Laundry List
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Something we didn't account for when we remodeled our kitchen was the collateral damage to our laundry room. The laundry room sits directly below the kitchen and since we were planning on moving plumbing and adding a gas line we had to tear out nearly all of the drywall that the previous owners had installed.
No sooner had we painted it blue and re-installed the washer and dryer, than I was already sick of the color.
Silver lining? It forced us to finally paint the laundry room... that is after Adam re-drywalled it of course. And it allowed him a chance to install the slop sink that he'd been pining for. Everyone wins.
No sooner had we painted it blue and re-installed the washer and dryer, than I was already sick of the color.
Fast-forward two years and I finally wore Adam down convinced Adam we should paint it a new color and install some much-needed cabinets. See that unsightly grey rubbermaid shelf with all the stuff on it? It lived in there permanently - hence the "much-needed" part.
For the phase one update Adam had to build a sort of "stage" for the washer and dryer as no part of the floor in our basement appears to be level.
New color having been chosen, we took to prepping the room and the platform to be painted.
Two coats of paint on the walls and three coats of white decking paint on the platform and we were ready to shop for cabinets. And by shop I mean go to the rebuilding center and riffle through decades old cabinets and try to pull a couple together that look like they might be related...
We knew we wanted a small upper to go above the machines to house detergent and other cleaning supplies plus a base to go next to the sink where we could store tools and be able to fold laundry.
A few laps around the store and we found our uppers and a small slender base that Adam calculated could live between the washer and dryer. We also found our base but it was part of a set and they're usually reluctant to split those up but I went back the next day, pled my case and they sold me the single unit. Hoo-rah!
Painting cabinets - a necessary evil as they were all different colors and stains. The base being a lovely royal blue, yes the base from the full set. An entire kitchen worth of Royal. Blue. Cabinets.
We removed all the doors and drawers and all the hardware, sanding everything to rough it up and painted (2) coats of primer and (2) coats of white paint to everything. I chose to paint the interior of the cabinet doors and the interior of the upper cabinet but chose to leave the base interior original. (I apologize for the lack of "during" photos - hoping I make it up to you be overdoing it on the "afters.")
Adam mounted the upper above the washer and dryer and completed the look with open shelves on either side. Then the mini base got squeezed in and mounted to the platform.
While the room was decommissioned for the upgrade I took the opportunity to spray paint our breaker panel door white - a refreshing change from gunmetal grey.
We found inexpensive pre-fab laminate countertops at Ikea and were able to use one piece to top both bases off. It's not my most favorite design and I wouldn't put it in a higher-profile room but for a budget laundry re-do it's great.
Found these great cloth baskets at Marshall's and they hold things like hand towels, laundry bags and such.
As luck would have it, the small base was the perfect size to house the same pull-out garbage system we have in our kitchen. We chose the two square containers as opposed to one rectangular as we don't accumulate much garbage down there and the second one serves as a laundry hamper for things like dirty dog towels and household rags.
Lastly I hunted down two of the cutest rugs I could find. I'm head-over-heels for this grey and white geometric rug from Target. They're both wool and probably too nice for a laundry room (I spent as much on these two rugs as all the cabinets combined). But it makes doing laundry that much more enticing.
Coming down the basement stairs and seeing this view makes me much, much happier than our initial effort. I had originally wanted Adam to install a door on this room to hide it and now there's no need as this is one of my favorite rooms in the house. This thrills Adam.
Have you tackled a whole-room makeover lately? What do you love about it? What would you have done differently?
