The laundry room is a room that is often forgotten about when decorating a home. For some reason, I believe that all rooms in a home should have a personal touch. This is probably about the only room in my home that has not been painted with our personal preference. It still has the Krisp Khaki that we chose when we had our home built. I realized when we had our home study visit when I showed the room it was neat and orderly and had cute little baskets and was organized, but it lacked character. It is almost like I just forgot about that room!
Even though it is not a place where you will entertain or anything, I feel like when you open the door to a laundry room it should be refreshing too. Big or small, the rooms can have a cute personal touch.
I found 4 vintage pieces earlier this week to use in the room. I was able to get 50% off on all four pieces ( $4.00, $5.00, $10.00 and $13.00) for the vintage look. I really think they are cute and all I need to do now is decide on what color I would like to brighten up the room.
I already have cute little wickered baskets in there to hold little things as well as a chrome spacesaving rolling cart for all of our laundry needs that slides in between the washer and the sink.
My next project is to have cabinets made for the room. Our friend that did our custom closet is going to do the cabinets for the laundry room to replace the white, metal rack. I have the color and glaze picked out for the cabinets and he has the design based upon the room measurements. I really would like to take advantage of the ceiling height with the cabinets. He gave us a great quote and I am going to move forward with that project this fall.
I really prefer to have all cabinets to have everything tucked away inside neatly. I am not sure why I did not have cabinets done when we built (I guess it was not a priority at the time). I figured these cabinets will eventually add value to the home when things turn around with the real estate arena.
This room is often forgotten about. Even without cabinets in a laundry room, it can be dressed up with art, a fresh bright color of paint that opens up the room, and baskets to organize clutter.
10 comments:
Kristy,
You'll enjoy Southern Hospitality Blog. I follow it but I never post a comment. It's a lady in Alabama who has decorated her home with flea market finds. She has good taste and is entertaining. Check it out at http://southernhospitalityblog.com.
She's on vacation this week, but she's fun.
How come this post sounds like an article for House Beautiful or Real Simple?????
Soror, you inspire me....but better than that, could you come to Cali and decorate my laundry room...it is flat and lacks in every way!
Thanks Angela,
I will have to check her site out. I enjoy finding good buys when decorating. I love decorating period. It is one of my weaknesses!
I will definitely check her site out. I am a Southern girl that loves the spirit of the city, however, I truly love furniture, decorating and good hospitality.
Soror E.,
Those are two of my favorite magazines! I have not had time to look at the last two issues due to my schedule. My magazines are stacking up. I miss Domino magazine as well. They had awesome ideas and were a great resource. Decorating is so relaxing for me.
Actually, I have been wanting to fix my laundry room for a while. I wanted it fixed up before we had the home study visit, but I only got as far as putting the pretty mocha colored wickered type baskets out on the dryer and shelves. I had some existing art that I was not using, but it did not give me what I wanted.
I actually wanted laundry art. I put it on the back burner after the homestudy was completed.
So, now I am back to it. I am going to have my husband hang the pieces temporarily until I confirm the new color that he needs to paint.
I absolutely enjoy decorating for myself and helping others when they are stuck and my parent's have advised me that it is my second calling and that I should move forward with it (on the side and help others) after I complete my doctorate! Key word, afterwards!
I have always enjoyed pulling together my own fabrics and making a room have a personal touch that reflects my personality. If there was not a budget----oh the things that I could do!!!
My laundry room is flat as well, but I figured that with just a few bucks, some wickered functional baskets, paint and a simple art it can be transformed into a cute little room that I would not be hesistant to show if needed.
Let me know when you are ready to spice yours up just a little. I can send you an email of some spots to look or some ideas based upon what you would like to see with budget friendly suggestions.
I am actually stuck a little on determining the color scheme for our jack and jill guest bath room as well as the nursery's bathroom. I will have it pulled together soon (for the nursery).
I have potential fabrics for the nursery's bathroom, but not for the other guest bathroom. I would like to have the guest bathroom completed by the holidays. The two rooms that share the jack and jill bath are painted, but I haven't decided on the bathroom colors and fabric. My husband is supposed to do the cornices for both bathrooms. However, I need to determine colors and fabrics first before we can move forward with cornices and making the curtains or getting them made. I will keep you posted.
So, who does all the wall painting---Your husband or professional contracted painters?
That is the first and foremost reason why my walls are two shades off of Ecru (lol)...I'm too cheap to hire painters!
I use to stage homes (worked on the side for a Soror who has her own real estate company)and thought I'd start my own Home-Staging Services before the crash hit. Just recently donated all the furniture/decor/rugs I had in Public Storage to a Crisis Pregnancy Center for their interior use and for their fundraiser.
But you know what flat-lined my hubby one day was when he said to me, "Now that everything's busted in the real estate market, do you have the time to pull our house together...don't model home it or nothin' just put a spin on it." Me said to him with a slow roll of the eyes, "Ummm, nothing, because I am my own best shrink...and I have issues."
Seriously, I am afraid of decorating my house---either out of fear we will go broke (the Ralph Lauren sofa I wanted a few years back along cost $17,000.00 USD)and no, it couldn't be purchased through Direct Buy (don't play into Direct Buy's gimmick---it's just not worth it).
Anyway, I'm afraid of going broke, or afraid that at the end of the day of my hard work decorating the house to my desires, I'll want to put the house on the market and move....and then I'll have to start the process all over again.
LOL...House Beautiful and Real Simple were the free magazines I got when I ordered the Sorority's Directory (I'm still perplexed and rubbing my forehead at the agent-lady who mixed up my order, misspelled names and then hung up on me when I tried to correct the way she was reconfirming the wrong information)...hehehe, it's not funny because in the end, my info is still incorrect in the Directory until the next Directory comes out----UGH!!!
Domino's yes, Domino's.
...Domino's didn't do well in my neck of the woods. I got a call from the Domino's marketing department asking demographic questions and then I asked them why were they asking me...to which the lady replied, "Domino's isn't doing well in your area and we were collecting research information."
I told them that maybe they needed to change the "look" of their magazine cover...who wants to look at a woman sitting, standing, dancing, whatever, on a sofa or chair each month....The lady got offended and said in a rude tone that the cover was their "branding"....I immediately thought, "okay, don't call me after I hang this here phone up in your ears." But I didn't say that, I just listened to her talk and then told her to "cancel my order and send me back my check....now you are another person down in my area!"
....yep, good ol' Domino's....what woman is on the latest cover and is she sitting, standing, dancing or what??? LOL!
...one last comment before I go off to sleep...
Are you familiar with Cookie Magazine. It is under the Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. / Conde Nast. I got it as a gift from all places...Conde Nast after the Domino telephone call!
I guess ol'girl reported me requesting my check back and telling her I was going to let her talk to "Tone"....anyway, several weeks later, I get this magazine called "Cookie" and Soror Jada P. Smith is on the cover with her daughter, Willow.
I've been in mad-love with the magazine since! Check it out and let me know what you think...I love the fashion ads for kids....cute, cute, cute!!!
PS...the "Remembering" page of the magazine reminds me of the picture of your Grandparents home with the boat....totally in the same mindset!
Okay girl, I'm going to knock a pillow out....
Soror E.,
Thanks for all of the feedback! You are too funny.
To answer some of your questions, my husband painted all of the rooms upstairs, kitchen, living room, and mudroom. We hired a painter a few years back to come in to paint the FR because it is 2 story, and he also painted the dining roomo because I had some more molding added and it was a lot of trimming.
I need to get my foyer painted now because it is 2 story as well. I have had a color picked out for over a year, but keep forgetting to schedule the painter ot come when I am home. Laziness on my part!
A couple of us have a Latino gentleman that works for a builder and he paints for an awesome price on the weekends with one of his friends usually. His trim work is fantastic and we share numbers when we come across one with great work and great prices. They get a lot of work from the circles networking. I am really funny about trim and painting, so thats why my husband does it because he is a perfectionist when he paints the rooms, but we will be having someone to do the foyer, jack and jill and possibly our bathroom since we have high ceilings in there and I am not for sure of what color I want now in our bathroom.
I have received free copies of Cookie magazine but I never subscribed to it because the free ones that I received a while back were not interesting to me. I will have to check on it now to see how it is doing.
Domino is no longer being published.
You are right, they did have a person standing beside the sofa or chair each month when I did receive it! I received it for about 3 years I think. I used it for pulling together my ideas and all of the resources that they posted on the pages. I met some others who never got into it, but I usually found something neat in it each month to pull.
I did not get an offer of a free magazine when I ordered my new directory. That is funny!
I actually have the directory (pretty pink) and the disk/cd. I received it a while back. I want to say that I have had it for at least a month or maybe 2 months now. I can't remember. I just remember the brown box being left at the door and I was thinking, "hmm, I haven't ordered anything, and it was the directory. I had almost forgotten about it because I paid for it a while back. Fortunately, they did not mess up my name spelling which can be easily done with my married last name.
I had not purchased a directory since the first one that came out in 1998 (the white one). I did not purchase the other one that came in between, but I did decide to purchase this one since it had been 11 years since I purchased the directory, so I felt a little obligated to purchase it. My mother purchased it as well.
Oh yes, I love RL Home as well. I found a chair that I wanted to get from there and have custom fabric put on it. However, I started looking for similar chairs locally with better prices. I am still in love with the chair, so I may get it.
I am definitely going to check out Cookie. I am definitely looking for more Children's fashions that are unique. Martha Stewarts Kids magazine is a great magazine for simple and elegant children's crafts and events. I used to get it for about 2 years then stopped. I guess I have to start back now.
Decorating and furniture is my weakness, however, I have learned to invest in the big pieces and or the rooms that are used daily and not spend as much in rooms that we do not use such as the LR.
I took my time with that room, because it is just a room that sits and looks pretty and I did not want to spend tons of money as a staged room, so I took my time and did things on friendly budget with what we wanted. For the rooms that we are in often, such as the FR, Kitchen, bedroom etc., I did not cut corners because the furniture is well used and I didnt want to have to replace it after a year or two, so we invested well in rooms that are used a lot. I am still finishing and tweeking some rooms, but at least the big stuff is taken care of and now I can just finish off little things in the rooms that are incomplete to me. I really understand where you are coming from. I have learned to become more creative like the professional designers to get more for my money. It may take a little more running around looking for a piece, looking for the fabric, but in the end, its exactly what you want.
I heard that Direct Buy was expensive, but we never checked into it. I thought that I heard they have a large membership fee as well.
Thanks again for posting! You really had me tickeled! I will let you know when I see the Cookie magazine.
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