The Laundry Room

When it comes to designing spaces in my home, I really love giving attention to rooms that normally get neglected. One room that has historically been left out is the laundry room. I’ve noticed a trend on pinterest toward swoon-worthy laundry spaces with tile floors, farmhouse sinks, and lots of storage. So it seems that somebody finally got smart and realized that the laundry room is one of the spaces mommies spend a LOT of time.

When we bought our house, it didn’t have a laundry room. It had a laundry closet. Yes, that’s right. Two folding doors and a space for a washer and a dryer. No room for a dreamy set up. Boo builder.

Instead of pouting and deleting all my laundry room-related pins, we decided to make the best of the situation. Hopefully if you have an ugly neglected space in your house, you can use some of the ideas we incorporated to make every space happy.

First thing we did was remove the doors. They were a pain to open and really the only purpose they served was to hide the ugly room. But since we were planning to make the room pretty, the doors served no purpose.

The next thing we did was decide how to make this room special. Since it is so small, we knew that it was going to take more than just a fun paint color. Enter the secret weapon of every small space: wallpaper. I think most people are really intimidated by using wall paper because of the cost and the permanence. Not to mention the hassle of installation. But when you have a small space, you can cover the whole area with ease. In a large space, just choose an accent wall. If you don’t have the budget even in your small space to use wall paper, you can always get a stencil and have a similar effect.

The other touch I think makes a big difference in a small space is the lighting. We chose a small chandelier from ikea. It was originally silver but we painted it ivory and now it matches the other finishes in the space. I’m a sucker for a chandelier!

Finally, we added ONLY the items that were absolutely necessary to make the space functional. This included a cork board to display invitations and adorable toddler art work, open shelving to hold baskets, and a tray on top of the dryer for detergent. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from living in a smaller home, it’s that making something pretty is a total waste if it’s not functional. We got away with having worthless stuff around the house for a while, but add a few kids to the mix and we are all about making space work for us!

Here’s a picture of our laundry nook (sounds better than closet!) all finished.

I do realize it’s pretty taste specific but this is a space that makes our house special. It just fits now. There’s a lot of emphasis on resale value and while I do feel like that’s important, you still gotta make your home a place you love to be! And every space in a home, no matter how small, deserves a little happy.

Happy Tuesday!