Laundry Room Make Over

Our house has a laundry room. A fact that I am quite happy with. Our previous house had the laundry in the first floor bathroom and at the time, that worked for us. We had no kids and it was convenient to do laundry while doing anything. Plus, it wasn't on the same floor that we slept, so noise wise, it was great. Now, with 3 kids, a dog and the fact that we are all outdoorsy, muddy messes most of the time its nice to contain it all in a room - a room with a door that can be shut so we don't have to stare at the mounds of laundry that pile up.

But, my laundry room is in the basement and looked like this:

I don't know about you, but this is the most unmotivating room I can imagine. The almond cream walls, the oak trim, the metallic linoleum flooring, the stained laminate countertop, the almond cream appliances from 1987. It was a place of necessity and I knew that I could easily transform it.

Then I saw this:

and I thought, wow, this is a room that LOOKS clean, I can smell the fresh laundry scent coming from this room. I want this!!

After my hallway project, I was ready for a new painting project. I had the whole week with the kids and I needed to fulfill a need of accomplishing something. When I felt I had a few minutes, I grabbed the tape and decided it was time to tackle the laundry.

I did this the wrong way, let me tell you. I know I should have started by painting the trim and the wall all white. Instead I did the trim and I taped the walls. I think it was two fold why I did it this way, 1 - I didn't want to waste paint doing the entire wall and 2, I just wanted to see what the stripes would look like. This way I could satisfy my need to see progress. So, it started like this:

 

Once I started the blue, I had a slight moment of panic. This wasn't exactly the picture. It wasn't the bright, airy space from Pinterest. In reality, with that tiny little window and the fluorescent light - it never would be. The blue was left over from the boys room and the white was a half can I got off my Dad. This project was free, so, I could live without baby blue.

As we were wrapping it up, my husband and I decided that the white racks hanging off the doors to hand dry clothes may need a face lift too. I remembered a weird wooden thing we found in the basement closet. I could never quite figure out what it was for. There was a similar one in the kitchen when we bought the house, but it made more sense as just a shelf for plates.

I knew the minute I pulled this out of the garage that it would be perfect. The only problem was to find hangers that could rotate. I went through the closet and found just enough and lucky me they were wooden, so I painted those too. 

Ta da!! I actually have two more hangers and ended up hanging my door rack on there too to hold the ironing board. Its awesome, its functional, its pretty, it looks professional. One regret is that I poly'd the hangers and didn't do a light enough coat. The very bottom of the wood on the hangers has a bit of a yellow tint. In hind sight I would have made sure to do a really light coat - but, hey, its a laundry room.

 

The final touch was to get rid of the nasty table top. This proved to be a bit more difficult then I thought. Apparently, the wall is not a 90 degree angle and the table top was custom fit to the space. At first my plan was to paint the table, but honestly, I didn't want all that work. So we went to the Habitat for Humanity Restore and bought a tabletop for $10. We had to make it work, but I think it adds great pop. Plus, its for putting clothes on.

You will notice I also painted the nasty brown/almond light cover. This was so much easier then I thought. I slapped on some paint and sealed it with some Modge Podge and it blends right in. If only I could paint the thermostat :)

And now I have a full functioning, beautiful laundry room. The room pops with its vibrance and no longer turns me away from the task at hand - the never ending amount of laundry 3 kids and a dog create. 

I will officially call this room complete when we are able to get some tile in here and replace the 80's dryer with a new white one, but I'm happy.