Updating The Laundry Room

Today I want to show you my improved laundry room!

My dream is to have a large laundry room. And a separate mudroom. This dream is possible in our home if we were to convert our den (currently a guest room) into a laundry room and then turn the old laundry room that currently doubles as a mudroom into just a mudroom. It's going to happen. Just not any time soon unfortunately due to priorities and budget.

I had accepted my fate of having an ugly, boring laundry room until I came across this. It was all DIY and pretty basic. Well, maybe not too basic but the stuff I took from it was all the basic stuff. Inspired and motivated, I woke up the next morning and decided I was going to give our laundry room a facelift. A lipstick job, as Arinn would call it. It is a room I use DAILY due to my (very messy) children so I felt entitled justified in my mini makeover.

There were three factors to consider:

1. It's super tiny. I cannot make it bigger without the big, expensive move to a different location of the house. Rearranging or stacking or anything just weren't options.
2. No natural light. It's a cave.
3. I had a red washing machine (note the past tense. More on that below), which we have been planning on buying the matching dryer to since we've moved in.

I needed to try and make it look bigger. This I don't feel I achieved. But whatever. I needed some good lighting installed. And, I wanted colours or style that would go well with a red washer dryer set.
Below are two different options I considered for colour

Traci Zeller

Black, white and red are great together. Bold and classic. I love the custom built-ins around the washer dryer. I also like the pretty sink area and the pendant light fixture and the art to make the room feel personal. The unique drawer pulls are an interesting touch. A big plus for this room is the natural light. I don't have that. My laundry room is a cave.

HGTV

I love this room!! The red looks so good with the charcoal. It has an island for counter space and a laundry sink.  Lots of storage. Lots of natural light. Art. It is perfect! But doesn't work for me. My laundry room is a cave. Painting it out charcoal grey would make it even darker and cave-like. Boo.

Here's my before

That wall colour! That floor! The sink (soooo gross)! Those cupboards!
The whole room was greatly hated. The worst part is that because of its size we had to take the door to the room off. It was so awkward to try and manoeuvre around in there with the door. So we took it off and then had to look at this ugly room every time we walked past it - which is all the time. It's located just off our front entry, at the bottom of our stairs.

I painted the walls white to brighten up the cave and added a feature black wall for drama. I spray painted the cupboards black and switched out the hardware to brass. The door is painted in Behr Emerald Coast 490B-6 and replaced its old, tarnished hardware. The rug is from Ikea and is super cheap and super soft. I now enjoy standing in the room anymore folding laundry.

I spray painted all the hooks, including the wood ones holding the ironing board. I used Rustoleum's metallic line in Brass, which I also used to spray paint the frame of one of the mirrors we took out of our ensuite when we reno'd it and I hung it over the sink. The old, grungy sink was replaced for $30 from Rona and the new faucet is from Home Depot. I wanted a statement piece for the faucet and I love the industrial look of this one.

I hung this photo of my daughter, Georgina, with my parents' puppy, Sam, for a personal and sentimental touch.

And the light fixture is a discount item from Home Sense! It really brightens the room and casts some neat shadows - a pain for photographing but pretty in person.

I did all this with the red washer dryer set in mind. But three weeks ago the washing machine and I parted ways. It wasn't properly maintained by the previous owners and I was constantly battling bad odours and gross stuff. Wipe your washing machines dry people! And mind your monthly maintenance. I really like the grey machines and I feel they fit in nicely with the way I painted but I might have tried a completely different direction if I had grey machines in mind. Maybe something like this

PNE Lottery Prize Home

I'll save it for future inspiration.

There's still some finishing touches I need to add. The cat door has silicon around the frame and it repels paint so I need to find a solution to that. I dislike that there's no counter space anywhere in the laundry room so I want to add a counter over the washer and dryer. And it needs more art for character to make it feel more homey.

I love my new room and it is now a point of pride instead of embarrassment or disappointment. It was an easy makeover - just a weekend - and relatively inexpensive. The biggest cost was the faucet (besides the new machines), and it will be moving into the new laundry room if and when we do that. It's important that I enjoy every room in my home, especially the ones that I work in often.

What room in your house deserves or needs a pick-me-up?

Kitty approved