Laundry & Mud Room

By far the worst eye sore of the house. Through the renovation process I have determined that this was built by the previous owner in the late 70's. The acoustic interlocking ceiling tiles were falling off. The construction adhesive had given up and become brittle. What a dreary mess. The light fixture is a head bumper. It must be replaced with one that is more flush. I don't mind the wood wall paneling. I could paint it white but it's got to go. It's a fire hazard with no drywall behind it and that is a bad combination in a laundry room with a dryer. Anything I do will make this room better.

I got to do all the wrecking. I call it wrecking not demo. Preparing for drywall reveled two buried electrical splices. Damn the guy who built that! Good decision to pull out the panel & place the drywall. I don't care where the splices are, a box will be placed with a blank cover. One of them, the one next to the door, was where the original outside door lamp was. It's not in the middle of the wall section. I don't like that but I am still considering a sconce there anyway. The opening shown in the top two pictures is the original outside door. It's a 34" opening for a 32"+ door. The doors I getting on sale come in a maximum of 30" wide. So this would be a full cost exterior door. This laundry room is an add-on. There is no heating in it. I usually keep the door off the hinges stored some place in the house to allow the heat in the house to move into this area. After careful consideration- the door will be banished forever. It will be a pass through now. Much better and I save a few hundred on the door, installation, and trim work.

Out goes the wool paneling. Another hour of work and it will be ready for drywall, ceiling too.

A local drywall company, Kings Drywall, is brought in to do the drywall. They will do the laundry and repair all the openings throughout the house resulting from the laundry, kitchen, electric, plumbing and bathroom redesign. Two days for sheet rock installation and four for mudding.

After the mud was dry and sanded Kings Drywall vacuumed up. Now it's my turn. Wiped down the walls with a clean rag. Taking it outside frequently and shaking it out. I then vacuumed all the walls and ceiling with a brush attachment. Twice. No paint will adhere to powder. Try to just vacuum you will find that there will still be mud dust on the wall. It needs the scrub down first. I'm using Benjamin Moore's Fresh Start acrylic interior/exterior white 046 primer. This primer will cover and seal in just about anything. The corners are coated with a brush with careful attention paid to feathering the wet edges. The walls and ceiling are coated with a roller. I'm looking for full coverage and a smooth coat. I'm not worried about the floor, it will be replaced. I only have to clean up drips that I could tromp through. After prep, and painting is all about the prep, these are some of the primary rules-

As there is no good place to transition between the laundry to the kitchen so I will be using the same color in both rooms. First choice- complimentary 1450. What will 1450 look like? Paint can become something you don't expect when an entire wall is covered with it. I really won't know what to think until the floor is in too and that is a ways off. The wall and ceiling color is a very important element that ties in the kitchen's floor, backsplash, countertop, cabinets and appliances. The 1450 matches perfectly with the hard surfaces but I'm shying away from this bold choice. It's pink. Opposite side of the color wheel from pink is lime green a contrasting color. That's where my search will continue....tried a bright lemon green..good match, bright, this would work in a retro1950's look but the wrong style for where I'm going. Purchased a gallon of 505, a light mint green still on the bright side and is near to this web page's background color. It results in a calmer color combination all around with AF-20 for the ceiling in the kitchen. For the high-light wall a dark gray SP-15. The SP-15 had a purple base (they like to use blue & Red to go dark. I found that Mink 2112-10 is a pure brown and is very close to the backsplash color so I using this. This small wall is opposite the backsplash leading into the hallway and will balance the dark elements in the room. The lower ceiling in the laundry will be painted the same color as the walls. This is contrary to norm where a lower ceiling should be a lighter color to give the illusion of height. Using the same psychology by having this color on the low laundry ceiling and then a much lighter color on the higher kitchen ceiling, this will then make the kitchen feel much more expansive when entering it.

Fluorescent Oval 32-1/4" Long x 17" Wide x 4-3/4" Deep. Ceiling Light. Energy Star. Minka Lavery 863-84-PL Lamps Plus #25854. Two 32 watt T9 bulbs. White Acrylic Lens.

This room has a low ceiling. Check out the door on the right. The Minka Lavery 863-84-PL hugs the ceiling and gives plenty of headroom. The two bulbs provide lots of light in this room. This is an easy lamp to install. The components are light so are user friendly when working overhead. I used Dow's Great Stuff Fireblock to fill in the gaps around the AC box in the ceiling

This is a dry-fit of the baseboard molding. It matches the color of the lyptus cabinets.

The 3/4" window trim boards cut to fit. Next steps are to rip them flush with the wall surface, prime all cuts, paint with exterior grade latex gloss white, and nail them in. Nothing in this room is level, square, or plumb.

This lamp is installed next to the pass through adjacent to the entry door. Lamps Plus # 95399. When the outside light is on this one can be on too. I replaced the halogen bulb with an LED bulb that cost's $25 that should last. Worth it not to have the heat or electric usage. To leave this on 24 hrs a day it would cost less than $5.00 per year. Zenaro LED GU10 bulb SL-10B Series instead of GU10+ 110/130V 500W- halogen. The switch can be used to turn it off so its very versatile.

This little lamp is connected to the outside door light. The LED bulb uses just a small amount of juice.

Benjamin Moore paint offers about 3,500 colors. All of these colors are created from formulas which are combinations of paint bases and colorants.

Each paint type and finish (e.g. Interior Acrylic Eggshell, or Exterior Acrylic Trim) comes in four bases: Pastel Base (1B), Medium Base (2B), Deep Base (3B) and Ultra-Base (4B). Each base successively has less white and more room in the can for adding colorants. For example, the Pastel Base is nearly white while the Ultra-Deep Base is more clear. Because of this, each base has a maximum color depth. You could add an entire quart of red colorant to a pastel base and the resulting color will still be pink because of all the white already in the can.

Each base also has a maximum amount of colorant that can be added. Too much colorant relative to the paint can ruin the gallon.

Benjamin Moore uses 12 colorants in its formulas to make its colors. Unlike many paint brands which use a shared colorant system like Color Your World or Huls, Benjamin Moore creates and patents its own colorants. These colorants are:
Black (BK), Blue (BB), Brown (BR), Gray (GY), Green (TG), Magenta (MA), Orange (OG), Oxide Yellow (OY), Red (Rd), Red Oxide (Rx), White (WH) and Yellow (YW)

Benjamin Moore created a brand new proprietary colorant system for its new Aura Paint. They named it their colorlock system because the colorants employ new technology that embeds the pigments much more strongly into the paint film. This explains the far superior hiding and durability of the Aura Paint.

The colorants used for Benjamin Moore Aura are:
Blue (B1), Thalo Green (G1), Magenta (M1), Orange (O1), Red Toner (R1), Organic Red (R2), Oxide Red (R3), Black (S1), Gray (S2), White (W1), Organic Yellow (Y1) (Exterior use), Organic Yellow (Y2) and Oxide Yellow (Y3)

How are Benjamin Moore Paint Colors Created?