Home Tour: The Laundry Room

I don't have "after" cabin photographs to share yet because Andi is traveling this week and I know he'll want to review the post before I hit publish. It's for the good of our relationship; I'll have to keep you on the line a little bit longer ....

But!

I do have pictures to share of my newly painted laundry room at home. Not as exciting, I realize, but I'm personally thrilled with the finished details considering how much time I spend there washing, drying and folding our laundry.

Isn't the laundry room the most neglected room of the house? For me, it totally is. Rarely do I spend time wiping down countertops or the washer and dryer, or heaven forbid vacuuming the rug. It's a get in / get out kind-of room where I'm usually hurling pieces of clothing in various places (washer / dryer / hampers) with a baby on my hip and a preschooler attached to my leg. I do clean the laundry room occasionally, though not nearly as often as I should.

Anyway, it's always been a dream of mine to have a pretty laundry room. A place I'd actually take pride in keeping tidy. It's the little things in life that make a big difference, and a fresh coat of paint and a few decorating details totally turned this room around for me. Here's how it came about:

If you follow me on Instagram (liveinmybubble), you may remember hearing our washer and dryer broke in September. Andi was traveling for work that week and both kids were recovering from a nasty case of Hand, Foot and Mouth disease (*shudder*), so the timing of the appliance failure was less than perfect. I went to Lowe's to buy a new washer and dryer set because we had a gift card there and as is always the way with this type of thing, it was a giant nuisance. Our laundry room is L-shaped and the washer and dryer are positioned on one side of the "L" in the room. The store salesman told me not to fret, that all washers and dryers are similarly sized (news flash - they're not), and shame on me for not measuring my laundry room before shopping.

Long story short, I bought a washer/dryer set too big for the allotted space in my laundry room, the washer/dryer had to be returned on the delivery truck and I ended up having to special-order smaller-sized machines from the company's website. When the special-order washer and dryer set arrived the following week, they were about a 1/2 inch too big as well. There's a cabinet affixed between our washer and dryer and the edge of the countertop was basically the problem. It was slightly too big, and the delivery men weren't comfortable pushing the washer/dryer set into place no matter how much I pressured them. I was so frustrated by this point (I just wanted to do laundry!) that I ripped out the cabinet in question and instructed the delivery men to install the washer and dryer in their respective places. Problem solved.

Except, wouldn't you know it? There was a patch of old laminate flooring hidden underneath that ripped-out cabinet. Gah. Come on, life, throw me a bone! 

When Andi returned home, I showed him the laundry room situation and he remedied the problem. The cabinet itself fit between the washer and dryer just fine; it was the overhang on the laminate countertop that was the problem. So, Andi placed the cabinet back in its original place and, ahem, hammered the countertop down on the top until it fit snugly between the washer and dryer. 

A few weeks later, we hired a painter to re-paint the living room, dining room and entry way of our house. I'd planned to do the painting myself, but Andi graciously suggested we hire a painter to save me the hassle of painting during every nap time from here to eternity. So, since a professional painter was already scheduled to visit the house, I snuck in the repainting of the laundry room at the same time. Exciting!

To keep things simple, I painted the laundry room the same color I'd selected for the living room -- Benjamin Moore Slate Blue. I'm completely in love with the results.

BEFORE

AFTER

I framed this free printable I found on Pinterest, and looking at it while I fold laundry seriously makes me so happy. Thank you, lovely Internet people, for sharing your creative talents with others!

I also purchased one of my favorite glass jars from Target (these jars are $5 and seriously the greatest thing since sliced bread!) to hold my laundry soap. Don't worry, the lid twists on tightly so kids aren't able to open it. A silver tub holds stain remover, dryer sheets and other laundry supplies.

I'm amazed how a little paint color can completely transform the feeling of a room. Now, the laundry room is clean and airy and so very lovely. It's a room in our home I'm proud to show off!

Coming up ... a home tour, with updates on the other rooms in our home which were recently painted and redecorated. Stay tuned!