Our Home Renovation - Part Three - The Laundry Room

How much time do you spend doing laundry? Would it surprise you to know that the average family of four spends at least 8 hours a week doing laundry. That breaks down to 8 - 10 loads of laundry per week? Larger family equals more loads which equals more time spent doing laundry. Some people do laundry every day; others designate a laundry day to do the family washing.

Does renovating a laundry room add any value to your home? Well yes but the amount varies depending on what you do, the size of the laundry room, and where it is located. According to Fixr the national average cost is between $4,000 and $12,000, with most people spending around $7,000 for a 35 sq. ft. laundry room with mid- range cabinets, laminate countertops and front-loading appliances.

We considered our laundry room an extension of our kitchen so while renovating our kitchen, we decided to include the laundry room. Our 25 year old laundry room was original to the house and was in need of some tender loving care. Here’s what we did…

WHAT WE DID

When we upgraded our kitchen cabinets, we upgraded our laundry cabinets as well. Unfortunately I don’t have a good before picture. We decided we wanted to upgrade our washer and dryer and do something with the floor. So we looked on Pinterest for ideas. We decided to paint the floor. Using Rust-Oleum Home Floor Coating we were able to transform the look of the laundry room floor pretty easily. We decided to do a checkerboard pattern using white and gray. You will need - delicate surface tape, white base coat, gray paint, top coat, sponge roller and pan, a paint brush and a some artist’s paint brushes for touching up the grout. We purchase aged gray and decided it was a little bit to dark so we lightened it a bit by adding some of the white base coat to the gray. Finally you will need a top coat. We chose a matte clear coat but you can also choose semi gloss if you prefer a shinier look.

First thing we did was clear out the room. That included the washer and dryer so we scheduled delivery of the new appliances the following week which would give the paint plenty of time to cure.

Next we cleaned and cleaned the floor. We used both Krud Kutter and the cleaner that came in the Rust-Oleum kit. What a difference the cleaning made. Infact, we wondered why we hadn’t done a deep clean before!

After the floor was finished, we touched up the walls and baseboard.

You can get lots of great ideas for painting floors on Rust-Oleum’s website. There are also video’s you can watch. My biggest recommendation is to take your time. The paint needs time to cure especially if you will be bringing heavy appliances back in. Also, knee pads wouldn’t hurt! I used a towel but my knees were sore for days. I’m pleased to say that the floor has held up very well.

THE FINISHED LAUNDRY ROOM

**LAUNDRY 5 CENTS PER LOAD CANVAS WALL ART**

One of the biggest updates was to the sink area. We added a quartz countertop and a stainless steel sink along with new fixtures. We had already put the bamboo countertop on the other side to act as a folding area.