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Drywalling, Painting, Flooring–Oh my!

February 2, 2015

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Even when you don’t want to rip down a wall, you can make that space in your home better. Right now.

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If you’ve been MIA the last week, we forwarded on a laundry renovation we were given by Wayfair and Ace Hardware to our dear friends who desperately needed it. Chris’s back surgery went well last week– perfectly even–but he has a strict recovery program that doesn’t allow lifting more than 5 pounds let alone renovating our own laundry room–which is on deck for this year still. It was really a no brainer for us to tackle someone else’s space. And to be totally honest, although I designed the space, I barely lifted a finger over there last week. Preston is a musician (check out his music here!) and wasn’t touring last week so he and his wife, Corine, went into beast mode and started whipping this room into some serious shape.

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The first thing that had to happen was finishing up framing that back wall. Although it was painted, that particular wall was just cinderblock. Preston framed the whole thing out–putting a block of studs where we plan to have a drying rod hanging. Smart!

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And then they filled it all in with insulation…

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And drywalled it.

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By the next morning (I love watching the progression of day to night in the window in the room) he had it all taped and mudded and started on texturing the walls. I am going to save the texturing post for later this week, because the process is really cool and something I had never done before. A bottle of texturing cost quite a bit and to do a whole room you’d need multiple bottles–but Preston did this particular texturing in a really budget friendly way that turned out fantastic.

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While the room was already significantly warmer due to the new insulation and drywall, Preston and Corine opted to buy a new window themselves. They have been replacing all the windows in their home one by one and this was the perfect time to replace this little guy:

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It still needs trimmed out, but Corine wasted no time getting started on priming and painting those walls.

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Since this room is pretty dark, we decided on a nice, warm white (Benjamin Moore Simply White color matched to Valspar’s Aspire Paint and Primer in one from Ace Hardware in eggshell) to brighten things up. I have no idea what we’ll end up painting our own laundry room, but I really like the idea of white laundry rooms. It feels so fresh and clean–like laundry should be.

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Ta-da! As you can see, they have started laying the flooring, too. It’s this laminate flooring from Lumber Liquidators and it is so gorgeous in person. It’s something they plan on running throughout the downstairs and it is a close match to their upstairs floors, too. Pretty incredible for a week’s worth of work, right? Here’s a reminder of how things looked last Sunday:

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These guys are a dream team. Really. Preston is on tour this week so there might not be as much progress, but Corine and I have a few painting dates to tackle the trim and the closet door. Lots of the decor that we picked out from Wayfair has already started rolling in–so we’re confident we’re gonna wrap this room up in no time.

Special thanks to our sponsors Wayfair and Ace Hardware who so generously provided the means to renovate our laundry room and then allowed us to forward it onto someone else who needed it–they’re the best!

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What do you think?

  1. Pamela Betsill says:

    Love everything you guys do! Just a quick question, what mood board software/program do you like to use? In the midst of some classes and yours are always very clean and organized. So appreciate your time! Thank you

  2. Joseph says:

    I’m sure it will be very nice at the end. Give us the end result.

  3. jaclyn says:

    I know you mentioned you’d do a separate post on the textured walls but I am wondering if those are common in your area?
    Where I am in New England, in regards to resale value, textured walls are such a no-no. They look so dated to me since the only homes around here that have them are still decorated with a 70’s flare.

    • Julia says:

      You won’t find a home around here without at LEAST having orange peel walls–what we have in our house. A Santa Fe texture is super common. Where I grew up in Pittsburgh, there were no textured walls at all, except in our dining room the plaster created a swirl of sorts. To be honest, I prefer the look because it feels cleaner, but I haven’t seen an untextured wall since I moved here 10 years ago. Crazy!

      • Tiffany says:

        Very interesting. I’m in PA, outskirts of Philly and I haven’t seen many textured walls in my life. Although, the popcorn ceiling from the 90s were huge around these parts.

  4. Amanda says:

    Great progress! I’m looking forward to the end result :)

  5. I love LL for flooring, you can get a great deal sometimes!

  6. JoniB says:

    Not sure if anyone else is having this issue, but your text on the right of your paragraphs is being cut off and I can’t see the last couple of letters. Just an FYI.

  7. Meggan S. says:

    This is so great! We are also in the process of (unexpectedly) redoing our laundry room (lame fridge leaking!) so it’ll be fun to see what you guys do! I didn’t even think to check Wayfair until I saw these posts, I ended up getting our light, faucet and flooring from them, so thanks! :) Can’t wait to see how this turns out!

  8. I love a good old white laundry room. Great progress so far! Can’t wait to see the finished results :)

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