Before + After Laundry Room

Last week I was in the process of redoing my laundry room. Finally. I have been contemplating this redo for a long time. Just needed to get motivated. I mentioned on Friday that my home was on a home tour for charity in my neighborhood on Saturday. Believe me, there is nothing more motivating than 1000+ people walking through your house to get things done!

Here are the before photos…

 Look how gross this sink was. Terrible. I did NOT want to do any hand washing in here. Yuck…

 My fabulous hubby took out the sink and did all the plumbing. He's awesome in that way…

 This in one of the photos I posted last week. This was the existing counter top. Dated blue formica…

 And, the ugly linoleum floor…

As you can see, the installers cut the linoleum too short so it didn't even go under the baseboards. Arg…

After! I now love going in my laundry room! It turned out to be such a clean, fresh place, which is what we all want from our laundry, isn't it? The best part is, this redo cost me less than $575 total!

Let's start with the chandelier. Remember I was painting it back here? A steal at $20 from my neighborhood Facebook page. I redid the existing countertops with the tutorial from Little Green Notebook. The supplies for this DIY cost about $45.

I had a hard time deciding what to do about the flooring. Obviously the linoleum was a disaster, but the thought of taking everything out of the room to put in tile was more time and money than I wanted to spend. I really love how the Flor tiles have held up in my entry way. I went back to the Flor site and poked around for a good deal. I found the green tiles (Peter in Grass) in the outlet section for only $5.99/each. The striped tiles (Fall in Line Jade) were in the sale section for only $8.48/each. I ordered equal numbers of both and crossed my fingers that they would match! Total for the Flor tiles was about $200.

It took me approximately 2 hours to cut the tiles and line them up. I even cut out a hole in one of the tiles below the window for the heating vent. So easy and I'm thrilled with how they look! The Flor tiles do not go under the washer/dryer or the freezer in the room but cover all the rest of the flooring. You can't see any of the old linoleum unless you look closely to the sides of the dryer and freezer.

 The sink is from Lowe's and was about $170.

Bins were on clearance from Target for about $6/each. $126 total. (they were on clearance in store, showing full price on line FYI)

I'm so happy with how this turned out. I love going into my laundry room now! The organized bins are wonderful. Hubby and I took the doors off the cupboard right above the washer, removed the center devider piece off and covered the shelves. Three of the bins fit perfectly across. They hold rags, cleaning supplies, bags, etc. What do you think? Teresa

FREEBIE!!!!! Big Girl's Curtains + Produce Bags!

We have a lot going on. Aside from all the fun summer stuff, we are making changes to our house. We are getting a new pantry (desperately needing), back splash, sink, faucet and pass through in our kitchen as well as painting almost every room in the house. Whew. Big Girl felt like she needed a new look to her room. She picked out bedding and is going to have her walls painted lavender. She wanted plain white curtains. We were in luck, the white ones I took out of the sewing room during the redo were just right! The old ones came down. I was a bit sentimental as they are ones I made for her 6 years ago when we bought this house. One set went on the bare window in my laundry room. The other…well…got washed…then, went under the knife (ah, scissors rather) and became TEN Green Bag Lady bags…

I also had a lot of thin (viole) fabric hanging around and made a bunch of produce bags…

Don't you think they make a winning combination? How about winning a set like this…

TEN winners can win a set similar to the one pictured above. Those TEN lucky folks will get ONE Green Bag Lady Big Girl Curtain Bag (long title, sheesh) and FOUR produce bags! Yippeeee!

Also, rumor has it that Bagette Dad has somewhere in the neighborhood of 180 bags on hand that he is ITCHING to mail to new bag toters. Tell everyone you know to come and enter this freebie. They may win one of the fun prize packs above, OR they will win a Green Bag Lady bag regardless (if they don't already have one).

TO ENTER THIS FUN FREEBIE, DO THE FOLLOWING:

•LEAVE A COMMENT, IN THE COMMENT LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IN THIS FORMAT: name(at)something(dot)com it is important to spell out dot and at so you don't get spam, if you DO NOT leave an email address, we will not hunt you down to send you a freebie, thanks.

•In your comment, tell us what changes you are working on this summer!

•DEADLINE FOR THE FREEBIE IS 10 PM (CST) Monday JULY 11, 2011.

•TEN LUCKY WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN FROM THE COMMENTS TO WIN! Warms my heart that 10 of you will be toting bags from Big Girl's room!

•However, anyone that enters that does not already have a bag from us will get one! :)

Good Luck + Happy Summer! Teresa

International entries OK.

Workday Wednesday

As you know from my last Photo Finish Friday post that I was in California for 6 days visiting Harmony to help her with home projects. We put new flooring in her family room. Doesn't it look great?? It's an eco-friendly laminate that snaps together. A flooring guru friend of hers helped us get started and then we ran with it! I haven't had so much power tool bonding time in forever. You might recognize some of Harmony's fabrics in the photo below…

During the flooring process we started talking about what to do with her kitchen. It needs some updating too. I think we are going to do the same concrete counters that I did in my laundry room. They would look awesome over the gold Formica. We are also planning to paint the cabinetry. In the meantime, I thought it would be really cool to do a wood slice wall on the bottom of her kitchen island. We cut branches from her yard into 1/2 inch to 2 inch slices and then stuck them on with eco-carpenters adhesive. Oh my! I LOVE LOVE LOVE how this looks! I'm seriously considering a project in my house now. I just can't figure out where.

 I'm planning to cover the right section with slices the next time I visit.

Here we are in the new family room. I'm going to make Harmony some couch pillows with reds and blues in them to tie in the rug.

We had so much fun, what are you up to? Teresa

P.S.--Posting of this week's Photo Finish Friday will happen later today. I can't get my days straight this week!

Photo Finish Friday

Super cute snack bags are now available in my etsy shop!

I'm not too far from here.

To make, for the shelves in my laundry room.

Cute etsy shop!

Have you seen this? Thanks Jennifer.

I have been binge watching this on Netflix, you??

I have a hankering for these.

So, here is the weekend. Not much going on tonight (should clean that sewing room!) and tomorrow night I'm going to an 80s party. I have the hair crimper and David Bowie t-shirt all ready! I'll post a photo. I'm sure you all want to see my crimped side pony! Teresa

Workday Wednesday

WHEW! I have been busy busy this past week. I finished the quilt I started way back here.

Our electrician came and hung the chandelier I was painting waaaaaay back here. I'll show you the complete laundry room redo when I'm finished. Lots to do yet…

 I had to load about 50 bobbins. No kidding…

It does help to use the cone holder that the awesome Bagette Tami gave me. The cone thread is SO much cheaper than regular spools. These bobbins should last me for a while…

 And, of course, I loaded up my etsy shop with all this goodness…

I had many requests from neighborhood peeps for fabric snack bags. I made a bunch. I'll put some of these on etsy soon too…

 And, this is what my sewing room currently looks like. Um, ya…

What are you up to? Would you like to come over and clean this mess? Please say yes. :) Teresa

Photo Finish Friday

I'm thinking of painting my kitchen island (above). Maybe green? Maybe navy? Opinions welcome.

This is interesting.

Do you have an air fryer? Do tell!

These have been around for a while but worth mentioning again.

This is cool.

Cute laundry room redo. I enjoy mine every day.

Hubby and I ended up scrapping our plans to visit MN last weekend due to the "snowmageddon" they were experiencing up there. Glad we didn't go, they got 18 inches! This weekend I'm playing a tennis match and hemming prom dresses, you?? Teresa

Workday Wednesday

I've been keeping busy with paint and thread. I've mentioned my neighborhood FaceBook page in past posts. I love getting things off there cheap and transforming them into something special.

Take this $20 chandelier, It's kinda ugly and dated.

A can of spray paint later and it looks like this! I'll show you the finished product once it is up in my laundry room! Can't wait.

Then there was this kinda sad table that I got from a neighbor down the street for $5. I was so excited as I was looking for a small table just like this for our deck. I was not at all thrilled about the color and thought I would have to do lots of taping and such as to not spray the glass. However, when I flipped it over, I just had to take out 4 screws to take the whole thing apart. Shazam!

It now looks like this and is really happy with the other furniture. Incidentally, I bought this set of love seat and chairs on said neighborhood FB page for only $45. It did not come with cushions though. I looked into making them but man, inserts and outdoor fabric is expensive. Then, I started looking into buying them and boy, that is expensive too! Sheesh. Well, I dug around on the internet and found these cushions on clearance at Home Decorators for a steal. Yipee!

Here is the last piece of furniture I'll bore you with. Again, got this on FB for $20. I really needed a chair for my desk in my bedroom and this vintage cane chair had lots of potential. The color was all wrong though.

I sprayed it a light aqua blue and look, don't you think she looks happy in her new spot in my bedroom?

 As for sewing, made a tennis bag for a friend…

 Working on 4 wine bags for the same friend…

 And, finishing up a quilt (my first adventure into triangles) for a special friend who had a baby girl…

Ok, enough of all my junk, what are you doing? What are you making? What are you spray painting? Do tell! Teresa

Workday Wednesday

This week has pretty much been consumed with house projects though I did manage to pack up send freebie bags to Bagette Dad…

 I am redoing the counter tops in my laundry room. They were this ugly blue formica…

And, I have plans for this hideous linoleum too. Do you see how it doesn't even go all the way under the lip of the cabinets? Ya, they cut it too short. Ugh…

Here is the first coat of the concrete I am coating on the counters. I am using this tutorial from Jenny at Little Green Notebook…

And, while the bagettes were here on Sunday, we got a visit right outside the studio of three deer. Two bucks and a doe. These two decided underneath the trampoline was a good spot for shade…

What are you up to this week? Do tell. Teresa

Frankenstein and Single Ladies. . .

We, here at Green Bag Lady, like to use as much of the donated fabric as we can. Sometimes pieces are too big to make a bag but not big enough for BOTH sides of the bag. So, we cut off some around the edge. These small pieces can become handles, or they can become part of a bag. We stitch these bits together. . .we have called these bags different names over the years like. . .

•Island of Misfit Toys Bags (from the Rudolph movie)

•Orphan Bags

•Scrap Bags

•Pieced Bags

•Ugly Duckling Bags (compliments of Bagette Kathleen)

•Frankenstein Bags

I think I have settled on Frankenstein bags since he was pieced together too. . .

Some turn out quite lovely, no? Maybe those are Bride of Frankenstein bags. . .
Then we have the Single Ladies (Little Man version, must SEE!). . .these are fabric pieces that were only enough for 1/2 of a bag. We call them Single Ladies until they find a partner. . .
It is so nice when they finally (after years on match.com) find that special someone. . .it makes us all very happy. . .aaaaahhhhh. . .





Have a happy day. These bags are like my life you know, I have to piece everything together on a daily basis just to get everyone where they need to be and it is SO nice when all the socks match from the dryer. I do have a pile of Single Lady socks in my laundry room that are just screaming to be stuffed in a pet bed. They have been on match.com far too long. Teresa