Final Touches and Laundry Room Reveal!

                                                                   

At last, here are the finishing touches and reveal of the basement laundry room!!!!!!!!!
After finishing the Craig's List Buffet, I started thinking about what I wanted to put up on the wall over it. I had a big, gaudy ornate gold frame in a closet that I decided would make a great chalkboard. So I got out the white spray paint for a make over. I wish I had taken a picture of the entire frame before, it was not very pretty.

A coat of paint can make things look so much better.

 That is the new pantry cabinet for my extra canned goods.

No more dusty open shelving!

Here is the finished buffet and the outdoor rug  from Home Decorator's

 Collections. I decided an outdoor rug would be a good choice for a basement laundry and I fell in love with the swirly vine design.

 I found the metal fork and spoon about five years ago at a garage sale and thought they were fun but had never found the right place to hang them up. Now they finally have a spot and I think they add a little whimsy to the room.

For the top of the buffet,I pulled out a silver tray from my stash and spray painted a vase I already had that was previously black and red. You can't see in this picture but the vase has a branch and bird relief design on it. The nest is real, but I put shells in it instead of eggs. I started collecting real nests several years ago and I like to display them throughout the house. It is getting pretty obvious that I have a thing for birds and nests. 

There on the left is the little roadside rescue table that started this whole laundry room makeover. The ceiling tin I already had and just painted it silver to reflect more light into the room. I used big glass canisters from Target to hold my laundry soap and oxyclean.

                                                

I bought a new drying rack and didn't realize how huge it was until I got it home and put it together. It is much wider than my other one and almost as tall as me! I didn't realize they came that large. I love the black and white prints above the drying rack, they are from Mary Carol Garrity's collection. I don't know if you have heard of Nell Hill's but it is a wonderful store about an hour from us in Atchison, KS. Next time I go I will try to remember to take some pictures to put on my blog.

For the final touches I found the blue mirror for $10.00, and I hand stamped some flour sack kitchen towels with my bird stamp.  The room feels so much brighter and more cheerful now. I am actually enjoying doing laundry although I'm not sure how long that will last.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, you can click here to see the scary before pictures. I just couldn't bring myself to put them on with the reveal pics.

                       

                                                                Jodie

I am joining in on parties at

Cindy's My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday.

Miss Mustard Seed's for Furniture Feature Friday

and Chic on a Shoestring Decoratings Flaunt it Friday

Join us every Friday...



Craig's List Buffet

Once I started the laundry room make over I knew exactly the kind of piece I wanted along one of the walls for storage. Usually when I am looking for something specific it can take forever to find it. I have a lot of patience and can wait a long time until I find just the right thing that fits my vision. I don't think that is always a good thing because it tends to drag some projects on way too long. Lucky for me I didn't have to wait this time. I found exactly the piece I had in mind on Craig's List. I think it was born some time in the 70's because it was sporting that tell tale yellow color of that era. It is really heavy and has ton's of great detail. I love detail! I paid $80.00 for it and thought that was a fair price considering it was in great condition and a well made piece.

Notice the bamboo trim on the doors. You just don't see things made like this anymore, that is why I like old furniture so much. Most things back then were heavy duty and made of quality materials. This baby will last forever.

Someone had tried to glaze it with flat paint to tone down the gold and didn't put a finish over it so it wasn't that hard to prepare for painting, except for the all the little details. Now I am cursing the details.

I have a new paint sprayer that I used when I redid our leather couches. Yes, you can refinish leather and now I know how but that is yet another story. Evidently, I didn't get the thing perfectly cleaned out because I couldn't get it to spray right and after an hour and a half messing around with it, I decided to just get out a brush and dig in. I think it turned out pretty cute, what do ya think? Now I am on my way to a fun laundry room!

 I just love to transform things with paint. It is like giving a piece a new lease on life.
                       
                                                           Joyfully,
                                                              Jodie
I am joining two of my favorite blogs, Cindy, over at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/
and Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/

Roadside Rescue

My friend Karen and I walk almost every week day morning. We usually go about 3 miles sometimes more if we are feeling chatty. It is so much more fun to walk with a friend. One day we were out and about when we happened upon a pile of things someone had set out for the trash. I spotted this antique table and thought Hmmmm, that would be cute in my laundry room. We continued on with our walk, hopped in the car when we got back and drove to where we saw the table. When we got there a guy was checking out the pile, I thought for sure he had nabbed the little table but no it was still there. He even offered to help load it in my car!

              The top was in pretty rough condition so I did a combination of stripping and sanding

You can see how the stripper makes the finish bubble up on the leg below. Stripper is nasty stuff and I try to avoid using it but sometimes it is necessary to get the finish I want.

After a little work she was ready for paint. And now the finished product , ta da! I think I may do a little more sanding though. It always amazes me the things people throw away.

This little table was actually the inspiration for an entire laundry room makeover, but that is a story for another day.

Joyfully,

Jodie

Today I am joining in on Show and Tell Friday at Cindy's My Romantic Home http://myromantichome.blogspot.com/   Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday  http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/