laundry “room” makeover

Our laundry room, (I guess it’s more like a closet?) sits right within our main entertaining area.  Our kitchen is long, stretching from the prep area to the dining area.  Off of the dining area there are two “closets,” a pantry and a laundry “room.”  Each is contained by a cheap set of doors on a track, that every so often get stuck.  But more often than not, laundry gets done regularly around this house (Pippa goes through more clothes than I do) and the doors stay open during laundry because of the lack of space within the “room.”  Heat would be too contained within the “room” space when the dryer is running.   The power to the washer and dryer is connected to the light switch off of the dining area in our kitchen, and for over 3 years, we have had the same bright, florescent light that illuminates the “room.”  So more often than not, the doors to our laundry area get left open and the light is often left on.   This has started to really get to me over the years.  The walls are white, the light florescent, and the mess ever present. So this gets to me when I walk past the “room” and see the mess. 

This makeover plan started off as merely sewing a curtain panel to cover our main shelf, and buying a few organizers to make the mess a little less messy.   But as I stood in our dining area, staring at the “room,” with two consecutive days off in a row, the plan grew.   I wanted to paint.   Our house is very neutral- I haven’t touched the walls of our house because I knew that this was not our forever home.   Also, our first floor is extremely open, and each room seems to flow to the next without clear definition of where I would start and stop painting.  So I’ve embraced the neutral.  But looking at this all white “closet,” I became inspired to paint it in my favorite color.   Maybe it will make me resent the chore of doing laundry a little bit less?

Lowes’ had the perfect color:  Valspar Lake Breeze.  The lady at the paint counter really tried to sell me hard on the gallon size when I mentioned that I was painting a laundry room.   I explained to her that it was more like a closet, and we had a good laugh and agreed on the quart.  I then bought a cafe curtain spring rod, curtain hooks and headed to my favorite store of all, Hobby Lobby for some duck cloth fabric with my 40% off coupon.   I settled on a blue and white large stripe in a slightly darker color than my paint color and headed home!  My mom taught me that I can prime and paint a room in less than a day, and I was determined to finish the closet before I went back to work in a day and a half.  I removed the shelf that Tony installed when we first moved in, and decided that it needed a fresh coat of paint.  Then I taped off the room with gorilla tape and began painting.  I used a regular brush and not a roller.  I have found that you have to push really hard with a roller to completely paint textured walls, and then still have to go over with many coats of paint.  The brush was a breeze.   I had my Pandora ‘latest hits’ playlist on, and danced my way through the painting. (No pictures of THAT mess- TG!)

The hardest part about this makeover was wrestling the washer and dryer in this tiny closet of a room to move it side to side to paint around it.  And I didn’t get 100% of the wall behind the washer and dryer, but I got enough of it.   Also, the walls were originally not done well- so there are some preexisting paint drips and unevenness to make me not be 100% satisfied with it.  But is it better than before? Absofreakinlutely.

Other details:

Tony helped me take some old knobs from a dresser I made over and drilled them into our existing cabinet, giving it a touch of sophistication.  I sewed two curtain panels to hide the mess and bought some storage bins (clearance find in the college section!) to organize the clutter.  Also, I found a very old pallet bookcase from Tony’s college days in our basement, and spray painted it in a shade of blue to add even more storage to the shelf.  I also decided to use a napkin holder to display/store our fabric softener sheets. Lastly, I made some “art” to hang in the “room” with some clothespins I had on hand, 8×10 stretched canvas, an overabundant supply of fabric remnants and some “nickel” spray paint.

The result is this- and I’m pretty happy with it!