Laundry Room Makeover

Spring cleaning brings out the home improvement junkie in me.  I can't just CLEAN the room, I have to change it somehow.  It always feels cleaner that way.  My victim this last weekend was the laundry room...the armpit of my house.

The horrific BEFORE:

Of course I didn't clean it up before I took the picture.  I love me a good before and after picture and I guess I use the same tactic that they use for weight loss before/after pictures...ever notice how in the BEFORE pictures, the person is overweight, has no make-up, slouches, and is wearing old worn out clothes.  But in the AFTER pictures they look great (aside from the amazing weight loss).  Hair styled, makeup, cute clothes....That's how I like to take my home improvement BEFORE pics.  The messier it is, the more amazing the final results will be.  Plus, this is the reality of my laundry room.

The worse part of this room was the floor...

 Old, worn out, outdated, torn in several places, Linoleum.

I wasn't willing to do anything too drastic since I have BIG plans for this room someday (that will be almost as amazing as my kitchen renovation was).  So throwing money into this room right now would be pointless.  BUT, this floor needed something to happen to it.  Since it was already so bad, I figured I couldn't make it any worse.  So I went out on a limb...

...and I painted it.

(disclaimer:  I did find some great tutorials online for painting linoleum.  I kinda sorta followed some of them.  A floor paint is recommended for a project like that.  I ignored that one and just used some paint I had on hand.  I was going for a more "rustic" look and I'm not too concerned about it looking perfect or wearing well.  I'm also not sure I would do this as a long term solution.  Short term fix is what I was going for here so perfection was not top on my list of priorities)

First I scrubbed it down with some TSP

Then I primed it (and considered the primer a good enough base coat)

I decided I wanted a fun diamond pattern on the floor.  I could have taped it off (like most of the tutorials suggested) but I DETEST taping things off when painting.  I'm not a fan of tape...blue, green, chartreuse...I don't like any of it.  Instead I used a piece of tile and traced my pattern onto the floor (so professional, I know!)

And then I started painting...by hand.  I know I seem crazy now for not using the tape, but this is how I do all my painting.  Luckily I have a pretty steady hand.  I really do hate taping things off!

After painting, I went over it with 3 coats of polyurethane, just to seal it up a bit and protect is a little better.

Not too shabby!

And with a few other things like new wall paint, freshly painted trim work, a new door knob, spray painted hardware, and a new shelf, the room now looks like a very clean and fresh armpit of our house.

Unfortunately I have to fill all that space back up with coats, work clothes, and Greg's "stuff" (those shelves are his domain and he's anything but organized).  But for now it's all piled in the other room and I will admire my fresh and clean looking laundry room for a while longer!

I may have to leave the bottom shelf open though...