Laundry Room Progress

We have been so busy this week working on our little laundry area.  I can't wait for all of this painting to be finished - One, because this is the last part of our house interior that needs painting!  Two, having your laundry room inoperable for a week is not fun and all of that stuff has to go somewhere - it's driving me crazy.  Three, I can't wait to see it all come together.

So here are some quick pics of our laundry room before:

Obviously, we have done absolutely nothing in this space since moving in.  We didn't even take down that old yucky curtain. Oh look, the old rug from our half bath somehow made a new home here.  I think that this was it's last hoorah.  That rug will never see the light of day again, it's ok you can be sad.

Yikes, do you remember this tower of terror?  This little area is getting a major clean out and reorganization - right now all of this stuff is in our bedroom, hence the reason it's driving me crazy.  

Oh look, we got everything cleaned out and ready for a fresh start.

And the priming is completed - hands down one of my least favorite tasks ever.

So this time I ended up using a different primer.  Previously, when painting the paneling in our bedroom I used an oil based heavy duty primer.  Then, when painting our paneling in the closet I used a water based primer - both seemed to work just as well as the other.  The big issue though was the smell.   The smell was so atrocious when we painted our closet that we had to sleep out in the living room for several nights.  We didn't want a repeat of that insanity so I found this option - KILZ Clean Start Extremely Low Odor Primer.  It's water based, but honestly I will say it worked really great and the smell was considerably less than the others we have used.  It took two coats to get good coverage on the paneling - but so did the oil based primer - so to me this is the best option.  The drying time to apply a second coat was just an hour and by the time it was all dry you could hardly smell anything.  If I ever have to paint paneling ever again, I will no doubt choose this primer.

Looking a lot better right?

It's crazy the difference a little primer and paint can make.  We have finally gotten the paint completed as of last night and today I will be working on sealing the floor.  More updates tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by!

Our Painted Closet

Throughout last week I was able to get our closet completely painted from top to bottom (I don't know how that even happened).  When you start a project like this there is something about it that causes a chain reaction for other projects along the way.  If one closet gets cleaned out then all of the others need to be as well.  So last week we felt like our house was turned upside down, as we started cleaning, clearing and organizing but we are starting to slowly get things and back in order.  Let me share with you are closet progress to far...

Here is where we started:

Everything was cleared out to be purged, organized and simplified.

Priming was the first step - I ended up applying two coats of primer (this is just the first coat).  I followed the same steps for painting paneling as we did in our bedroom. 

Then two coats of white for the trim and shelves - I just used off the shelf Olympic white (like the rest of our house).  Then I applied two coats of Olympic silver lake - I found this paint in the Oops section at the Home Improvement store, it was $2.50!  I wanted a gray and just happened to really like this color - so always check there first, you never know what kind of deal you will find.

Next, our floor - I painted it the same way we did our bathroom floor, but essentially all I did was apply two coats of primer, two coats of paint - this was not any special kind of paint - once again I found this paint on the oops shelf (this one was a whopping $5), this paint started as Olympic Steeple Gray but the lovely people there tinted it darker for me since I was wanting a more slate color.  After the paint fully dried I applied three thin coats of Safecoat glossy floor sealer.  The key to this is to use a brush and to apply thin, even coats to assure you don't get any bubbles or streaks in your finish.  You could definitely add more coats of sealer for an even stronger finish.  I just used the minimum number of coats recommended since this is in a closet.

I have to say I have been pretty pleased with the way our bathroom floor has held up over the last several months.  The Safecoat sealer is the key to painting a floor like this.  I just love how the original floor pattern comes through the paint, it adds so much character.

So here is where we stand, all painted and pretty, ready to be filled.

Thanks for stopping by today!  We have a fun giveaway coming at you this Wednesday so make sure you check back to enter.  Have a wonderful week!

I'm a little late to the game but I have joined up with some other great bloggers with the Imagine the  Impossibilities Challenge this month with our little Closet Revamp/Purging/Organization Project.  Take some time to check out Thistlewood Farm (one of the awesome hosts) - check out some great projects and link up with yours too!!!