Laundry Room ~ Back Porch Makeover...

Here we go...

It looks beautiful finished... 
But oh, dear God ~ What a project it was in the begining...

What I had to start with was a "half-finished" sort of managerie...

See, my better half had 'half' finished this place before he moved in with me and well, it just never got completed...



As some know, I am the worlds cheapest, cheap-skate~!

I enjoy spending my pennies on furniture and embelishments for my homes. So, with that in mind, I had some peach paneling in the laundry area... I had some 'unfinshed' drywall areas, some finished and painted areas and some big leaks in the roof~ yikes!

The man child must have had an obsession with 'peach' at some point in the past.

Various & multiple shades of peach, by-the-way, all over this house~! 

I HATE peach... lol

Of course, the money went into shingling above the room and repairing the leaks, so I was left with a very tight budget for this room. Whenever there's a tightening of the purse strings, I dig out my supplies, lay them out and make do.... Yes, I still had rolls and rolls of paper from the living room leather redo, so I devised a plot and a plan to cover the whole porch ~ the painted areas, the paneling, the unfinished drywall... Why finish it with joint compound, or italian plasters, when I could get the same effect with cheap paper~!

I only had enough joint compound in my stash to fill in the paneling cracks and unlevel areas between half-finished wall treatments. And, I am way too lazy to run to the store. This is a rural area and running to town is 17 miles round trip. For joint compound?

I think not~!

So we began, with what we had and plotted accordingly...

We = me and my multiple personalities, of course~!

Paneling Cracks filled in with Joint compound ~

What a project it was sanding them smooth...

Again, ignore the mess ~ nothing is clean when I'm re-creating.

I'm a messy 're-doer'...

Once the cracks were filled, I had enough joint compound to add some raised stencils to the walls in strategic locations...

Now, I've never done this, so this was purely experimental. I wanted this room to look like old plaster, without having to use plaster. I wanted the walls to look like they had been in this house 4-ever and this was a great idea for that look, plus I had all the supplies I needed on-hand...

Once the paneling crack filling and the raised stencils were dry, I covered the whole room in crumpled paper, for the rough, cracked, plaster texture I was trying to achieve without the expense and mess of plastering...

No big deal right? The living room only took me two weekends.

This would be quick ~ boy was I dreaming...

This whole laundry room / back porch makeover took me over a month~!

I didn't realize how many corners, how much square footage I had to cover... It took three times as much paper as the living room. And, I had no help, as my better half was working on a construction project that afforded him very little time to help me. So, day after day, I crumpled and pasted & swore some and crumpled and pasted some more...

Here are some pics of the paper, over the stencils, in the process... I used a really old, half paint matted, stiff paint brush to smoosh the paper over and around the raised stencils as the paste was drying to give me really good depth and coverage...

I even papered over the ugly cupboards~!
I was on a roll with this paper-covering-up-the-flaws adventure...

At least the color ended up being 'pleasing' and soft, until I could decide on the colors I wanted and the finishing treatment I wanted to use...

Sure beats the heck out of looking at 'peach,' paneling and unfinished drywall~!

I decided on an ivory color for the whole room and treated this room painting Behr satin acrylic paint, in an ivory color. I didn't think to take pics of the room just painted ivory, at the time I done this... =(

I done the painting and glazing in 2 days, but I was staying up until 1 in the morning to get it done. It took 3 coats of paint to get the ivory color I wanted to start. It ended up being 1 gallon all together and where I didn't know what to do with the trim, I painted it ivory also and glazed it to match the walls and give it all an 'old world' look and feel...

After Pics...

So much better~!




Raised stencil papered over, painted & glazed

 


Raised Stencil papered over, painted & glazed

 




Cupboards, stenciled, papered & glazed....... 

 




Raised stencil papered over, painted & glazed

 




Washer & Dryer area - stenciled, papered, painted & glazed...

 

The "After" turned out beautiful~!

With the light streaming in the back windows in the late afternoon, it is so warm and wonderful. Prior, the washer/dryer area had dark stained, bi-fold doors, which blocked out all the light from the old window by the cupbaord...

I threw the old bi-fold doors in the weeds and hung these beautiful curtain panels I found at the thriftstore for $6. There was 6 panels at a dollar a panel ~ You can't beat that kind of thrifty~!)





 



Just look past the dresser I was using as my workbench...

It's now in storage for a future, vintage redo~!

I still need to paint the ceiling and find a more appealing light... Debating on removing that old 'heatilator' on the right in the future,  'Bathroom Redo"  which is coming soon, as the heatilator is also well pronounced on the other side of the wall next to the bathroom vanity...

A new light fixture is on my current 'hunting / gathering' list and I'm sure one will surface at a thrift store, or yardsale this summer, to complete this room...

I'm also thinking of doing a vinyl, travertine look, rock tile, flooring back here???

Total cost of redo, to this point...

About $75 and a month of my life~!

Almost forgot... Found hammered, antique/old switch plates for the back porch at the local
antique shop for $2 each to finish the room, for now ~ great find~!!!

Yep, this room is still 'Under Construction' also...

So, stay tuned for a future finale...!