Well, spring break is coming to an end and what do I have to show for myself? We have a purdy lookin’ laundry room!
I started this project last Sunday with this beauty of a laundry room.
We are pretty sure when Fannie Mae got a hold of our home that these cabinets were in our kitchen and they plopped them into the basement instead of tossing them to the curb when they replaced them. Your guess is as good as ours, but it doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
Anyway, no matter how you slice it, they are ugly. And dirty. Ga-ross. What you might not be able to tell from the photo is that the countertop was in pretty bad shape, too. It is caved in the middle from who knows what and is chipping at the edges. It’s also just dirty and gross as well.
So, for on the cheap, I devoted the majority of my break to beautifying this space.
First, the doors all had to go.
Once I had all of the doors off to the side, I started to paint the base of my cabinet with Kilz primer. I lightly scuffed the base with sand paper first. Since there are no cabinet doors for the cabinets on the upper left side (the vent make it impossible for any doors to actually open), I painted the inside and underneath with primer as well. Two coats later and the whole thing was already looking better.
That where I stopped on day one or two (can’t remember which now).
Here’s a helpful tip if your project goes on for a while and you don’t want to clean your brushes — if you wrap your paint brush and/or roller in a wet paper towel and saran wrap, then put it someplace cold, you can pick up right where you left off the day before with a moist brush! Awesome, huh?
Next up, charcoal gray paint for the cabinet bases. I got this gallon of paint a few months ago from the leftover paint section — I think I paid $6! Score.
I painted two to three coats on each set of cabinets — if you do this, make sure you buy a cabinet roller! They are made of foam and won’t leave little hairs all over your cabinets and doors. I learned that the hard way.
Once my bases were painted, I started on the doors. I think they came into the picture on day three. I did the same process: scuff, prime, paint.
The last thing I did was put two coats of polycrylic onto all of the painted areas. In theory, this should help the paint from pulling up. I have my doubts, as I’ve already knicked one area. The unfortunate part about this project is at the end of the day, I painted over laminate. I don’t know how well it will hold up in the long run, but I’ll just have some gray paint near by for necessary touch ups. Anyway, polycrylic should help a little.
Once everything was dry, I added knobs and rehung the cabinets doors. I also put vinyl dots underneath each door so the painted sides won’t stick together and pull one another up. That and they make closing the doors a lot quieter!
I think we’re onto day four here — countertop day! If you look closely at the photo above, you’ll see two painted 2×3 blocks under the center of the cabinets. I wedged these underneath so the cabinet would have more support and the top would be more level. We also laid a thin sheet of wood and a few shims under the cabinet (after installing it once and not being able to open either drawer) to raise it up to a proper height.
In case you are wondering, the countertop came from my parents’ laundry room — when they did their recent remodel, I asked them to set it aside for us because it happened to be the exact same length as ours. How perfect is that!?
Tadaaaa!
and again….
Even if the paint does chip over time, this looks a heck of a lot better than before! And even though he hates when I an knee-deep in paint and rooms are a hot mess, I know the hubby thinks our laundry room is way more bangin’ now.
Project cost:
- $6 – 1 gallon gray paint (I still have 3/4 of the can left, too!)
- $8- pack of cabinet rollers
- $2- small roller paint tray
- $0- new countertop
- $20- 10 knobs (contractor pack)
- $17- polycrylic (I still have 3/4 of the can left of this as well!)
- $3- vinyl cabinet stoppers
Total: $56 — not too bad!
Next up — a faux backsplash. I just need to decide what pattern I want to do!
Thanks for stopping by today!
-Jess
A Smith of All Trades 