Bathroom Laundry Room Makeover

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It’s officially week 3 of our Bathroom Laundry Room Makeover, and it’s safe to say that my husband and I approach renovations like a game of Free Association. You know that game you played as a kid “I’ll say a word, you tell me the first word you think of… then you say the first word you think of…” and on and on and on.

Yep, that’s how this makeover has gone! I’ll do a project, you tell me the next project you think we have to do, then I’ll say what we have to do next and on and on and on. It’s a bit like falling down the rabbit hole.

I started 3 weeks ago, with a very realistic idea of what I could accomplish in One Month with only a $100 Budget. You know, the entire premise behind this challenge that Erin from Lemons, Lavender and Laundry started.

But things have been spiraling a bit. If you remember my intentions from Week 1, we only planned on switching out the vanity, adding shelves throughout the room and artwork.

As of today, we have shiplap on the bottom halves of the walls and I’ve started painting. The shiplap led to changing out the baseboards which led to changing some of the moulding around the window. So far, all the baseboards and mouldings are leftover from our mudroom renovation, so it’s free… but it’s time.

The walls were just too bad. I think I mentioned during Week 2 that it might come down to this. I’m not sure what the previous owners were doing but all of the walls look like this:

It’s mostly on the bottom half. I think maybe they had wallpaper on the bottom half of the walls and when they tried to remove it, the drywall got too wet and they really dinged it up. Just a hunch, but it is EVERYWHERE!! These pictures don’t even really do it justice.

So the shiplap we added covers probably 90% of it. I’m already in the process of painting it white. Then I made the mistake of thinking I’d just leave the top color as is. But I was out-voted 3 to 1 on that, and, honestly, I agree with them. It’s not my favorite color either. I was just being lazy. So that painting will hopefully happen today or tomorrow.

I’ll share more details of the shiplap later, but this whole room only cost $26 for the materials! We had a $25 gift certificate to Lowe’s, so our out-of-pocket was only $1!

In the meantime, my shelf arrived for beside the dryer! This is how we’ve been living since we moved in almost a year ago:

I found this shelf on Zulily that retailed for $50 and was only $13! I wish it was a little wider, but it’s worlds better than what we had! The best part is that I had credit to Zulily, so it was free for me! I’ve apparently been sitting on this credit for quite awhile, because it still had our old address. Which meant I waited for this box to arrive for a couple weeks before realizing it was delivered to our old house! Ugh! A friend was able to pick it up and bring it to my new house for me, but I swear nothing is ever straightforward around here!

Before I installed this, though, I was out in the garage cutting new shelves for the sad little linen closet.

I got all my shelves cut and brought them upstairs to start adding contact paper to them. This was about the time my friend showed up with my delivery. So I took all the boxes out of the laundry closet only to find 4 linen closet shelves tucked back behind the dryer!!

And now I have 4 extra shelves! 🙁  I’m telling ya’ folks, never easy…

We did also manage to get the shelf built for the top of the vanity. If you remember, after we installed the new vanity, the mirror looked awkward and left a gap on the wall.

We built the cubby out of scrap wood we had in the garage, so it was completely free for us. Lots of sanding involved… but it was free.

I still have to add the crown and then paint it, but I love what it looks like so far. Then my husband will cut out for the outlet and mount it to the wall.

Soooo, we’re getting there! One week left to get the room completely painted and put back together!

Costs so far:

Vanity: $75

I sold our old vanity for $15 profit to add back to our budget!

Laundry Shelf

Linen Closet shelf: Free using scrap wood

Vanity Shelf: Free using scrap wood

Shiplap: $1 (used $25 Lowe’s gift card)

Baseboards & Window trim: Free leftover from our renovation

Contact Paper for Shelves: Free using points on my KMart account

Total Spent So Far: $61