Cabinet Building Success: Week Three of the One Room Challenge

It’s Week Three of the One Room Challenge. My design plan for the refresh of our laundry room calls for a cabinet to be installed in between the washer and my very valuable hanging rack. The cabinet size must be 24 by 30, in order to house the laundry baskets, but not compromise the hanging space.

The Cabinet

On a solo trip to Ikea, @GerainttheWelsh found two cabinets in the “As Is” section. Cabinet one is 24 by 15 . Cabinet two is 30 by 15. As Geraint is always looking for a bargain, he bought them both. His plan was to take apart cabinet two, and cut it down to 24 inches in width.

To attach the cabinets together, @GerainttheWelsh could not find a bracket that fit his needs. So he bought flat bracket and fashioned it into an L bracket using his vice. Hello Macgyver!

The combined cabinet was too short, so Geraint added a shimmy to the bottom to make it the same height as the washer and dryer.

My part was easy. I painted the door and as you can see by this photo, I had a little help from a friend. This Benjamin Moore Stanton Blue is a beautiful colour.

Painting the door for the cabinet in the laundry room refresh Stanton Blue — Lola likes to help out where ever she can.

The cost for the door was five dollars. The total cost for the cabinet was 67 dollars. You certainly can’t beat that.

The Cow Mat

In order to install the cabinet, @GerainttheWelsh had to cut back our existing cow mat. What is a cow mat you ask?

Geraint is cutting back to cow mat to make room for the cabinet to be installed as part of the laundry room refresh — A glamorous job, in behind the washer cutting the cow mat down to size. This way it will not interfere with the new cabinet once it is installed.

We have a cow mat installed under our washer and dryer. A cow mat is actually a mat, used for cows in barns, but it works beautifully in laundry rooms.

It is a dense piece of rubber about 3/4 of an inch thick. It’s is a non-skid surface so it reduces feeling of movement and vibration from a spinning washer or dryer. It also reduces noise. Cow mats don’t absorb water, which is a good thing in the case of a leak.

I would highly recommend a cow mat under a washer and dryer, especially for one on the second floor like ours. I can put in load of laundry when I go to bed and I don’t hear the washer or dryer beside our room at all. Cow mats are sold at farm supply stores.