it was more like a light blue but I noticed it was originally from Home Depot so I took it there and asked if they could tint it for me. They said that the bargain paint (originally purchased for $1.61) was 6 years old and most likely had expired. Then after telling them that it had been stored in a basement and being checked, they decided that it was in fact still good. The tinting process took over and hour, Little Buddy was such a good boy. I had a kitchen floor tile with me so they had an idea what I was aiming for shade wise.

I painted a sample patch of it on the wall and left it there for a few days to see how I (and my husband) felt about it. He said it was way too dark. Then a few days later he said it looked really good. Men?!. So, it was a go.

The floor, is not my favorite. I am not a fan of linoleum BUT was told by the guy that did our kitchen that we would have to go that route due to the fact that there was a sloping floor for the utility drain in there. I purchased a few single tiles from Menard's in various styles to see what would look the best. I had several that were faux stone or ceramic looking and one that was faux wood. We have real light wood floors through our house so I didn't think that the darker faux wood would work. Then when I placed the faux stone and ceramic next to our real ceramic kitchen tiles it looked totally bad. The faux wood surprisingly looked like it would work pretty well due to the fact that it was pretty far from any of our actual wood floors and was not too far from the shade of our kitchen cabinets.

If I thought that contorting my body in all kinds of bizarre and painful positions to paint around and behind and under the appliances, water heater, and furnace was bad, the issue of flooring in there was another story. I laid many of the floor tiles in the center of the room fairly quickly by following the marks on the floor from the old floor tiles. Then came the hard part going around the doorways, under the water heater's feet and piping, around the furnace, and under and behind two monstrous appliances. My mother helped me one Sunday evening for 7 hours (the absolute hardest parts of the room) and then I finished up the remainder of the tiling which took half a Monday. Again, making paper templates and a hundred little cuts and angles, lots of cutting, measuring and back aching!!!

So, below is the breakdown of the cost involved in my discount laundry room redo. I cannot believe that it came to less than $100!!!!! Keep in mind, we wanted the room to look nicer but do not plan on living here much longer than we have to. I think it turned out pretty well for a budget redo that I did mostly alone minus the help from my mom with the flooring and some roller painting my husband helped with (the easy, gratifying part of course).

Peel and stick floor tiles $56.88 Menard's (On sale, 79 cents psf down from $1.09 psf)
Paint Brush $7.99 Menard's
Painters Tape FREE (Found on the ground in the parking lot)
White paint for ceiling and trim FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Gray Paint FREE (Asked for on Freecycle then brought it in for tinting at Home Depot to more desirable shade, tinting also FREE because paint was originally from there)
New Light Switch and Switch Plate and Insulation FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
New Outlet .39 cents Menard's, Outlet Plate and Insulation FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Slim Roller Refills $8.99 Menard's
Spackle and Caulk FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Cable Ties FREE (Leftover from previous house projects)
Utility Hose $2.88 Menard's (Drains AC condensation, old one was trashed)
Hose Clips $4.99 Ace (Positions hose onto floor and into drain and makes it harder for little hands to yank around)
Light Fixture $5 On Sale at Menard's (Floor model, I asked if there was a discount on floor models, the guy gave me an additional 20% OFF!)

The rest of the items we had leftover from previous house projects like the paint roller pan, stepladder, rags, etc.

Phew, so much easier on the eyes and cleaner to look at from the kitchen :) I love how the gray looks with the white trim, ceiling and appliances. Amen! Now what do I need to work on next before Little Buddy's 2nd birthday at the end of January? JK! That should do it . . . . . I think?