Laundry Room Pt. 1

Halfway there. I’m a little late writing about this project because it is no where near fully complete, but we will call this “part 1” of hopefully only two parts.

I started by painting the walls white and installing two stock cabinets from Home Depot. To install the cabinets I marked the studs with tape, attached a 2x4 to the wall where I wanted the lowest part of the cabinets to sit, and then placed the cabinets on the 2x4 and fastened them to the studs. After the cabinets were installed, I removed the 2x4 and patched and painted the wall.

Next, I installed wallpaper. This was your basic peel and stick wallpaper. I started in one corner of the room and worked my way to the right. I overlapped the wallpaper approximately one inch to ensure smooth seams and pattern consistency.

Lastly, I built two shelves. One above the washer and dryer and a second above the utility sink. The shelves were definitely the most difficult part of this project. My process for building the shelves was as follows:

Shelf Above Washer/Dryer
1) I installed a 1x8 vertical board for shelf to sit on. This was probably the hardest part to figure out for me because there was not a stud to attach to where the vertical board was going to be and there is a vent that runs through that area that I needed to avoid. I decided to not remove/cut the baseboard trim in this area and instead attached the vertical board directly to the trim.

2) Next, I built a frame for the shelf itself with 1x2s and attached it to the studs (previously marked). After I was able to attach the 1x8 shelf on top.

3) I used 1x3s to trim out the shelf and give it a more finished, built-in look.

4) I filled the holes, sanded, stained, polyurethaned, and caulked for the finished product.

Shelf Above Utility Sink

1) Built a frame with 1x2s and attached to the studs and with screws from the inside of the cabinet.

2) Attached 1x12s to the top and bottom of the shelf to cover the frame.

3) Cut down a 1x4 to trim out the front of the shelf.

4) Again, I filled the holes, sanded, stained, polyurethaned, and caulked for the finished product.

Materials Used:

• 2 - 1” x 2” x 8’ boards - cut to size

• 2 - 1” x 3” x 8’ boards - cut to size

• 1 - 1” x 4” x 8’ board - cut to size

• 2 - 1” x 8” x 8’ boards - cut to size

• 1 - 1” x 12” x 8’ board - cut to size

• Behr Ultra Pure White paint (I used an eggshell finish)

• Caulk

• Wood filler

Power Tools Used:

• Sander

• Compound Miter Saw

• Nail Gun w/ Air Compressor

Links:

• Painted Desert Wall Mural/Wallpaper - Urban Walls

• Cabinets - Home Depot

• Cabinet Knobs - Home Depot