{one room challenge} Lighten the Load: Laundry Room Week 3 Update

Week 3 of the One Room Challenge – the half way point. Does that mean I am supposed to be half way done with my laundry and linen closet makeover? I sure hope not! 

But this week I do have some real progress to show off – and it’s all about lightening up the space! If you’d like to start from the beginning – you can see the design plans and rendering for the space here, and the Week 2 update here.

Let’s start with the obvious – the LIGHT! I’ve had my eye on the black metal hexagon pendant light from World Market since I spotted it months ago. I had an electrician come out a few weeks back to confirm that we could install the light where I wanted it and I scheduled him to do the installation. Then I went to buy the light…

Only, I couldn’t buy the light because it’s been discontinued and was sold out all over Denver. OH NO! Sure, I could have started shopping for a new light, but I. REALLY. WANTED. THAT ONE! {said with a pout and a foot stomp}! A few phone calls later and the crisis was averted. I found the only remaining floor model in Colorado at a store in Boulder {an hour away}. That’s not what I had planned for that Sunday afternoon, but fortunately I have a husband who is a good sport and didn’t mind Tivo’ing the Broncos game in order to take a little road trip with me!

When I got to the store in Boulder, they tried to convince me that they weren’t allowed to sell the floor model. Why not, it’s discontinued?! Finally they took it down for me, and it even happened to be “Friends and Family Day” so I saved an additional 25% {in addition to the floor model discount} – so under $70 for the perfect light fixture was totally worth the drive!

Once I had the light fixture in hand, it was a very long four days waiting for the electrician to come and install it. I was so eager to hang the wallpaper, but I didn’t dare start in case he had to cut any holes in the drywall to run the wiring. So I waited…impatiently…but I waited.

I waited so long that my three year old moved in! He’s been watching Toy Story 3, where Andy goes to college…so he packed up his toys, his pillow and a blanket and informed me that the vacated linen closet was now his “dorm room.” Heaven help me when he really does move away to college some day!

But it was worth the wait…look at that beauty!

And it’s not as much to look at, but I’m equally excited by the addition of a light on the linen closet side of the space. It makes such a difference!

With the new lights installed, and no need for drywall repair {which made both the budget and the timeline very happy}, I could finally move on to the walls. I tested a small sample of the white wallpaper and confirmed that I could put it directly over the red walls without the red showing through – more good news!

Not so good news…it was really dirty behind the washer and dryer! Ewww! And that lint isn’t just sitting on the wall. It was literally baked on, and took a lot of scrubbing to remove! 

Even though I didn’t need to prime and paint the entire room, that didn’t mean I was totally off the hook with painting. So I put on my favorite painting shirt {an old dress shirt from my dad} and broke out the white paint {a color my paint shirt hasn’t seen a lot of}.

I decided it didn’t make any sense to put wallpaper around the lights above the closet doors, since you can’t see up there unless you are fully inside the closet…and to be fully inside the closet you’d have to be standing on top of the washer and dryer {which I was for this photo}. No need to waste the pricey wallpaper for a spot no one would ever see! But I worried that if I left the wall up there red, it would cast a red reflection on the white wallpaper in the rest of the room, resulting in a pink hue…and pink is definitely not what I’m going for! So white paint for the win.

There is also an electrical box in the linen closet side of the space, so it got a fresh coat of white paint as well.

Before I put the white paint away, it occurred to me that it might also be a good idea to paint white right around the ceiling and baseboards to prevent any red from peeking through if I didn’t manage to get the wallpaper aligned just perfectly. I know it sounds a little crazy, and I could have just painted the whole room, but I’ll save that job for the next laundry room makeover in another decade.

With the priming and painting accomplished, it was finally time start putting the removable wallpaper on the walls. I was so excited  {and I’ll admit, a little nervous}. I measured and cut the first few pieces.

Then I used some delicate surface painter’s tape to tape the first piece of wallpaper up to make sure I had everything right. 

Only then did it occur to me that it might be hard to get the paper to match up perfectly in the corners of the closet due to the hand troweled texture of our walls. I envisioned a thin red stripe in the corners – and that would be no bueno! So down came the wallpaper and out came the paint, again. 

After waiting impatiently for the paint to dry, I was ready to start again. I finally managed to get the first three pieces of wallpaper up on the wall… just enough to give you a glimpse of how it’s going to look!

You’ll notice that I didn’t take the wallpaper all the way down to the floor behind the washer and dryer. Just like above the doors, this is part of my effort to save money. When I calculated the square footage for the wallpaper, it was just enough to require a third roll. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that by skimping in these unseen areas, I’ll be able to only use two rolls and return the third!

Clearly I have a lot more wallpapering to do this weekend, but I’m so excited to finally get a glimpse of what our new, lightened up laundry/linen closet is going to look like!

Let’s check in and see how we’re doing on the TO DO list, and remind you what’s next…

Let’s get social!