All Things Dixiefied: Laundry Room Reno: Part 1

Hey friends! How are you today?

I’ve been promising for a while now that I was going to show you my laundry room renovation I started oh back after Christmas…

Somehow it’s already the middle of March and I haven’t shared anything with you…so sorry. And, I know you’ve just completely lost sleep over the fact that I haven’t shared it with you at all…well, no fear you will be able to sleep tonight because I’m going to share with you part 1 of 3 of the transformation of my laundry room.

I guess I should start by telling you that our laundry room is kind of my family’s “front door/foyer” if you will. We park in the garage which leads through the laundry room and into the kitchen.

At first I painted it the same red that was the color of my kitchen in hopes that it would feel like one room.

{This is the look from the kitchen.}

{This is what you see when you enter the house from the laundry room.}

It was O.K….just OK. I’ve loved the red in the kitchen but it got pretty old in the laundry room…fast.

I’ve always wanted a mud room to keep things organized, and I just love the way mud rooms look. Once Pinterest was born I was completely inspired to transform my ordinary, plain laundry room into a fancy mud room.

So, I began sketching…in my head. I am no artist, nor will pretend to be, so I sketch in my head.

The sketches {in my head} begin with the cabinets. Now, I know what you’re probably thinking… “What’s wrong with the cabinets? Nothing’s wrong with them.” And, your probably right, but I will confess that since we moved here 5 years ago I have H.A.T.E.D. these cabinets…the color mainly. The cabinets themselves are fine…not great but fine. They’re not laminate so that’s a step up, but they are a plywood…bleck. Mostly it’s the color. I hate them and have been wanting to paint them.

We/I began the transformation….I had to get my husband’s help some with cutting some wood for trim and installing the board and batten, but that will come later. Today we prepare and start cabinet transformation.

First things first…everything came off the walls and cabinet doors were removed and numbered.

Don’t you always love seeing how people keep their cabinets? I use to pride myself on being so organized…eh-hum, not anymore.

I wanted to install a trim that was even with the bottom of the cabinets so we could install some board and batten. Eric helped me with that…Thanks, Babe.

It was now time to start cabinet transformation…

I invested in the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformation {for light colors} from Home Depot {you can find it at Lowe’s too}.

I love white cabinets, so that’s the color I was going for…white!

The directions seemed pretty easy and I loved the fact that there was no stripping or sanding. The box came with pretty much everything you need…the deglosser, paint, glaze {optional}, and top coat. It also came with the scrubbing pads and cloths for the glaze.

I got started right away and de-glossed the cabinet fronts and doors.

Then I started painting. I realized very quickly that I was going to have to improvise a little here. With the type of cabinets that I have, using a regular bristled brush only made the paint streaky looking. I switched to a el-cheapo black foam brush and that worked much better.

I will say I do like the product…a lot. But, here’s the thing. I think it would’ve worked a lot better if my cabinets were real wood such as oak. You see, my cabinets do not have actual wood grain for the paint to get down into and really take hold. It did take hold on my plywood cabinets but it took 6 coats of paint to look solid and not streaky. The instructions said it would take 2…so, if you use the product just know you might have to make it work with more coats.

Also, with the type of “wood” my cabinets are I could not use the glaze for the aged look because once again they do not have wood grain to adhere too…good thing I wasn’t wanting the aged look, huh.

After the 6 coats of paint dried, I applied the top coat.

All-in-all I do like the product, but just wish I had better cabinets on which to use it.