Tip of the Week - Design your Laundry Room!!!!

You know when you have one of those moments that you look at somebody else's home and you have that moment a jealousy?

Well I had that feeling the other day!

(Lindsi, didn't you just do a post about not being jealous or envious about what other's have and just being happy with what you have? Why yes, yes I did.)

So I let that feeling only last for a split second and then I decided I wasn't going to feel that way and that I was just going to be happy and excited for this person.

My neighbor posted some pictures up on her blog of her Laundry Room Redo that she just finished. I say redo but it was more like an OVERHAUL!

I have mentioned before in this post that you really shouldn't forget about the laundry room when designing your house.

Don't get me wrong, I love my laundry room! I love that it didn't cost me anything and it is still cute. It puts a smile on my face when I walk in there (and it should)!

But I wanted to highlight my neighbor's laundry room and hope that it inspires you to want to do something to your laundry room.

Her name is Amanda Skinner and she did this project with her husband (the best kind of projects)!

Here is her before picture and I bet this is similar to a lot of homes out there.

After finding a great deal on a front loading washer and dryer, she was motivated to redo the entire room. And here is what they did.

Does it not look amazing!?

They built the platform to raise up the washer and dryer. I think this is a GENIUS option to the pedestal drawers. I have the front loaders and I love them but I also have the pedestals. My mom however, she doesn't have the pedestals, and when I do laundry there, I sit on the floor to put stuff and in and take it out since it hurts my back to bed over. So I love that they built the platform so that they wouldn't have to bend over.

The cabinet on top, they purchased from the Habitat Restore. They purchased just the left side and her husband built the shelves on the right side. She painted it all the same color and then glazed on top of that.

She purchased the baskets at Walgreens and then made the liners to go in them.

The thing that I love about this whole redo.... She says that she LOVES to do laundry now and she loves to be in there!!! That is how everyone should feel. Laundry is an inevitable task for everyone, why not do it in style and enjoy what you are looking at while in there.

It doesn't matter what size of laundry room you have, there something you can do for any size of laundry room.

I dare you to go into your laundry room and see what you can start with.... You won't be sorry!

Laundry Room Reveal

I am sure that my husband and I are one of the few couples that still share a computer but that is about to change. My husband is working from home now and it has made it pretty much impossible for me to have computer access but his boss is buying him a new computer so that should change in the next week or so!.... So if you have been wondering why my posts have been far and few between, that is the reason.

But.... I am still busy doing stuff around my house in the mean time so I do have stuff to post.

Right before taking off to Colorado for the Thanksgiving holiday, I broke down and decided that I wanted to get my laundry room done and can I just say that I LOVE the way that it turned out!

I think I am one of the few people out there that doesn't mind doing laundry and I think I have figured out why..... I only do laundry once a week and I have discovered that most people laundry everyday and that is why they don't like it!

Well, if you are doing laundry a lot, you are spending lots of time in your laundry room and that is a great reason on why you should decorate that sad room in the corner of the house! :)

Here is my laundry room!

Once again, the pictures don't do it justice.... the paint color isn't very good in the picture but it is a fun light green color.

AND... Once again, I spent pretty much NOTHING!!!!

I bought the green paint for a project I will someday do on my staircase and knowing that I wasn't going to use a full gallon I decided to paint my laundry room with what I knew would be left over.

Here is a picture without the flash.... wall color looks worse in these pictures.

So I have to talk about my words on the wall! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these! I painted these on... I have the equipment to project these on the walls and paint them and customize them the way that I want so it is easy for me to do this. You could use the vinyl lettering but I am too cheap for vinyl lettering :)

Don't you just LOVE the saying?

I showed a couple of sayings to my husband and he started laughing and said "I think you know which one I want".... Of course we both agreed with "Drop your drawers here"! We both love some humor in our lives so we went with that one.

The paint, both the black and red, were left overs from other projects.

The black boxes were purchased years ago and have been used in various spots for storage. This shelf seemed like the perfect spot in this house.

The red basket was given to us as a house warming gift in my last house and I decided to put toilet paper in it so that it is up high enough from my daughter ripping it apart!

The basket is used for my dirty rags and towels from the kitchen and was purchased years ago at Roberts for about $.13 (yes that amount is correct) and has been sitting in my basement unused.

This shelf was from my last house and was painted with left over red paint from the family room.

Wreath was purchased a while ago also for like $2.50 from my favorite wholesale place Taiwan.

I haven't finished the accessorizing on the shelf yet but I figure I have time for that. The things that are on there are just things I had.

Remember my Inspiration Piece... the rug, it is in there also as well as my $1 waste basket!

So you may remember this mirror from my fall centerpiece. I decided that I wanted it in here instead and hung it up over the existing mirror with some ribbon I had and it just hung on a large nail and I am absolutely in love with the affect!

I did purchase the towel just for this room and it cost me a whole $3.50!

So... if you count up the cost of items recently purchased for this room... that would be a whole $3.50 for the towel and $1 for the waste basket if you want to add that in (I guess the paint also but that was already purchased for another project).

So cheap! And I have to tell you that I love to go into my laundry room now!

Like I mentioned once before, this room is also our one and only bathroom on the main level so I am no longer embarrassed for people to come in here.... I wouldn't be surprised if I leave the door open just so people will want to go in there and look if not to use. :)

*Side note - notice that the ceiling over the shelf is painted the same green color as the wall. I followed the same rule here as I would in a bay window and I am so happy that I did. If I would have left it white, it would have completely distracted from the fun painted words and boxes and I don't want that!