Laundry Room Help Needed please!

15 years ago

I'm posting some before and after pics of my laundry room, which is actually just a section of our garage. Hubby built shelves along the step down from the laundry area and part of those have been converted to a pantry.

Before: {{!gwi}}

I love the shelves, but didn't like seeing raw wood and I hated that the back door was that dark brown. Also, over the course of the last two years, hubby has found several kitchen cabinets and installed them in every possible location for extra storage:

Over the washer and dryer: {{!gwi}}

Also over the door to the outside and the door that leads into the house.

In the last two days, I have repainted the cabinets AND that nasty back door:

I think it looks tons better in there, and I've added some blue knobs to make the upper cabinets easier to open. My questions, though, are as follows:

This window is behind my freezer and I'm not sure if I should make some kind of curtain for it. I'm thinking of a blue check, or a white background fabric with the light blue of the knobs in the design. My colors in here are going to be white, light blue, tan and possibly some black accents. The tan comes from my area rugs which I will put back down in front of the washer/dryer and from the filing cabinet that's in there.

Should I finish painting the filing cabinet white to make it blend in more? I can't really remove it because we store dog food, tp and paper towels in it.

I also plan to make some curtains for the storage shelves on the left, probably in the same fabric I use for the windows. Hubby is going to build one more pantry door which will be painted white and then I plan to stencil the pantry doors.

This room will (I hope) end up with a country theme, especially because it's all "home made". ;) Because the shelves and pantry doors are made from plywood, there is definitely a rustic vibe in there. The wood-look floor adds to that and this is my major storage area for all of the things that one uses only a couple of times a year.

Any ideas and suggestions are welcome....except rip it all out and have it professionally done, because that's not in the budget and that's not really my style.

Oh, and I am open to painting the walls themselves. My thought was to paint them the same blue as the cabinet knobs, partially because this room is (I think) too small to do something big and bold in here.

Most of my house is Behr's "Cookie Crumb" (a tan), with Behr's "Aegean Blue" in the bedroom, and Home Depot Orange in the kitchen. I'm not afraid of color at all, but I do try to keep it from being something more neon.

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Comments (6)

california_dreamer
15 years ago
I think painting the cabinets is a huge improvement! Good job! It looks so much "fresher" in there. I would probably paint the file cabinet too (not sure how easy that is to do though). Adding some type of pretty fabric to the window area and on the shelving would be a nice touch. I like the blue and white so I'd go with that (maybe toile). You're hard work in there is really paying off. :)
daisyadair
15 years ago
Painting everything white was definitely the way to go!
The colors you are considering sound good to me. I would suggest picking out the fabric to curtain off the open storage before making the final decision on the paint. Here's how I hid my open cabinets with a curtain in my laundry room
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Gates1, thank you for your post. We were actually going to include the bathroom in the laundry room but the builder and my daughter talked me out of it. At least we have easy access. The dryer vent will actually blow out onto the walkway between the porch and the garage which for me is OK. It won't be often that we will be entertaining and have the dryer going while cooking out. :) We are going to add a door from that walk way into the garage, too. I talked about bumping that entire breakfast nook, pantry and W/D area out about 2 feet but DH says I'm pushing my budget as it is so I better not or I'll be selling kidneys before this is over!!! LOL I think we will love it as long as there are no MAJOR issues. I drew the original plan myself and the builder only adjusted a few things. I've spent a year thinking and planning so when it came time it was really fairly simple. Thank you again and if anyone else has ideas please feel free to comment. If you're anything like me my happiest days are when I come in filthy and have been working in the yard and flower beds all day! Sunny
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I think I understand what your builders concerns are. With the L-shape design you are loosing the windows and elongated laundry room is not giving you that much extra storage. Is there a reason why the formal dining isn't converted ? The reason, I ask is because, the current formal living room has better access to the kitchen, so it is better suited to be the dining room. Just a thought. I would suggest doing something more along the line of what your builder is suggesting. Here are two options: I saw this setup of laundry at a house and I think it works well. you can use the space on the right wall as folding table or storage cabinet. The door is on the left wall. The door way from dining room should be symmetric. In this case the view is the wall where you can put art work, or even create a art niche. I would suggest Art Niche with sconce. Instead of walk-in pantry, a long reach in pantry may work better if the space is tight. In this option you have more storage but no window. In option 2, I moved the pantry in the laundry room and created a wet bar instead. The main idea is to have window to the space has natural light. You can just have more storage or even two small pantry closets with a big window in the middle. I do think that a wet bar or butlers pantry makes more sense, and creates a logical transition from kitchen to dining. Of course without dimension it is hard to tell if any of these will work. I do think that, trying to create two rooms may end up wasting lot of space. option 1:
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Melissa Houser
Original Author
15 years ago
California, Thank you for the compliments! I really think the file cabinet should be painted as well, but hubby isn't on board with the idea. I'll just do it when he's at work! ;)

Daisy, I LOVE your curtains! Your laundry is one of the dozens of pics I looked at before deciding to paint mine! I love your little container in the corner. :)

I was afraid I'd get comments like "Why don't you buy some real cabinets for that room?" I appreciate that everyone here seems to have the same mindset I do...make it work. :)
Melissa Houser
Original Author
15 years ago
Okay, so I've decided that I do NOT want to stencil in this room. The stencil paint just doesn't show well against the white. I'll be trying something else.

Anyone have any really good ideas?
alex9179
15 years ago
I think your ideas are great. Once you paint and get your fabric treatments up it will look entirely different. I would definitely put blue on the walls for some punch. You won't see much of it, so a bolder color would be just fine.
I realize that your wire organizers above the washer and dryer are handy, but would a compartmentalized basket or 3 baskets sitting on the file cabinet work well for you? It would be a pretty storage piece and add to the country feeling you're going for. You could also put a tray style basket on top of the freezer to hold/hide necessities.
Have you thought about burlap for the curtains? What is more country than that! It works your tan into the scheme, is tough, and would look so pretty with an accent fabric sown on the bottom and/or edges. A tan denim would work well, too.
Instead of stencils, you could hang a couple of cute plaques using those Command adhesive things on the door and a cabinet front or two. I know that TJMaxx/Homegoods always has some items in the primitive/country style (not necessarily laundry themed). Here is one in the link below that's kind of cute. I just wouldn't go overboard.

I just love it when someone makes a utilitarian space pretty. I'm a big fan of "use what you have", so I think you are doing a great job!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plaques
Melissa Houser
Original Author
15 years ago
I love that plaque! It is so me. :) I also like the idea of burlap or tan denim for the curtains. I hadn't thought of going that direction, but then I could put blue on the walls and it wouldn't be overkill.

Baskets are a good idea, maybe I'll see if I can get some small ones to put in there. I'm not sure where my closest TJ Maxx is, but I need to find one...especially since someone found a tin like Daisy's!

Laundry Room Help Needed please!

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california_dreamer

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