Painting a Laundry Organizer and its Challenges

I don’t know about you, but my laundry room often gets overlooked.  Not only does it hold the washer/dryer, but there is a utility sink, toilet, cat litter box, laundry shoot and a French rolling basket. It’s hard to make it pretty with a cat litter box…..is there anything more unattractive?

I purchased this piece of furniture with wire baskets years ago from Pottery Barn. Of course I didn’t have any great before pictures, but you can see it is white.

The baskets hold everything from toilet paper to laundry pods to spot remover.  The wicker basket on top is the landing place for the laundry shoot located directly above. I’m not sure I still like the “clothes line” painting on the wall, but I don’t dislike it enough to paint over it just yet.

Guessing the original paint was lacquer, I sanded the glossy finish so the new coat of paint would stick.  I used 400 grit paper that I wrapped around a sanding sponge.

In this photo, you can see the damage done by detergent spills.  I guess if it can get grass stains out, it can eat away at paint.

I tried hand sanding this~~just roughing up the surface a little.  However, when I applied my first coat of paint, it smeared and didn’t seem to stick.  So much so that I wiped it off.  Time for serious power tools. I then re-sanded it.

You may notice I have only one sock on…..that’s because I accidentally stepped on the lid which was facing up and of course, loaded with paint.  It wasn’t until I started walking on the terrace and leaving blue footprints behind that I realized it.  Truly, I am the messiest painter I know.

Here’s what it looked like after the first coat.  Obviously there was still an issue on having the paint stick to the surface.  I don’t know what they used to protect the surface, but it was very difficult to penetrate.  Of course I didn’t want to halt the project and buy a proper primer (which I should have done).

At this point, I am groaning because I thought this was going to be an easy, few hour project. But with the second coat, I was starting to see some progress.

Finally, this pain in the neck project was completed! Took me two days, but I like how the blue paint color goes with the slate floor.

Here’s a view up to the laundry shoot.

Now I need to update the rugs in this room and find a clever way to make the litter box look more appealing.

What I learned:

1.  90% of painting is the prep work and I always want to short cut that.. Bad move.
2. Remember where you put the exposed paint so you don’t step in it (lid, stir stick).
3. Don’t wear your favorite socks while painting
4. If you think a project will take a short period of time, double or triple that.
5. I used plastic wrap to cover my paint brush so I didn’t have to keep washing it out between paint drying times.
6. Pre-finished furniture has some coating which is nearly impenetrable-perhaps a different grit sandpaper and/or a suitable primer would have made this easier.

So, do you think? Should I keep the wall painting of the clothes on the line or paint over it?

Paint color-Valspar Duramax WV39009 Dutch Blue Exterior Semigloss (This leftover paint was our front door color a few years back).