divingcardinal, they have these things made out of cloth called "curtains". You pull them closed when things get too shiny. Or this other weird thing called a "blind" that goes straight up and down. Also very effective at blocking the light sometimes while letting it stream in unimpeded at others. To the OP - while the idea of enclosing the porch isn't horrible, it really doesn't look all that wide, enough to make it practical as a laundry room, unless you could put stacked units at the far end. Not sure where that is in relation to the window, which I absolutely WOULD NOT want to lose in the kitchen. However a better solution seems to me to be to fix the basement stairs. If they are SO narrow and/or shallow that a young person such as yourself wouldn't feel safe going up and down them with a basket of laundry, they're too narrow/shallow to be safe in any case. I would rather invest the reno money in fixing those stairs, give them a landing and a turn if necessary. I don't know what kind of space you have down there but if the stairs are as bad as you seem to imply, you won't use that space much, if at all. Plus I would worry about little kids and steep/narrow stairs. I'm 60 and if I had a basement that is where I would want the laundry area to be. Preferably with a built in floor drain. That would give me the space to have an actual laundry tub for the washer to drain into instead of those stupid little plastic bins they mount behind the drywall these days. Plus, laundry tubs are SOOOO useful for so many reasons. Even if they are in the basement.

This is super adorable! My first home was also a circa-1960s ranch bungalow (also in Canada) with that type of rear entry - I think it is ubiquitous across homes of this era in Canada and as you know it can get a bit crowded, especially in winter with all the added necessary winter gear - and I wish I had thought of something as clever as that shoe wall. We just had one of those little cuts outs in the lower part of the wall where we piled our shoes instead. Great job!

You need a very thin wire pull to work with that. Maybe. The panel may be too small to work with any pull. This is why the small drawers in detailed door styles like this often come with profiled slab drawers for the short drawers. You might reorder those as profiled slabs instead.

Upgrade your wall art. Remove the metal decor on the walls and buy some art pieces. The larger the better. The family pictures over the desk should be in a hallway or in a bedroom, not in the living area. Thrift stores are great places to find wall art. I bought a beautiful large framed print for $15 last week, that is the perfect size and color for the room. And I love the image. Last year I bought a picture with a beautifully frame and matting that fit perfectly in my room. but I never really loved the print in it. This week I bought this at Great Big Canvas to replace the print. DH and I both love it. I can't wait for it to flatten out so I can put it in the frame. Can the desk be moved elsewhere? It's a pretty messy thing to be the first thing you see when you walk into the house. Add some rugs to the dining are and the TV area.