The room is a good size - about 115 sq ft - but the storage situation was all wrong. Along the wall with the washer and dryer, there was a sink, some space to store cleaning supplies (no cabinet), and a hanging rod the length of the room at the top of the ceiling (and out of reach for this shorty!). Not horrible, but I could see a TON more potential.
BEFORE: When we did the walk through at the open house! Beige and Blah...
PROGRESS: Bright white walls and new washer and dryer!
Along the opposite wall, a door leads to the garage on the left and to the right, cabinets that wrapped around the corner to the other wall. There also wasn't an actual cabinet in the corner, just counter-top over an open (and completely useless) space. While the cabinets were good for storage, we could hardly access them from the mounds of laundry (I spared you those photos... ;) that were covering the floor. The counters were always covered in clutter and not available to fold clothes (I'm more of a Netflix and fold clothes girl anyway ;). The linoleum was worn and faded (over 25 years old!) and the room was beige and blah.
BEFORE:
PROGRESS: No more cabinets! White walls! And some temporary shoe storage (that is working REALLY well... haha)
Something had to give, and we decided to go for it! I have to admit, while we are no strangers to DIY, this is our biggest project to date. And it's more than a little intimidating. It's one thing to do small DIY projects (painting, upholstery, etc.) and read a ton of DIY blogs (looking at you, Young House Love, Bower Power, Chris Loves Julia!), but it's a whole other beast to actually get down and dirty and lay your own tile and do some demo!
So without further ado, here's some very rough drawings of where we want to go in this room. First, let's talk layout (and please enjoy my legit drawings ;).
We already took out the L shaped cabinets and counter in the corner. It just wasn't functional for us. Instead, we'd like to build in a mudroom-style bench with open shelving above. Plus, hooks for bags and coats. The bench will have open space underneath for shoe storage (why are there always so many shoes EVERYWHERE?!). We are losing the cabinet storage, but gaining shoe storage (hallelujah!) and the kids will have a place to sit and put on shoes and to hang coats and backpacks.
Opposite the mudroom bench (washer/dryer wall), we are replacing the sink cabinet, adding a coordinating floor to ceiling cabinet for tons more storage of cleaning supplies, and adding overhead cabinets (18 inches tall) along the ceiling for even more storage of toilet paper, paper towels, etc. You know, those items you don't want to see in your open shelving, but definitely need a place of their own. I also want to add an open shelf as low as I can go above the washer and dryer to hold the laundry necessities - laundry soap (I'm a recent tide pod convert - but definitely not because of the challenge!), dryer sheets, little bin for lint, etc.
Along the wall with the door to the foyer, we have just enough room for a spacious laundry sorter (we got this one already and it has been life changing!) It holds a decent amount of clothes (probably two huge loads in our ginormous washer and dryer!), but I wouldn't say it's the sturdiest or greatest quality. Overall, for $25 it gets the job done without any bells or whistles.
Opposite the wall to the foyer will be our "wallpaper wall!" It doesn't really have room for anything else, since the garage door opens into it and the washer/dryer cover one corner. Usually clean clothes end up in baskets along this wall. More on the wallpaper below...
So much more functional, right?! I can hardly wait. By just removing the corner cabinets, it really opened up the room and gave so much more space! And I know this is not news or anything, but DEMO! Demo rocks. I think they need some kind of exercise group that just goes around and demos stuff. Free workout, free demo! Kind of genius, right?
Demo was fun and relatively easy - just taking out the cabinets and ripping up the linoleum floor. We originally thought we would have to peel back all the linoleum, but realized we also had to rip up the particle board to get down to the sub floor (#ROOKIES). Thank goodness, though, because we were about to get out the steamer to steam it off like a bad version of wallpaper! Once we realized that fact, pulling up the particle board was a lot of work, but much faster (and more fun!). I'll do a whole post on the flooring soon!
Now for the design! Eeeeek! I've waited for this for a looooooong time. Still pinching myself that we own our home and can do anything we want to it! Here's what I've come up with... (I'll link everything below).
First things first, let's talk COLOR. By now, you all know I love me some color! And with the bright white walls and cabinets, the black hardware, and the charcoal floor, we needed some color!
I'm hopping on the removable wallpaper bandwagon. I fell HARD for this "Lovely Lemons" wallpaper from Walls Need Love (specifically this laundry room from The Learner Observer is my inspiration!). While we are only going to do one wall, it is still pretty spendy! I scoured the interwebs for another removable wallpaper that I liked better with no luck (although Spoonflower has some really good designs, and from the samples I ordered, the quality and feel of it was great - and the price was better). So, I'll just be saving up for it since I know I will love it and it will make me happy every time I walk in (or look in) to the room.
I wanted to replace the sink vanity and add more white shaker - style cabinets along the washer/dryer wall. It seemed like such wasted space above the washer/dryer sink with that extra long hangar bar that I couldn't even reach. I still may need a stool to reach the upper cabinets, but at least they will be functional and can store a bunch of stuff.
We already tiled the floor! If you followed along in my Instagram stories, it was quite the process for us as newbies. I'll get a full post/tutorial up soon, but for now, you can just enjoy the fruits of our labor! We love how it turned out (and we are pretty dang proud of ourselves! ;) Since the room has no windows (it leads from the foyer to the garage), I want to keep the walls bright white, which has already completely brightened up the room. The dark charcoal tile is a great contrast from the white walls, and I think it will look awesome next to the white cabinets and fun colorful wallpaper.
PS My husband is my HERO for doing most of the hard work on the tiling!!! <3
Zach is going to build the mudroom bench/storage eventually. That will be the last step of the larger renovation items. I'm so excited for this. Time to whip these kids into shape with an organized space where they will know where to put their things. I want white built in style with a wood stained bench top. I'm envisioning wicker baskets to hold random hats/gloves/scarves/sunscreen/etc. above, not only for function, but to bring in some texture.
The one element I'm struggling to make a decision on is the lighting. In the mood board above I have this fun aqua light from the Young House Love line at Shades of Light. I love the farmhouse-ish look and I like that it will be another pop of color that will tie in with the wallpaper. BUT, this room has no windows and I need a light that will give off a lot of light to the entire room (not just shooting down from the shade). I'm in a pickle! Ideally, I would like a two light bulb fixture too, for maximum light in there, so the hunt is still on. I'm leaning towards either something aqua or black to tie into the cabinet hardware. I may do a post with some ideas soon so you guys can weigh in - I need help!
So that's the plan for now! What do you guys think? I am loving how the changes are coming together already and can't wait til it's done! The whole room renovation is taking a while, but we planned on doing it in phases anyways. The hardest part was being without the washer and dryer for a week and a half while we tiled, but now that we can do laundry again, we are taking our time while supplies come in (cabinets get delivered in a week or so!)
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