The finishing touches on a home make a world of difference. We paint, add curtains & even add crown mouldings to enhance our homes. We consider our homes as decorating trophy's and want to show them off. We focus our efforts on the main living areas where our guests most frequent. Kitchens, living rooms and even our bathrooms. But what about those rooms least often seen by our guests. You know the ones......the ones we shut the doors because we are afraid of the big pile growing by leaps and bounds, the one we deem the black hole? The ever so neglected Laundry room!!
Why does this room seem to be the one we close off from the rest of society? Is it because we are afraid of someone seeing our underwear and bras laying on the floor or in a big pile? I do not know about you, but in my household the laundry room seems to be the one that everyone in the family avoids. Could it be because it is the ugliest one in the whole house? I thought I would tackle this problem and find a way to fix the doom and gloom feeling this often neglected room gets, so I decided to use all of the decorating tricks in my bag to make this an appealing room where you want to keep the door open!
I started off by painting the room a bright cheery color of yellow. I did the painting myself to save money. It took only a few hours and the fresh coat of paint made a world of difference. Next, I wanted to find a crown moulding that would make a statement. I went to my local home improvement store and decided on a large 5 1/4" colonial crown moulding. I bought the moulding home and painted it in a crisp clean white to contrast with the yellow walls I had just painted. I also gathered the tools I would need to get the job done; ie chop saw, nail gun, and caulking. The hanging of the crown is really a two person job, one to hold and one to nail, so I sought out the help of my daughter.
The basics of hanging crown moulding is very rudimentary mathematical. Finding the angle and matching the two sides to form the corner. I started by setting the angle to the right on the chop saw to 33.316 degrees and then took my first piece of moulding and cut at that angle. Then I moved the chopsaw to the left and set that angle at 33.316 degrees and made my cut on the second piece of moulding that would complete the corner. Once the cuts we made, I was able to place the mouldings up to the wall and nail. Next I filled the gaps with the white caulking and filled the nail holes with putty and my quest for crown moulding was completed. The project was quite easy. It is amazing what crown moulding can do to make the walls and the room seem finished. The room appeared crisp and clean and the moulding made the room seem much bigger even if it's sole purpose is to change dirty things into clean ones. It almost looked as if you could use the room as a sitting area to read a book. Who would have thought that a rooms whole purpose could change with a coat of paint and a little crown moulding.
The last and final finishing touches I added included a new clothes hamper and a laundry soap container to give the room a completed decorated look. In addition, I found a chalkboard wall hanging that I use to communicate my loving thoughts with my family on a daily basis. I love this new room and I am very proud to know that even the most neglected room in my home is now a a show piece. These simple and cost effective tricks really made my laundry room a room to be proud of and show off to my friends.
Check back frequently to my blog for other cost saving and finishing tips to make your home a model show piece.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
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