Laundry room makeover!

So, my laundry room has been finished for over a month, and I am finally getting around to sharing a few pictures. I really wish I'd taken a picture of it with everything still in, to show how cluttered, and annoying it was. But I didn't think about it, til I'd already emptied everything out. Notice my horrible wire shelving, ugh. Things were always falling between the spaces, especially when Ben would dig through his tool box. I found so many screws, nails, etc behind the dryer when he moved it out.

This is what we had for shoe organization. As you can imagine, the girls NEVER hung their shoes on the pegs, and even though, I'd sometimes put them up, there just weren't enough pegs to be practical. Ben never used them either...

This closet was being used for our brooms and mops, but there was so much extra space being wasted. It also had the awful wire shelving.

The people who we bought the house from had their washer/dryer on pedestals, so the unfinished paint didn't show. But ours sit on the floor, so there is a big ugly white gash above the dryer. Also take note of the ugly vinyl floor. It doesn't even look as bad in the photo as it did in real life. There were several gashes and stains.

Goodbye inefficient, ugly laundry room!

My first step was painting! I love the teal color I ended up picking. I wish I could get the exact color to come through the pictures, but I am tired of fooling around with the photo editing, so just imagine this color a bit bluer and brighter. My favorite part of the room is the shoe shelf! We can fit so many shoes on there. Kara and Evie are great about keeping their shoes organized. Kiersten needs to be reminded to put hers away still. Just a few weeks ago, I took a tumble down the stairs when I tripped over a pair of shoes she left on them. My tailbone is still recovering from that! But I think she's starting to do better. I gave Ben the lowest shelf so he can just kick his shoes off and slide them under.

Our Friend Josh put in our tile floor, and I love it! (he also did our hardwood in December) I love love love how it turned out, and it's much easier to clean than the vinyl. I was nervous to go dark, but I think there is so much white, that it balances out nicely.



We moved the brooms to a different closet, and freed this closet up for some shelving. We also put in a hanging rod (by we, I mean California closets) So now this is where we are keeping the girls coats and jackets. We left the bottom empty, and moved in the recycle trash can, and the laundry hamper. I love having those out of the way, and behind a closed door.

MY lovely laundry room! I admit I was nervous about the blue when it was just a big empty area. But I loved it again as soon as the shelving was installed, and the appliances brought back in. I was hoping to get a stylish new laundry sink, but unfortunately fortunately, Ben was able to fix the old one.

And any room looks better with an Evie in it! On the wall to the left you can see the coat/backpack hangers we got for the girls to use. I can't even explain how nice it is for them to be able to hang up or retrieve their own things. And they actually do use them most of the time. We ended up having to put the laundry drying rack just above the hooks. It didn't work out where we were planning to put it. So on laundry day, they do have a harder time getting to the hooks.

Most of the time every inch of space is taken up by shoes. I do try to take a few pairs upstairs every couple of days, but they tend to make their way back down again. This shelf makes such a difference! The main floor is no longer cluttered with everyone's shoes everywhere, and the girls don't have to dig through a huge basket of shoes every time we're trying to get out the door. The closet above is full of all of the girls' swim stuff. That's another thing I'm thrilled I no longer have to see all the time, all the towels, goggles, sunglasses, sunscreen, etc.

How it looks today!

I love the little sign I found at Kohl's. I really wanted to get a sign that said "LAUNDRY", but haven't found anything. I still might just make something myself to sit on top of the cupboards. Those baskets have been floating around for about a year, looking for a home. I'm glad I finally found a good place for them. The big basket is where we keep Ben's indoor tools. Most of his things are in the garage, but there are some items that he uses more often.

I'm sure happy to have it all done! this was a project I thought would be waiting til next year, so when Ben said it was in the budget for this year, I couldn't wait to get started.