By Jenny Reimold
As a married mother of seven children, a large portion of my day is spent in the kitchen or in the laundry room. However, unlike the kitchen where my family gathers, the laundry room seems to be the area that everyone avoids. Obviously, no one wants to put forth the physical effort of cleaning the clothes. Also, our long, narrow and poorly organized laundry room is a dumping ground for bags, sports equipment and random items that don’t have a home. In an effort to make this room more inviting and pleasing to be in, I decided to give this room a makeover. Why should any other room in our home be more beautiful than the room that I spend hours in each day?
Rustic Glam
This is a design style that unitesweathered wood and distressed furniture with bright whites, symmetry and sparkle. Modern farmhouse speaks to me and nothing would make this busy mom happier than to do a little laundry under the twinkle of a chandelier. In redesigning my special space, I decided to infuse a bit of country with a bit of glamour to make matching the socks of seven children just a bit more tolerable.
Accent a Wall with Some History
Our laundry room also serves as the side entry of the house and
is a narrow pathway to the main living space. On the eighteen- foot wall, opposite the washer and dryer, I decided to create an accent wall from authentic barn wood to give the room some personality. I fell in love with BarnWood2Go’s peel and stick barn wood because it was a project I could do myself in one day. Unlike some of the synthetic looking peel and stick samples I saw, BarnWood2Go uses real, reclaimed barn wood from Ohio. Each piece is roughly 150 years old and is finely de-nailed, kiln dried, sanded and then wire brushed to create a gorgeous wood plank with a sweet little story of salvation. I added a custom, canvas laundry sign from Walls of Wisdom,a sweet little small business that has made several signs for our home. They have many different designs and family name signs to choose from and have become quite the Instagram sensation.
Linen Closet Transformed to Mudroom Cubbies
While our family can use every extra ounce of storage we can find, I did make the executive decision to turn the linen closet into a cubby station for backpacks, shoes and extra storage. This has turned out to be such an organizational blessing because now every child has a space for backpacks and extra bags. Our Franklin handyman added six panels along the back wall and two along each side wall. Each panel has an upper and lower hook where I hang backpacks and the younger ones’ activity bags. I also hang my purse, diaper bag and other random things in there. There are shoe shelves where I put baskets to hide the shoes and big baskets on top for wrapping paper and other utility items.
Barn Door Addition
Even though I love my new cubbies, this area is still likely to get messy because children are involved. I asked our handyman to build barn doors as a functional approach to hide the mess but yet as a decorative statement piece in the room. I used Sherwin Williams Alabaster and Interesting Aqua (the same color as the cabinets) for a pop of color that really has transformed that space. Again, since my laundry room is small, I had to custom make the 24.5” x 84’ and in total with hardware, it was about $650 of material not including the labor.
Statement Lighting
Prior to adding my new light fixtures, there were three recessed lights above the washer and dryer that felt like spotlights over my head. I originally was going to add small pendants but then saw rustic mini chandeliers with crystal accents. My husband and handyman scoffed at the idea of hanging three chandeliers in the laundry room but after they were hung, both were in awe of the change. For a total of $240 plus the labor of changing out the lights, this was the MAJOR decorative transformation that completely changed the look of my room. Carrying in my groceries and doing laundry under the gleam of a chandelier just makes my design heart happy.
