Paint a Basement Door Mint and Create a Handy Message Centre

After we spruced up the basement landing/stairwell . . .

. . . the door to the basement remained sadly un-spruced.

It had been painted white and given new brushed silver hinges and door knob like all of our other interior doors, but it had been painted quickly and there were spots where the old grey-ish paint could be seen on the inside (that's my Mom above, Vanna White-ing it to show you where).  We had also started using it as a place to store vital information, like the garbage day schedule, but we had been using painter's tape to stick stuff up there.  I didn't have any white paint left, but I had my trusty free gallon of mint paint.  I decided a little colour would be fun, especially because it's just the inside of the door (the outside and edges stayed white).

I taped off the edges and the door knob, removed the papers and unscrewed the white bag holder.  Two coats of paint later, I had a fresh new minty door.  I grabbed a set of cork trivets from Ikea and affixed them to the door with construction adhesive, holding them in place while the adhesive dried with painter's tape.  And voila - much tidier!  Plus the mint looks sweet with the framed brooches in the stairwell.



We re-hung the holder for random plastic bags (on the rare occasion we get them from a store, I hang on to them and re-use them).  The cork trivets tidied up our important info.  We purposefully installed them in a vertical row, with one at kid-height, so if future owners have kids they can pin up their school stuff.  I would have liked to have painted these a fun colour, or done a whole grid (like this) but I was short on both time and money.  The natural cork looks cute against the brick when the door is open, anyway, and three tiles means we only have so much room to clutter up!

I'm really enjoying painting things mint . . .

Basement Update: Easy Solution for Hiding an Ugly Washer and Dryer

After we drywalled and painted (including painting the floor a bright turquoise), the laundry room still had some unattractive elements: a really old washer and dryer, water tank, slop sink and mess of pipes.

I needed a cheap solution to help make the space look nice, especially from the adjacent room.  I had to think long and hard about a solution that would work for us because so many inspiring laundry room makeovers involve a new washer and dryer!  In the end, we came up with something easy and inexpensive: curtains!  We installed Ikea curtain rods as close to the ceiling as possible (although we originally priced out DIY rods, the whole shebang, including the drapery rings, was only sbout $30.00 at Ikea so we ditched the DIY plans).

Once the bar was installed, my Mom was roped in to do some sewing.  Anyone recognize the fabric???

It's our old duvet cover!  I loved the pattern but never really liked it with the DIY'd headboard.  When we replaced the bedding with crisp white linens, I didn't want to just get rid of the old stuff, so I hoarded it in the linen closet.  When my basement inspiration featured DIY stamped fabric with a faded black pattern, I knew I had just the fabric to achieve the look.  Mom cut open the duvet cover and simply hemmed the edges.  One problem: they were a bit floody.

I like my curtains to just touch the ground, puddling a tiny bit, so we used the old black bedskirt to add a border.  We opted for a thick border so it looks intentional and adds a bit of weight.  And we may or may not be using the rest of the fabric to lengthen a super-short dress to cover my skull-crushers.

Now the ugliness is hidden but easily accessed.  Peekaboo! 

Plus, I can access one side while keeping the other hidden.  Although both sides look much better closed!  I thought curtains might be a hassle, but I just push them aside with my bum when my arms are occupied carrying a laundry basket. They slide really easily on the rings. A door on the laundry room would be a solution too, but it's a sub-standard size plus blocking off the room right at the doorway made the basement seem closed off and weird.  Also, opening a door with a laundry basket is much less convenient.  I can still toss things in the hamper or take things off the dry line without touching the curtains.  It works for us!  When I show photos of the rest of basement, you'll see how sharp the laundry room looks now from the rest of the basement.

It's so hard to take a good photo in the laundry with NO natural light, but I'll take a stab at better shots for a full "after" tour!

P.S. I've had a few people, over the years, ask me where we got the black and white tree bedding.  It was purchased from HomeSense and I long threw away the packaging, but I happened to find a very similar bedding set on Amazon for anyone trying to track it down.

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Basement Update: How to Paint a Concrete Laundry Room Floor Turquoise

Nothing like a looming MLS listing to light a suitably sized fire under our butts when it comes to projects.  We prioritized our to-do list and because the rest of the house has been updated over the years and looks quite spiffy, we tackled the dragged-on-for-eighteen-months basement makeover first.  People have built houses in the time it has taken to paint and tidy our basement!  Our house is to be listed as a partially finished basement because about one third of it is taken up by a walled off, unfinished storage room with a door, but a "partially finished basement" doesn't mean we can literally leave our projects partially finished (darn).  We started on the floor right away, knowing it would take a week to fully cure.

Here's how we painted our concrete laundry room floor a cheery shade of aqua!

The secret is in the right supplies:

We used Sherwin Williams Porch and Floor enamel in satin, which I bought un-tinted during a sweet 50% off sale.  After we narrowed down floor colours, I combed through my hoard of turquoise paint chips to find a shade that looked right in the window-less laundry room and Valspar's "Dive in"(CI 249) took the cake.  It's vibrant and not too green but not too blue - the perfect turquoise.  In the photos it looks pale, but in reality it's richer than even my turquoise chair makeover. 



How to apply porch and floor enamel: 

First we vacuumed and washed the poured concrete floor (the old carpet that was there wasn't glued down at all - whew).  We let the wet floors dry overnight.  Then we moved the washer and dryer to the middle of the room and painted behind them.  The enamel cured quickly, so we pushed them back and then did the rest.

A paintbrush was needed for the edges, but then a roller made for concrete floors made light work of the rest of the room.  Although we walked on it later that day, we planned to wait a full week to return the laundry hampers and other stuff to the room.  A few days later though, I noticed one coat wasn't enough (some patches of the original grey peeked through) so we swept it quickly and applied another coat.  We had to start the clock again and wait another full week, so it was a good thing we started as soon as we bought the lake house!

This was a smelly job but only took an hour or so to apply the first application and only twenty minutes for the second coat.  So far, it still looks perfect!  This isn't meant for garage floors (shame) but it works well for our purposes.  The gallon we bought was twice what we needed.

Handy Hubby was such a cutie during the painting process.  We painted the walls together but then he painted the floor while I worked on making the rest of the basement livable.  I tried to snag a few good photos of him, but he likes to remain as anonymous as possible.  He jumped out of most photos, or looked really, really pained.

The fruits of his labor are what you're here to see anyway!  With the walls freshly painted the same colour as the rest of the basement (including the stairwell), the new floors make a formerly grungy space look fresh and cheery. 

The walls, floor and light fixtures are all looking sharp but let's be honest: our washing machine and dryer are work horses, not show ponies, and the paintbrush-rinsing-sink (it serves no other purpose), water heater and mess of plumbing and wires really seem to pop out now.  I asked Hubs to paint the rusty legs of the old sink and that was a super quick fix that made it look less sad, but there's a bigger, better, beautiful solution my Mom and I cooked up . . .

UPDATE: See how we hid the unsightly washer, dryer and hot water tank with a pretty set of curtains made from old bedding by clicking here.  You can also see more of the basement here and here.

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I've Seen the Light

After much waffling and drooling, I finally picked a light fixture for the laundry room!  When I said we have a "small budget," I'm not sure I've expressed how small.  Folks emailed me photos of $40 and $50 light fixtures.  I found the sweetest fixture and hmmmed and hawwwed over its $9 price tag.  It's from Rona by the way.  Because it's so cheap and petite, we decided to get three to spread the light around our dim little windowless laundry room.  That's still only $27!  The height is just perfect, too - it turns out the pendants I was lusting after would have gotten in the way of dry rack (details soon).  Want to say hello?

I photographed one in front of our new painting, a lovely forest scene, because this light is actually an outdoor light, hence the crazy amount of insulation.  It has kind of a vintage quality, and reminds me of this pricier fixture (which rings in at $185 or $225.00, depending on size).

My plan is/was to paint it a darker colour (like the sconce version of this light) or maybe something bright?  But it's too cold to spray paint outside still, and spray painting in the basement last year had undesired results (we're still eating from pink cans of soup and the floors, wood pile, my suitcases and basically the entire storage room are still a pretty turquoise, thanks to my urge to kid-ify kitchen accessories).  So we're going to install them, paint the walls and floor (I picked a colour from my short-list!) and then see if we still want to paint them.  They are a cinch to un-install.  

Our runner-ups were two versions of the same caged "Marina" light fixture.  A similar style is a staple of most hardware stores.  The only trouble with this choice was that the bulb sits along the glass so one half is brighter, which is a weird look. 

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Painting Around Carpet & Picking a Floor Colour

If you didn't already, now you know my excellent reason for dragging my feet on the basement makeover.  But we're back at it.  Hubby's the wall maker, I'm the wall painter.  There is a tiny area left of the basement left to strip and paint before I can tackle the laundry room.  The carpet might be giving the centipedes a run for their money in the "making this job less fun" category.  I've never lived with carpet (we tore the carpet out upstairs within minutes of taking possession of the townhouse), so painting around carpet is new to me.  It makes me loathe carpet even more.

But I've got this.

In addition to laying down painter's tape, I've been using a wide scraper to push the carpet away so I can neatly edge.  I have a larger edger too (maybe meant for carpets?), but it proved too big and unwieldy so I switched to this.  I've done about 90% of the basement with my scraper pal by my side and it's worked pretty well.  I almost hesitate to ask because it's so late in the game for me: do you have a trick for painting around carpet?

Meanwhile, I'm thinking about what colour to paint the laundry room floor.  It will have the same greige walls as the basement, with black and white textiles (it's a surprise), and industrial-style shelving (I hope).  I had narrowed down the choice to turquoise, orange or raspberry but because of my passion for turquoise, it was an easy choice: something in the green-blue family.  Now I'm thinking . . . do I want a deep teal, a super bright Caribbean turquouise, maybe more of an on-trend emerald hue, or something soft and vintage like mint green?

Colour chart via

 
Decisions, decisions, decisions.

(left to right): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

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Light up the (Laundry) Room

It has been six months since Handy Hubby and I did any work in the basement and we literally stopped mid-task, so there are tools and supplies everywhere!  Although we prettied up one corner, there is still so much to do (and so little money to do it with).  Other than my being abroad for four months, a major hurdle has been that some un-fun tasks (more wallpaper removal for me, drywall for Hubby) are looming, discouraging us from trudging down into the basement.  We both know that if we can just get through those tasks, we can get to the fun stuff, like making over my work desk, painting the walls, making a curtain rod from scratch, making some fun art, building and styling shelves, etc.  But we've been dragging our feet.  I have a ton of ideas swirling around in my head (A brightly coloured laundry room floor? An inventive solution for hiding our ugly washer and dryer? Unexpected accessories?), but I can't get to them until we suck it up and just finish this stage.  I see light (haha) at the end of the tunnel, though, because we're doing one fun thing: pondering lighting options, oohing and ahhing over different types of fixtures, deciding how many we need (and how inexpensively we can snag them).

We toured the Diefenbunker with family on Sunday, and I really, really liked the simple, industrial lights I spotted there (See? Cannot take me anywhere):



So maybe the industrial look might work well in the laundry room?

1, 2, 3, 4

On the other hand, the basement has greige walls and carpet, so the (pretty teeny) laundry room might be the place to splash out and try some fun and colourful:

1, 2, 3, 4

Or maybe something colourful and industrial?  I'm really trying to squeeze every last drop of joy from this decision because after we decide on a light fixture, it's back to this.

Seesaw

Frankly, anything is an improvement on what is there: a big-ass fluorescent that was (presumably) pulled from a dumpster and a socket for a naked bulb that was (inexplicable) empty, and, despite being functional, left right beside the fluorescent.  What the H?  Did they do this just to torment us?!?  The former owners have left us scratching our heads, whimpering, "why, why, why?" sooo many times.

A decision soon, followed by some actual progress.  The basement is also where the magic happens for other projects, so I have a total traffic jam of ideas for things I'd like to make or fix or re-do, but until we make progress many (but not all) projects are on hold.

P.S. For Ottawa folk, the Diefenbunker is kind of cool.  If not for the history, go for all the retro office furniture and orange tape dispensers.  Scary news Canadians: even in the event of a nuclear blast, the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation will still be in existence, so you'll have to keep paying your mortgage (even if you can only pay in beads and seeds).  Way to take away our silver lining, suits.

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Basement Update: A Reveal!

I'm looking forward to finishing the basement and offering up some fabulous after shots of the whole kit & caboodle.  It's a tall order, though, because the lone window is the size of a (small) baking pan, so natural light is scant.  Our budget was equally small.  But still, it's beginning to look pretty cute and awfully cozy.  Here's a peek of the one, somewhat finished corner:

The before (well, it's an in-progress shot, with the left wall and ceiling painted) & after difference: 

What's different?

I painted the mismatched walls, and even painted the ceilings (plus the stairwell!) the same warm greige, to keep the old carpet from standing out in any way.  Because "bright and airy" wasn't on the menu, I aimed for "cute and cozy".  In this corner specifically, I removed the peeling wall paper (catch a glimpse in the right of the photo below or see here for more).  A little textured paint hid the paneling lurking beneath. 



I tidied, cleaned, de-cluttered, and even gave some furniture away to make the space more liveable.  The chairs, teak table and lamp had been languishing in the basement after becoming obsolete upstairs.  I tried my best to make this ragtag group of furniture look intentionally chosen for the space. Accessorizing and adding art in the same colour palette (pinks, turquoises, greens, black and white) helped the nook look planned.



The silk pillows are the only truly new addition, thanks to my sewing maven Mom who whipped them up.  I almost saved them for the living room, but the greige walls, greige carpet and greige chair combo need a pop of colour.  The silk shines in the basement and lends such life to the room.

The gallery wall:

We laid everything on the floor and then hung it up.  No newspaper cut outs like with the silhouette wall, because our options were a little limited.  I would have liked something a bit "fuller" but the light switch and outlet are pretty high and pretty random and inhibited our art placement a bit.  I also need to replace them with some paint-able covers.

Maybe I'll add more paintings some day.  The art was pretty thrifty because each piece was either gathering dust somewhere or a DIY project: 

• The Rothko-inspired art cost pennies.
• The other abstracts were DIY's (see the making of one here).
• The two black and white vacation photos haven't seen the light of day since we moved to the townhouse, so it felt good to give those a home.  
• The etching above the larger cardboard painting was replaced with the DIY stenciled/antiqued mirror.

I think I captured some of the feel of my inspiration photo.  I just couldn't stick to the pale aqua and pink - I tossed in some other colours via the artwork.

Prudent Baby

What's next?

The rest of the basement will be keeping with this feel (see more of the inspiration here).  Greige with pops of black, white, pale pink and turquoise.  If you remember, the stairwell has black and white and turquoise art, too.  The turquoise chair and black chair will live here eventually.  But first: a few more furniture makeovers, some more painting, a DIY curtain rod, some more art work, some sewing of curtains from you'll never guess what, and more.  We'll get there.

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