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

Rachel, My kitchen is/was an identical layout as yours, just flip it over. I love seeing yours and how we can work with our small areas. Also love the colors and keeping with your home's history. The laundry area is open to my kitchen, I suspect they removed the wall you have. They left a half wall where your furnace is and added a wall/door facing the outside door. This left the laundry open to kitchen. The furnace area is a fairly large space/room, but I was able to install the water softener in there and also use it for storing brooms, ironing board, etc. My door to the living room is on the opposite wall as yours so there are cabinets/counter up to this door forming an L shaped kitchen. Ceiling heigth cabinets were built on the kitchen/furnace room wall which took away any eating area. I removed them, big wasted space and now have a dining area there. With all, I still had the same dilemma as you with the water heater. Mine is right in the open and next to the WD. This couldn't be enlcosed with the furnace as it would not have allowed enough walking area between cabinets/counter which were built to the outside door. If these were not new and/or take a lot of work to change, I'd put the wall back up to close off the laundry area....have my days when a laundry in kitchen view isn't my thing. With the WH sitting right next to my washer/dryer, I used one of the ceiling height cabinets taken from kitchen to enclose it (surprising, it fit perfectly). The back is open for circulation, doors can be open for access and it can be moved if needed. The other cabinet fit perfectly beside the opposite side of W/D. Pure luck...still have the storage. I can't tell how much room you have between the washer and furnace. But you could enclose all of this with folding shutter doors...keep the air circulation needed...from wall to wall across the laundry, which would give you a large hidden storage area. They now have full ceiling height shutters/doors availabe at HD and are inexpensive. Since the furnace filter area can't be covered, it looks like there isn't enough room, one of the doors could be added from ceiling/wall down to the filter. At least all the duct work and plumbing would be hidden and you can still get to everything if needed. Hopefully this doesn't sound like rambling....it is pure creative tasks in making our small homes look/feel right.

My favorite paint colors are Behr Honey Infusion, Behr Honied White and Behr Yucca White. Honey Infusion is a great yellow based neutral which worked to lighten up a red and brown guest room. Honied white was used after the walls were painted with Killz twice to lighten up a bedroom in med blue and puke green. Yucca White was used on the master bedroom gray headboard wall after it had been Killz.

I do think a dark color is nice for a media room. Consider the cocoa brown from the bottom of your art as a good neutral. Then pop the red, orange and white around as your accent colors with throws, pillows. Does your seating recline? Can the curio find another home? I'd like to see the sofa on the red wall and the chair angled in the corner of the current TV wall. A glare free TV on the wall opposite the window might be larger. Your shades look to be close to black outs, but if not, you might add inside mounted, skinny solar shades under them. Another option is to put the curio where the TV is, sofa at window, TV on red wall and chair angled where sofa is now.