Adventures in DIY
March 23, 2026
Hello Friend!
A year and a half ago Jon and I sold our house of many years in order to downsize and eliminate the stairs. In a crazy real estate market we felt fortunate to find a small ranch fixer upper, and we spent the next eight months gutting and redoing the bathrooms, painting kitchen cabinets, replacing floors and countertops, and painting (so many) walls. After all that DIY we were ready to take a break. But after resting for several months I decided it was time to tackle the final project - updating the laundry room.
My most recent big idea was to hide the unsightly scratches and dents in the older, but solid, Maytag washing machine and dryer we inherited from the previous owners by covering them with vinyl contact paper. I'd save big bucks by not buying new, and still give those old appliances a fresh look.
Feeling very clever, I bought a large roll of my favorite eucalyptus botanical print and set aside a few hours to get the job done. I imagined it would be much like lining drawers or shelves - how hard could it be? Sigh.
At first I was organized. I had my handy tape measure, good scissors, and a three foot ruler to keep my lines straight. I decided to start on the far side of the washing machine, the one that would be mostly hidden by my new rolling storage cart, to give myself the chance to learn best techniques. I enthusiastically cut my first piece and maneuvered myself between the two appliances, pulling a healthy portion of the backing off the paper to begin. What I'd failed to remember was the basic rule of trying something new - there's always a learning curve.
I quickly discovered that if I didn't pull and position just right I suddenly had large bubbles that turned into horrible wrinkles, that required pulling and starting over. And don't get me started on the challenges of matching the pattern so my seams would disappear properly. At some point I put everything down and re-read the few tips printed on the back of the paper. Oh. Use a soft cloth instead of my hard surface smoothing tool. And a sewing needle is your friend! Use it to help pop and smooth out bubbles before they morph into wrinkles. Okay.
After two grueling hours my clothes were covered with bits of sticky paper, the floor of the laundry room was a mess of abandoned sheets of crumpled backing, which meant I had to endlessly search for missing scissors, and I was only halfway done with my project. Good grief.
After several more hours the job was finally done. Actually, I ran out of paper (don't look at the far side of the dryer). In the end I think I like it, but I'm still trying to decide. Too matchy matchy? At least you can't see the scratches or dents any more. And if I decide in the end to abandon the idea I can just pull it all off. Now, much to my relief I can move on to working on staining and installing the new shelving, a simpler task. I think.....
