Laundry Room Madness

A Laundry Room Makeover......

I've always considered myself organized and rather obsessive about cleaning, but there are a couple areas where I don't invest a lot of my time in keeping up. Inside the house there are two places where it looks like a disaster most of the time. One of those places is my personal closet and the other is my laundry room.

I chose to work on my laundry first because it needed to be painted to match the updated kitchen, it also needed a makeover and some major organization. Last week, we talked about the fact that if you don't feel comfortable in a space or it doesn't feel like you, you won't end up spending a great deal of time there. If you do, it may have a negative effect on your mood. Now, let's be real here for a second, no one really wants to spend a great deal of time in their laundry room! But regardless of really wanting to spend any amount of time in the space, it's unfortunately a necessity.

I thought to myself, it would be great if the space was cute and organized so that I at least felt good about being in there so much. I also wouldn't be totally embarrassed if a guest had to walk into it. The laundry room is located off of the kitchen and you have to walk through the laundry room to the garage. My hubby has a great knack for inevitably bringing guests through the garage! YIKES! I mean truly it's the only area of my house that isn't immaculate all the time. (Okay, except the closet) I think he might do it on purpose to get me to loosen up but it hasn't worked so far! :)

Now, I'm going to confess, I didn't actually take a true before picture of the room, because I was a little embarrassed! But I did take a picture of the room still in chaos right before I was going to paint it! You will notice in the pic that for some reason the builder only put one cabinet in the space. Perhaps he didn't think about the limited storage or the asthetically look of weirdness that only one cabinet gives this space.

Here is what the room looked like after we painted it in "Worldly Gray" by Shermin Williams. It looks so much bigger and brighter, don't you think?

The room desperately needed some additional storage and balance. I have always admired the open shelving I see on "Fixer Upper"( my favorite show on HGTV)! I decided to duplicate the look of wooden stained shelves and used metal brackets to attach them to the wall. I measured the space and decided on a shelf that was 3 ft long by 12" wide to align with the cabinet. I had the boards cut at Home Depot, since I didn't really feel like investing the time doing it myself. I stained the boards a dark walnut by Minwax. I looked at shelf brackets at Home Depot but they where all so expensive. I ended up buying these brackets for $3.87 each in the hardware section, which were the cheapest thing I could find to work. They were silver when I bought them, so I took them home and spray painted them a flat black. I measured and aligned the brackets where I wanted them to hit the shelves and attached them to the walls first. After each bracket was attached to the wall, I then attached the boards.

I really love how it turned out! I found this cute little sign about laundry! A picture frame and matching rug give it a home"y" feel.

I grabbed these cute metal baskets from Home Goods for $3 and $6. I love that the baskets add a mix of vintage and industrial look to the room. I also invested in a stainless steel recycling bin because it was small. The space is so organized and cute that I find my laundry is caught up most of the time. I know it's because instead of closing this eyesore off, I actually like being in there. And now, if anyone walks into it, I'm not completely mortified of the madness that it was before!

I hope you enjoyed this laundry room makeover! This week, I will be finally painting the hutch that went to my dresser in my master bedroom. It's been sitting in my garage collecting dust. I'm excited to get back to some painting furniture therapy; it's been a while. I'm also crafting and getting the booth ready for our garden themed, Spring Fling at Daisies and Olives Antique Mall, coming up in April.