Let's put up a partial wall!

I’ve always thought that hanging drywall was a task left best to professionals and I still do. Let’s face it, sheets of drywall are HEAVY! Lifting them to hang on a wall or, worse, a ceiling, is difficult. Although I haven’t tried to do it, I have watched it done and have tried to lift a 4′ x 8′ piece of sheetrock…..wicked heavy! However, if you’re working with a small area, you can totally do this yourself!

Table Of Contents

Laundry area
Wall needed
Attaching drywall
Finishing touches
A little more drywall
Before & After
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Our laundry room is pretty small 6″ x 6″, but big enough for the washer & dryer so I’m not complaining. When we moved in, there was no separation between the room and the closet that houses our hot water heater and furnace.

Laundry area

The plumbing & power source are on the West wall of the room so the washer and dryer were located on that wall. When we bought a new washer/dryer set, I wondered if it might be possible to move them to the South wall. To my delight, the cords & hoses were long enough to move the machines! (The post on adding the window can be located here)

Wall needed

Once the washer & dryer were moved, it was really noticeable that I needed a division between the Laundry Room and the closet.

After doing a little research, I thought it might work if I attached a 2″ x 4″ to the West wall by the hot water heater and then attached a piece of drywall to that board and the one already by the door jam. Since the hot-water pipe extends past the door jam, I wouldn’t be able to build a wall from floor to ceiling. The max height of the new wall would be 69″.

I cut the new 2″ x 4″ board with a skill saw and using a drill, attached it to the wall with screws. The width of the space is 33″. With a box cutter, I scored then snapped a piece of sheetrock so that it was 33″ x 69″. I painted the drywall piece & the new board to match the wall. Once the paint was dry, I attached the drywall to the two boards using drywall screws.

Attaching drywall

The next step was to add drywall tape to the joint between the wall and sheetrock, then add drywall mud. Once the seam tape was dry, I used drywall mud to add texture to the sheetrock. I like the ‘frosting’ look so I use a 5″ putty knife and apply the mud like I would frost a cake. The final step was to add baseboard & a strip of wood trim to the top of the new ‘wall’. I painted both pieces in an accent color. I can’t tell you how many times I felt the top of that wall to make sure it wasn’t getting hot from the heater pipe but my guesstimation is in the high hundreds!

Finishing touches

It is amazing how adding this partial wall made all the difference in the feel of the laundry area; it was now an actual Laundry Room! Since it’s so small, I had to sit on the dryer to take these pictures. We added another cabinet next to the wall for additional storage.

A little more drywall

While I had the sheetrock and mud out, I decided to add drywall above and next to the doorway. This area is small, so this drywall job was also fast and easy. After scoring and snapping the pieces needed, I used drywall screws to attach to the wood frame then taped, mudded, painted & added a piece of trim.