Hiding the Water Heater

We love the character our home has. Its old, its not perfect but we kind of like it that way.  However, there are some things that we really just don't like.  For example, the giant black box covering the old wood stove exit pipe in our kitchen or the fact that our water heater just sits in plain view in our laundry room.  I guess if we had a real laundry room, with a door, it wouldn't be such a big deal but our house is not set up that way. Our "laundry room"  is a part of a shared space that is very much part of our house.  Here's some photos to show you what I'm talking about...

Ok, so here is our laundry room on the day we moved in.  This was probably one of the most ugly spots in our house.  This is also the direct view from our bedroom.  

This room sat untouched for a while as we worked on other things.  But you can see the doors in the photo.  The left photo is our bathroom and the right is our closet.  This is also an exit for our backyard - so we get lots of traffic through here.

So we started painting to brighten things up - we love the cheery yellow.  But the eyesore in the corner drove me crazy.  It also became the storage spot for things like our broom and steam mop...we don't have any sort of pantry or closet for those things.  I also have a little basket for trash back here - when I pull out the gum wrappers from pockets and also the lint from the dryer.  

So I found a simple solution for now - peg boards.  I actually already had these up in the attic.  So I pulled them down, gave them a little paint job, added a few brackets and I was done!

Bye, bye ugly water heater.

Something so small as hiding the water heater has made me love this space so much more.  One day I would love to get a stackable washer and dryer and then re-work this laundry space.  For now though, our washer and dryer work and we have bigger projects to think about so its staying this way.

I love how much brighter this space is becoming...

Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend!  I have more organizing going on and more projects to share this week!  

Laundry Room Paint Progress

The painting is completed and I will just say - there is a whole lot of cheer going on.  If this room was dark and dingy before - it's anything but now. Two coats of primer, two coats of white trim paint, two coats of wall paint, two coats of floor paint and two coats of flooring sealer = one bright and fresh space and one tired painter.

Before

Progress

(Just ignore all of the painting supply clutter - and my crooked pictures.)

I'll be honest, when I first started painting the yellow I freaked out a little.  It was so different and so much brighter than before that it scared me a little.  I actually had to stop painting for a while - What really went down was that I went back twice, painted a little, walked away, came back, freaked out and then I decided to wait for Justin to get home for a second opinion.  He actually loved it, which gave me more confidence in the color choice and once the room was painted fully I loved it too.  It's funny how much my opinion changed after it was totally completed - such a difference.

So here is a floor walkthrough - we started with old linoleum and decided to paint it (mainly because of the asbestos issue - it would be really costly to remove it) and we really like the result.  It is a temporary fix for us.  Eventually we will do something more permanent but we are still weighing our options.

We used the same steps as we did when we painted the floor in the bathroom and in the closet: we primed the floor first (two coats) - I just used the same primer that I used for the paneling.  Then painted two coats of paint - just regular old paint, nothing special.  I actually found this paint on the oops shelf at our local hardware store for a whopping $5.

Then we finished it off with a floor sealer - same sealer we used for the bathroom project.

This sealer really is awesome.  It's eco-friendly has a very low odor and dries pretty fast.  It leaves a nice glossy and durable finish that is pretty resistant to scuffs and scratches.  If you are thinking about painting a floor like this, you have to get a good sealer - it's the only way to do it.

We are loving our happy new space.  To me, this is the perfect room for a bright yellow like this - I don't know if I would like our bedroom or living room painted this color but I love it in here.  I think it puts a little cheer into doing all that laundry.  More things to come in here this week!

  

So just wondering...what color is your laundry space???

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!