Try-it Tuesday: How to Paint a Washing Machine

*Edit #1: I painted the dryer too! Check it out! 

**Edit#2: For everyone asking a) what kind of paint I used to paint the washer/polka dots and b) how that paint is holding up, the answers are:

a) on top of the oil-based KILZ primer, I used regular old latex paint in eggshell finish (no protective clear coat on top)

and

b) after 3 weeks and more loads of laundry than I care to remember, it’s holding up great.

Absolutely zero chipping, flaking, or peeling off. I’ve whacked it with the laundry basket, detergent bottle, etc., and it has left a small mark or two, but I don’t know any paint in the world that won’t show marks if you hit it with something hard.

The durability is mostly because of the primer I used, which is 1 part paint, a gazillion parts magic, as far as I can tell, but can also be credited to the fact that I rolled on three very light layers of paint. The lighter the better to keep the paint from globbing up.

Also, it took almost no paint at all. Maybe as much as 1/3 a quart.

If you’ve been hanging around for a while here at 5D5W—and especially if you read last week’s how-to-build-a-house-from-scratch post—then you know that we wrote up custom blue prints for our house.

And I mostly love how everything turned out in terms of layout.

With one notable exception: The Laundry Room (dun dun dun).

I don’t have a true “before” picture for you because it was such a cramped, cluttered nightmare that no one would want to see it anyway.

No, really.

U to the G-L-Y.

In an approximately 7’X10’ space, we had a side-by-side dryer and washer, a utility sink, a water-heater, a mini ironing board, laundry baskets, some unnecessary paraphernalia that had migrated there over time, and, of course, the never-ending mountains of clothes.

It got a lot better before Christmas when we scored a fantastic deal (using the techniques from my retail haggling post + some totally unintentional “good cop/bad cop” action…the salesman thought I was the bad cop—being stand-offish and killing his good deals when all I was really doing was strolling Della around, keeping her happy, and letting my husband do the work! It was fantastic! :  )) on a brand new frontloading dryer and used a bracket set to stack it on top of the refurbished frontloading washer we’ve had for 7 years.

It may not look like much, but it’s already so much better because there’s actually an inch or two of floor-space that’s not taken up by some machine or another (the old dryer was where you see that piece of wood).

Okay, so why the laundry room history lesson?

Well, as much as I loved having room to, oh, I don’t know, not have to turn sideways and suck in my gut just to walk into my own laundry room, I wasn’t quite as thrilled about how dingy my washing machine looked next her sparkly new dryer-sister.

And I’ve always wanted to have a colored washer/dryer, but I’m not keen on the prices at all.

So, what’s a DIY-obsessed girl to do?

Paint her washing machine, of course!

Lucky for me, in addition to offering you guys a chance to win a $50 stencil, Cutting Edge Stencils also sent me a stencil to try out.

They included a stencil level and a small foam roller in the package, so all I needed to do was find some paint I liked in the leftovers from our many house projects.

I stumbled across a pretty teal color called Virtue (by Dutch Boy, I think) and some leftover Dover White (Sherwin Williams) in our shed, then grabbed my leftover oil-based Kilz primer that I used to help transform my Quite Coral dresser, and set to work.

Here’s Henrietta (she’s the washer) after a quick coat of primer.

It dries super-fast, so that same night, I started rolling on the teal.

It took three coats, and I used a tiny craft brush to do the detail work around the Kenmore logo and the washer door, but it still didn’t take longer than an hour total to transform the washer from this:

It almost looks shiny in the pic, but believe me…it’s not. (Also, notice the load of whites in there. Yeah. It never ends).

…to this:

(Also, notice I did change the laundry out)

After a brief flirtation with the idea of trying to paint over and re-label the control panels (I even wrote out a diagram just in case), I regained my sanity and decided to leave those black.

I was already loving the change, but I wanted to make Henrietta a bit more fun because, seriously, if you have to do a gazillion loads of laundry, you might as well have something that puts a goofy grin on your face while you’re doing it!

And few things make me smile goofily like polka-dots.

So, I unrolled my stencil and grabbed some painter’s tape and my can of Dover White.

Even though the side of my washer was far from flat (see the ridges that run all the way around the edges?), the stenciling process was a breeze.

I simply followed the instructions from the Cutting Edge Stencils user-friendly video, making sure to roll my paint roller on a paper towel after every time I dipped it in paint.

This step is definitely the most important.

If you have too much paint on your roller, it will drip.

Here she is with the first round done.

Because I used so little paint, I could pull the stencil off, reposition it immediately, and go right back to rolling.

The entire process took maybe 20 minutes, and that includes the fact that I was a bit tentative in round 1, having never used this kind of stencil before.

I actually finished up this part right before we left for Oklahoma. (Please try to ignore the ugly floor smudges. It’s from the rusty washer feet, and I haven’t taken the time to figure out what will clean it best yet. Suggestions?).

And then, I spent another 15 minutes on the front a few days ago, so now she looks like this:

Something about the final product reminded me of something out of Pottery Barn Teen, so I hopped over to see why and came up with this:

and this:

…oh, and this too!:

I think I’ve figured out why PB teen came to mind.

How nice to know that I apparently have a future designing appliances for the enterprising teen who does her own laundry (yeah, right…like I was going to say “his” laundry).

All two of them should sell out in a jiff.

Okay, so I realize it’s a little batty to take a paint roller to your washing machine, but I’m actually loving that the first thing I see when I go in my laundry room is Henrietta, the teal and white polka dot washing machine. 

Plus, it was one of the easiest paint projects I’ve ever done, especially the stenciling process, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

In fact, I have a few more stenciling projects in mind with another design that Cutting Edge Stencils included in my package, and you’ll be seeing that and more progress on the laundry room (don’t worry…I’m eighty-sixing the periwinkle walls) very soon.

So, what do you think?

Insane?

Ingenius?

Indifferent?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Also, if you would, tell me this: if there were one thing you could do to make your laundry room a happier place, what would it be?

_{The CSI project ~ Menu Plan Monday ~ C.R.A.F.T.  ~ The Southern Institute ~ Making the World Cuter ~ Thrify Décor Chick ~ Metamorphosis Monday ~ Sumo Sweet Stuff ~ Gunny Sack ~ Singing Three Little Birds ~DIY Homes Sweet Home ~ Dittle Dattle ~ 1929 Charmer ~ Everything Under the Moon  ~ ModMix Monday ~ Sew Stylish ~ Coastal Charm ~ Under the Table and Dreaming}

_{Tuesday ~ Get Your Craft ~ Tip Junkie ~ Blackberry Vine ~ Crafty Confessions ~ Me & my Boys ~ A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Home Stories A-Z ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suberbia  ~ Carolyn’s Homework ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ House of Grace ~ Passionately Artisitc ~ My World Made by Hand ~ Uncommon Designs ~ Trendy Treehouse}

_{Wednesday ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Somedays Crafts ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Sew Woodsy ~ Handy Man, Crafty Woman ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ {Primp} ~ Midweek Fiesta ~ Rae Gun Ramblings ~ Polkadots On Parade ~ Lollipop Cards ~ JAQS Studio ~ Let Birdz Fly ~ Let Birdz Fly ~ My Girlish Whims}

_{Thursday ~ Transformation Thursdays ~ Somewhat simple ~ Show off your stuff ~ House of Hepworths ~ Delightful Order ~ My Simple Home Life ~ The Frugal Girls ~ Thrifty Thursday ~ DIY Diva Thursday ~ Tablescape Thursday ~ No Minimalists Here ~ Crafty, Scrappy, Happy ~ Thrifty Decorating ~ Between U and Me ~ 36th Avenue}

_{Friday ~ The Shabby nest  ~ Show and Tell Friday ~ Finding Fabulous ~ I’m Loving it ~ Simply Sweet Home ~ Whipper Berry ~ Chic on a Shoestring decorating ~ Spunky Junky ~ Delicate Construction ~ Homemaker in Heels ~ Family Ever After~ French Country Cottage ~ Common Ground ~ Young And Crafty ~ At the Picket Fence ~ Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Miss Mustard Seed ~ Addicted to Decorating ~Bacon Time with The Hungry Hypo ~ Making Lemonade ~ I Can't Stop Crafting ~ Over the Big Moon ~ Shabby Art ~ Answer is Chocolate}

_{Saturday ~ I heart nap time- Sundae Scoop ~ Tatertots and Jello ~ Be different Act Normal ~ Funky Junk ~ 2805 ~ Making Lemonade Blog ~I am Along for the Ride  ~ Lolly Jane}

_{Sundays ~ Homemaker on a Dime ~ Sunday's Best}

 

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