Laundry Room Updates: French Bifold Door

Despite what it looks like, the DIY Fairy doesn’t live here.

If you’ve been checking out what we’ve been up to for the past month on this blog, it’s been all befores and afters and rainbows and lollipops. I realized lately that I haven’t been totally upfront with the nitty gritty that really happens.

Robert and I have been so wrapped up in painting and hauling and installing that I’ve hardly had time to grab my camera to snap photos of the real, hard work. (Minus the occasional Instagram Story anyway.)

All that to say, I’m trying to get better about that since sharing actual steps of tutorials to help you in your own home is my jam! I’ve completely slacked off on that lately.

Anyways, here is the latest that’s been happening with the laundry room makeover…

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(Want to see the final reveal of this room? Click here to see the full “after” tour.)

Last time I shared an update, we had this rickety bifold door situation going on. I really would have wanted to replace it even if it had been totally functional, but this door had popped off of its track and was a total pain in the boo-tay to work with.

So then I found this French bifold door with frosted glass panes and it was the solution to a long list of problems we had going on in the laundry room and breakfast room.

The living room that this spot in the house opens up to is filled with French doors, so the fact that I could mimic that style on this bifold was a huge win!

In the breakfast nook, we have no windows at all, so those frosted panes let in a little natural light from our laundry room window to brighten up the space a tad.

And because the glass is frosted, it still hides all of our mess that often piles up behind this closed door. To buy the door with the glass already frosted is about $650 on Lowe’s website, but I found the clear glass option on Amazon for $312, and you could just frost the glass with a can or two of this frosted glass spray paint.

It still costs more than your average bear bifold, but this door is smack in the center of our downstairs and is a bit of a focal point, so that was worth it to us.

Our door came as unfinished wood, so I primed it with some Kilz Premium, and painted it with two coats of Benjamin Moore Wrought Iron in semi-gloss like we’ve used on all of the doors in our house so far.

We wanted to make the door look like a true French door that opened in the middle, so we added these two pulls we found at Home Depot. I’ve thought about even taking the hinge out of the middle of the door and attaching the two panels to either side of the door frame to make it a true French.

We’ve played around with hardware inside the laundry room to spiff it up too, like these antique style hooks where we can toss hats, bags, and jackets when we come home.

After a lot of feedback from y’all in my question from our last laundry room update, I’ve decided to paint our electrical box to make it blend in with the wall. And I’ll put a picture frame on it attached by a magnet so it can be easily removed as needed.

The floor, light fixture, and window shade are next on our to-do list.

Now that we have the cabinet doors in here though, it’s looking much more put together. I gave them a coat of Benjamin Moore Simply White and they’re good as new. I big puffy heart loooove how they pop against the wall color my father-in-law painted (Sherwin Williams Slate Tile).

To coordinate with the hooks on the wall, I found these antique bronze knobs. Aren’t they the prettiest little detail?

And I finally hung up this laundry mirror that I carted along with me from the last house. It’s so great for brightening up this dark spot in the corner.

I still need to do some paint touch-ups and figure out how to organize our peg board and shelves and if we’re going to build a drying rack. I have to admit, doing laundry has been kind of fun in a room that’s all pretty and decorated. I mean sort of. When is laundry really fun? Bearable. Maybe I should say bearable.

So here’s where we are on the laundry room to-do list:

• Paint walls Sherwin Williams Slate Tile
• Paint ceiling Benjamin Moore Simply White
• Paint cabinets and trim Benjamin Moore Simply White
• Replace old hooks
• Change cabinet knobs
• Replace bifold door
• Hang woven Roman shade
• Swap light fixture
• Paint vinyl floor
• Build drying rack
• Hang ironing board
• Hang laundry art
• Organize odds and ends
• Organize peg board

So since we’re on the subject, got any peg board organizing tips? Or a great laundry room organization system? If the Organization Fairy decides to show up, I wouldn’t be opposed to letting her work her magic in here.