Okay, so full disclosure: we did our laundry room renovation two years ago. Two years!! How is is that possible? That said, I am probably the slowest decorator ever. I like everything to be just perfect (to me, anyways), and I have a hard time spending money on accessories. I like them to be functional, and if I’m going to have them, I have to love them!
It look me hours of digging through old images to find the “before” photos for this post. Note to 2012 Natasha: don’t store images in folders called “miscellaneous.” Ever since going into business as a wedding and family photographer I’ve been meticulous about filing images, but pre-photographer Natasha not so much. So it was a lot of time spent, but I firmly believe the before and after photos are required to really appreciate the full transformation!
Our laundry room is on the main floor of our house. It leads out to the garage, so in addition to a small broom closet (which we actually do use for the broom, mop, and a massive assortment of reusable shopping bags), there was a narrow coat closet. We don’t really use that “mudroom” feature of the room, but we did like the idea of having a dedicated space for Meadow to eat that was not the kitchen. We decided to turn the closet into open shelves and custom dog dish station. Normally I’d never take away storage space, and in this case we didn’t. The layout reflects how we actually use the space. Sports equipment, dog paraphernalia, and small household goods (like lightbulbs and emergency flashlight) are now in baskets closer to the garage door.
Rob built the shelving for that closet, and I love how it turned out. I asked him to build the same style in the kitchen over a year later.
The next step was replacing the flooring. We had old vinyl roll flooring in there, which actually wasn’t too bad. It was easy to clean and it stayed shiny. But we knew we wanted tile. I wanted to go outside my comfort zone a little in this room. It’s relatively out of the way so I wouldn’t have to look at it all the time if I wasn’t thrilled with the end result. But it had the potential to be a statement piece as well. I found hexagon tiles at Lowes in a grey, and mixed solids with patterned. The result reminds me of a cozy quilt, and I’m so glad I took a risk with it!
The floor in here was our first tiling job, and it was a doozy. In a tiny space we had four doorways and two “dead ends” where we had the potential to tile ourselves into a corner. It took days longer than expected, but we survived!
We kept the cabinet boxes and found maple doors on kijiji which I painted a light grey, which later turned out to be almost an exact match to the lower cabinets in our kitchen. Rob added trim to the top to make them look custom. He redid all of the baseboards and trim. The hallway door we got for free off of a local Facebook group, the bathroom door we purchased to match, and the broom closet we just painted. New hardware on all the doors, and new appliances (that happened as soon as we moved in). Rob picked out the new ceiling light, which is cast iron to match the bannisters in our home.
We used the laundry room to test out the wall and trim colours I thought I wanted in the rest of the house. Again, small out-of-the-way space to try something new. We both liked it and stuck with it!
One of my favourite parts of the room is a small wood shelf above the washer and dryer. It gives warmth and texture to the room, and hides the electrical outlets that are so high on the wall. Finally, we got a rug that adds more warmth and texture. And it’s one of the sunniest rooms in the house so I overwinter some of my outdoor plants in there. Smells like rosemary all the time!
I hope you like what we’ve done our laundry room renovation! Now time for the photos!
Before and after: looking into the mudroom from the main hallway.
Before and after: the laundry room renovation! Don’t you love those old curtains?
