laundry.craft room

My laundry room started out as nothing special.

 6' x 10' ... Enough room for a future washer and dryer, and random storage sitting on top of builder-standard linoleum.

 Don't forget the lovely MDF shelf. That's a standard feature, too.

 We started the sprucing up by painting it Behr Spa. Ahhh.

Brent installed the washer and dryer, we used the built-in shelf for detergent and other keep-out-of-reach cleaners ...

  and I stored some craft boxes on a tiered shelf and spare cabinet (picture taken pre-paint). Nice.

For a few months we just let the room sit. But we knew the room had way more potential, despite its small size. We tossed around the idea of cabinets and a countertop to utilize wall space and high ceilings. We priced out configurations through cabinet companies but weren't sold on their products or prices. Brent was a stud and researched cabinet options for me at local stores and online. After much consideration and planning, I chose my cabinets and he ordered them online -- saving us lots of cash!

 The cabinets shipped a few weeks later and Brent went straight to work. The uppers went up in a jiffy since they were delivered pre-assembled. Brent is pretty handy with a ledger board and drill. 

 Oh yeah, we also said goodbye to the ugly linoleum. By shopping around we bought this 10x20 gray linen tile for $2.89 sq ft, which was a dollar cheaper per sq ft compared to other stores -- which adds up! Since Brent was juggling several other projects, we had a guy install it for us in the bathrooms and laundry room.

 Once the uppers were in, the base cabinets came next.

 Lookin good, eh? These are Cardell Classic II Flat Panel Maple cabinets in white with pewter glaze. I absolutely love how they have the look of antiqued white cabinets, yet with a modern twist using flat panels and pewter glaze accenting. It fits right in with our modern style.

Then the countertops arrived! This is Silestone (quartz) Stellar Snow. It literally sparkles. Because the amount of quartz we needed was less than an entire slab, we ordered it through Home Depot, who charges by sq ft instead of making you buy an entire slab -- saving more cash!

The guys who installed our baseboards downstairs (a few months back) returned to outfit the upstairs, too. 

So we turned this ...

into ...

 The finished product! Three drawers on the left base cabinets, three big base cabinets on the right. Nine upper cabinets. Space for me to sit and do crafts. And still enough room for the washer and dryer. All within 6' x 10'.

I am beyond thrilled to have my own little mom cave.

Maybe I'll even add a chandelier.

carpet and flooring finish

10.11-13.11

While the countertop crew finished up in the kitchen, the carpet installers worked throughout the house tearing out the rest of the carpet and installing new carpet and pad. It took all day, but I consider that pretty quick for all they had to do.

Before:

 After:

The carpet we chose is Phenix Solitude in Stony Creek. We chose it because it's super soft and will hide footprints and dirt. The pictures look different because of the lighting, but overall it's a brownish taupe.

 

 After the install I vacuumed the whole house to pull up loose and stray strands. Yikes.

 Brent continued working on the laminate flooring over the next few days. The hallway was kind of tricky because of three doorways and a niche. But on the 13th he made it to the last piece.

 He measured and cut.

 Hammered it in.

 And celebrated.

 Brent and friend Greg show off their muscles and hammers. These guys installed flooring in Greg's house two years ago. They're practically pros now.

floored, elephant skin and spa

10.07-10.11

Brent had the help of several wonderful friends installing the laminate flooring (Scottsdale Zanzibar Gray). A zillion marks, cuts and hammer pounds later, here's how it turned out:

While the guys slaved away on the flooring, friend Mollie and I worked on painting J's room and the Laundry room.

In J's room we used a color we found when decorating his nursery two houses ago. We only got to enjoy it for a few months before we moved out, so since we knew we already liked it, we again chose Behr Ultra Elephant Skin.

It's a deep, warm gray and is neutral enough that it will work with whatever theme happens to be the fav as he grows up.

I chose the color for the Laundry room since I spend the most time in there.

Once I saw it on the swatch I knew I had to have it. Behr Spa. Yep, it's called Spa. I think it will help calm me down from the stress of motherhood.

 I love how fresh and clean it makes the room feel! Maybe enough to motivate me to do laundry.

getting a handle on paint, cabinets

10.05-06.11

Spent these days painting more Frozen Pond in the front room and hallways. We had friends Jourdan and Greg help us, so the work went super fast. The 20-foot walls are something else.

I also painted the family room with friend Sarah. We chose another Behr color: Contemplation. It coordinates with Frozen Pond but is a bit lighter and a hint greener. 

The company that manufactured our cabinets, Del Grosso, also installed our cabinet handles and moved our microwave cabinet. Our cabinets are by Cardell, Urbano II Maple in Smoke finish.

Before:

After:

And the cabinet is now here by the oven. Microwave will be installed soon.

 We carried the same handles (Ikea Lansa) throughout the house. I love how they turned out.

Their employee, Jose Luis, did a fantastic job lining up the handles and making them look perfectly modern (easier said than done).

Carpets 'N More surprised us with our laminate flooring, too! We weren't expecting it to arrive so quickly, but they pulled through for us.

The laminate we chose is Scottsdale Zanzibar Gray. The hand-scraped planks are 5.5in wide and 12mm thick. For laminate, it looks really good and will hold up well for our toddler and future children.

tear out: carpet

10.01.2011

First things first. Get rid of that brand new, yet still gross, carpet.

I spent two days prying off baseboard downstairs (though friend Mollie scored most of it for me with a utility knife, which really sped things up). Lots of fun tools to pry off the boards and nails.

 I had the genius idea to label the baseboard and the wall it came from for when we reinstalled it.
(Fast forward to yesterday, 10.11.2011, when my husband decided we should get new baseboards ... all that labeling for nothing. Oh well.)

10.02.2011

While I finished up baseboards, my husband Brent worked with friends Mollie and Greg to tear out the carpet downstairs. I was a little bummed I didn't get to participate in ripping apart the new yet gross feeling "barely there" builder standard carpet. Oh well. The tear out went quickly and then us girls scraped the glued-down carpet pad and the guys pried off the carpet tack strips. When we finished it looked like this:

family room

dining room 

 living room

I'll address the squares on the wall next.