Laundry Room Makeover
I spend a lot of time in the laundry room.
Not only do I have the normal amount of laundry 6 people create, I also have the added laundry of:
- a self-feeding but very messy 20 month old (who refuses to wear a bib, so I change him often)
- a 4 year old who hates being dirty, so he changes anytime he is sticky (which is a lot)
- workout clothes from Brett and I each day (in addition to our normal clothes)
- in the summer, pool towels
The upside is my kids think wearing underwear is an optional activity, so there's not much of that in the laundry.
Another issue is that we walk through our laundry room approximately 487 times a day. Our pantry is in the laundry room (which is weird, but I do like that it's out of sight). To get to the garage, we pass through it.
It is also the one room in the house I've totally neglected. In my mind, it's the laundry room. Who cares?
But after spending WAY too much time in there a few weeks ago with kids gunk, I decided it was time for a makeover.
I had most of the stuff on hand and a lot of gift cards, so this makeover was extremely cheap for me. But if I did not have any of it, it still would've been about $100.
Worth it, for sure.
My house was built in 1979 and has had no major updating since then. (I entered a contest at Lowe's to win a kitchen renovation...please pray I win it!)
The before pictures:
I do not like the bulkiness of the cabinets, but I do like how much they hold and hide.
You can see the beauty that is this room {sarcasm}.
I had already started to prep the paint and had cleaned out some of the clutter when I took these pictures. The wall clutter was still there :)
My pantry (which you can see needs some help, haha)
Since I pass through this room first, most of my clutter ends up on the dryer. (This is after I cleaned off the cluttered dryer and had primed the cabinets).
The wall to the right is where I hang stuff to keep it off of my fridge.
The room isn't terrible. It's just blah. And I love color, pretty, and fun. So blah does not work for me!
The after:
I found the white decoration (on the right) at Target for $5 (score!). It is magnetic, so it will hold things but I will be more selective in what I put on it.
This room is off my kitchen, which is a blue-gray color. So that's why I went with gray for the color scheme.
Can we take a moment and pay homage to my washer and dryer? Those were a gift to us from a generous friend. I cannot explain how they've changed my life. My old washer and dryer were small (and the dryer took FOREVER). These hold about 2.5 times the amount of clothes my old ones did, so 10 loads became about 4.
I did not put window treatments up, because I love the view of the trees. Nature makes me happy, so I try to see it as much as possible.
I found this PERFECT hanger thing at Home Goods. I LOVE that it is labeled "No.1" and so on. Perfect for my four children. I had to hang it high because that's the only stud I could find. (It must not be a load bearing wall).
I used Mason jars I already had to store random stuff....including clothes pins! This will make you laugh if you saw my FB post. I actually had them because I used to hang up missing socks. One day, Chloe took them all down to make puppets. And I never put them back. I also put flashlights in them. We lose power in the summer sometimes, so I wanted them easy to locate. And the last one has rubber bands....only because I wanted to have three of them, and I had nothing else to put in the jars!
The candles were a gift from sweet friends, and I love that they work perfectly here.
While working on my laundry room, my kitchen was seriously neglected, as you can see in this picture.
The basket on the left is my new catch-all. Realistically, I know I will put stuff down. Now it just has a home. You can also see my drying rack.
Just another view.
To the left of the door is where we store our keys. You can't really tell from the picture.
Laundry is never ending, so I find it helpful to have Scripture nearby to help me keep a decent attitude about it.
I plan to do a little more decorating. I am waiting til I find just what I want (I don't know what that is but will know when I see it).
I am happy with the results. I've painted lots of rooms in my homes over the years. I found this to be the hardest. All of the nooks and crannies.....plus four big items that couldn't be taken out....and all of the random plugs and pipes. It took forever. Caleb and Chloe helped me, and that was so fun. They did a great job...until they got bored :).
The downside to my updated laundry room is I don't actually want to do laundry now because it's too pretty :).
Not only do I have the normal amount of laundry 6 people create, I also have the added laundry of:
- a self-feeding but very messy 20 month old (who refuses to wear a bib, so I change him often)
- a 4 year old who hates being dirty, so he changes anytime he is sticky (which is a lot)
- workout clothes from Brett and I each day (in addition to our normal clothes)
- in the summer, pool towels
The upside is my kids think wearing underwear is an optional activity, so there's not much of that in the laundry.
Another issue is that we walk through our laundry room approximately 487 times a day. Our pantry is in the laundry room (which is weird, but I do like that it's out of sight). To get to the garage, we pass through it.
It is also the one room in the house I've totally neglected. In my mind, it's the laundry room. Who cares?
But after spending WAY too much time in there a few weeks ago with kids gunk, I decided it was time for a makeover.
I had most of the stuff on hand and a lot of gift cards, so this makeover was extremely cheap for me. But if I did not have any of it, it still would've been about $100.
Worth it, for sure.
My house was built in 1979 and has had no major updating since then. (I entered a contest at Lowe's to win a kitchen renovation...please pray I win it!)
The before pictures:
I do not like the bulkiness of the cabinets, but I do like how much they hold and hide.
You can see the beauty that is this room {sarcasm}.
I had already started to prep the paint and had cleaned out some of the clutter when I took these pictures. The wall clutter was still there :)
My pantry (which you can see needs some help, haha)
Since I pass through this room first, most of my clutter ends up on the dryer. (This is after I cleaned off the cluttered dryer and had primed the cabinets).
The wall to the right is where I hang stuff to keep it off of my fridge.
The room isn't terrible. It's just blah. And I love color, pretty, and fun. So blah does not work for me!
The after:
I found the white decoration (on the right) at Target for $5 (score!). It is magnetic, so it will hold things but I will be more selective in what I put on it.
This room is off my kitchen, which is a blue-gray color. So that's why I went with gray for the color scheme.
Can we take a moment and pay homage to my washer and dryer? Those were a gift to us from a generous friend. I cannot explain how they've changed my life. My old washer and dryer were small (and the dryer took FOREVER). These hold about 2.5 times the amount of clothes my old ones did, so 10 loads became about 4.
I did not put window treatments up, because I love the view of the trees. Nature makes me happy, so I try to see it as much as possible.
I found this PERFECT hanger thing at Home Goods. I LOVE that it is labeled "No.1" and so on. Perfect for my four children. I had to hang it high because that's the only stud I could find. (It must not be a load bearing wall).
I painted the outside of the sink. I was nervous about it, but I love how it turned out. It is a little goofy to not have the inside painted, but the outside is better than nothing.
I used Mason jars I already had to store random stuff....including clothes pins! This will make you laugh if you saw my FB post. I actually had them because I used to hang up missing socks. One day, Chloe took them all down to make puppets. And I never put them back. I also put flashlights in them. We lose power in the summer sometimes, so I wanted them easy to locate. And the last one has rubber bands....only because I wanted to have three of them, and I had nothing else to put in the jars!
The candles were a gift from sweet friends, and I love that they work perfectly here.
While working on my laundry room, my kitchen was seriously neglected, as you can see in this picture.
The basket on the left is my new catch-all. Realistically, I know I will put stuff down. Now it just has a home. You can also see my drying rack. 
Just another view.
To the left of the door is where we store our keys. You can't really tell from the picture.
Laundry is never ending, so I find it helpful to have Scripture nearby to help me keep a decent attitude about it.
I plan to do a little more decorating. I am waiting til I find just what I want (I don't know what that is but will know when I see it).
I am happy with the results. I've painted lots of rooms in my homes over the years. I found this to be the hardest. All of the nooks and crannies.....plus four big items that couldn't be taken out....and all of the random plugs and pipes. It took forever. Caleb and Chloe helped me, and that was so fun. They did a great job...until they got bored :).
The downside to my updated laundry room is I don't actually want to do laundry now because it's too pretty :).
great job. Isn't it awesome how just a little bit of paint and a few simple things can change a room
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