Diary of a Laundry/Powder Room–The Beginning

I’ve been in my current house for over 4 years now.  Mr. Charming and I have managed to rework much of the house but 3 bathrooms have remained untouched.

My laundry machines reside in my main floor powder room.  Convenient ?  Yes  Attractive ?  No.

I admit there are times when I am ashamed to say ‘this is my before picture’, and this is one of them.   Granted, the  bi-fold doors that concealed the laundry area have been taken down for this picture… but it is an unsightly bathroom nonetheless. Thankfully, I have a second floor family room and guests can use the ‘less unattractive’ bathroom up there.

Ok, so here it is <big breath>  in all it’s previous glory.

Can you believe I’ve lived with this for 4 years? Yup.. neither can I.

Ok, now that the embarrassing part is over.  I knew most of this bathroom needed to be demolished, including the floor. 

This makeover will take several steps and will be posted as we go along.

About 3 years ago I bought an old buffet on Craigslist.  At that time I started to strip the layers and layers of paint caked on it so I could stain it, and after 4 attempts at trying to get paint off the top, I pushed it aside and there it sat in the garage till now… 3 years later.

Three-odd years later it makes another appearance and I give it another shot.

I manage to clean the top surface but you can see how much paint is still caked in the tiny grooves. 

I concede.  Moving on to Plan B.

For now, I remove the back piece and cover the raw wood, while I paint the cabinet off-white.

There were layers of paint all over this cabinet but I left some raised  here and there to really give off a cracked, aged look.  After painting and glazing the original heavy metal knobs and hardware go PERFECTLY with the cabinet.  I didn’t do anything to these other than clean them.  They’re gorgeous.

And here is a sneak peek at how the top looks stained.  This is one application of stain.  I ended up giving it two to darken it further. The top back piece is in the works.

With a few more modifications, this beautiful cabinet will be used as the vanity in the new Laundry/Powder Room.

More to come  ….