After the girls room, I decided to makeover my laundry room since I wanted to get my cabinet painting skills up to speed before I tackled rooms everyone was going to see on a daily basis.  Because my laundry room has the lovely golden oak cabinetry it was the perfect place to start.
 


I have always wanted a second floor laundry room and I finally got it! And although, for a laundry room there isn't that much wrong with it, it could definitely use some upgrading!

Let me point out all the problems I wanted to address:
1) Awful Oak Cabinets
2) Commercial looking fluorescent light fixture
3) Electrical Panel
4) Awful baby blue formica
5) Unusable storage (nothing big enough for laundry baskets or any decent area to sort clothes)

First things first.  Replacing the light fixture.  This was what it was before. A standard two bulb fluorescent.
I decided to change it out with a track-type light because I wanted as much light in the room as possible.  Unfortunately when I took down the original light, there was no box.  It was hard wired directly into the ceiling, so it looked like this.
Not only was it only a wire in a hole, it wasn't even centered in the ceiling.  Therefore I had to cut a new hole, feed the wire (using a coat hanger) and install a box.
Once the box was installed (which was a delightful learning experience: Did you know there are "new work" and "old work" electrical boxes?  Well if you are retrofitting an already existing wall get an OLD WORK box.  Since trying to cram in a new work box is not going to work.  They are designed to be nailed into the studs before drywall is up.  Trust me on this.  Lesson learned.)
Anyhow, once the box was up it was easy peasy.  Connect the wires and hang the fixture.  I got this "Tiding" one at IKEA. LOVE IT!  The halogen bulbs are super bright and the true white color makes my dirty laundry look beautiful.
 I did bring my laundry baskets to the store to make sure the widths of the cabinet interiors would be large enough to accommodate my baskets and sure enough there was plenty of room.  I also purchased a butcher block countertop and cut it down with my circular saw to fit in the niche.
I settled on Velspar "Mermaid's Song" because Martha isn't really into the super bright color palette.  I couldn't even find it in Behr, so I had to trek out to Lowe's to find the perfect color.  To me the seafoam color reminds me of fabric softener.. a perfect color for a laundry room! I left the ceiling soffets and the white corner soffet where the dryer vents to the roof. I didn't want to much blue since it was a very bright color.
I found a darling print ($19) on allposters.com which I added to a $5 frame to cover up the ugly electrical panel. I cut down the matte that came with the frame instead of having one custom cut.  I already had a matte cutter from previous projects so that was free.
I hung a $15 hook rack which I got at Target since there was no hanging storage anywhere in the room. Perfect for things I want to drip dry!
I also added bead board to the bottom of the wall.  Instead of using sheet bead board, I used the panels which slide together.  They were a DREAM to work with. They are tongue and groove and come with prefab baseboards and chair rails.  I did have to cut them down so they were slightly shorter (so not to run into the countertop) but they still worked wonderfully.
 Finally, of course, I painted the cabinets.  BYE BYE golden oak. 2 coats of oil-based primer, 2 coats of paint (Glass of Milk by Martha of course!), and 3 coats of polyacrylic. Both sides.
 Even the interiors. Nothing is too good for my laundry room!

Lastly I added a small shelf above the washer and dryer with a couple pics of the girls and a couple baskets to hold the stuff I find in the pockets of the laundry.  The brackets were $1.50 each and I bought, sanded and painted a 1x4 as the shelf ($5).
I added darling little laundry basket labels I found at Pottery Barn ($10), 3 jars (clothespins, detergent and fabric softener sheets) as well as a vinyl transfer that says "Laundry Room.. wash, rinse, repeat" that I found on Etsy. ($15)

I LOVE IT!

Here is the breakdown of what it cost:
Cabinets: $180 (2@$90)
Countertop: $59
Ceiling box: $3
Light fixture: $40
Primer: $15
Paint (cabinets, beadboard, trim, shelf): $25
Paint (walls): $25
Paint thinner (oil primer clean up): $15
Floetrol (to keep the paint finish smooth): $8
Tack cloths: $3
Cape Cod Bead Board Panels: $24 (2@$12)
Bead Board Chair rail/Baseboard: $13
Cabinet Hardware: $11
Shelf Brackets (2): $3
Shelf Lumber: $5
Print: $19
Frame: $5
Wall hooks: $15
Glass Jars: $21
Wall decal: $15

Not included in budget:
Sandpaper, sanding supplies, spray paint (brushed nickel for hinges), baskets, frames, laundry basket tags (I had a gift card or I wouldn't have bought them)


It took me a long time.  I can't even figure out how many hours, but it took me at least 2 weeks of working on it every day.  I would say at least 40+ man hours.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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