the laundry room revisited....

i think that this room has to be the one i am most proud of in my little diy portfolio.....

the before: 

yuk!!! 

(and i am the one who painted it like that in the first place....

i can't even blame it on the previous owners of the home because we bought it new).

i had ideas for the room swirling around in my brain for a long time.  i just wanted light and bright...i considered painting the room white.  that was a fleeting thought...what would my family and friends say....the girl with the easter egg house.....(so named because of the bright colors we painted when when we first moved into the house).  then i fell in love with turquoise.  hard.  i am sure that the inspiration for the paint came from the blue mason jars i love so much.

so i mixed the color myself from a can of  $5.00 oops paint.

when i started redoing the room, more ideas kept popping into my head and i just went with them.  

a chandelier in the laundry room???  who does that? 

i do..

(look at that bling bling)

tiffany blue walls in the laundry room??? who does that?

i do...

mason jars styled, photographed as art and framed?? who does that?

i do....

board and batten treatment in the laundry room??  who does that?

well, i saw lots of people who had done that in their houses so i figured i could do that too, so, 

i did....

and i did it all by myself...

well........almost.

don hung the chandelier 

because ever since i stuck a butter knife into a lamp socket when i was about 9 years old,  

i am afraid of electricity...

even if the power is off.  

and he helped me use the nail gun for the board and batten ledge 

because that thing is scary, 

especially when it blew the air into my face when i pulled the trigger.....

it scared the bejeebers outta me....

 i am, however, very proud of the fact that 95% of the work was done by yours truly.....

the planning, the painting, the woodwork and the decor....

 i love the room.  everyone that has come over to the house loves the room.  

it makes you want to do the laundry.

sigh......

there have been a few changes in the room since it was first transformed.  

most have been cosmetic changes, changing out the decor and adding other girly touches...

glass containers to hold detergent and oxyclean....

a wire basket to hold towels

and more of my favorite blue mason jars.

i made a little cover from a vintage sheet for the shoe storage cube. 

    the picnic basket holds gloves, scarves and hats for winter. 

i had an old half circle table cloth with lace trim that i added to the roman shade.

my friend lisa's parents have an old barn where i found this window.  the glass was so dirty that i thought it was opaque....when i washed it i realized that the glass was perfect.  the paint is original.  it was turquoise.  i didn't have to do anything to this window to get it to look like it does.  

the patina and rust on this frame is gorgeous and they let me take the window for free....

(thanks walt and penny)  

the one thing that i don't like rust and patina on is my washing machine.  

especially one that is only about 9 years old.  

of course, don tried to fix it. using caulk . which as you can see didn't work very well.

that lovely orange below??  rust!!  

i know that 9 years is a long time for appliances nowadays but it drives me crazy that the lid of my washer rusted.  

so i am entering a contest to win PartSelect’s $5000 GE Giveaway contest for new appliances

because a new washer and dryer would be the icing on the cake in this beautiful laundry room!
and
because my dishwasher is on it's last leg.....

i am keeping my fingers crossed to win. someone has to win, right?  why not me??

wish me luck!!!!

wicker is quicker.......

when it is brought back to life with spray paint.

i have had this wicker love seat for over 20 years, i think....

it has found different places to reside in each of the last three houses we have lived in.

it currently resides in my bedroom and is a holding spot for my clothes when i shed them at night.

it has always been white.  i have changed the cover of the cushion on it quite a few times but i think it has had the same white paint job i bought it with.  a few years ago i tried to highlight it a bit with 

some stain.  but i was a dork then and never even took the cushion off before i hit it with the stain brush.

why would i, the cushion was going to cover that part anyway, right?

lazy girl!!! 

the stain just made it look dirty. and there was quite a bit of paint chippage going on 

and it was just overall worn looking.

it was time for some sprucing up.

enter...my favorite spray paint.

i was at home depot a couple of weeks ago and this paint was marked down. 

and i loved the name...

lagoon...

i thought that the color was perfect to add a splash of color to my bedroom.  

and how cute would my discarded clothes look as they were thrown haphazardly onto it every night?

so i took it into the yard and sprayed the heck out of it.....

it took two cans and a small amount out of a third can to cover it front, back and underside...

i love it!!!

it covered up all of the dings and chips and tricked out the tired wicker.

and it was completely done in about 3 hours including 3 light coats and drying time.

it had to stay in the garage for a couple of more days because of the paint odor which wasn't awful, 

but i didn't want to be exposed to it while i was sleeping.

it is now back in it's niche in the bedroom.  i plan on making a new seat cover and pillows for it when i get a chance to get to the fabric store.
in the meantime, i wrapped the seat with my ofelia throw from ikea.

the two pillows borrowed from my bed are actually zippered covers i scored 

from target a while back on clearance for $2.00 each.

it is so pretty that i never got to see if my dirty clothes looked cute draped on it.   

now i throw my clothes right into the hamper at night.  

which is what i should have been doing anyway, right?

progress....

remember this dresser?

a craigslist find from a few months back.

it came with this mirror

 and, be still my heart, these handles....

why doesn't anyone reproduce these handles?  they are gorgeous, don't you think?

i would have bought the dresser just for this hardware.  

anyway...$40.00 for the dresser and mirror....

and those beautiful handles.....

since i am lightening up my kitchen, i thought this would be a great piece to replace the black console table that was in there before. 

so i brought it in so see if it fit in the space.  it fit perfectly

so i started painting it.

 rather than painting the whole thing the same color, i opted for a white top and colored bottom. 

i used the annie sloan chalk paint in old white for the top and 

duck egg mixed with the old white and louis blue for the base.

 the detail was much prettier painted than it was in the less than attractive white with gold overspray....

the detail on the drawers is pretty too.  

but then disaster struck....

i tipped the dresser forward to touch up the paint on one of the back legs and all of the drawers slid out and landed on the floor.  

this was the result..

 crap!!!!

 oh well, nothing that i couldn't fix with a little carpenters glue 

 and a clamp....

good as new!!  

i sanded to distress around the carved detail and the edges;

i didn't paint the hardware.  i love how it pops against the color and brings down the white top.

i know that the handles are on differently, i wasn't sure how i wanted them to go.  i will stick with the way they are on the left side.

i painted the market fresh sign onto a broken dresser drawer front

that i pulled out of someone's trash.  its the one in the back that says "pants".

i painted it and stenciled the letters on.  i love the way it looks.

this dressser helps also, to lighten up the kitchen a little more. and it adds 6 drawers of storage.

and who doesn't need more storage in the kitchen, right?

what do you think?

oh, and i got this rug at ikea for $19.99.  i got it mostly to cover up the paint marks on the floor under the table. 

 when don painted the base of the table for me, (he was bored when i was out one day) he didn't use a drop cloth....(yes, that is the drop cloth right next to the table) but we are replacing the flooring anyway.

i will be painting the mirror that goes with it too and replacing the black one there.  i am just trying to decide if i want to paint it old white like the top of the dresser or duck egg like the base.  any suggestions?

i am also linking up to robyn's blog for the mountain of giveaway for annie sloan chalk paint.  i could sure use some more and if i don't have to pay for it, that would rock!!!