My Laundry Room Makeover

For the first half of our marriage my husband and I lived in Washington where my husband is from. While we were there we moved around a lot, living in four different places, in about 9 years. Because we didn't ever stay put for long and because we always had a baby in the house, we never really got to put our stamp on our homes. 

Then the Lord brought us to Utah where we've lived for the past 9 years, in the same house. We are done growing our family and have no intention of moving for a long time. Because of that we have been using the last four years or so to make this home our own. 

First we started by adding a deck to the back of the house. My husband did it all by himself and he did an awesome job! Then we moved onto a partial kitchen remodel where we rearranged some things to make the space more functional. You can read about that here, here, and here. It was a 3 part series which is why there's 3 links. ;) Next on the agenda was to remove the super lame peninsula fireplace that the previous owners had put in. Then last year we ripped up the hardwood floors that were made of the softest wood of all time and replaced it with beautiful Pergo flooring.

And this year's project was most exciting! It was a laundry room makeover! I know, I know, who cares if a laundry room looks nice or not? Well, in my house the laundry room is the first room one enters from the garage, which also makes it a mudroom for my kids. It is also a pass thru from the kitchen to the main floor bathroom. Laundry rooms by definition aren't supposed to be anything other than a room for laundry but when every guest that comes to my house has to see it, that changes things.

The first problem we addressed was what to do with the dog's crate. I wanted it to stay in the laundry room because it's out of sight but I wanted it to fit better somehow.

After looking on Pinterest I happened upon some "doggie dens" where people had created a space for their dogs using a space that already existed. My daughter Ainsley and I realized that Teddy's bed fit in the space without the crate. We just needed to come up with a door of some sort to keep her in.

Enter my awesome husband who did some researching and found this gate online. He then built it all by himself and made it look "farmhousey" per my request. It easily slides over the space and the dog transitioned to it with no problems. I love it and I love that her kennel is no longer a tripping hazard/ eye sore. :)

So apparently Nathan has a fear that all of our appliances will break at the same time which I guess is a reasonable fear since they are all the same age. He said since we were doing this update we might as well replace our old washer and dryer at the same time. They worked "ish" and were fine but it's been fun to have brand new ones which I have never had in all our years of marriage. They sure are fancy!

After getting the new washer and dryer my husband made a simple shelf to go over the back of them and we installed a simple gray brick backsplash to add visual interest. I love how both of them turned out! Nathan also added an under cabinet light to help me see those illusive stains on the clothes. He's pretty amazing. :)

The biggest transformation came on the mudroom side of the laundry room. I've had these IKEA cubbies for my kids' shoes and coats for years and they are awesome. They are durable and so much bigger than the ones at Wal-Mart or Target. I highly recommend them! I also had two hampers; one for socks and one for towels and stacked my laundry baskets on top. Very functional but not super pretty. Especially when the caboose came along and there wasn't enough room for another set of cubbies so we had to stack them on top! I LOVED my cubbies but as my kids are getting older I decided we were all ready for a more sophisticated approach to our storage. 

So I found an exact picture of what I wanted on Pinterest and hired a carpenter because although Nathan probably could've done it himself, he was nervous about it and didn't have the proper saw. Two days later and we have this glorious site! I thought I loved my cubbies but they pale in comparison to what I have now. SO PRETTY!!! We found the half size canvas bins at Wal-mart for the kids' gloves and hats and the canvas wicker shoe baskets at Target. I had a more "farmhousey" look in mind, like galvanized bins, but I made the mistake of taking Nathan shopping with me so yeah. ;) It's okay. It's still got shiplap which makes me super happy and since Nathan worked so hard on everything AND paid for it all, I suppose I could let him have a say in some of it. ;)

 Eventually I did let my kids hang their jackets and coats on the hooks, though I didn't want them to because then I wouldn't be able to gaze lovingly at the shiplap as easily, but oh well.  I got chalkboard labels for the bins too. I hung one of my most favorite reminders above and I think it turned out great!

 Here's another one of Nathan and my genius creations. I wanted a small drying rack to mount on the wall but I wanted it to also be pretty. I bought this window and pallet at Wal-Mart in their craft section and then Nathan turned them into a custom drying rack for me. Yup. We make a great team. :)

Here's the rest of the wall decor I've got in there. The top left laundry sign came from Hobby Lobby several years ago. Top right is a galvanized flower pot mounted to a wooden plaque. The plaque came from Wal-Mart  and everything else was from Hobby Lobby. The "laundry schedule" sign came from ETSY and I love it. Ain't it the truth?!? The middle left "Laundry" sign is from Amazon. The bottom left "wash, dry, and fold" signs are also from ESTY and the clock is from Hobby Lobby. I bought the washboard from Amazon as well and then distressed it to match the rest of the decor. I really love how it all looks!

My laundry room already had these open shelves. They just needed to be prettied up a bit. I got some more cute bins from Wal-Mart, seriously people, if you are trying to add more farmhouse to your decor, Wal-mart has it going on right now! Where was I? Oh yeah, I got some bins to hide the less aesthetically pleasing items and everything else looks good because it's white. Who knew toilet paper could make such a statement?!? Ha ha ha!

On the shelf I put more "pretty things" and I am not ashamed to say that they all came from Hobby Lobby. I love that store! And the fact that they were willing to lose everything in defense of their religious beliefs makes me an even bigger fan. There is too much "politically correctness" in this world and not enough moral decency. So yes, I love Hobby Lobby and their stuff is just dang cute too!

So now this is the view my guests have as they round the corner on the way to the bathroom. So. Much. Better!