12 coats of paint, 4 cabinets built, 47 minutes in the swimming pool, 3 birthday parties, 11 cupcakes eaten, and 1 sparkly manicure. That pretty much sums up our busy weekend. We managed to get a lot done in the basement - all the painting is done! Woohoo!! We're finally getting a real feel for the space and its staying true to the neutral, beachy look we envisioned. Though we've spent countless hours planning this space out, there were a few little details we decided to deal with as they came up. 

With the new tile floors installed and the walls painted in Para Paints Special Edition (ignore the unpainted upper wall. Cabinets will go there), we were able to build the sink cabinet and finally put the washing machines back in the room. And then we come to the next hurdle: what to do for the countertop.

When we first planned this area, I knew I wanted to use the Numerar sink. I just loved the stainless steel look and the ridged deep tub. Only problem was this would limit us in terms of countertop - we couldn't have an integrated sink with a counter that would run across the sink and washing machines. So what to do? 

HandyMan will be building a supporting strip around the back and side wall of the machines and we'll need a gable in between the sink cabinet and washing machine. We had hoped to reuse the Numerar countertop from our home office in the laundry room but unfortunately, its only as deep as the sink cabinet which would mean the laundry machines would protrude about 4 inches... and that would be weird. We are considering a few other options: 

• Laminate: Laminate would be the most economical but all the pre-made countertops I've seen in the big box stores are only counter-depth. We'd have to get something custom.
• Corian or Caesarstone: A solid surface or quartz countertop would be great to have in the laundry room. They'd stand up to moisture and would provide a nice smooth surface for folding clothes
• Natural stone: Granite, marble, limestone - they would all look lovely but probably out of our budget
• DIY: MDF, wood, an old door... we could make the countertop out of any number of materials. We've already got a lengthy To Do list so I'm not sure we want to add this to it as well.

We're really undecided on this so I'd love to hear your opinions. Do you have a countertop over your laundry machines?