My Laundry Room Update with DIY Barn Door and Painted Floor Tutorial

YAY!!!!!!! IT’S FINALLY HERE…MY LAUNDRY ROOM UPDATE!!!!  This project was quite the process and a lot of work but well worth the after! Even after my body hurts for days from all of the labors of love, the end result ALWAYS makes me want to continue diy’ing! This room has no natural light and was by far the hardest room to photograph in the end but here it is and I now want to do my laundry, lol. Ok, maybe not, but sleeping in here on the floor would not be a bad idea. I’m going to start with the process of how we made the barn door along with the painting technique and some affiliate links of where you can find some of the supplies I used, so here goes…

(complete source list at the end of post)

 

 

 

Here is our lovely before pictures and if you remember me on my Insta stories talking about my messy room with my daughter’s laundry all over, this is actually the clean room. I snapped these with my cell phone to give you an idea of what the before looked like.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make the barn door we started with 4-1″x10″x10′ boards and 4-1″x8″x6′ boards and cut them to size for the barn door hardware we had. The size of your boards will depend on how high your ceilings are and what preference you have for the thickness of your boards on your barn door. Our ceilings are 8 foot high in our upstairs (where our laundry room is)  and I wanted the door planks to look wide so we went with wider sizes. To start, I began by sanding all of the boards with 100 grit sandpaper and then wiped them down to get off all of the dust.

 

 

 

I then applied Minwax special walnut stain. This may surprise you because my door looks grey but we will get to why that is later.

 

 

 

After your boards are stained and dried (I let mine dry in the sun for a couple of hours) you will then apply vaseline in the spots where you want the paint to chip off more. If you see how the bottom of my door is more chipped off, this is where I applied my vaseline. I just used my fingers and wiped it all over in the places I wanted chipping. On the top of my door I did not apply the vaseline. I wanted an ombre affect on the paint so I tried to make the chippiness increase as the door planks got further down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After you have the vasoline in the places you want, then paint the entire board with white chalk paint. You can find the recipe here of the chalk paint that I make. I used the color White Dove Benjamin Moore and had it color matched to Behr Paint because it’s more budget friendly and then made it into chalk paint. I painted on two coats, letting it dry completely prior to painting my second coat.

 

 

 

 

I did one board at a time and made sure it was the way I wanted it before moving on to the next. After my board was painted and dried, I scraped off the bottom of the board with a paint scraper in the places where I applied the vaseline and then wiped it down with a clean rag to get most of the vaseline off. I then sanded the top down with 100 grit sand paper with my hand sander until it was distressed to my liking in the areas that I wanted it distressed.  I used 60 grit on the bottom half to chip off even more of the paint and then finished the bottom half with 100 grit as well to smooth it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me tell you…you will need a lot of sandpaper, because when you are sanding off the paint, the paint gets stuck on the sandpaper and then does not sand as well. I was changing my sandpaper about 2x on every long board and once on the smaller boards that go horizontal. And here is the reason that the stain turns a greyish color…  When sanding the white paint off, the paint on the sand paper turns the dark stain more greyish looking because of the paint that gets stuck to the sandpaper. I liked it like that so it didn’t bother me and it gave my door more of a multidimensional look because of the special walnut stain showing through in certain areas too.

 

 

 

 

My hubs was the pro at hanging the door. We used some amazing hardware from The Barn Door Hardware Store and loved it so much! I am absolutely not being paid to say that. There are step by step instructions along with all of the hanging hardware included in the box when it comes. Just make sure to hang it in as many studs as you can. Our door was drilled into 4 studs across the wall above. The board what we used on the top here is not needed but I wanted it for the look of the door. Sorry for the blurry pictures, by this time I was covered in paint and my camera kept dying so one pic is all we had. As you can see here, my hubs predrilled all of the holes and then drilled the bolts into the studs.

 

 

 

 

Here he is adding extra bolts that he bought at the hardware store into the studs at the ends. He likes to be extra safe when hanging heavy things which is a great idea but not needed.

 

 

 

 

When the boards were all finished the way I wanted, I lined them up the way I wanted and my hubs drilled them together backwards. Yes, I’m really not kidding but he was sweet enough to do it over for me. This view here is of the back of the door. When finishing a barn door, both sides must be finished, hence why it took so long. We laid down the horizontal boards (under the long vertical boards) where I wanted them placed on the door and made sure they were level prior to screwing them into place. If you see all of the spots here, that is where my husband drilled them into place.

 

 

 

 

He used these trim head screws because they make smaller holes in the spots where the screws are placed. No pilot holes are needed because they are so small.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, blurry picture, still covered in paint.

 

 

 

 

After all of the screws were in place my husband turned the door over and added the wheels hardware for the track. Yay!! The barn door is finished and now onto the floors! For anyone wondering, in case you are going to take this project on over a weekend. The barn door took a good 2-2.5 days because of the painting technique. I’m sure if your technique was not this detailed, it would go faster.

 

 

 

 

 

Onto the floors…I wanted to close my eyes and wish this into completion, and even tried, but it didn’t happen. This was by far the hardest part of my laundry room update but well, well, well worth it!  I’m so in love with the end result!  Here is a before picture of the floors.

 

 

 

 

To start off I scrapped up any dirt spots or grime off of the floor with my paint scraper.

 

 

 

 

And then wiped them down with a wet rag and dried them. Make sure your floors are spic and span prior to painting or you will have a mess.

 

 

 

 

I taped off my trim and then I was ready to paint. Let the fun begin!

 

 

 

 

I used an old paint brush with oil based primer and painted the grout lines first. I used this kilz brand primer. The oil based primers help the paint to stick more, keep from chipping, and keep from yellowing. I highly recommend using the oil based primer for these reasons, even though it smells so horrible. I painted 2 coats on all of the grout lines, letting the paint dry 2 hours in between each coat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was then time to start rolling on the oil based primer. I used a foam roller and a handy dandy paper plate for my paint tray. The less clean up when using oil based primer the better because it is so horrible to clean up. When painting just make sure you don’t have any lumps or lines in your painting surface and oh yes, don’t paint your self into a corner or you might die from the paint fumes until it’s dry enough to get out of the room. But seriously, I highly recommend the large mask with filters on the side for this job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a point where the floor was so white, I was having white out vision. I painted 3 coats of oil based primer on the floor, letting dry 2 hours with a fan between each coat. Dry time is super important, especially when painting with oil based primer because it keeps your floor from being sticky. I wanted the oil based primer to fully coat the tile so that when I came back with my chalk paint to paint the floor that it would go on like a dream, and that is exactly what it did. After my floors were primed I used 2 coats of chalk paint that I made. You can find the recipe here. I also used a foam roller for the chalk paint and just painted into the grout with the roller too. It’s easier to get into the grout with the end of the roller when painting with chalk paint because it’s not sticky. I used the same white that I use most of the time, Benjamin Moore Dove White color matched to Behr Paint. I also let the chalk paint dry 2 hours with a fan in between. It was amazing how nicely the chalk paint went on.

 

 

 

 

After I had my chalk paint covered and dry. I decided where I wanted my stencil and started stenciling. I used the color “Winter Way” from Behr Paint and also used the same recipe as linked above to make it into chalk paint. I can’t tell you how much I love this color! I want to paint so many more things with it now. It’s Blackish with a hint of blue making it a deep dark black/navy. I found my stencil at Royal Design Studio Stencils and the stencil name is “The Lisboa Tile Stencil”. The stencil I chose is larger than my tiles but it still works perfect when you don’t paint into the grout. I love the old vintage look it gave my floor after I distressed my floors. Royal Design Studio sends detailed instructions of how to use the tile and clean it. I started my tile design in the middle of my laundry room door to make it more cohesive when looking in from the outside. I had to fix the front there where I started that is why it is white. The stencil instructions will also tell you how to get up to the edge of your walls. I didn’t have my trim taped off so I used a piece of thin cardboard between my stencil and the wall when painting close to the wall. The stencil was so easy to use. After each stenciled area is finished you just pick it up and match it up to the edge of the finished stencil on the floor. I did not let my dry in between because I knew I was going to distress it and didn’t mind if there were little goofs here and there. I wanted my floors to look old and worn and that is definitely the look I got.

 

 

 

 

Here are the floors all finished and dry. Now for the sanding.

 

 

 

 

Once again sorry about the cell phone shots, still covered in paint. I started distressing them by hand for about the first 5 tiles. That didn’t last long with my poor aching hands so I went and got my hand sander to finish distressing them with 100 grit sand paper and if you do this please make sure you shut the door  and wear a mask because there is about to be a dark dust storm. It actually wasn’t too horrible but I did have to wipe down my entire laundry room because of the dust…good thing its not a large room.  Here is the photo of the floors all distressed. Wow, I love them even more than I thought I would!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After my floors were distressed how I wanted them and the floors were swept, my daughter and I got down on our hands and knees with tiny paint brushes and touched up all of the grout with the original white chalk paint that I used. Some may not mind a little paint in their grout but after that much work I was not about to have any paint in my grout. I’m so glad that I touched it up now that they are all sealed. It actually didn’t take as long to touch up as you might think. Then it was time to seal them up! My sweet friend Erin over @porterlanehome also painted her floors and told me that hers were in a high traffic area and holding up so well after months of use. She told me that this is what she used which was so helpful. Thank you, Erin! I did not want any sheen to my floors so I bought the matte finish. I was a little skeptical that there would not be ANY sheen at all but they turned out amazing AND no sheen at all! I am so happy with how they sealed! I also used a foam roller to apply this sealer and it went on beautifully. Just make sure your sealer does not pool in any areas. It says you only need one coat since it is 3x the coverage in one application but I gave them three coats, letting them dry 2 hours with a fan between each application because of the advice of my sweet friend Erin. There is no “stickiness” and they dried beautifully! After they dried and cured, I actually slid the dryer and washer back in with towels underneath them with no issues.

 

 

 

 

The paint color on my wall is Painters White Behr Paint which is a whitish grey and the floor stencil was painted with Winter Way Behr paint which is a blackish blue (made into chalk paint). I’m not sure that the color in the paint swatch picture best describes the beautiful colors. I couldn’t be happier with both colors. I painted my cabinets with the same process that I used on my kitchen that you can see here. I used my homemade chalk paint Benjamin Moore White Dove color matched to Behr Paint.

 

 

 

 

So one more picture of the before…

 

 

 

 

And I could not be happier with the after! I love it so much and it ALMOST makes me want to do laundry, or at least live in this room! I found this old wood ironing board at a thrift store and stenciled it with a stencil from Walmart

 

 

 

I usually don’t take pictures with my chandeliers lit up but seeing as how we have no light in this room without it, it’s a must. Can you believe I scored this chandelier at a thrift store for $7.50?!?!?!?! It had brassy gold parts on it and I painted all of the brassy gold parts with white chalk paint and then rubbed a little dark wax on to decrease the starkness of the white. I love it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted some large glass containers for my shelf without paying an arm, a leg, and a body but I couldn’t find any until I decided to check Walmart one day. Yes, you heard me right, Walmart! These large glass containers were just a little over $11.00 a piece! And the bins beside them that are holding all of my cleaners and plastic bottle detergents are from Walmart too at only a little over $8 a piece!! I know, crazy! I couldn’t believe it! I found the wood hangers at Walmart as well…super budget friendly (you can also find some here)!

 

 

 

A while back I painted this old mirror with white chalk paint and added some dark wax for more of an antiqued look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve had a lot of questions of where I found these large crates that I am using for laundry bins. I actually found them on Craigslist for $5 a piece. I just typed in “shipping crates” and what do you know, some people get rid of these regularly that live in larger cities and get tons shipments in these all of the time. I stained them with Minwax weathered oak and special walnut stain and had some old casters from a junk yard that my hubs added to two of them and then bought 4 casters from home depot that were the same size for the other crate (you can also find there here). Eventually I would like to add laundry bags that hang over the sides and make little signs that say “lights”, “darks”, and “colors”, that way when my daughter throws her laundry in here it will at least be sorted, maybe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you all so much for following along and for all of your sweet comments about my laundry room. I’m so sorry I could not respond to every one of them but hopefully this helps answer your questions. Feel free to leave questions in the comments if there is something that I did not cover. Have a wonderful day my friends!

 

 

 

Source List:

 

Barn Door Wood: Home Depot

Barn Door Hardware: The Barn Door Hardware Store

Vintage Wood Ironing Board: Thrift Store and Stenciled with Walmart Stencil

Chandelier: Thrift Store

Laundry Crates: Craigslist

Laundry Crates Casters: Junk Yard and Home Depot, you can also find them here

Large Glass Containers: Walmart

Storage Bins on Shelf: Walmart, some great budget friendly ones here too

Wood Hangers: Walmart, you can also find some here

Old Wash Boards: Thrift Store

 

Paint and Stain Colors: 

 

Barn Door: Stain Color: Minwax Special Walnut, White Paint: White Dove Benjamin Moore color matched to Behr Paint recipe here

Painted Floors: Oil Based Kilz Primer, White Dove Benjamin Moore color matched to Behr Paint chalk paint recipe here

stenciled with Winter Way Behr Paint made into chalk paint (recipe linked previously)

Walls: Painters White Behr Paint

Cabinets: White Dove Benjamin Moore Paint color matched to Behr Paint, process of cabinet painting you can see here

“The Lisboa Tile Stencil”: Royal Design Studio Stencils