Laundry Room Revamp

Here are a couple of "before" shots of our laundry room. It was actually pretty cool. We have some shelves in there, with some hanging space for clean clothes that need to be hung up. We have a sink and a cabinet, and have to share the space with our water softener and water meter.

The main issue was laundry baskets. As I mentioned briefly in my last post, YouTuber Jordan Page has some cool ideas, including a great system on laundry. But after implementing her system, it felt like our floor space was very much taken up with laundry baskets, and we wanted something more organized.

I made this out of a sheet of plywood (dimensions specific to our space) and some 1x2's, made to fit these laundry baskets. I had to cut out the backsplash first to make room for this, and then basically just set it on top of the counter and caulked the gaps on the bottom (I also had to cut a hole in the top for the ceiling vent). But it's just a basic box - doesn't even have a back - I just used glue and my nail gun (with 2-inch finishing nails) to make it.

See how it basically just sits on the counter, caulked all the way around

The vent in just barely visible in this shot

Something else we needed was some additional shelving. Though we had two full walls of shelves, it still seemed like we were just stacking things everywhere. So I lowered the shelf over the main wall (it was too high anyway), and added one above it for more storage (which also gave us space for more pantry storage - especially for big items).

From the other side

Last, but not least, we thought it would be good to have extra space to fold clothes in there, so I built a folding table to attach to the wall. I made it out of one of the extra doors that came from when we replaced all our doors. It was trickier than making it with solid wood, because I had to add reinforcements at the edges so I didn't have big hollow spaces. I also used extra door hinges I had lying around from that project, and the rest of the scrap 2x3 from my ladder project for the support pieces underneath.

Table up, with dirty laundry baskets underneath

Here are a couple pictures of the supports. It's basically a cross piece that is screwed to the wall, (and which holds the top piece the folding part is hinged to) and some folding brackets attached to the support piece (also with hinges).

 Brackets folded in

Unfolded to support table top

Here's what it looks like folded down - it doesn't take up much floor space at all.

Table folded down, with laundry baskets in front

I almost forgot - I bought an HVLP (high volume low pressure) paint gun a while back from Harbor Freight, because I wanted to see how it would work. It was inexpensive, so I said what the heck? Unfortunately, it needed an air compressor with more power than mine had, so the gun sat dormant for more than a year. Until this project! I recently fixed up an air compressor given to me by a friend (upfitted the supply line with copper tubing instead of rubber, which kept slipping off). I used it on this folding table, and have also used it on a couple more projects since then, and love it. It works wonderfully, and I'm excited to keep honing my ability to use it on more stuff.

Here's a panorama, so you can see the whole space in one shot.

Command Center

We've been looking for a place to focus for chores, calendaring, etc., so I made a command center board to hang on the wall. The clipboard stuff comes from a YouTuber named Jordan Page, who has some cool organization and frugal living tips (check out her laundry, clipboards, and block scheduling videos). 

This is something I've done a million times - make a frame. The tricky part was after I'd cut all the wood and dry fit it together, I had to make the rabbet. A rabbet is a cut out along the edge of a piece of wood, which gives it an L shape. It is often used for insetting glass in picture frames. In this case, I added a piece of hardboard to it for a back (glued in place). To create the rabbet, I used my makeshift router table, with a fence I made from some scrap wood and a straight edge, clamped to my router table.

Here is a view of the command center in all its glory:

It has the calendar, a metal plate for magnets / important papers (recently used for holding movie and theater tickets), the clipboards (summer kid chores), and I attached some pieces of PVC pipe with tape on the bottom to hold "chore sticks" (extra chores they get to choose, instead of being assigned). They have to do two chore sticks a day in addition to their regular chores. Definitely watch Jordan's video for more info on all this stuff. Here are some close-ups of the charts and chore sticks. The "Kid Zones" rotate each week (we have to help Aurora with her zone).

And lastly, here is a view of the command center on our wall. This is near the kitchen, in view as you come in from the garage or front door.

Blanket Ladder

This project was super basic, and I actually didn't get any in-progress pictures. Sorry about that. But here is the finished product. Basically, it's a ladder made out of 2x3 wood and painted with spray paint and spray lacquer. We got the idea from some friends who had something similar in their living room that we liked.

If you're interested in making one, here are the dimensions: each side piece is 6 feet long, and the cross pieces are 17" each. To put it together, the top of the first rung is about 3" from the top, then they are 15" from the top of each rung to the top of the next rung. To center the rungs in between the cross pieces, I used a 1/2" scrap of plywood underneath each rung and then  clamped them as they were screwed in place.

Closet Doors

The last golden oak in our house was on the pass-by closet doors in the three upstairs bedrooms. In an effort to match our new doors, rather than buy new doors, I decided to make the existing ones into shaker-style paneled doors, with the help of some hardboard. Here is what they looked like before:

I took some quarter-inch hardboard and cut it down into strips about 3-4 inches in width (can't remember exactly - I mostly eyeballed what looked good, and did that same thing for all of the strips). I then glued and clamped them to the existing doors.

By the way, if you do something like this, I recommend adding some support at the bottom if your door (with the bottom support) has been cut down (mine was hollow at the bottom with just veneers showing). This makes it easier to clamp down your panels. Also, I recommend using quarter-inch plywood instead of hardboard. Hardboard doesn't work as well when painting, it doesn't sand well, and it just kind of squishes at the end if it gets hit. I won't use it for anything like this again.

After I got the panels glued and filled and sanded, I painted with my favorite: General Finishes Milk Paint, Dark Chocolate color. After that dried, I added a polyurethane topcoat, and added the door pulls (went with a nickel inset handle - the old ones were shiny brass).

I then of course ran into some issues with finding a door glide that would accommodate the increased width of the door, so I couldn't be choosy. But I finally found one on Amazon. Here is the finished result. 

New Entryway Bench & Hanging Storage

We bought a hall tree about 3 years ago for $50. It was an old, handmade one, and had character. Some mismatched boards in the back, a little rough around the edges, etc. But it looked pretty good, and it suited our needs. We could throw all our shoes in and close the lid, and use it to hang up some coats and backpacks. It even mostly matched our existing woodwork.

Our old hall tree

But as we've made changes to the house, I felt it was time for something new, and decided to make a new bench. I looked around online for plans, and finally found a video tutorial with a bench I felt matched what we were looking for. I had to modify some of the dimensions to fit our space, but I mostly followed what he laid out.

This is made mostly of plywood, with slots routed on the sides and in the middle for the dividers

Here's the bench with trim attached

I painted the entire lower part of the bench white

I stained the top of the bench with a walnut color - I love the grain patterns of this wood

Completed bench, sans drawers

We found some fabric drawers at Walmart to hold shoes

But we also wanted something to hang up some bags and store winter gear / school stuff like folders and lunchboxes. So after looking at a lot of designs online and not finding what I wanted, I decided to design something new myself. I learned how to use the online version of a 3D modeling program called Sketchup, and created this.

I made several iterations of this design before deciding on one

Finalized Design 

Finalized design (other angle)

Then I got into the actual build. For the majority of the unit I used plywood, adding edge-banding for the exposed edges, and painted it white. For both the top and front, I used some solid pine with cool grain patterns, stained that same walnut color as the bench (with a polyurethane top coat).

Once everything was cut and sanded, I glued and clamped everything in place, then brad-nailed it together. For the bottom piece that hangs down, I used pocket-hole screws at the back.

 

Because I painted and stained/finished the pieces separately, I wasn't sure how I should attach the stained pieces to the rest of the unit (wood glue doesn't work great on finished surfaces, and I needed it to hold up to children). I finally decided to use my stepped drill bit I use for pocket holes to get slightly bigger holes than needed, attach the faces with screws, then fill the holes with a dowel and restain/refinish.

 

Here I have the holes drilled and screws holding the piece in place. I put some wood glue in the hole and pounded in a dowel (with a rubber mallet).

 

  
Once I had the dowel firmly in place, I (carefully) used my flush cut pull saw to cut off the excess. I also used a chisel to get the last little bit, and sanded down flush with the surface. Later, I came back and re-stained the area, then gave the whole thing a couple coats of polyurethane. I think it all came out looking pretty good.

The finished product hanging on the wall

Both bench and cubby together

Kitchen Countertops and Backsplash

You guys - we have a new kitchen. Seriously, look at the before and after pictures of our kitchen, and the changes are drastic. I thought when I redid the cabinets, that was drastic. But now that we've redone the countertops and backsplash...wow, it looks completely different.

When we moved in, and for the past 3 years, we've had a laminate countertop and backsplash. Here is a look at the kitchen post-cabinet rennovation - pretty good, right?

But I wanted a countertop that better matched our updated cabinets. We have about 50 square feet of countertop, though. We also live in a duplex, which means that whatever we do to our home isn't necessarily going to translate well to home value. So anything we spend on our home has to be weighed with that in mind - ultimately we do things that will add to our personal enjoyment but don't cost an arm and a leg. Which means that the expense of adding real stone countertops was going to be outside our willingness to pay.

As I looked into alternatives, I found this company: Leggari. They do custom epoxy countertop kits (and floor kits). But this isn't your grandma's epoxy (did grandma use epoxy?). They say it was designed to be used in aircraft hangers, so it's some sturdy stuff. They send you a kit of everything you need to do the counters. I didn't get many in-process pictures, because you need to go quickly when working with this stuff, but there are number of videos on their site if you're interested in how we did it. I'll give you a basic rundown here:

1. Tape and plastic off EVERYTHING. You don't want this stuff on your floors or cabinets.

2. Prime the countertops with a two-part primer (rolled on with a nap roller) and let it dry to tacky (about 1 1/2 hours).
3. Mix and pour out a two-part epoxy base on all of the countertops.
4. Use a paint roller like a squeegee, and spread the epoxy over the entire countertop, trying to get it approximately even (it self-levels), going over the sides so it flows evenly when it drips.

5. Once the epoxy base color is on, you mix and pour your accent colors on the wet base one at a time (we used two colors), trying to mimic stone patterns.
6. With everything still wet, you take your roller and roll back and forth, up and down, blurring the harsh lines you created with the accent colors (when we did this, we started too soon at first, because our base coat layer was thicker than expected, so we waited a little while to start).
7. Let the epoxy dry, taking a paint stick to the bottom edges every so often to stop drips from forming on the underside of the counters.
8. The next day, mix, pour, and roll the top coat in a similar fashion to the base coat.
9. Let everything fully cure and harden for about 7 days before you put things back on the counter.


We ran into a snag after everything had dried. I screwed up, and waited too long to scrape drips, accidentally creating a lip at the bottom when I did it once (see picture below). I should have waited and just sanded the drips off the bottom.

Notice the "bump" at the bottom

I ended up sanding that out flat (by hand!), and my artist wife went back and re-painted the sides where I had done that. Made it nice and flat and pretty again. I had a little extra topcoat in the containers, and mixed/rolled that on over the sides. This is what it looked like when everything was dry and we took the plastic and tape off.

We also took the opportunity to replace the kitchen faucet with one that has a pull-down sprayer and has a motion-activated feature.

New faucet pre-backsplash

After we finished the countertops, we moved on to the backsplash. We played around with a couple ideas, including doing subway tile (P.S. tile is expensive!). We finally decided on a nice, relatively inexpensive mosaic tile with an unsanded white cement grout. I bought a tile cutter, a trowel, a float, and a sponge, and over the course of two Saturdays, we first put up the tile, then grouted everything as well.

Putting up tile

Backsplash completed without grout

For the island backsplash, I ended up having to improvise, and cut a lot of tiles lengthwise, because I ran out of the skinny tile rows.

Backsplash on the island

Here are the progress shots of grouting, with my beautiful co-grouter.

First section grouted

Beautiful co-grouter

Ultimately, this kitchen is completely different from when we first started, and I love it.

Before and After