ORC Week 4 - Cabinet, Door, and Trim Installation
Installing Trim, Interior Doors, and Cabinets
It’s week 4 of the One Room Challenge and we’re officially halfway to the finish line! This week the laundry room got a big upgrade when we installed the freshly painted cabinets, a new door, and the trim!
What’s the One Room Challenge?
If you’re new here, the One Room Challenge is an event where DIYers from all around encourage and motivate one another to makeover one room in their homes over a period of 8 weeks. In my case, I’m finally tackling our laundry room remodel.
Each Wednesday during the challenge I'll share a post with the previous week's progress until the final reveal on November 16th!
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Cabinet Installation
This was my first time installing cabinets. No tutorial here today, folks. I definitely don’t feel like I have enough experience to teach someone else how to install cabinets.
But I will sum it up by telling you there was a lot of shimming and leveling - which is typical for an older home. Luckily, we only had two cabinets to install so it didn’t take a ton of time.
As a side note, how good is the color combination of the beige cabinets against those terracotta walls!?
We also added a couple of floor-to-ceiling boards between the smaller cabinet and washer/dryer to eventually make the appliances look built-in.
In our last two houses, the washer and dryer lived in an unfinished basement flush with cobwebs and interesting smells. And before we moved our laundry room upstairs, the washer and dryer were in a more finished space, but still not as nice as I've always wanted. And then, of course, they moved up here where they sat in the unfinished room for a year.
Needless to say, I’m ridiculously happy about the idea of having built-in appliances in a beautifully finished space! I can’t wait to see the clean, finished look they’ll have when everything is permanently in place and painted. I feel so fancy already. Plus, having a place to FINALLY store my laundry detergent feels like a dream.
To thread the washer hoses through, we bored some holes in the faux wall. I’ll probably hide the access to the waterlines with a piece of artwork or something.
As I mentioned in my design plans, I’m still planning on building a cabinet to go above the washer and dryer that will finish that corner off nicely and hide the dryer vent too.
It’s definitely intimidating to think about building it myself, but there’s no way we’d be able to buy a stock cabinet in the measurements we need. Plus, it’s an opportunity for me to grow, learn something new, and build some confidence!
Door Installation
We also took some time last week to install a new door! This is especially exciting because this is the last door on the second floor we needed to replace! Feels like a bit of a milestone.
As with cabinets, door installation involves a whole lot of leveling and shimming - with the added task of removing excess flooring and drywall to make it fit juuuuust right.
I left most of the door installation to Lucius but made sure I was at the ready with tools, snacks, and entertainment. I don’t like to brag, but I’m pretty sure it turned out so well simply because I was present.
Trim
Our other big change last week was adding trim, specifically baseboards and door casings, which immediately made everything feel more finished.
We used the same basic baseboard that we have throughout the house and installed the same fluted trim that we've used on all the other upstairs doors. Once all the trim was nailed and caulked into place, I decided to paint it the same color as the cabinets.
I talked about my longing for contrast trim during the loft renovation. And although Lucius talked me out of it in that space, I went for it in the laundry room! I painted the back of the door in the same color too. I’m unstoppable now!
I still need to touch up the wall color around the trim for a nice, clean finish, but I’ll save that for another day.
While we were working, we also decided to switch the hinges on the dryer to the opposite side. Unfortunately, during that process, the bracket that holds the door in place fell into the dryer cavity. So at the end of the day, Lucius went on a fun little adventure to retrieve it.
He wasn’t particularly thrilled. BUT, we found the bracket and were able to put it back where it belongs.
Final Thoughts
One of my favorite parts about DIY is seeing the designs I come up with come to life - and knowing I did it myself! This room is no different. I can’t express how pumped I am to see this room come together.
Stay tuned for next week because we’re trying our hand at installing CONCRETE COUNTERTOPS and I won’t lie that I’m a little nervous! I’ll be sharing updates over on Instagram as well so make sure you follow along there too.