Laundry Room (Major) Makeover!

Hello guys!  Our laundry room is finally 90% complete, so I figured I can share it now.   I have been dreaming of front loaders since before we even moved into our house.  I've been waiting 'til our plan to renovate, that hasn't come to place.  So once again, I had to take matters into my own hands.

Our first major transformation!

Just revisiting the before photos makes my stomach turn.  How have I lived with this laundry room for 5 years?! 
Stained walls, worn out floor, and non-energy efficient washer and dryer... A complete dungeon!

I drew what I have in mind to start.  Sorry this is as far as my architectural skills go.  I got overly excited just looking at my plan without realizing what I was up against.  

Forrest Gump said, "I was runnnnning!" Danielle said, "I was sannnnndingggg!!!"

I pulled out 20+ nails that seemed like were placed randomly all over the walls. I was feeling masculine after. Haha!

I got to working.  Honestly, I didn't know what I was doing.  I didn't know where and how to start.  That's when I relied on the internet and read a lot of "how to" blogs and posts.  Everybody online said to sand, so I sanded the walls.  I sanded right after work for a week.  I took advantage of my dedicated mood.  I wanted to do as much as possible while I had the drive to achieve my goal.  Then I filled the holes all over the walls from all the nails I pulled out.  

I put 3 coats of primer. Looking so much better already! I used Kilz oil based primer.

I was actually quite excited to finally paint the walls with a cheerful color - Sesame 381 by Benjamin Moore. It's yellow + green. Okay, it's like artichoke hearts.

After sanding like crazy, I was super excited to finally paint!  I got some stain bleed on the wall, so I decided to put 3 coats of primer.  (Yes, I OCD'd a bit on the primer)  I painted the trims and beams with my favorite Behr Ultra White semi-gloss paint.  I wanted something bright & lively color to cheer the room up since the lighting is limited.  I absolutely love what Jon & Sherry from Young House Love did with their laundry room and the color they picked, so I went with the same color.  It's called Sesame 381 by Benjamin Moore.

Sesame 381 by Benjamin Moore, color matched by Behr

My freshly painted walls! It's greenish at night, but it's yellowish during the day.

Beautiful wall doesn't match gross sink & floor

Valspar Brownstone

After I was done painting the walls, I looked at the floor.  Floor just didn't matched my nice walls.  At this point, I was still winging it.  I went online and read up about how to paint the floor.  It's actually far more tedious that the wall.  First, I got muriatic acid to strip the floor.  I poured it on the floor with a little bit of water, and spread it and let it sit for few minutes.  I could actually see the floor bubbles.  Then I washed, vacuumed and dried the floor. 

Then I applied floor & porch paint.  I picked the color Brownstone.

TADA!

In between painting the walls and floor, our regular lives must go on which includes washing clothes.  I kind of miscalculated cure time.  Also, I sold our washer & dryer (on Craigslist) before we bought the new ones.  Oops!  Off we packed 7 loads of laundry and paid the laundromat a visit.  

My little helper & entertainer

Beautiful wall & sexy floor! Sink -- still disgusting...

New sink in! Whoop! Whoop!

The sink was still bothering me.  I know there's a way to salvage our concrete sink, but at this point, after scrubbing the walls and floor, I figured I deserved a break and hire a plumber to just replace the sink.

Yes, I realized the word Laundry was a bit redundant here.

I finally got my front loaders!!!  We were so excited to get these working that we really didn't read the instructions.  So my husband stacked them up, and test them out.  When the cycle went on high spin, they started wobbling and dancing.  I was so frustrated.  I thought it was our uneven floors.  Then we looked at the manual, and the answer to wobbling washer and dryer was shipping bolts!  Yup, we didn't take off the shipping bolts.  

I got my mom to sew sink skirt for me.  I used the lemonade/tea jars as my detergent dispenser.  Our laundry room pretty much looked like this for a while, I mean 8 months...  Although there was nothing on the other side of the room, it was functional.

During Bobby's summer break, I got him to put the countertop, then the shelves up.  I also asked my mom to sew countertop skirt to match the sink's.  I put another coat of floor paint since moving the washer and dryer in put marks on the floor.

I got a big mirror up too!  Bobby didn't understand why I would want a mirror in the laundry room.  I didn't either, but I wanted one, so I got one.  I think it made the small room look slightly bigger.

Even got a laundry room-warming gift from my friend, Jovy. Woohoo!

Before & After: What a big difference!

Before & After: Looking at these photos makes me proud of what I've done. Victory dance!

You might asked why I said it's 90% done.  The other 10% is for the door.  I hope it won't take me another few months to a year to get it done.  I hope I've somehow inspired you to take on a home project, and be ecstatic about the result.  Let me tell you, it's quite fulfilling.  I'll probably be hanging out in our laundry room in the next few days or weeks... :)

So how do you like my room transformation?!