My boys’ shared bedroom makeover is D-O-N-E.  Stick a fork in me.  Until I get the final pics together for a big reveal, I’m going to keep you on the edge of your seat with a few (poorly photographed) clues. 

Hmmmmm?…  That last one’s a doozy.

I’m hard at work on the guest room closet that I’m turning into a craft closet.  And I mean hard at work.  As in staying up until 1:00 a.m. on Thursday night to paint it without any interruptions. 

I like the subtle pink.  So does Handy Hubby.  (Real men like pink.)  I’ve made a buh-zillion trips from the basement up to the second floor (where our guest room is) in order to relocate all of my crafting supplies.  Who needs a gym membership?!  Just organize your closets instead!  I promise a full reveal is on its way, but until then here are a few teaser shots.

I know it’s not much to look at now, but it’s really coming along…

At the beginning of the week, I introduced you to the secondhand dresser my dad so kindly gave me. 

As promised, I’m back to share some pics of my progress.  However, (and I apologize) due to an overzealous almost-2-year-old (thus an exhausted Mama) I’m not quite as far along on the dresser’s makeover as I’d like to be.  Still, I’m a woman of my word.  So, here’s a sneak peek…

Okay, not really a huge surprise…I painted it white.  And those are Hobby Lobby knobs (say that 3 times fast) to replace the old hardware as soon as the second coat of polyurethane dries.

And as for where this new addition to our furniture family will go, let’s just say it is a ‘welcomed’ piece.  Yep, that’s a hint.  Here’s hoping it’s a productive weekend!

Aaahhhh.  It’s finally Friday, and I’m sharing pictures of the finished laundry room!  Here was the boring builder utility room just a few short weeks ago…

It wasn’t awful but it was blah.  After some painting, re-organizing and accessorizing, this room has a little personality.  Check it out.

I’ll take you on a tour of my small but happy laundry room.  Let’s start at the door and work our way around in a clockwise fashion.  Just inside to the left is where my Etsy-fied ironing board found its new home.

I nearly fainted over this handmade cover.  Sorry, Handy Hubby, I still probably won’t take up ironing.

I hung the Goodwill mirrors that I spray-painted to the left of the washer in an asymetrical arrangement.  In my book, mirrors are a must-have for every room…even a laundry room.  I must say I never realized how ‘domestic’ I look while doing laundry – until now.  Ugh.

Look down and there’s the IKEA stool that I stained and polyurethaned.  (If it had been a snake, it woulda bit ya!)

Not only does the stain look great, but that stool has purpose!  Keeping the washer door open to prevent mold growth and giving me a lift to reach overhead storage.  (The rugs in the laundry room are also from IKEA but since I had them before the makeover, they aren’t getting much airtime here.)

On to the space above the washer and dryer…

I made and hung two curtains from a tension rod to hide all the water hoses and electrical cords.  For interest, I added geometric borders and a stenciled ‘knot’ onto each.  (More on stenciling the fabric next week!)  Yup, that was my big surprise for ya – the handpainted knot.  Or had you already figured that out?  Originally, I hung the curtains with just the contrasting borders but quickly realized that was too much bland, brown linen.  These geometric knots were the perfect inexpensive solution!  They are the focal point in the room.

Doesn’t the new hardware give the cabinets a polished look?

To the right of the dryer is Layne’s artwork.  I like that it pulls from the yellow in the ironing board cover without exactly matching hue for hue.  And it makes me smile.

Discreetly hidden behind the door is my secret bra-drying hook rack.  No more lil’ boys running around the house with my wet bras on!  (Okay, it is funny.)

That brings us so quickly back to the door again. 

I’m lovin’ the way the wicker laundry baskets play off the baskets above the cabinets.  All rooms need some texture. 

And that, my friends, is how I tweak a laundry room…for about $125.  Enough eye-googling, there’s laundry to be washed!

If you’ve been following House*Tweaking, you may remember me alluding to a laundry room makeover.

Well, I’m happy to report that Mission Laundry Room Makeover is complete!  I’ll be detailing all the steps here this week with the final reveal on Friday.  So, without further adieu let’s talk paint.

According to plan, I painted the walls Glidden’s (Home Depot) Gentle Tide.  This proved to be a tad more difficult than I thought it would be.  You see, ideally, when you’re painting a room it’s best to clear it out as much as possible.  That way you have less things to paint around.  However, my laundry room was already ‘fully assembled’ with a washer, dryer and overhead cabinets.  The cabinets weren’t coming down because that would be, well, ridiculous.  And the washer and dryer were so difficult to install (not to mention heavy) that there was no way those babies were budging.  In the end, I had to paint around the washer, dryer and cabinets.  It’s a good thing I’m flexible!  First, I protected the appliances with a plastic dropcloth and taped off the baseboards with painter’s tape.  Then I cut in around the door frame, ceiling, baseboards and cabinets using a trim brush.  I used a long, skinny paint roller in the tight spots.

This long, skinny roller made it a cinch to paint on either side of the washer/dryer and behind them too.  Of course, I wasn’t able to paint all the way down the back wall but no one will ever know!  (Well, except for those of you reading this.)  It also came in handy alongside the cabinets.  So many tiny slivers of wall in this room!  Who knew?!  (I kept quoting my fave movie of all time O Brother, Where Art Thou?  “Damn, we’re in a tight spot!”)  By the time I had everything trimmed out, there really wasn’t much bare wall space left.  I knocked it out with a regular roller in no time.  Here’s the laundry room with it’s fresh coat of paint:

Doesn’t it look watery?  Again, I love using Gentle Tide in small spaces to make them feel airy.  It seems as if the walls just float away.  And what better color for a laundry room than the color of water? 

Once the room was painted, I started thinking about storage and function.  Stay tuned to see what happened next…