I've been thinking of re-vamping our laundry room for a while now, but needed to save up the money to execute it. I had budgeted $150 for everything: paint, supplies, decor, shower curtain, valance, light fixture, blinds, towels...the good stuff. I managed to go $18 over budget.
Gasp! Before you all roll your eyes and get disgusted with me (wink), I'll break it down for you. But first, PICTURES!!!
THE BEFORE
I didn't bother cleaning it up to take before pix. Why? Because this is real life here. This is what a laundry room looks like when it's being lived in. I especially like the bathroom floor mats (from out other bathroom) on top of the shower curtain - they were drying. Hey! I had to hang them somewhere!!! As you can see, it's a really deep hunter green color - which I adore. But, fact is, there's only one small window in this room causing it to be REALLY dark in there, even with three lights on. Not to mention the darker paint color didn't hide water splashes on the walls. Not that we go in there, wash our hands and shake them all over the place...but we do have two littles that actually DO do that. It's a long and narrow room that has purpose but I wanted to make it even more functional. So, I did. The shelving above the washer and dryer is essential for toilet paper, paper towels, ironing stuff (I had NEVER used this before I started sewing...my Mom gave it to me when I moved into our house 10 years ago...and I just started sewing over the past 8 months), detergents and such.
After removing everything from the walls, we patched up the holes, and taped. My god I hate taping. I mean it. Actually, I loathe anything and everything painting - except the end product. I'm very fortunate that I have an awesome Aunt (thanks again AT!) that is always us for some painting and gabbing. Here's my favorite part:
THE AFTER
After two coats of Sherwin Williams, March Wind it's transformed to a whole different room. Even after just the first coat, it was brighter and very inviting...to do laundry. I replaced the mirror with a mirror we had received as a gift years ago. It was actually a bronze and black mirror, so I took some white spray paint (actually my BFF BA did it for me) to it and it looks like a brand new mirror. While I wanted a new light fixture, it wasn't in the budget (and clearly I had no idea how expensive they were), so Hubby just flipped it over to make the lighting a little less harsh and it's just the ticket!!!
Two homemade shadow boxes replaced the four framed pix above the toilet. They hold our tp and facial tissue. Plus a little pretty blue bird (thank you TS!) and my inspiration for the entire room is wrapped up in that little yellow bowl. I originally wanted to accent with all yellow, but decided I didn't want that much of it. So I did a mix of navy blue, kind of a mute mustard yellow, and the gray. I got that little bowl at....Target for $3.99.
Sigh. This is one of my favorite parts. The shower curtain and window valance were actually made from fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby for 40% off. Yay! And...I made them!!! I was so stinking proud of these! I learned how to do button holes and they're so easy! Thanks to my Hubby, I can do just about anything on that sewing machine. The man is a jack of all trades...seriously, I'm a lucky woman.
If you remember, there were two almost full length shelves above the washer and dryer. Originally, I wanted to make barn board shelving. Well, after discussing my ideas with Hubs, he gave me a completely, FREE option. Re-using the shelves, but altering them to how I wanted them to function. My main idea was that I wanted to be able to hang items for drying without it partially laying on the dryer. Well, he just switched the shelves and then down sized the bottom shelf to give me space to do just that! The man is smart.
And yet another one of my favorite things! We now moved all the coats (we still have a coat closet at the front of the house, but the coats we will wear regularly will be put here), and backpacks into the laundry room. Instead of buying hook racks, we made them. We made 3 of them; two for coats/backpacks and the other is by the sink for towels. There are two Container Store baskets under the hooks. One holds my purse, so I can drop it in there right when I get home. The other is for Hub-a-licious' work clothes. Before both work clothes and my purse were just thrown on the floor somewhere in the house, now, they have a place to go so they don't get in the way and also don't ruin my make over eye candy. We put the hats/mittens shoe organizer on the inside of the door instead of the outside - it helped make the back door area much less cramped!
Aaaaah! I'm in love. I adore it. Here's how the finances broke down:
$90 Paint - originally I had only budgeted for 1 gallon of paint, but I was wrong. So, $45 of my budget went to an additional gallon of paint, causing me to cut down on my plans.
$25 Fabric - this was for the shower curtain and the valance. WAY cheaper than purchasing them already made...and it was so FUN!
$53 Miscellaneous - this was for the wood to make the shadow boxes and hook racks, yellow paint to accent the inside of shadow boxes, hooks, cute bowl, two hand towels.
I left out the blinds and a new light fixture - which is just fine by me. I can always do those later down the road, but for now, it's perfect!
There you have it. I know there's one question that's just KILLING you to know...where in the world did she get the extra $18 when she went over budget!?!?! Well, I stole it. I pick pocketed a man at Menards - when a lady gets desperate, she'll do anything! Of course, I'm kidding. Do you remember that accordion file that I use to save money for random things I want to do?
If you haven't - that's too bad. Shame on you. Well, in the very back of this accordion file, I had been saving fives. If a $5 bill comes into my hands, I do NOT spend it. I tuck it away in the back of this file. Well, since I've never established what I would do with those fives, I used 4 of them to pick up my budget over spend. Speaking of spending...
NO SPEND SEPTEMBER is still in full swing!!! You will be proud to know that I haven't spent a penny. Well, I've spent money on groceries, BUT I'm happy to report that due to my pantry style cooking, we managed to save $50 on groceries since September 1st. My hope is to save at least $125 when the month is over, but if cheese goes on sale for $1 again, it's game over. The ONLY unplanned item I did purchase was a fall/spring jacket for Sweet Pickle. Where we live, there's been some serious whiplash in the weather, so a jacket was a need, not a want. I didn't feel bad about this purchase because: #1. The way we budget, we have a built in account to purchase clothing for the kids. #2. I went to a couple consignment stores looking for a deal only to come up short. #3. Sweet Pickle's warmth meant more to me than not spending a penny.
Tuesday I will break down one of the DIY's we accomplished with the make over, and the play-by-play on my 2015 planner. I will tell you, it is in my possession...and it's oh-so amazing!!!
Have a marvelous week! Until Tuesday my Sweatpants friends!!!
*Side Note: THE sweatpants that were the inspiration for the name of my blog, passed away last week. I mourned the loss while tossing them into the garbage can. I can only hope they knew just how happy they made me. Much like the sweatpants I'm wearing right now.*
**I'm not reading through this bad boy today. Gots laundry to fold!**
No comments:
Post a Comment