Category: DIY

DIY Laundry Room Refresh

Our laundry room has been kind of horrible since we moved in 14 years ago. I know, I know. How did we get by for FOURTEEN years without me doing something about it… especially when I’ve redone the nearby bathroom like 3-4 times? I don’t know, I guess I tried to just ignore it.

Which is kind of hard when I have a straight view into the washer and dryer from my favorite spot in the den. And I let the dogs out into the backyard with that door to the left multiple times a day. And I enter from the right door every time I come in from my garage. Anywhoo, I finally decided to just go for it and within a week, our laundry room had a glow up!

Here’s the before:

So yeah, it’s kind of a ‘hard working’ room.

The ugly brown walls were leftover from the last people who owned the house (I KNOW). When we moved in, I added the curtain and pictures from my ‘home decorating stash’ and they were okay, I guess. We also added the ‘stockroom’ portion which is what we call that food shelf and it is invaluable when we do our Costco/Sam’s Club shopping for extras.

My goal for the refresh was: lighter and brighter. I wanted it to feel clean and crisp and have better organization. I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money to do it and planned on doing every single thing 100% myself.

The plan: repaint the walls to something lighter, add tile to the back wall, and mount some shelves to give a natural spot to end the tile and start the upper wall paint. Also, clean out some unneeded stuff and add better organization options.

Here’s what I purchased for the project:

Total: $265

Things I already owned: 1 gallon of Behr “Greige” paint (leftover from when I did our living room and upstairs bathroom/walk-in closet), ceiling paint, white trim paint, white silicone caulk, command hook, wall mounted laundry drying rack, and assorted stuff for shelf décor.

First up, was cleanout time. I removed everything from the laundry room, dragged the washer and dryer away from the walls, and took down everything from the walls. I scrubbed the crap out of the gross laundry room sink too, which frankly has needed to be done for a while. Then, I spackled all the holes in the walls and let them dry for about a day before sanding the bejezzus out of them to get them nice and smooth.

Next, I grabbed some ceiling paint I had sitting around and painted the tops of all the walls. The person who painted previously was messy, so there was some brown on the edges and the ceiling – so in repainting with a new color, I wanted to make sure I’d have nice, crisp edges with no ugly brown lurking around.

Then, it was time to start the tile… which is quite fun and gives some immediate gratification of what it will look like when it’s done. I used a level and tape measure to make sure that everything was going to be perfectly straight and then I started peeling and sticking that tile on from wall to wall. I absolutely loved the tiles I picked and they were relatively easy to work with. For piecing the puzzle together, I would eyeball the sizing and then take a pair of hardy scissors and cut the thick plastic tiles to the correct size, making adjustments as needed. The edges (where the tile met the wall) didn’t need to be perfect since I was planning to caulk.

It took 2 coats of paint for nice coverage of the previous color. Once I was done painting the walls, I grabbed some trim paint and re-painted all the trim so it looked nice and fresh/white/clean again. Then, I caulked each side of the tile to give it a professional look.

Then it was the easy bits of hanging/re-hanging everything – up went the shelves, laundry drying rack, vacuum charger and pictures. Oh and if you’re wondering why I had to take down the laundry rack and vacuum charger, fill the holes and then re-mount them both… they had to move over a few inches to accommodate the new shelf.

Here’s the after:

If you’d prefer to see a compilation video, you can see it here:

I’m so happy with how it turned out! It just feels so much more bright and clean, and it is a much prettier view from my spot on the den couch. Of course, I’m kicking myself for not doing this year’s ago, but I’m quite satisfied with my less than a week of work (in my spare time, I have a day-job) and less than $300!

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Exercising My Free Will: Personalizing My Clothes

Since shopping secondhand is my preferred way to shop, many times I’ll find something that’s close, but not exactly what I was looking for. Or maybe the fit and fabric are fabulous, but the color looks terrible on me. Through thrifting, I’ve learned to look at an item for what it can be, rather than what it currently is.

So, let’s take a look at two items I’ve recently personalized:

My Tiered Skirt Glow Up

I bought this skirt off Poshmark recently because I loved the color, the shape and the swish factor. However, each of the three tiers was lined with accent beads. And to my eye, the beads just made the skirt look dated and cheap. I bought the skirt anyways, because I have free will… and a pair of scissors.

And I cut off Every. Single. Bead.

And yes, it felt like it took forever. But now it’s perfect and I love it so much!

Cardigan Color Switcharoo

This is going to be shocking… but I actually bought this cardigan RETAIL at a Loft Outlet on the way home from Ocean City last summer. I really liked the 100% cotton, chunky stitches and cute cropped length. I tried to convince myself that I would grow to love the color or that it was exactly what my closet was missing. But it just didn’t work for me. The light brown felt like boring sweater oatmeal and it just didn’t look good with my coloring or play well with other items in my closet.

So, I grabbed a bottle of Rit dark green dye, spent about 40 minutes swishing the cardigan around, and BOOM it’s exactly what I was hoping for. A beautiful shade of green that I will actually wear:

The moral of the story? You don’t have to accept something exactly as it’s sold. If a piece is almost perfect, it’s okay to make it yours. Remove the beads. Chop the sleeves. Change the color. You bought it and you get to decide what works for you!

Sewing Projects: Clothing I’ve Recently Chopped, Tailored & Changed

One of the benefits of having a wardrobe that is mostly secondhand is that it’s easier to justify cutting it up. If I had paid full price for a dress, I’d think a lot more before hacking into the hem. However, if I thrifted it… bring on the scissors!

Here are a few items of clothing that have recently hit my ‘Sewing Projects’ pile.

Caftan —-> Shirt

Back in 2020, I purchased this gorgeous caftan off of etsy from a company that hand tie dyes clothing in Bali. As much as I loved it as a Mrs. Roper muumuu when swanning through the house during the pandemic, it wasn’t getting much use over the years. And I LOVED the fabric, neckline and tie dye, so that was a shame.

One day I decided to chop it into a top – within 10 minutes, I had grabbed the scissors, chopped it down, and ironed on a hem. And just like that, the caftan went from being unworn shoved in the back of my swimsuit drawer, to being one of my most frequently worn tops of the summer!

Linen Dress —-> Shirt

I thrifted this linen dress for $7, even though I HATED the color and the shapelessness of the fit. I did love the linen fabric and the neckline though, so I dyed it a rich green, chopped off the length, sewed up the pockets and hemmed the bottom with iron on hem tape.

I absolutely love this as a top now and it looks nice with pretty much everything in my closet.

Oversized Green Floral Shirt —-> More Fitted Cropped Shirt

I thrifted this fern top in Tuscan and it was quite oversized on me (I think it was maybe 2 sizes larger than my normal). It looked fine tucked into skirts, but the armholes were large enough you could glimpse my bra and the body of the shirt was wider than I like for pairing with shorts.

I kept going back and forth on whether to re-donate it, when I decided to give it a last chance makeover. I took the sides of the shirt in by a couple inches, which also closed the armholes a bit. I also cut off some of the length and sewed it a new hem. Now it fits so much better and it’s kind of cropped perfection with a pair of denim shorts!

Embroidered shirt —-> Pillow

I loved the embroidery on this shirt, but I just could not make it work on my body. However, inspiration hit when I was staring at it because the fluffy side pleats looked kind of like pillow ruffles. I cut it apart, sewed on a new back from my fabric stash, stuffed it… and boom, look at this beautiful little pillow!