Project Santa: Laundry room reveal + a GIVEAWAY!
Categories: DIY - Tags: contest, giveaway, glass mosaik tile, HomeRight PaintStick EZ-Twist roller, IKEA Billy bookshelves, laundry room, paint, PARA Blog Crew, PARA Paints, porcelain tile, Project Santa, revealThe laundry room is complete. It nearly killed us, but after two weeks, an unthinkable number of late nights, an ice storm, a power outage, a stomach bug, and the final push of nearly 46 hours straight, we were able to pull it off just in time for Christmas.
The plan was to capture the whole reveal on video HGTV style to be able to share the look on my parents’ faces. But as it turned out, the reveal happened at 6am on Christmas morning, my mom was still in her nightgown, Kes had already passed out from sheer exhaustion & I hadn’t slept for 2 days. Needless to say we weren’t exactly camera ready. It was a lot of work. No doubt about that. But to be able to give my parents a beautiful, functional laundry room and to see how happy they are with their new space, made it all worth it. We’re pretty excited to be able to finally reveal it with the world – and here it is…
Before & After
The Details
If you remember where we started we had some pretty specific issues to solve. We started with the dryer. Knowing that we wanted to put in a counter top to solve the lack of a work surface, the existing dryer with it’s top controls just wouldn’t do. So we took to kijiji and were able to find a suitable dryer at a great price! From there we hit up our local Home Depot and found an awesome all in one, utility sink, cabinet & faucet.
To solve the issue of storage, we used floating shelves to create open storage along the back wall. We had originally purchased the shelves for our first home but never ended up using them. For further shoe & miscellaneous storage, we were able to score perfect condition IKEA Billy Bookcases on kijiji as well at less than half the price of buying them new. To give the Billys a bit of a twist we customized them, by attaching the 2 shelves together and then wrapping them in pine boards which we then white washed using PARA White Collar (P5248-14). Because we were working with a narrow space, we decided to mount the Billys up off the floor to keep the space from feeling closed in. We then added couple of drying racks for added hanging storage.
We painted the whole space in PARA On the Tarmac (P5202-34) to give it a cool, calming feeling and I absolutely love how this colour turned out. We were gifted some awesome paint supplies from HomeRight which made easy work of it. The QuickPainter Pad Edge Painter & PaintStick EZ-Twist Roller were awesome to work with. Not only did they eliminate the need for a roller pan, but it probably cut our paint time down to about about a quarter of what it would have taken using a traditional roller! The only drawback to the PaintStick is that it’s a stick. Which for us made working in the narrow entry for the laundry room a bit of a challenge. Working in a larger room though, would have been no problem.
For the entry we used horizontal stripes to create a feature wall. We then mounted white washed pine boards along one of the stripes to provide added structure for storage hooks, as well as to tie in the white washed Billy on the other side.
The 12×24 porcelain tiles were a key find at the ReStore. The colour ties in beautifully & at $1.25/sq ft, they can’t be beat! The glass mosaik tile used for the top border we picked up on sale at Lowes. I love how the mosaik picks up the greys in the big tile & also pulls in the blues from the wall. This project was my first attempt at tiling and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I think there will definitely be some more tiling in my future.
We had a lot of fun getting this project completed. We challenged ourselves. We learned a lot and we got a ton of practice for the many DIY projects we have ahead of us at the Dreamhouse. But now it’s time for you to get in on the action….
The GIVEAWAY
With the New Year just hours away, we know many of you have got your DIY project lists ready to go. So along with our friends at PARA Paints & HomeRight, we thought we’d help get you started. What’s up for grabs? A gallon of PARA Paint (tinted in the PARA colour of your choice), a HomeRight PaintStick EZ-Twist Roller and a HomeRight QuickPainter Pad Edge Painter to help make the painting process easier. Wondering how you enter? Use the clever little widget below to enter in several different ways. The more stuff you do, the more entries you get. You can leave a comment telling us about your upcoming DIY project for a couple of entries, or you can like The Dreamhouse Project on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for a few more entries. Or you can like & follow our awesome sponsors for even more entries. Simple enough right? Well…what are you waiting for???
Great job guys! A HUGE improvement – love the strips and the colours you chose. Wanna do my laundry room next?!
Thanks Keish! We’ll put your laundry room on the list…we can tackle it once our house is done. Lol!
Love it!! Great job guys- I can just imagine your moms reaction! I also have some tiling that needs doing!
Thanks Ang! Yea Mom’s reaction was pretty epic. She called it “state of the art” lol! We can help with some tiling….but I think the nursery takes precedence.
Wow it looks soooo good!!!!! I cant wait to see what you do in your own home when it is done!
Thanks Casey!! It’s pretty satisfying to have our first DIY under our belts. Looking forward to getting into projects at our house.
I have a bathroom that needs a new coat of paint!
And that renovation is FABULOUS, Tash! I love it! I’d be so proud to have that laundry room – you guys did a fabulous job!
Thanks so much Tara! It was a lot of work, but a big pay off.
Thank you. Mom and I love the laundry room.
You’re very welcome Dad.
What a fantastic before and after! Our laundry space is similar in size and I’m loving what you’ve done with yours – such great inspiration! I see a laundry room project in my very near future!!
Thanks Jo-Anna! Glad to be able to provide some inspiration. Good luck with your laundry project!
I love my state of the art laundry room. Both you and Kes worked night and day to renovate it. It was a wonderful surprise. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome Mom! You deserve it. We’re really happy you guys liked the finished product. Makes all the hard work worth it. xo
Wow
oops! pressed enter too soon. I meant to say: wow! you did an amazing job! how did you keep it a surprise?
Lol! Thanks! Keeping the secret was tough. We did most of the construction & assembling of everything in the basement behind a draped off area that my parents were under strict instructions to keep out of. They saw the paint because we didn’t want to limit their use of the room for too long. During the last 4 days leading up to Christmas though they weren’t allowed to enter the laundry room at all.
Sorry forgot to say my project is the basement! Loved your write up you have inspired me to crack on with my project.I love the classics range especially the Cream Soda.
Please delete my post above don’t want to be entered twice it would not be fair many thanks
Thanks Jane! Glad I could inspire. Best of luck with your basement reno!
I’m working on my bedroom. I’d like to use Nature’s Bounty paint colour.
Nature’s Bounty is a great choice for a bedroom Jennifer! Very soft & warm.
So many great ideas. I would love to work on my bathrooms. I like the Vanilla Whip colour.
Thanks Brandee! Paint is always a great way to give the bathroom a facelift. Good luck!
Well done, guys!! I just can’t shake my stripe love after all these years – love it!
Thanks so much Emma!!
Would like to paint the office. Buried in Sand looks nice for my space
Buried in Sand is a very class choice for an office space Charles. Thanks for entering. Good luck!
We plan on renovating the kitchen next but we’re still up in the air about colours.
A kitchen reno is a big task! Very exciting. You should check out PARA’s Design Favourites collection – it’s a good starting point when you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices.
We would be interested in repainting my husband’s office. PF31 Strawberry Blossom would be my choice.
Strawberry Blossom is a lovely choice from the 2013 forecast palette! A nice fresh & warm choice for an office! Good luck!
We want to renovate our bathroom , I love the wild phlox
thanks
Wild Phlox would be a really nice choice for a bathroom. So many great colours in PARA’s Heritage collection!
Thank you for giving the PaintStick EZ-Twist and the Quick Painter a try on this project. For small spaces like this we should have gifted you the PaintStick Mini. Thanks again.
Laura Clark
HomeRight
Thanks so much Laura for the chance to review such great products! The PaintStick Mini would probably have been useful for the narrow entry way, but the full size worked wonderfully everywhere else in the room. We’ll get lots of use out of it on future projects as well so we’re very happy with it. Thanks again!
My project is the entry to our home. I’d love an organized coat/shoe area!
Thanks for stopping by Suzy. An organized entry is one on the projects we’ll be tackling over at the Dreamhouse as well. It’s definitely an area that makes a huge difference. Good luck!
Great work guys! Is that an Ikea countertop you used?
Thanks Kristen! Yup! You’ve got a good eye. We used the NUMERÄR
double-sided, white/aluminum effect with metal effect edge.
my new craft room
Oooh! A craft room sounds like an awesome project. I hope to incorporate a craft space into our office at the Dreamhouse.
My project is to finish my attic. Acai berry is a great colour.
I would like to paint the master bedroom. I like PF46 Ginger Dust.
Ginger Dust is another great choice from the 2013 forecast palette. Will make for a nice bright master! Good luck!
WOW….what a transformation!!
Thanks so much!
I am inspired to start some make overs in my own house. A Paintstick would go a long way in helping me finishing the projects.
Glad we can inspire Natalie! The PaintStick is great. Makes painting go so much faster & way less messy! Good luck!
It looks fabulous! Great job!
Thanks Lindsey!
Great job guys!! And in the midst of the storm too — major kudos! I hope the power stayed on while you were working. Thanks for the tip on the Paintstick…as you know, I’ve got some major para painting projects this year too and with 10 foot ceilings in my living room, that stick will be a fantastic time-saver. Happy New Year!
Thanks Meredith!! Happy New Year to you as well! Looking forward to seeing the fun you get up to with paint this year. The power outage only posed a minor inconvenience as we only lost power for about 6 hours. The stomach bug that hit me shortly after the power came back on however was not so nice! Lol. I can laugh about it now..
Good luck!
And yes, the paint stick is fantastic! Such a time saver.
BEAUTIFUL job, you guys!!!! So excited to see all of the other amazing projects you complete this year and beyond!
Thanks so much Thalita!! We’re pretty proud of how everything turned out considering it was our first real DIY & many of the tools we hadn’t used since elementary school! LOL! Looking forward to getting our hands dirty some more this year as well.
LOVE your mom’s new laundry room! (Came from Ikea Hacks: all the way over in Denmark) and what a brilliant present! And was this seriously your first DIY? Which is heartening for us lesser mortals! My laundry room is a challenge I can tell you, but I live in hope! Cool blog too btw
Wow – welcome from Denmark! Thanks so much!! It WAS our first DIY – first time tiling, first attempt at minor plumbing, first time installing a countertop, and it’s been SEVERAL YEARS (I won’t say how many, lol) since I used any major power tools. Like we’re talking before high school. Definitely proud of all we accomplished in such a short time, and feeling a lot more confident for the projects we have lined up for ourselves at our house now. Thanks again for the kudos, and hope you’ll keep following along!