I wish I could be "LRO" with you. I finally got beautiful front-loaders last year. I love them. I don laundry all the time without complaining. But they're in the garage. I can't really enjoy them and I can't show them off. I wish I could paint a wall or something, but there are bikes hanging, tools, spider webbs!!!
I so wish I had a laundry room to be obsessed over! Have fun with it.

Boy do I know the feeling. Only right now my obsession is exactly how I want to redo mine to make it perfect. Well as close to it as it can get since we are not going to reposition the W/D. I'm down to where to hang clothes when they come out of the dryer.
Laundry rooms are a very big part of a woman's life so it makes complete sense to me that you are so excited about yours. Especially since you have clothe diapers to soak and wash! I thought seriously about using clothe, but in the end (no pun intended) I felt my babies were drier with disposable. This was long before they had all the liners available like they do now though.
Do you mind, may I ask why you chose clothe diapers? I'm so into green living when at all possible and even back twenty some years ago that was my concern (only it wasn't call "green" then) about using disposables.

Can't say I'm obsessed but I do understand your excitment - looking forward to seeing your red machines - how fun! I have a small (and I do mean small!) laundry/mud room off my kitchen and back entry so it's really convenient but it's hardly decor worthy - pure function here.

Yay! I'm not feeling quite so crazy now...thanks!

justgotabme, both of my girls have really sensitive skin and so the thought of disposable diapers having chlorine and other chemicals turned me off. Also, there are some super cute cloth diapers and covers out there now--so I love matching her diaper to her outfit--lol! We're just kind of a "natural" family...I breastfeed (for a long time!) and make all my own baby food...it just seems simpler and I have fun with it.

I had so much fun redoing my laundry room. I put in a slate floor, black toile window treatments, added a chandelier, painted it apple green and had some wall words made for the soffit.

I guess we can all hang out in the same wing of the asylum.

Oh wow! What lucky babies you have. I have noticed there are non chlorine and chemical free disposables at Whole Foods where we shop, but I think you are doing an awesome job giving your babies a natural/chemical free upbringing. Good job Mom!

If you want a benchmark for laundry nuttiness, just go check out the Laundry Forum where people keep stats on loads run, own multiple machines, try every detergent under the sun, etc. It's great fun over there!

I myself found Bosch Axxis machines in the classifieds, right after I had finally decided to buy them, and then proceeded to paint my LR blue and orange. I put in gobs of Elfa shelving and lived happily ever after!

(I am a "Natural" mom too, btw...DD was weaned long ago, but only after many, many months of nursing. We did family bed for a few years, cloth diapers, attachment parenting...the whole bit. Enjoy! It makes for wonderful kids, IME!)

We moved into our new home almost 32 months ago. It has many wonderful features, but one I was excited about was my pretty laundry room. We had our W/D in the unfinished basement of our last home. I LOVE my new laundry room. DH has his own in the lower level, so mine stays "pretty!"

Congrats on your new laundry room - Enjoy!

Here is a link that might be useful:

I saw your pretty pretty laundry (French Grey?) on another thread, Allison, and I just love it. No wonder you are jazzed!

I think each one of us has something in a new home that particularly entrances us. Usually, it's the thing we never had done right in a former home. For me, I think it's my back patio and pool area. I had a pool in my last home, but it was a monstrous long thing in a ridiculously ugly backyard. This patio has roses and redwoods and jasmine, Oh My!

Red

New washers and dryers today are like little sports cars!! I can understand your excitement. I enjoy doing laundry. OK, stop hissing and booing me!! LOL I too will have a nicer and larger laundry room in the new house and I'm so excited. I even have a built in ironing board. Wait till I tell DH I want to put up at least a wall paper border in there. I'll save that news for after we move in.

I'm excited for you and can't wait to see the finished room.

Allison, that's not a laundry room, that's a dance hall honey!!

Yes, I can understand! I use cloth on my children, so going from apartment living (where laundry was actually FREE, so not all that bad) to a house with our own washer/dryer was so exciting.

BTW-- I don't know what your system is (I use the dry pail method), but instead of washing your diapers in the sink, you could try this instead . . .

Here is a link that might be useful: Mini-Shower

LOL Fairytale! I was obsessed with everything too. I have to say though that I've never decorated a laundry room before. I see all the beautiful photos like Allison's and would like to try but I don't have much wall space at all and I don't like too much clutter on the counters since I use them for folding. Still looking for a basic laundry room sign that doesn't look too country-ish for my one tiny wall. ;c)

So....a month and a half away, eh? What an exciting Summer this is going to be for you! Best Wishes and get your camera ready..we wanna see!

Lindy

Until a couple of months ago, I was never LRO; it was just a place to do the drudge work. Thankfully, all of my laundry rooms have been on the main floor in a decent room, though! And then, at the beginning of my Spring cleaning this year, I got this wild idea to do something fun with my present LR. I've been working on it, on and off, ever since and it really is fun! I do 95% of all the laundry in our home and I'm making this my own special place to do it in. Good for you, FTB, enjoy it . . . and don't forget to show us the end results when it's finished!

BTW, where is this "Laundry Forum"?????????

Go to top, in green ban, put your cursor over Forums, the little drop down menu will show, then click on Home Forums, that will give you the list of the home forums, laundry is listed. They talked mostly about appliances. At least they were last time I visited.

amysrq, I've lurked over at the Laundry Forum for a while, but I think I'm more excited by the decorative aspect of the new LR than the actual mechanics of it!

allison, I love your LR--in fact--I have very similar travertine in the same versailles pattern (at least, I think I do...I'll know for sure once all the dust gets cleared away)

anele, I don't have much of a method at all! I have a wet pail downstairs (where we are most of the day)...but most of the time I end up rinsing them in one side of the kitchen sink until they can make it into the washer at night! I like the idea of the mini shower---but is it much better than a pull down faucet?

lindy, I am so very excited. And emotional. And sad. We're moving 500 miles away so to leave our friends will be tough. I've been nothing but ecstatic until earlier this week as we started really packing things away and putting them into storage. Now it's real to me.
I don't know what your LR "style" will be like, but I had a girl on ebay make me a sign and she does custom jobs. She was a doll to work with and had lots of colors/styles available. If you'd like to inquire about a sign, I'll include her ebay store link (check out all the categories for her signs like cottage, french country, italian)

Here's the sign I ordered from her---

lynn, the laundry forum can be found right under the "kitchens" forum on the main page list
Here's a link http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/laundry/
and I will definitely take lots of pictures when we're all settled!

Here is a link that might be useful: ebay sign store

DH is LRO. Two rules for buying a house. Must have main floor laundry and attatched garage. He said he lived without both for too long.

Oh yes...I actually bought glass backsplash tile (from craigslist) for my laundry room (beautiful stuff--see the link below--I even have some gecko-colored tile to take out some of the tiles and replace, so everything is referenced in the backsplash :)). I'm personally fabricating some silestone remnants this summer for the countertop. The paint there (Devine gecko) was the easiest choice in my entire remodel. I think it's because it's the room I take the least seriously and can have the most fun with, but I love my laundry room :)

Here is a link that might be useful: on a whim...

Oh what a cute sign...I'll check her out on ebay! Thanks! And I totally understand about moving away from friends...done it more times than I would have liked. But, you'll meet some great new friends and invite the old gang over to visit your beautiful new house for a weekend. :c)

Hey, there's not one darn thing wrong with being in LOVE with your laundry room! If you're like me, you spend more time with your washer and dryer than you do with DH!! :( Sometimes I still go in mine and spread out my arms just to prove to myself that I can't touch either wall! I absolutely love extra room- it was one of my "must-haves". Laundry is not near as taxing to do now!! ENJOY!!

Cute sign!!!

RE: "I like the idea of the mini shower---but is it much better than a pull down faucet?"

The benefit is that you have it connected to your toilet, so you rinse off the diapers in the toilet-- not a sink. We use the dry pail method. I use fleece-topped hemp doublers in the diapers (the fleece makes clean-up super easy, but some children are sensitive to it), throw what I need to in the toilet, then store in a dry pail lined with a diaper pail bag until I wash. I've done it this way for 6 years with no problems and no stains!

Wish my husband would read this so he would no longer think I'm the only crazy one!

When we moved into our new home a few weeks ago, the second floor laundry room was the first room to get painted and finished! I have a black and white tile floor and I painted the walls robin's egg blue. The machines are silver. It makes me smile when I go in!

I love that sign! LOL! And I can easily imagined being "LRO", especially because my washer and dryer are smack-dab in my breakfast area, and I have to fold laundry on my kitchen table. Plus, they just look like big ol' white rhinos sitting in the room like that, but I guess it could be worse -- my next-door neighbor's W&D are in his detached garage, and he has to haul his stuff back and forth thru all kinds of weather.

Our washer and dryer are in an unfinished basement and it's depressing. I don't think there's anything "wrong" with you. I can't explain it, but a beautiful laundry room is important! That sounds ridiculous--given the fact that some people don't even have enough to eat and live in rodent-infested and should-be-condemned housing--but there you have it. I think that, like most earthbound mammals, we seek to establish safe and comfortable dwellings. As humans, aesthetics play a large part in that, so we are genetically predisposed to feather our nests, and to do so with beauty in mind. I would love to have a beautiful laundry room. And I think I will keep Allison's in mind, as inspiration, when the time comes to renovate. :)

Thanks everyone!

Redbazel, yes it's F&B French Grey.

Brutuses, it really belongs to the cats. The litter box is tucked behind the chest. The cats have a water fountain up on the counter now too - keeps them out of my faucets! lol

Fairytalebaby, I love you sign! I also love the travertine flooring. It goes into the hallway, kitchen, pantry, powder room, breakfast room and sunroom. We have it in our bathrooms also. We used the largest rectangle on the MBath shower walls and the smallest rectangle tile on the main level shower walls. We used the 511 Impregnator by Miracle Sealants.

OS, in our last basement, I put the kids drawings/things from pre-school, K and 1st grade on the walls. It did brighten the area. It was sad to take everything down before we moved - but boy, I do NOT miss that basement!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

Add me to the LRO group! I will be more apt to show my LR than the living room.

I have a sign that hides the water connections on the wall behind the W&D. I think I will have the eBay lady do one better than the one I have but using my saying ("Laundry is the only thing that should be sorted by color")

Allison, I love your laundry room! I wish I had a bigger laundry room but just having one across from my bedroom and not in a tiny little closet and not having to go to the laundry mat is one of the nice features that sold me on the townhouse I bought a little less than 11 years ago. Where are your hampers? I just love your taste of knowing where everything should be in a room to create rooms with both class and beauty.

I just bought two white wicker hampers with two compartments at Fran's Wicker & Rattan Furniture Store and were amazed at the just about no smell. They have velcro cotton drawstring bags inside and are very well sealed. I aired them out for a week so they will have no smell at all. I am glad I went with such pretty hampers that were reasonably priced for the quality. Now I have to take the suggestions I got from others on making the rest of the room nice when I have time.

I understand perfectly! I've been in my house for 15 months now, and I'm still jazzed about my laundry room. It's a pretty light-filled room, but most of all I enjoy the functionality. It's so easy to hang or fold clothes from the dryer. I actually have a laundry sink, and plenty of room for sewing machine and ironing board. (This means that mending actually happens now.) Considering that for the past 26 years my washer and dryer were in the hall between the kitchen and garage, having a great laundry room is pretty exciting!

It's a lot easier to stay on top of the laundry, and if for some reason the room is a mess, I can just shut the door. What a concept! :)

My word, Allison--your laundry room is nicer than just about any room in my house! :) It's really nice and peaceful--modern but with old-world charm. I love it!

Thank you. : )

The doorway/room is actually visible from the great room, so I wanted it to not look like a laundry room. The granite is the same I used on either side of the range in the kitchen. It looks more like a butler's pantry than a laundry room from a distance.

Lynn, my hamper is in my closet. I either carry just the clothes or bring it to the laundry room. It's one of those small folding kind - bag hanging on wooden X folding thing. Not sure how else to describe it!

Gumper97, I ordered the fixtures on the internet. I will try to find the ticket in a bit. They have seeded glass. I just love them. They were not expensive either.

I couldn't find a ticket for that one, but found charge card statements. Most of my fixtures are by Hubbardton Forge, but I know those aren't. I found a charge to Creative Lighting and another to Spectrum Home Furnishings. I didn't see the fixtures at either website, but saw some similar at Creative Lighting you might like. Sorry!

Here is a link that might be useful: Creative Lighting

WOW - my laundry room is nowhere near as large as some of yours, but I'm just grateful to have one! I must post pictures of mine - we put in (Ikea) kitchen cabinets (replacing cheapie open shelves), painted, and have a new set of fire-engine red LG Steamwashers. They are so purty! My 9 year old washing machine recently croaked and I rejoiced.

Still hate doing laundry though! I only wish it were UPSTAIRS. Ugh.