The Laundry Project – Take 2!

The other night I accidentally deleted the blog post I had going on this project for days now. Blogging as I went along!

Unfortunately I couldn’t recover it, so here we go with a whole new post!

 

Yes, our laundry! It’s that glorified little throughway that leads from the hallway to the garage. It has two doors on either end and a JUST big enough recess to allow us to put a washer and a dryer there. And, after some considerable searching, one of those divided hampers on wheels!

When we first moved in, there was an old rickety cabinet above it, but it was so tiny, you couldn’t really store anything much in there. It wasn’t even deep enough for a regular sized container of laundry detergent.

You can’t see it well in that photo, but the cabinets also didn’t span the entire wall.

What a waste of perfectly good storage space!

So, initially my FIL put up some of those white wire shelves, spanning the whole length of that wall space. Much better!

But, if you have wire shelves like that, you know they bring a bunch of problems with them! Every time we put something even vaguely heavy on them, they started to bend and bow, even with the support brackets. I couldn’t put crates on it as they would get caught in the gaps upon pulling them out, stuff fell through the gaps and there was always that certain “bounce” that happened when you took something off the shelf, which would make the more fragile things “jump” and at times, fall and/or crack.

So Ian made some shelf boards from primed pine! Nice solid shelves!

No more bending and  bowing, bouncing or things falling through!

I got the green crates on sale at Target. They provide a spot of color and a much needed way to contain the smaller things that accumulate there! And my vases! Of course I vinyl labeled them.

I also allowed myself ONE pretty container, also found on sale at Target! It may be somewhat “wasted” in a laundry room, but it makes me happy to see it there, so it’s worth it :) And it makes the Oxy Clean &  scoop quite easy to get to!

And as organized as the space is now, I really don’t like looking at all that packaging too much though.

So I put up a trusty woven wood blind!  Instant color and texture to any space and all the “business” is nicely hidden!

Ignore the hangers please! We were in mid laundry when I took that photo lol

I had thought of painting the shelves a contrasting color, but postponed that until I decide on a wall color. To be honest, the already-has-to-much-going-on-and-doesn’t-need-to-make-more-work-for-myself part of me thinks that I should probably just leave it since it will hardly ever be seen anyway!

So, that’s the organizational part of the space sorted out. But now I am left with this:

Yep, the big white door to the garage! The laundry door is usually open, so that is the view you mostly get from the hallway.

Pretty bland!

The door needs a good coat of paint anyway. It’s a sturdy door and in good shape, even though a little grubby.

But I think the little bit of wall between the blind and the door needs something first.

I’ve seen all those lovely laundry signs around the place, so I thought I’d put my trusty Silhouette craft cutter to good use (again- seriously this little thing is going several times a day at the moment!) and cut out a laundry sign.

Since I haven’t decided on my wall color yet, I applied the vinyl to the glass of a frame I already had, so I can change the background at a whim by inserting paper or fabric inside the frame as the mood, or my paint color of choice, takes me!

So, now to the door! 

First I thought of painting the door with chalk board paint, maybe just part of the inside, with maybe a decorative frame. Then I realized that wouldn’t work. It is after all a throughway and a tiny space and we just couldn’t have the kids in there drawing with chalk. It would be frustration all around to have them “in the way” of where everyone needed to go!

Since the door is smooth and flat (no paneling) it would really lend itself to … yes, you guessed it, vinyl application. But what?

First I thought a tree. Trees are nice! But I didn’t like it. It just had nothing whatsoever to do with the laundry or the garage!

Then I had an idea. It’s a little on the funky side!

But that’s another post

Have a wonderful day!