Like so many over the past two years, I have moved into a new place, and while it’s new to me, it’s not new to the world, which means it needs some serious TLC.
Over my youth, I was lucky enough to apprentice with my dad, a general contractor and pick up some of the tricks of the trade, aka the basics. With that knowledge and a little outside help from experts, I’ve managed to makeover five homes, over 20 rooms, and that’s just for myself, so when I moved into my new place, that required some repair and was desperate for a makeover, I just had to dive in.
Today, we are going to focus on a mudroom makeover. We’ll go through the steps one by one, outline what we spent and on what, so you can copy the format and use this as inspiration as you dive into your home DIY project, as it is all about making your home your own, with a bit of help from Home Depot.
BEFORE:
As you can see, the mudroom needs more than a bit of love, so that’s precisely what it’s going to get. Walls fixed (as best we can), the metal around the window, baseboards and walls painted, new floor, and some furniture and decor.
So, where do we begin? After you’ve made your colour and style choices for the makeover based on what you love, it’s time to start this exciting process, so, let’s begin.
- Clear out the space – It probably goes without saying that you should clear everything out of the space, but you’d be surprised how many people try to do full room makeovers while shifting around the contents of the room. As I’ve learned along the way, it’s just best to completely clear out the space, remove the baseboards and start fresh. If that’s not an option, shove everything into the middle, and cover everything with drop sheets or old sheets.
- Measure everything and write it down – I remember working with my dad, and one of the things he repeated over and over was measuring three times, cut once. While we may not be doing any cutting today, it’s imperative you measure the room. Wall height and length so you can work out the room’s square footage. That pertains to the amount of paint you’ll need, to the number of floor tiles, so make sure to measure twice, write it down and have it at hand as you work your way through your project.
- Spackle any imperfections or small holes in the wall – There’s a great product that I’ve come to use called DryDex. It’s a spackling that goes on bright pink, and when it’s thoroughly dried and ready to sand, it turns white. So trowel it on, level it out, let it dry. (Available at Home Depot)
- Sand the Spackled areas – With fine sandpaper, sand the areas down to make them as level as possible, keeping in mind most old places have walls that are wildly off. (wear a mask while sanding along with protective glasses if possible to avoid contact with the face.)
- Vaccum the mess – Once you’ve finished all that, you’re going to need to clean up. Pick up any big pieces of debris or mess by hand with gloves on, and then vacuum up all the remaining debris. Keeping the space clean along the way is not only helpful. It’s also imperative to the quality of the transformation.
- Wash the walls – Once the vacuuming is completed, it’s time to wash the walls as even primer doesn’t stick to oily or dirty walls. Wash walls with sugar water or just water. Watch not to scruff spackled areas but only run the cloth or sponge over them lightly to remove any leftover dust.
- Tape and Cover – Tape around anything you don’t want to paint over after the walls are dry. Window and door frames and the baseboards if you’ve left them on. Once that’s done, lay down drop cloths or sheets to cover the Floor.
- Prime and Paint – If the walls aren’t too bad, you can probably just paint, but to be safe, you can do one of two things: Prime the walls first or buy a paint plus primer combo in your desired colour. Chances are you might have to do a second coat, but see how it plays out after the first. (Paint bought from Home Depot: Mountain Mist, BEHR Interior Eggshell Enamel Paint & Primer)
- Redo the Floor (then wait five days) – While I’m aware not everyone will want to redo their Floor, there are some straightforward ways to do so. Best case scenario, you rip out the flooring down to the wood, tile the floor, put down hard food, etc. Still, in many older places, there are so many levels of Floor that have all glued themselves together it just isn’t always an option, so we found some excellent peel and stick vinyl tiles and tiled them right over the old Floor that was already there. We were able to do so as the existing Floor was reasonably level, the Floor was still relatively low even with multiple layers, and we scrubbed the life out of the old Floor before tiling over. (Flooring also from Home Depot, FloorPops Eclipse 12-inch x 12-inch Peel & Stick Vinyl Tile)
- Touch Up’s – Once you’ve completed the Floor or cleaned it up if you liked what was there, it’s time to do any touch-ups and reattached the baseboards. Feel free to do any wall touch up’s with paint. We are human. We do miss things.
- Fix Electrical (should usually be left for the pros) – While we suggest that you hire an electrician for any electrical work, by shutting off the power to the house using an electrical tester, and much caution, we changed out the wall plug as it was utterly yellow/brown and partially broken.
- Build or repurpose furniture – We had some pieces we wanted to put in the room, one of which needed a makeover. We also needed more storage, so we bought the cubby bench from Home Depot and then used white paint and a clear coat to refurbish the toy box. We also bought grey spray paint and recovered the scarf rack and coat hanger backing. We left the table as-is and, of course, put together the new store bench we purchased. (Spray paints picked up at Home Depot, along with the South Shore Vito 3-Cubby Storage Bench in Pure White)
- Place furniture – Once you’ve given the space another cleaning, it’s time to place the furniture in the desired spaces that look good but also work functionally for you and yours.
- Add wall fixtures, hooks, and art – After the furniture is all in place, take some time to add your art, secure the hooks and place some of your things back in the room. Just be sure to be organized. You’ll be so glad you did later.
- Add decor, accents and pillows – While many might think that adding the little things doesn’t make a difference, I’m here to tell you it does. From art to hooks, throws, to cushions, it’s all about the special extras when you are looking to put the finishing touches on your home makeover. (DECOMOMO 2Pc Cotton Rope Baskets – Beige And White purchased from Home Depot)
- Clean – After everything is as it should be and you’re happy with the overcome, be sure to dust, vacuum and mop to start your space in tip-top shape. (If you have done the floors, you typically have to wait five or more days until you can wash the floors, see instruction before doing so)
- Done! It’s now time to enjoy your space, take and share your pics and invite people over to enjoy and secretly marvel at your hard work!
AFTER:
So that’s what we did and here is what we spent on it:
We already had cleaning supplies, vacuum, tools and a measuring tape, and most of the painting supplies, brush and drop cloths, but if there are things listed you don’t have, you’d have to figure that in as well.
The Spackling was 12.23, and the sandpaper was 4.23. The paint was 75.99, the cotton rope baskets were 129.96 (2 sets of 2), the clear spraypaint was 19.82, the grey was 9.91, the flooring was 278, the storage bench was 149, the grey mirror was 110, and we spent an additional 40 on painting supplies and brushes. We also spent 13.98 on a new coat rod for the closet.
That brings that grand total for the makeover to CAD 843.12, aka under 1000.00!
The Extras:
The project took the two of us about seven days (mainly because we had to wait for 5 of that for the Floor to dry), but there was a fair bit of work involved, but, once it was finished, it was all so worth it, check out the makeover process for yourself in the TikTok below.
@themaleaddictMy mudroom makeover. What do you think? ✌️😄🔨
* Some products provided by Home Depot for this makeover and review.
markmunroe
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