Modern Traditional Laundry Room Makeover

Are you ever inspired by the design in the places you visit? Even if it is just a hotel bathroom? I am. It is so much fun to see different design elements put together to create luxurious accommodations. Speaking of luxurious, our laundry room is the opposite. We live in a 1920’s home. Apparently in the 1920’s, laundry rooms were in the dungeon basements and mudrooms were non existent…

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Well… this project that was supposed to occur during the 6 weeks of our being grounded in February and part of March and has stretched well into July. Not because it is such intensive work, but because we didn’t do it in the 6 weeks and then spring hit and, well, it was fun to travel once the ice had cleared…And that led to piles of laundry… which deterred me from doing what I needed to do to get this room finished… what’s that word? Oh, yes, Procrastinator.

Before I write about the details, it is important to understand the premise for this entire project. We live in an almost 100 year old home. Mudrooms were not a thing 100 years ago (did I already mention that?). Nor were large kitchens, but that’s for another day and another dollar. We investigated different options for adding both to our first floor but in the end decided we’d rather spend that money on travel. (Warning, if you ever come over, get your balance when you walk in the side door or our rambunctious Boxer may knock you down the stairs. Just another hazard of 100 year old houses.) Our bandaid solution was to build a semi-mudroom/laundry room in the basement. While it isn’t ideal, at least the kids can just throw their boots/shoes/bags down the stairs when they walk in and then they (who are we fooling? I) can put the stuff away the next time I’m downstairs.

Moving on… Here is a BEFORE picture of the laundry room (ignore the mess). It used to irritate me to no end when people would show their BEFORE shots as a complete mess- the Dutch girl in me would think, “Why on Earth did they not clean that up before the picture?! How embarrassing!” And then, it happened to me… And now I get it. You are scrambling… Choosing materials, ordering products, lining up carpenters/electricians/painters, dragging your 4-year old to Lowe’s for the 10th time (and subsequently dragging him down from the random ladders spattered throughout the store), and then you are actually clearing out the room while the work is beginning. (Also, I really think that there should be a rule that we need to take our paint cans with us when we move. Trying to figure out what to do with 20 cans of old paint did not help move this process along. I am not pointing fingers at all. Being the self-proclaimed color experts that we are, we did the same thing when we moved. Interestingly, according to ancestry.com, the original owner of our house was a paint/laquer salesman…) But back to the project…

We love our carpenter who was actually recommended to us by our now good friends who bought our old house (they apparently don’t hold paint grudges either). He had added shiplap in my children’s shared room. He is never completely sold on my ideas but always produces such a great finished product and we both end up happy with the results. So, I decided to up the anty and do shiplap on the two walls already primed for it in the laundry room. And paint them navy blue. Our carpenter is great and good at helping to determine where to spend and save. He used nicer wood in the children’s bedroom but we both agreed we could really budget in the basement and just use plank. It turned out really well!

The cabinets were installed next. As is life, I had beautiful lockers pinned all over the place and then discovered the cost. And remembered that this was for a room that, in all likelihood, only I was going to see. The next step was to hit up IKEA and pin 100 IKEA hacks only to realize that my vehicle wasn’t big enough to hold 4 kids, my friend, and all of our IKEA finds, so Wayfair it was. I ordered two of these cabinets and then this bench to go between them. I already love the different sizes of cabinets– one to hang coats, one for hats and mittens, one for beach towels, etc, etc. I also bought this bench which is the perfect place to sit and put on/take off shoes. I was so excited to find the perfect style and size hooks with just a quick trip to Anthropologie. They seem to pair well with the modern shiplap.

Next for the flooring… This was the most difficult for me. I could go on and on about the flooring. In fact, I did in this post. To keep it short, though, this is paint and stencil and one of my very few Pinterest Successes.

Baskets… I have a love-hate relationship with baskets. Do they organize your clutter? Or just become a place for things to gather? I thought I’d increase my odds of it being the former by purchasing some without canvas inserts. Again, they seem to tie in nicely with the shiplap and hooks.

Wash basin… I really didn’t take a before photo of the wash basin, but you can trust me when I tell you that it was unsightly. I had nothing to lose by purchasing appliance spray paint and covering it in a new metal color. It feels incredibly cleaner.

And there you have it… 6 months later, our new laundry/mudroom!

What did I forget? Questions/thoughts?

Oh, and here is a pin just in case you are in the mood for a fairly inexpensive 6 month project (I bet you can do it in less!)

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