Well, here we are. Week one of the $100 Room Challenge is over and I am excited to share our mud room makeover progress with you. That old saying, “It gets worse before it gets better” is absolutely true. I had not realized how essential our mud room is to our family until I removed everything. It’s a bit chaotic as we all leave from various doors…one of which is not the mud room. But I keep telling my family that this mud room makeover will not last forever and it’s going to be worth it.
I shared all of the before pictures in my blog post last week. So, today, I will share just one quick before picture and then get on with what I have been up to. If you would like to follow along throughout the week, I will be sharing more over on my Instagram stories.
The first thing to do in this room was to empty it out. Yep, everything had to find a temporary home, with a few things being placed in a donation pile. Yipee!
This is the current state of our front entry…
and our homeschool room.
Now to the cleared-our mud room:
It’s always best to start with a clean slate and to look at the room with fresh eyes…clear of all the things.
This week was not glamorous, friends. We’re talking tedious tasks in this mud room. The ones that we usually try to skip, but I knew that when this mud room makeover was complete, that I would be so happy I didn’t skip any of these steps:
1. Patch all of the holes in the walls. I am not sure why there were 20 nail holes in this one room…and hooks hanging way high up on the wall.
2. Clean the space. I wiped down all of the walls, baseboards, and windows.
3. Paint the ceiling. Ugh. I really don’t like painting ceilings, but anytime I skip it, I immediately regret it. From experience, I find that it is easiest to paint the ceiling before the walls, so it doesn’t matter if you get a little sloppy with the brush work.
I have also found my favorite go-to ceiling paint. It is the Glidden Ceiling Paint that goes on pink, but dries white. Wait, what? Pink? Dries white? Yes! It is amazing to use. When the paint is wet, it is pink. And then it dries to a flat white. This makes painting a ceiling so much easier because you can see exactly where you have painted.
4. Prime the trim, baseboard, door, and floor bricks. Again, tedious, and not very exciting but, I have found that priming is key as well. It is not an exciting part of a room makeover, but it will save time, energy, and money when it comes time to paint. I applied two coats of primer on the trim, baseboard, and floor. And three coats on the door.
Oh and priming always looks awful!
5. Finally: painting! I went with my go-to white for our farmhouse, which is Sherwin Williams Pure White, which I always have color-matched into a Glidden or Behr paint at The Home Depot. This past weekend, I applied two coats of the paint to the walls, trim, and baseboards.
I didn’t think that a room with four windows could get any brighter, but this one sure did. The hubby says it looks like a hospital, and I totally get it. So, if you are thinking the same thing, let me assure you that all will be well in the end. ♥
Since this is the $100 Room Challenge, I want to keep you up to date on my expenses.
Week One Budget:
Joint Compound (to fill holes): $0 {already had this}
Primer: $8
Angled Paint Brush: $5.47
Paint Roller & Tape: $0 {already had these}
Paint: $0 {already had this}
Now that this mud room makeover has started, I can see a little bit of a timeline ahead…unlike the “winging it” I mentioned in my first blog post.
Future Plans:
Week 2: Paint another coat on the trim and baseboard; Paint 2-3 coats on the window frames; Paint a 4th coat on the door; Clean and spray paint the light fixtures; Wash and re-hang the curtains; Paint and poly the brick floor.
Week 3: Work with Mr. Little by Little Farmhouse and decide on the coat rack and other storage; Paint the mud room table.
Week 4: Add decor to the room.
{I’ve shared some of my inspiration over on Pinterest!}
I know that today’s update wasn’t anything super pretty or an overwhelming change. It’s a step in the right direction though and it will be the backbone of this entire mud room makeover.
Come back next week to see the progress! And in the meantime, check out the other bloggers who are also doing their own $100 Room Challenge below!
{Edit: Here are the links to the other posts in this blog series: Before/Plans — Week Two — Week Three — Final Reveal}
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