The laundry room was pretty far down the project list, but once I got the majority of the major rooms painted, I covered the eye-searing orange with a light, calming, greeny-blue. (Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams). We added some shoe storage cubbies, hooks for backpacks, and wire shelving for necessities like toilet paper, and light bulbs. It was functional, but it wasn't pretty.
After several months of living with it, I decided the wire shelves were the problem. Who wants to look at your bulk rolls of paper towels as soon as they walk in the door? The obvious solution was a charming hutch to hide all those unattractive necessities. I really wanted an antique Hoosier cabinet, but all the ones I found vastly exceeded the laundry room budget. I kept searching because I may be cheap, but I'm also tenacious.
I found this promising little gem on Facebook marketplace. At $40, I was willing to put aside my fears of being murdered Craigslist-style, so my husband and I drove the 40 miles to our old hometown to procure my treasure,
It was a super easy, murder-free transaction, and within two hours I had a big, cheap hutch in my laundry room. It wasn't cute, but I had plans. Unfortunately, I also had 10 other projects going, so it had to wait awhile. It sat in the laundry room for a couple of months, looking kind of blah, but hiding the toilet paper! Last week, after finally finishing the kitchen, it was time for Extreme Hutch Makeover!
The main problem with this piece is that it wasn't solid wood. It's MDF covered with laminate. But I wasn't worried because I've tackled this before. I had two options for paint. The first was chalk paint because it sticks to anything. But it's pricey, and I didn't want to spend as much on paint as I had for the hutch. So I went with option B- primer and paint. I already had a can of Kilz, and I knew I could get by with a $6 sample can of paint. I'd tried this method a couple of years ago with a Goodwill cabinet and it worked amazingly well and has held up nicely.
I decided to be thorough, and apply two coats of primer for maximum stickability. I followed that with two coats of paint in a color I had been dying to use in my house (Drizzle by Sherwin Williams). I had planned to paint the living room this color, but it was just too dark. And while it was too much for any of my rooms, it was perfect for a piece of furniture! Since I knew the hutch would get some dings with a laundry basket, and would regularly be heaped with tools, craft supplies and other flotsam and jetsom, I applied a coat of Minwax clear polycrylic for protection.
I wanted to cover the glass doors so lovely things like my crockpot and cake carriers weren't immediately visible. I had thought I'd use some fabric, but I couldn't find a print that I loved. Then I stumbled across this roll of cool wrapping paper at Marshalls.
It's great, heavy paper, and I have a thing for globes. (Ugh, I know, so trendy.) All it took was a piece of foam core poster board cut to the size of the glass. I wrapped the paper around it like a present and wedged the foam core into the inside frame of the door. I didn't even have to use anything to secure it because it squeezed in there just as snug as could be. And if I get tired of the paper, or want to change it seasonally, it will be a cinch to pop it out and fix it up.
I found these utterly delightful globe knobs at Hobby Lobby, and snatched them up despite the fact that they weren't on sale. I found some weathered turquoise pulls that I liked for the doors, but I managed to hold off on those until they are half off this week!
So the laundry room is finished-ish. I still want to replace the wire shelving above the washer and dryer with cabinets, but I'm waiting until I find some for next-to-nothing at Habitat Re-Store. In the meantime, I'm enjoying having closed storage and a room that is not clown orange!
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