The Laundry Room Make-over (a work in progress)

We've been in our house for four years and the laundry room has always bugged me. It was the plain basic flat white done by the builder and that paint is really bad about collecting dust. It's always a battle: me vs. the dust creature army (and I usually retreat in terror). So, on Friday I saw that the paint was on sale, found a great color and started my project. I always forget to take "before" shots, but here are some pictures...

This is my first "test" of the paint color. I was trying to decide whether or not to do the whole room the blue (Bermuda Bay by Glidden) or to just do an accent wall and then do the rest of the walls a lighter color. But, I found this great website (House of Turquoise) that has samples of all kinds of amazing turquoise rooms and I saw plenty of rooms smaller than mine done beautifully. My laundry room is only 9' by 6.5', but it has 9' ceilings, so that really opens up the space and I figured it could handle the full coverage.

Of course, while the paint was drying I spent some time playing on Pinterest and I found this great pin of a gal who has a very cool way to tint mason jars (check it out here). I thought I would try it with vases since I don't have any mason jars. I also didn't have any vases, but a quick trip to the thrift store yielded two great vases for $.50 each and a pretty milk glass vase for $.75. Go, me! :)

I followed the directions, but I managed to goof somehow (or it's probably just different with the greater surface area of the vases and completely unrelated to an error on my part, right?). The vases did take the tint, but they ended up with a bubbly texture rather than the smooth look I was going for. But, I think they still look pretty. From a distance.

This first one is how they looked during the tinting.



And here is a close-up of the larger one after. See the weird texture? Anyone know what I did wrong?

Sunday I finished all the final touch-ups on the paint and I made a run to the fabric store to pick up some fabric to make the curtains (I let Chloe pick the fabric - she has a great eye for color). Mike wanted them to cover the whole window, but I only wanted half length so the light would still pour in. Not sure if I made the right choice, but we'll see. I just finished the curtains this evening, so I'll know for sure tomorrow in the day light.

I still have a lot more to do, of course. I'm working on the hanger rod slowly. It was dark wood, so it's taking several coats of spray paint to get good coverage. I'd also like to find an old fashioned washboard to hang on the wall, and maybe a tin wash tub to put on the shelf. It's a work in progress (like all my projects). I added some of my old wooden spools to the big vase and some wooden clothespins to the smaller one.

Totals:

Paint: $12 (normally $18), 1 gallon

Fabric: $3.99 patterned (normally $7.99/yd), 1 yard; $1.99 muslin for lining (normally $4.99/yd), 1 yard

Boxes: $2 ea (normally $6 ea), 4 boxes

Vases: $1.75, 3 vases

Already had: paint brushes, curtain rod, thread

Not bad for less than $30, huh?