The laundry room makeover is coming along, we worked on installing the new faucet this weekend and did you see how awesome the new laundry room shelves turned out?
Our laundry room is where we enter the house from the garage and it’s not super big so something we desperately needed was some sort of storage for backpacks, purses, Malea’s ballet bag, etc. Right next to the door that leads into the rest of the house there’s a blank wall, which I thought would be the perfect place to add a little extra storage.
I had a left over board from another project that I thought would be perfect for adding some hooks to the wall. (I know I could have just put the hooks straight on the wall but I thought this would look nicer). 🙂
The first thing I did was measure the space and cut the boards to size.
Once the boards were the right size they were ready to install. Since I know they will be holding a lot of weight most of the time (because my purse can get heavy!) I wanted to make sure they were securely on the wall.
I used a calking gun to spread Liquid Nails on the back (we use a lot of that in our house) and then I glued the boards to the wall. Next I finished securing them to the wall with nails.
Once they were securely attached to the wall I painted them. I thought about staining them the same color as the shelves but in the end I decided white paint wold look nice and give it kind of a faux board and batten look.
Now I’m going to share a little trick with you. If you’ve been an Ask Anna follower for awhile then you’ve probably gathered that I’m not super patient when it comes to getting projects done. I usually want to get things done as fast as possible and one of the things I hate doing the post is waiting for paint to dry. It’s actually a pet peeve of mine, although a silly one, it’s one that drives me nuts.
Fortunately I have found a solution for how to dry paint faster! The answer – my HomeRight Digital Heat Gun. You can make lots of really cool projects with a heat gun but the thing I use it the most for is drying wet paint. I used it when we painted my office shelves and I used it to dry these boards so I didn’t have to wait as long to finish the project. 🙂
This heat gun gets up to 1200 degrees F but the idea isn’t to make the paint boil so I use it at a still very hot temperature of 700 degrees F. It’s a good temperature to dry the paint but without cooking it. The trick to drying the paint quickly is to not get too close to the paint, I recommend a couple inches away, and to keep the heat gun moving. Use back and forth, up and down movements to cover the entire surface evenly with the heat.
It’s not an instant fix, to dry these two boards still took me about 8-10 minutes, but that’s a lot faster than letting it dry on it’s own!
Once the boards were dry I caulked them to give them a nice finished look. To learn my “fancy” super easy caulking trick head over to this post. This trick will give you professional results every time!
After the painters tape was removed I attached the hooks to the boards. The hooks on the lower level used to be white but I spray painted them oil rubbed bronze to match the shelves on and the hardware on the cabinets. The hooks on the upper level I purchased at Ace Hardware (because it’s only 1 mile down the street) but I found them cheaper on Amazon.
I love the way they turned out and I love that it’s not longer a blank, wasted space, now it’s a functional place for us to hang our things when we come in from the garage.
I’m super excited because now I get to give one of you the chance to win a HomeRight Digital Temperature Heat Gun! There are so many cool things you can do with a heat gun, or if you’re like me, you can use it to dry paint when you don’t feel like being patient. 🙂 Fill out the Rafflecopter form below to enter to win. Good luck!
Disclaimer – This post is sponsored by HomeRight but all opinions are my own, as always. I will always tell you if I think a product is just “okay” but if I tell you I love it then it means I really LOVE it! I have included a few affiliate links to the products I used in this post, if you buy through the link I get a small commission but you don’t pay a cent more than you normally would. Thank you for supporting Ask Anna!
I think I would use it just as you did – to hasten up the drying of paint!
I would love a heat gun! This would come in so hand at home at at church for our vbs decorations!
Thanks so much!
Trish
I’ve used my hair dryer, which took CONSIDERABLY longer…wow! What I could do w/a heat gun! Almost scary.
I LOVE the heat gun to dry paint idea!
Ii would use to dry the paint on the crown moulding I am adding to my bathroom.
I have some shelving I want to put up and some furniture i’d like to repaint.
Dry paint when I repaint my bathroom.
I’d use it to get the dent out of my car and other outside things.
I would use this gun to help crackel paint and to remove stickers from things,!
That’s a great idea!
My husband would love this for home projects!
I would love to try the Wood Burning project…so beautiful!
I would use to dry up the paint fast, need to re-paint my daughters room for frozen theme and make some shelves blue
I think I would use it to rustic up some unfinished picture frames and then maybe some embossing. Thanks for a great giveaway!
Great Idea!
I’d love to have this heat gun! I’m renovating a house and I have a million and one uses for it. I’d also love to make some hangers like you did for my laundry room.
I’d use the heat gun for stripping paint.
I think I would use this to help remove wallpaper
for making wreaths
I would use it first on my doors inside my house. We are going to be painted every door in our house in a couple of weeks. This would be perfect to speed up the drying time.