I continue to make progress my walk-in closet/laundry room progress, and over the last couple of day, I’ve made it my main mission to finish up all of the projects that would create dust so that I can get all of my stuff — clothes, handbags and shoes — moved in ASAP. So with that main goal in mind, I got the island top sanded, primed and painted, I installed the countertops on the washer and dryer cabinets and got them trimmed out, wood filled, and sanded, and then I turned my attention to the trim on the back wall and around the washer and dryer cabinets to get all of it sanded, caulked, and painted.
I didn’t quite get it all painted, and even the part I did get painted still needs a second coat. But once I get that trim finished, I’ll just need to do a bit of sanding on the on the base of the island, and then I can get all of the dust cleaned up, and get my stuff moved in! Anything else that needs to be done on the island — finishing the drawer boxes, making the drawer fronts, and making the doors — can be done outside so I won’t create more mess and dust in this room.
I will still need to do some sanding on the drywall once I start framing out the doorway…
But I can very easily drape some plastic, attached to the fronts of those cabinets flanking the doorway and along the ceiling, to keep the dust out of the room.
All that to say that I am SO CLOSE to being able to move my stuff in!! I’m really hoping that by the end of today (Tuesday), I’ll have all of the messy projects done in here, have all of the dust cleaned up, and be able to start moving stuff in. I’ve had my washer and dryer working overtime these last few days since they were moved on last Thursday and hooked up (which makes my closet smell so good, by the way 😀 ), so I’m champing at the bit to get everything in its place.
Last Friday when I shared the latest progress, the washer and dryer were in, but the cabinets were still without countertops.
Here’s a closer view of the cabinets without the top front trim and countertops…
After adding the 1×2 trim along the top front edge of those cabinets, I added the coutnertops, which are just a piece of 3/4″ plywood cut to fit the width of the cabinet and cut to the depth of the cabinet plus about 1/4″. And then I trimmed around that plywood with additional pieces of 1×2 lumber, mitered on the corner. There’s nothing fancy about it.
So here’s the progress. The countertops are on. They’ve been wood filled (where the edge trim meets the top plywood), sanded, and primed. The crown molding on the back wall and wrapping around the washer and dryer areas are sanded, caulked, and half painted. The window trim has the first coat of paint on it. I still need to sand, caulk, and paint the baseboard. You can also see that the top of the island is painted, but I didn’t get a good picture of that. You’ll have to wait to see that later. 🙂
Anyway, as I was working on all of this over the last couple of days, I started wondering if the washer and dryer cabinets would look better painted dark blue to match the washer and dryer and to blend in better with the wallpaper. I decided to try it Sunday evening, and left the house to head to Home Depot at 7:30. They close at 8:00 on Sundays. I should have just waited because that didn’t leave me much time at all to pick out a paint color, and I got it wrong. Very wrong. Plus, for some reason, the paint color I chose couldn’t be mixed in the paint I wanted, and the only paint they could mix it in was some cheap Behr paint that I’ve never even heard of before. It was awful and didn’t cover at all. But at least I could paint the first coat on the countertop with a darker color and get an idea of what it would look like…
You can see that the color I chose is way too light to match the wallpaper and the appliances.
I didn’t have time to get more paint yesterday, so I decided to paint the cabinet with the dark paint color that I had randomly chosen (without wallpaper in hand) to paint the inside of the cabinets before the washer and dryer were installed. Again, if I go dark on these, this won’t be the final color. I’m just trying to get an idea of what these would look like if they were painted dark.
I had to laugh at myself because you can see by that paint color selection, which I chose without the wallpaper in hand, just how much I gravitate towards teals. When I picked out that paint color to paint the inside of the cabinets, I genuinely thought that I was picking a true navy blue. But when compared to the true blue of the dryer, you can see that I, once again, chose a teal. That paint color has so much green in it compared to the dryer. I’m tell you, if you cut me open, I’ll bleed teal! 😀 It’s just in my veins! I can’t choose a true blue to save my life.
So, believe me, I know that this looks awful, and that it’s the wrong color for this area. I’ll need to find a blue that has absolutely no green in it for the final color…if I go with the dark color for these cabinets. But at least this can give us an idea of what a dark color would look like on these cabinets. You kind of have to use your imagination, though. But the question is…
Should these cabinets go dark to match the washer, dryer, and wallpaper?
Or should they stay light to match the rest of the cabinets and all of the trim in the room?
And if I go dark with the color, what about the baseboards on those cabinets? Again, all of the trim in the room is being painted to match the light blue of the cabinets…
And that will include the baseboard on the back wall of the room underneath the window…
I originally thought that if the cabinet and countertop are dark, I would keep the baseboard light to keep that consistent line around the room the same color. (Excuse my dust.)
Hopefully, you can envision what that would look like once the baseboard under the window is painted in the light blue.
But once I stood back and looked at it, I didn’t like how that looked at all. That baseboard seems to scream for attention. So if I go with the dark blue on the cabinet and countertop, I really think the baseboards just on the washer and dryer cabinets also need to be dark. Don’t you think?
And while I can’t think of any examples of when I’ve done that with baseboards, I’ve certainly done that with crown molding before. The crown molding above the fireplace in our living room continues around the entire room, but while the rest of the crown is painted white, I painted the crown just around the fireplace in the same teal of the fireplace.
So if I go with the dark blue to match the wallpaper and the appliances, I’d basically do that same thing with the baseboards just around those cabinets, and then the baseboard under the window would carry on with the light blue like the rest of the trim.
With all of that said, what do you think? Should I go dark with those two cabinets (with a paint color that actually matches, of course)? Or should I stick with the light blue to match the rest of the cabinets?
UPDATE: I remembered that I had a sample of color-matched dark blue that I used on the trim around the wallpapered mirror closet section, so I used that to paint the left dryer cabinets. Here’s what the proper color looks like…
And then I did a little copy and paste photo editing to compare both colors used on both cabinets. Here’s the light…
And here’s the dark…
Here they are side-by-side…
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
