This weekend I got the laundry room painted - walls, trim, and shelves. Yay!! It looks fresh and bright.
And because I got all the painting done, I was able to get the accent wall done ( thanks to my husband for his help!). When I began planning, I wanted to do something to the walls that would give it some interest. I thought of beadboard or a rough plaster texture but I wanted a more rustic look. Rough wood planks (as in old fence pickets) or what I really,
really wanted was rusty tin. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough old fence pickets or somewhere to get rusty tin for either option.
I had just about decided to go with beadboard when I just happened to mention the rusty tin idea to one of my sisters. She said she knew where she could get some, so how much did I need? Yes! I quickly measured, told her, and in a few weeks had some tin panels. Perfect...only they weren't rusty. She told me the rusty ones were too far gone so she decided to bring me these. Ok, I can rust them myself. So I googled "how to rust tin" and got started.
I must admit most sites said the best way to rust them was to use muriatic acid as you have to get rid of the galvanized treatment first. I was stubborn though and (can you read scared of the acid?) decided to proceed without it. Fail - no rust. Ok, so what is corrosive yet "safe"? I know! You read about how cola can eat through all sorts of things so I promptly took a small piece of tin and sprayed it with cola, reapplying it to keep it wet for a day. Rinsed it off and sprayed it with the vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, and salt mixture and set it in the sun to bake. It actually developed some rust. Hurray!
That weekend at the farm, I laid out all the big pieces and sprayed them down with cola.
No rust. Had to come home. Next trip sprayed them again. Again, nothing although they were losing their shine. It was time to leave. Sigh. By now, I was getting impatient. I wanted to get them rusted so I could put them up - yet I really wanted this method to work. So I sprayed them one last time and left them out to bake in the sun.
When we got to the farm this past weekend, I ran out to look at my tin...no change. Rats! I then told Bruce to go get some muriatic acid. He did a happy dance. (Ok, not really. But he was nice enough not to say "I told you so"). And he was nice enough to spray the panels for me. It works quite well and very fast. The next step was to rinse it off and spray it with salt water and ta da! Rust! So if you want to rust galvanized tin panels, take my advice - just start with the muriatic acid. Save yourself some time.
Of course, while he was doing that, I was painting and getting the room ready. I pulled everything out (yikes):
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Was I planning on using the kitchen?...must not have been as I piled everything in there! |
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A big mess |
And painted away:
Walls, trim, and shelves all got a fresh coat of paint.
Here's the tall shelf unit with the bottom 3 shelves knocked out to make my broom "closet":
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broom "closet" |
With that done, we started putting the tin up ( or Bruce did with a little bit of help from me ). We finished it off by topping it with some old fence pickets. Now I have the coolest looking wall!
Bruce actually found a tin outlet cover but he had to extend the outlet out first. I forgot to take a picture of it after he was done. Of course.
I really do love the way it looks! It is the perfect rustic look for my farmhouse laundry room. Next up is the "new" old door, organizing the shelves, painting my small dresser, plus some artwork for the walls. I am also trying to decide whether or not to build a screen to hide the water heater...what would you do?
Until the next visit,
:o)
Cecilia
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