Laundry Room Progress

After figuring out the final configuration for our cabinets, it was time to hang them!.  We used these GRK Cabinet screws and they worked out well for us.

We started on the far right with the pantry cabinet.  We wanted the cabinet to sit just a bit off the wall so that the trim from the window wouldn't get in the way of the doors opening.  

We used a few 2x4's to make sure the cabinet was evenly spaced away from the wall.  We screwed through the cabinet wall and the 2x4 right into the studs on the far wall.

Eventually, we'll frame out the gap between the pantry and the wall with a little trim.

Next, we used the long board that previously held up the small shelf to make sure the next cabinets were all level.  We screwed it into a few of the studs, using a level to make sure it was perfectly flat.

Then we just held the cabinet in place on the board and screwed it into the studs.  For most cabinets that meant two screws up high and two screws down low, all inside the cabinet.

For the next few cabinets, we clamped the frames together to make sure there wouldn't be any cracks.  We also used finishing nails on the inside of those frames to secure them together as well. (You can see the cabinet screws on the back of these cabinets.  Unfortunately, the studs didn't quite line up to allow four screws on each cabinet, so we reinforced where we could.)

Wham, bam, & done, the cabinets were up.  (Although a few had unpainted sides because of the reconfiguring we had to do earlier... bummer.) We reattached the doors using the hinges that I previously painted silver.  

Then we took a extended, lazy blogger picture break.  So basically, the next post will be the final reveal (mostly)...  Since the pictures on this post were taken, we have finished the cabinets, painted the walls, installed a utility sink, built and installed open shelving, and finished the countertop that will cover the washer/dryer set.  Phew!  Can't wait to share... if I can force myself to get on top of things and take some pictures!

Laundry Room Demolition and REplanning

"Demolition" makes it all sound pretty serious...  For our laundry room, it was actually pretty simple.  To prep for cabinet installation, we had to rip out some of the floor moulding as well as a laundry shelf.


First we pried up the quarter round with a crow bar.  It wasn't caulked in or anything, so it came off easily.

Then we used our oscillating tool  to cut the caulking away from the baseboards.  This tool is awesome, but it's super loud.  Will definitely woke up multiple times while we were using it... whoops.  (But also, extra snuggle time with the baby Sir... can't complain about that!)

After the caulk was gone it was easy to pry the baseboards like we did the quarter round.

Then we cleaned up that darn, tiny laundry shelf and got to work on it.

We used the oscillating tool in the same way that we did on the floor, removing all the caulk.  Then we pried that sucker off the wall.  Hoorah.

We were left with this board that acted like a bracket for the shelf.  Same deal.  Oscillator, pried, done.

We got a little hasty with the last board and ended up with some torn drywall.  Nothing a little spackle and paint won't fix down the line.  Then we set to work on stacking the washer & dryer.  I was pretty stoked about this part.  Stacking the units meant that we'd have a lot more storage space.  Remember, our plan looked something like this:

The stacking was simple.  We bought a kit meant for our specific units online for less than $10, and they came with simple instructions.  It looked great...

Until we got some of the cabinets in as well...  And all of a sudden, you were in the chokey... (Not familiar with the chokey?  Shame on you...)  The laundry room felt way too shallow with the units stacked plus the cabinet on top.  The cabinet was almost touching the light fixture as well.  Not so cozy.

So I gave up my dream of stacked units.  Boo.  This is my disappointed face.

Because I was really looking forward to being able to stick my whole head in the dryer to smell the clean clothes while standing.  Such is life.

So we reworked the whole room.  We'll leave the pantry cabinet in the same place, have three cabinets on the top (all different widths because that's what came with the set), with a section on the far left for open shelving, and then a sink cabinet below with a custom pull-out cabinet on the far left side (to fill the extra 12 inches that were leftover on the bottom).

We also played around with the idea of tearing up the linoleum and laying down a tile floor.  After 2-3 weeks of indecision and no forward progress in the room, we gave up on tile and moved forward with what we originally planned.  

Next up: Cabinet Installation

Laundry Cabinet Progress #2

We wanted to paint as quickly as possible with as few marks on the cabinet doors as possible.  So we built some homemade painter's triangles out of 2x4's and some spare screws.

Chop em' in pieces, add some screws.

Easy cheesy.  (And Grant taught me how to use the miter saw to make them.  Raw power.)

Then we set up all of the cabinet doors.  They are pretty close together here, but we ended up laying down more drop cloths and spreading them over the entire garage floor.  We also didn't have enough homemade 2x4 screw stands so we got lazy and put a few shelves on old paint cans... They turned out pretty awful... but we're going to install them so that side doesn't show.

The screw stands make minimal contact with the shelf/cabinet door being painted, so you can paint one side, flip right away, paint the other, and it will still look awesome.

We made sure to paint the cabinet back first so that incase there were marks from the screws, they would be inside the cabinets where nobody would see them.

Three stands for a sturdy base.

We spray painted all of the old hinges to save some money.  I was meticulous about marking which hinge went where... pointless.  I painted right over them.  But I felt very fancy and on-the-ball while marking them.

Here's Grant sanding down between primer and top coat.  We were fairly lazy and only did one coat of each.  We were also pretty lax on the sanding.  The cabinets turned out just fine for our laundry room, but when we paint the kitchen cabinets we will be much more thorough.  

Again, the overdone labeling.  Again, pointless...

We used Rust-oleum in a chrome finish to match the hinges to the hardware we bought at Ikea.

It is scratching off a bit where the hinge opens and closes.  Kind of a bummer.  But still cheaper than buying new ones.  If it bugs us enough in the future, we can always buy new hinges.  It's fine for now.

And then we let those suckers dry.  We added Floetrol to the paint, which thins out the paint and makes it dry slower in order to reduce brush marks.  Because of the Floetrol, the cabinets took a little longer to completely dry and harden, probably 48 hrs.  Then it was on to laundry room demolition! (Way more fun than painting...)

Laundry Cabinet Progress

We're about halfway through the cabinet painting process.  We cleaned up all the cabinets, removed the doors, drawers, and hardware, and filled all the holes with wood filler.  We covered one side of the garage with cheap, plastic drop cloths, and got to work.

Oh, and of we also invested in this sweet, Darth Vader-esque respirator mask.  We're using an oil-based primer, and although it will adhere to the cabinets better, it's super estinky (Nacho Libre, anyone?  We've replaced stinky with estinky at our house, as well as replacing sleeping with esleeping.)

Our new paint sprayer works great, especially for the insides of the cabinets.  I can't imagine how long it would take to paint all of those corners and tight spaces with a brush and roller.

It's not powerful enough or big enough to be worth using on walls, but it is perfect for this project.

The end finish was a little speckle-y, but I easily knocked it down with a fine-grit sandpaper.

We still have a little priming left to do and then we're on to the top coat.  We decided on Benjamin Moore's Cloud Cover, the color that Young House Love used on their kitchen cabinets.  (I'm sort of a Young House Love groupie... go Burger!)

I also purchased the knobs and pulls for the finished cabinets at Ikea.  See here and here.

Now onto paint colors for the walls- any suggestions?

Laundry Room Planning

We have a great sized laundry room, but it has zero storage.  We've brought in a plastic shelving unit to help out, but the Willister can reach the bottom two shelves, which significantly limits the type of items we can put there... (we're talking unopened tissue boxes, toilet paper, and shoes... that's it).

We've been dreaming and pinning (look here for our laundry pins so far...) and although the mental picture of our finished room is by no means finished, we started in on the plans anyway.

I measured the the height and width of the room and drew up various layout ideas.

There is already plumbing for a utility sink on the far left of the room so we're planning for that.  The hook-ups for the washer & dryer are just right of center in the room, so we're sticking with the easiest plan and putting them as close to the hook-ups as possible.

We've decided to stack the washer & dryer to allow for maximum storage space.  We rarely fold clothes in the actual laundry room, so counter space wasn't too big of a deal to us.  We've also decided to add a pantry-like cabinet to store the vacuum, broom, mop, etc.

After all the rough sketches, I drew up a scaled version of the whole room.  (Feeling pretty proud of myself at this point...)  The right side will be the pantry, then the washer-dryer with a cabinet above, and two sets of cabinets on the side, with the far left cabinet holding the utility sink.  The skinny bar on the left was where we originally planned a rod to hang clothes, but we decided against it.  We tend to hang our clothes upstairs anyway, and we decided we'd rather have extra cabinet storage in that spot.

Then I priced out the cabinets at a few stores.  Any home improvement store will provide pricing and planning guides for cabinetry- easy cheesy.  

Pricing estimates for the five cabinet sets pictured above:

Home Depot: $609 (for basic, unfinished cabinets; toe kick, crown moulding not included)

Ikea: $1037 (for finished STAT cabinets; legs, toe kicks, crown moulding not including)

Those were the prices even before we nixed the hanger bar and decided to add another cabinet. Not terrible, but not what we were hoping to spend.  

We toyed with the idea of building the cabinets from scratch... but decided it wasn't worth the time and stress.  So we headed to one of our very favorite stores in hope of a steal: Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

The ReStore is basically a thrift store for home improvement that benefits the Habitat for Humanity organization.  They stock sinks, light fixtures, furniture, doors, trim, tiles, paint, hardware, and of course, cabinets!  They have rows and rows of cabinets, some individual, but many that are whole sets of old cabinets taken from kitchens and laundry rooms under renovation.  We scoured the lot of cabinets looking for a set that we could make work in our space.  We found the perfect set; it even had a pantry cabinet.   We had to rearrange a few of the measurements so that it would all fit correctly, and we ended up purchasing an individual unit to round out the set, but we made it work. 

And most importantly, the price tag was awesome.  We got all of the cabinets for just over $250.  Score score score....  We piled them into the trailer, (and the trunk... and the back seat...) and took them home.  

Right now we're in the process of paint prep.  Some of the cabinets were pretty greasy, but with some goof-off and a bit of elbow grease, we've cleaned them up.  We'll be replacing the drawer and cabinet pulls, but keeping and painting the hinges to save money.

I'm so excited to see how it will all turn out.  There are still a lot of decisions to be made: paint colors for the walls, hardware for the cabinets and drawers, and how to organize all the new storage that we'll have!  Hoo-hoo-hooray!

Any brilliant ideas we should include in our design?!