Laundry room Re-do.

I'm blogging this so I don't forget my inspiration.

Our wash machine went out this week...during the middle of hubby and 2 kids puking sick as well as the ever present 3 month old laundry... not.good.

Before I move on..let me show you why a broken wash machine results in a complete laundry room makeover. Words just don't do justice.

But first, a confession: I teach my son's preschool co-op tomorrow. And I should be prepping for that. But now that I've confessed I feel that it is ok to keep going with the blog instead. So...without further adieu....

Please notice where the dryer vent attaches to the wall. Because, obviously, you should make it go through the wall where EVERYONE will see it, instead of down low where a dryer actually sits. This will change.

These doors are metal, on a track that is caked with dirtiness, and they barely slide. And they are horrendously ugly, in case the picture doesn't show you that.

As if my laundry room isn't bad enough, you walk through the teeny laundry room, to an equally teeny guest bathroom. Because, of course, if you have a teeny amount of space you should definitely make 2 SEPARATE teeny rooms out of it. It just makes sense. Which is why we bought this house. Because..well.. ok. Sometimes I do wonder... but I digress.

In this picture, if you look reaaaaally closely, you can see a small hole in the wall behind the toilet. That's from our kitchen/dining redo which you can look at here . I'm not gonna lie... a room re-do is never as perfect as those other blogs want you to think... this particular "not easy" was a fridge leak. Also, notice the lack of paint color, or wallpaper on the walls... here is why:

(Please let me know when you are done gagging so we can move on.)(By the way...this paper came off within a few months of moving in... 4 years ago. And is still off. And "still off" is still better than the original wallpaper on!)

Last but not least... the flooring. There.are.no.words.

Now that I have officially drawn you in by the pure disgustingness that is my laundry/guest bathroom... let me invite you into my ideas. Then, when it's done (in 2 years) I will share the "done" photos and see how close we came. Ready? Ok!

We will begin by tearing out the wall between the bathroom and laundry rooms. This scares me for two reasons. 1. We have never torn out walls before. 2. The rooms are not even. The back of the laundry room is about 6 inches deeper than the bathroom. I do wonder how this is going to "flow" but my hubby assures me it will be ok.

Next we will replace ugly flooring. I have no picture of it, because I haven't actually chosen the exact flooring, but I do know it will be the new waterproof vinyl. It's expensive, but worth it in a room centered around water and leakage concerns.

Now..here's the exciting stuff.. since our laundry room does not actually have a door on it (and we are taking out the bathroom door) I have been stumped as to what to do. I don't want to put a door in for two reasons. 1. I think it will make the family room that is outside of the laundry room seem more crowded and blah. 2. We would have to frame in a door..which means mud/tape/mess in my family room. not just the laundry room. this, to me, is overwhelming. Thank goodness for pinterest:

We have the space for this..and I love it.. annnnnd my hubby can make it. (he just loves my projects....) I haven't decided color yet..but am strongly considering red washer/dryer and red doors/walls... you can let me know what you think in the comments..but only if you promise to read the rest of this blog first.

Next, remember those ugly doors in front of my furnace? Here's the solution:

VOILA! Love. I probably won't do chalkboard (I know, it's the "thing" right now, but it won't always be...) I will consider making them magnetic... so then I can do this idea on it:

But, that is still to be decided. Plus, with a new wash machine, I won't NEED this idea. My current one eats socks. Don't believe me? It spits them back out about 2 weeks later when it eats another. It leaves black chew marks on them. Truth be told, it's probably the socks that choked the thing to death. I want to take it apart to see... I'm not kidding. It.eats.my.socks. And you always blamed a dryer.. check you washer!!!

As for those walls..and that hole in the wall...here is my inspiration to keep with the theme of wood barnish doors and small spaces:

Again, I'm *considering* red. But that is still very, VERY, up in the air. (I'm NOT a red person. I actually can't believe I'm even considering red. I think the real truth is I just have no idea WHAT color to do. So I throw out red. Hey, I have a green bedroom, orange dining room...why not a red laundry room?) I just love this idea. I borderline ADORE this idea. Also, where that hole is we could put a nice little hatched door so we can get to the water pipes without another hole someday. I know, genious, right? We did that behind our fridge too... again..digressing.

Then comes the expensive part...the shelving, machines, sink, etc.. and I love this one.

I do think we will do white for the cabinets... with, of course, some fun hardware... My tall cabinet won't be able to be quite as wide, I don't think. But still, I hope to fit all my towels and sheets in there instead of in my son's closet. The sink will be a tasteful mix between bathroom sink and utility sink. The toilet will stay where it is at the end of the sink. I just love the idea of a big long countertop to fold laundry on and that flows right into the sink. We do have a corner shower that is opposite the toilet that we will also need to replace, but that was kind of boring.

Another of my favorite parts was this find:

In case you can't see it well, it is a ceiling drying rack on a pulley. You can lower it to hang the clothes on, then raise it out of the way. I air dry a LOT of clothes (as you can tell in previous pictures) and this is a small laundry room miracle. I got almost giddy when I found this gem. My hubby- the engineer- doesn't like how it is made and wants me to let him make one. I think by the time he's done making everything else, he'll be happy to let me just buy this. Tee hee.

So there you go! That's my inspiration! I do think my hubby hates pinterest. It wasn't around when we did the dining room. I searched google images... and then saved ONE picture to my computer. ONE. I do love the turnout...but man, I love pinterest. I have no fewer than TWENTY-SEVEN saved laundry room ideas. He just shakes his head. At least I've narrowed it down to these, right?

And while I was writing this blog, these were baking. Mmmmm!

Double Chocolate Pomegranite yumminess. Anything to avoid what I should be doing.