Budget Laundry Makeover

We have been living in our current house for 18 months now, it's an old small weatherboard home built in the 1950's. When we bought it the prior owners had put in a nice little kitchen, bathroom, curtains and carpet, and so although we want to make changes nothing was really screaming out for a makeover...nothing that is except the laundry!

I didn't get a good shot of the before laundry, firstly because it is so small 1.8m x 1.8m square

 ( approx 6 ft 1 inch square), and secondly because I actually just didn't think of it at the time. But I did find these pictures above and I figure you would get the idea, rusty wash tub, water damaged chipboard cupboard, broken glass in the window, lino laid over older lino which was torn and walls made out of painted plywood...to add to its attraction, it is situated in a little room of its own one step outside the back door, like many houses in Australia during this era. It therefore quite easily became the dumping ground for all types of junk, much to my despair!

Within a couple of months I couldn't stand it any longer and seeing as we were very short of funds thought I would prefer it totally gutted than to continue with it the way it was. My trusty helper came to the rescue and removed just about everything. It looked something like this all over.

Nice huh?

It was at this stage that we made the decision to remove the window entirely, just to make some more wall space, I wasn't totally sure about this as it did let in the lovely morning sunshine, but I was finally convinced...especially considering we never shut the door when we're in the laundry because of the space, so the light comes in through the door too.

Fast forward through the winter months when nothing happened, school holidays arrived and it was time to do some more. We wanted to keep costs down to the very bare minimum, which meant not moving the plumbing etc. We considered plastering and initially were going to do that, but the cost of getting someone in was going to break our budget and we were not confident to give it a try ourselves for the first time in such a small space, so we decided to line it with pine boards.

You can just make out the laundry tub here, it was my $15 auction bargain that is as good as new, just needed a good clean. I had been pricing the exact same tub at hardware stores the week before...they were $169. I was so excited! 

Fast forward a few more months and our next chance to get things done was after Christmas in the summer break...this past week in fact. But I hadn't been sitting around just waiting. This huge cupboard had been in the 'man cave' for the best part of a decade, but I knew it would be perfect in the new laundry, so out it came for a makeover.

This cupboard is a real showpiece...originally an office cupboard from the historic Inveresk Railyards in Launceston, which is now home to the Queen Victoria Museum. I knew this cupboard would be special when painted. I chose Blake & Taylor furniture paint because it is so easy to apply and I love the colour schemes available. French Blue and Old White on the outside, and a mixture of French Blue, Blush Pink, French Linen and Kettle Green on the inside. With Blake & Taylor paint there is no need to prime, which I love. I did do a quick sand on the outside and then washed it all down to get off the years of grime. One coat did the inside, I applied two coats on the outside and then finished with a light wax.

I found these cupboard knobs at Paraphernalia and thought they'd be perfect.

Time to paint the walls. I chose white to brighten things up a bit. Primed the walls once, then one 4 litre tin provided two coats on the walls. Things were starting to happen!

Within a couple of days the rest was done. The cupboard was moved in, hubby found two white ceramic tiles left over from the kitchen to put above the laundry sink and installed a shelf the length of the wall over the sink also. I bought one basket to match the other four I already had and they found their home on the shelf. We installed hooks to hang up the ironing board, clothes airer and mop and broom, and some rails to hang some washing .

I made some decorative touches.

We're finished! All up everything came to well under $500, which we thought was pretty reasonable.

Now I just want to be there all the time! Hope you like it, Lisa xx

Just For Me

Have you ever found something that you loved, but wanted it to be uniquely yours? This amazing Tasmanian made Dish Pig tea towel caught my eye about two years ago. Subway signs were very new and 'in' at the time but this was the first sign that I had seen that had significance for me. The tea towels are based on an old bus roll for the bus tour company that serviced Tasmania. I remembered those signs and I remembered catching those buses, and visiting or living in those towns listed. But I wanted more than a tea towel.

It took around two years of searching and patiently waiting to finally find a vintage picture frame that I liked and more importantly that was the right size to complete my project. Once found, the next step was to clean it down, lightly sand, and prime it.

I always knew the frame was going to be red, I love red and it seemed the perfect fit to go with the black text and white background, the question was, what shade of red?

In the end I went with a glossy fire engine red, I didn't take a picture, I'm pretty sure it was a little tin of Dulux.

Two coats of the red and it looked a treat! One of the big problems of course with vintage frames is that they often don't come with the glass still intact. If you find one that does, look after that glass! I went to a glaziers and had this cut on site. It cost $25AU to have a piece cut, I am now much more careful with the old glass that I already have.

I said the frame fit the tea towel and that's true,  but it required me to first unpick the hemming around the tea towel. Once that was done I stitched it to stop it from fraying. 

A wash and iron was next.

I then attached the tea towel to a thick piece of card that came with the original frame. Nothing very fancy with this, I actually just used masking tape, so that if I made a mistake I knew I could re-do easily.

The next step was just to put it behind the glass, add a piece of thick card to the back and tape. The frame already had the screws to attach picture wire, I just added new wire, leaving a good amount (10-15cm) over both ends and wound it around itself for added strength.

Voila!

Here it is inside, I'm really happy with it, and this one IS a keeper. Lisa xx