It’s week 4 of the One Room Challenge! The good news is that the floors are DONE! The bad news is that we had to tear out an entire wall. It’s definitely 1 step forward, 2 steps backyard around here. 

I’ll tell this story at the bottom of the post. Until then, let’s start with the fun part, the floors. I’m obsessed with rainbows right  now and thought this would be a fun place to add them.

Catch up on all of the laundry room renovation posts here-

week 1 / week 2 / week 3 / week 4 / week 5 / week 6

how to paint a DIY rainbow floor

Let’s start with the video tutorial so you get an overview on what I did. Then, I’ll dive in with more details below:

If the video doesn’t work here, you can watch it on YouTube here. P.s. I’m trying to build that page up, so if you’d subscribe, I’d really appreciate that!

SUPPLIES

• Paint for the stripes in the colors of your choice (1. Beloved Pink, 2. Shy Smile, 3. Ballet Rose, 4. Coral Fountain, 5. Lamplit, 6. Corn Stalk, 7. Frittata, 8. Frosted Sage, 9. Spring Reflection, 10. Country Weekend, 11. Serene Breeze, 12. Casade Green 13. Watery)
• TSP heavy duty cleaner 
• Paint roller tray 
• 4″ cabinet foam roller 
• Slick Stick
• Floor Paint
• Gator Hide Top Coat 
• Painter’s Tape 

inspiration

A Kate Spade showroom floor. Source

A 1975 rainbow nursery from Better Homes and Gardens. Source.

I had both of these inspiration images and ended up doing a combination of both with a nod to the rainbow art I recently painted.

step 1

Start by cleaning the floors really well. This room was a mess from all of the construction, so I used a shop vac to clean up most of the debris. Then I used TSP to clean the floors and prep for paint.

step 2

Next, I used a primer called Slick Stick (though Kiltz Original primer would work too). I did two coats with drying times in between. Just getting rid of the red paint made a huge difference!

step 3

And now it was time to do a layer of floor and porch paint. This laundry room used to be a porch, so I figured that’d be perfect! I went with a light gray color. I would have loved to do white, but this room gets a ton of traffic (it’s the main route to the backyard).

step 4

Finally, it was time to put down tape so that I could paint the rainbow stripes. I taped off 2″ stripes. Under the tape would stay gray and then I’d paint in rainbow colors. I used a measuring tape to mark the 2″ distance. Then I used a straight edge to mark where the tape would go. Last, I laid down the tape.

As I taped, I painted another coat of gray porch paint. The idea is that if the colorful paint bleeds, it won’t be noticeable because the grey will bleed, not the colors.

step 5

It was finally time to add the color! This was really easy because the tape guarded the floor. So, I quickly painted each color and pulled up the tape as I went (I find that I get crisp lines when the tape is still wet with paint).

I finished up with a clear coat of Gator Hide to protect the paint.

after

Ta da! I really love how this floor turned out! it is bright and happy! And I cannot wait to see how it works with the finished space.I love how much color this adds, but hopefully it won’t be too much. We carefully covered the floors in paper and cardboard to protect so this is probably the last you’ll see of the until the reveal.

the tankless water heater

Here’s a quick story of what happened with the tankless water heater. We picked a plumber to install it. He was willing to do some more custom work and said it’d take 2 days to complete. That sounded great, but 2 days turned to 3 and then 3 days turned to 4. We have an old house so extra time is to be expected. It was a tricky job- we ended up having 2 water heaters that had to be removed!

We don’t have time to keep missing days to work in here, so we were concerned. The night before the 4th day of install, my husband read the manual and saw that it hadn’t been installed as we’d like. We could hide it in the wall, the heater was leaking, and we wanted to change the wall it’d been installed in.

The location change was because having it on an exterior wall made it at risk for freezing in the winter. And piping everything so far from the original location made for an excess in piping- it was a huge mess. So we paid the plumber what was due and told him that we’d finish.

taking over

My husband relocated the tankless water heater and while working on that, he discovered some major rot in the walls. He concluded that this wall would be better to just come down.

This happened yesterday- I was already stressed that we were still down to the studs. Little did I know that we literally wouldn’t have a wall! 

The new studs are now up (the old ones were riddled with holes from the plumbing relocation). We have insulation on this wall. But still, I’m nervous! I have a VERY tight schedule to finish on time. Pleas cross your fingers for me! At least the floors are done! And this room is tiny so there is still hope!

p.s. want to catch up on all the laundry room posts? See them here!

Laundry Room

Laundry Room tour. Ideas for how to makeover a small space with big style. I used rainbow colors, botanical wallpaper, and white subway tile for a modern design. DIY folding table counter top and washer and dryer pedestal. My dream remodel with high end decorations and shelves.

Laundry Room Renovation Costs

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One Room Challenge- Laundry Room Reveal

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One Room Challenge 5

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One Room Challenge- DIY Rainbow Floor

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One Room Challenge- 3

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One Room Challenge -2

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One Room Challenge- 1

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Now you know how my room is coming along, make sure to check out what everyone else is up to this week!

 

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