Laundry Room Face lift - Part 1

As any Mom of three kids knows, I spend a lot of time in the laundry room.  I decided it was about time to make it work better and look better.

Here are some before pictures.

I really didn't stage this.  This is typically how bad it looks!


Yes, it needs some work, but it also had some things that have been working well, like the four laundry bins I use for sorting.  Ideally, I would like the washer and dryer beside each other (or at least on the same wall), but when we were building the house they determined there were too many turns in the dryer vent hose to pass inspection if it was beside the washer and by that time, the plumbing was already in for the washer and sink.  We decided on this set up, and it works okay - not ideal but things could be a lot worse.

We've been in the house 8 years now, but making the room 'prettier' hasn't really been high on the priority list.  I decided it was a small job and I knew I could pull a lot of unused items from around the house, so could also be a very cheap face lift.   The idea for the room started with this basket that I won in a raffle draw.  It was filled with lots of pampering items which I've enjoyed, but I had yet to find a spot for the basket itself.  I dawned on me, it would be a good starting point for my laundry room.  The walls, like almost everywhere else in the house are Benjamin Moore's Clarksville Grey, which is I think of more as a green than grey, even though that doesn't show in the photos.  It and the counter tops worked with the basket, I just needed to add in a little more color somehow.

I decided that since our front-loading washer always has the door wide open, preventing the door to the laundry room closing, we may as well remove the door to the room.  The laundry room opens onto the mudroom which has a door to the hall, so it wasn't critical to have a door anyway.

One of my biggest pet peeves in this room is my husband's habit of hanging his sweaty workout clothes on the top of the door, the open washer door, the fabric laundry baskets, etc. etc.  He comes home with his sweaty gear too late to do a load of wash so he spreads them out all over the place to dry.  Not a great sight to look at :).

I figure I could get this done in about a week if I focus - which I admit is not always easy for me :).

I decided to start with the door and the larger wall I would gain by removing the door, which after about an hour of effort, now looks like this:

I found the cute printables at Thirty handmade days, spray painted some old frames brown and found some large grey clothes pins in the $1 spot at Target.  I attached the wooden clothes pins using some Command Strips that I had on hand and they seem to be holding up quite well after a week's worth of use.

The ironing board and the holder were down in the basement storage room since I didn't have room in the laundry room before.  This works so much better.  Not that really iron regularly, but there are those few instances I need to.  The pins cost $5 total, the new ironing board cover was $10 at Walmart, the can of spray paint $6, and everything else I had on hand or printed off.  Pretty cheap so far and I have some other cheap ideas I need to finish up with this week.


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