Laundry Room Evolution

So on Ellen the other day, she gave a family my couch! Well, not the one I own, but one just like it!!

I feel so cool now!!

If you're wondering about it, it's the Linden Street Friday sofa from JCPenney. Yep, who would think to look for their couch at JCPenney? Well, me. It's listed on JCPenney's website for almost $2000 right now, which is crazy..... I definitely didn't spend that much when I bought mine.

Here's what the house looked like yesterday when I was washing the slipcovers:

Crazy.

And on to what this post is really about. The laundry room/pantry.

It had bland beginnings.

Then I painted it Apple Green.

 

Now, for the actual update.

 I used Jen from I Heart Organizing's idea of covering wire shelves with foam board. I have always been so annoyed by these wire shelves. Things were always tipping over or falling through and it was so frustrating. Like Jen, I covered the foam board with contact paper.

It's so much easier to store things on the shelves now!! No more tipping over.

And here's a shot of the other side of the laundry room.

I added a 'counter' to the top of my laundry machines by just painting a piece of plywood. Afterward I sprayed it with a clear gloss spray so that it would be smoother. I put down some of that grippy shelf liner so that the counter would stay in place. It's been awesome, but I still want to do something that will cover up the stuff in the back.

View from the garage. This is the door I come in when I get home.

Close up of the contact paper. Sometimes it can be unwieldy!

You can see my lint holder and cleaning rag bucket. :)

And myself cutting out all those pieces of foam board.....

It took hours for me to cut the foam board to size, tape 2 pieces together and then measure, cut and apply the contact paper, but I am so happy with the result.

And the mess after.

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

Command Central

After painting my laundry room/pantry and re-organizing the pantry area a few weeks ago, my next goal was to create a "command central" where I can hang coats/keys when I come home. My first step toward the command central was the cork board I created. Here's the full setup as it stands now.

Here's how it looks from the kitchen.

I added a hook for me to hang my aprons as well as key hooks and a coat hanger. Both the key hooks and the coat hanger came from Target (love).

I added a calendar for my forgetful self. I have things going on all the time and I always feel like I'm forgetting something so hopefully this will remedy that situation! I also added an adorable organizer (from Target) that I put my meal plan in.

I'm loving the new function added to our laundry room. =)

I'm also loving that I saw a double rainbow today! Check it out. And if you haven't seen this video yet, you are missing out.

What else have I accomplished? Well, I made my grandmother's red velvet cake for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. Here's the cake and part of the huge mess I made while making it.

I may have a messy kitchen, but at least I have a place to hang my purse and keys now, right? It's all about perspective.

From Ugly Duckling to Beautiful Swan

As part of my pantry/laundry room makeover, I've been wanting to create a sort of  'command central.' One main thing I wanted in the room was a cork board to tack appointment cards and other important papers to. Stores didn't have anything like what I was looking for so I decided to DIY one! After brainstorming I knew I wanted to buy cork and just attach it to an old picture frame without the glass. However, I didn't own a frame the right size so off to the thrift store I went to browse for an appropriately sized frame. Within about 10 minutes, I found pretty much exactly the shape I was hoping for.

Isn't it beautiful?

Definitely not my style anyway. So I set out on a mission to transform this thrift store frame, an ugly duckling, into something amazing. The first step was to paint that frame cause I was not having it. I used FreshAire no-voc white semi-gloss paint.

Next I used the adhesive tape that came with the cork (which was $5 at Target for 4 squares) to adhere it to the picture that came with the frame. Then I selected my fabric and cut it to size leaving about an inch all the way around the picture. To attached the fabric I neglected to do anything fancy and just used thumbtacks to keep the fabric in place. Lazy? Yes. Easy and functional? Very. The fabric was pretty easy to manipulate into place - nice!

Yes, I am wearing lime green socks in that picture.

When all was said and done, here's what I was left with!

I pretty much love it. It's the life that picture frame was meant to live. Here it is in its new home in the laundry room.

I suddenly feel a need for 10 more of these. At $2 for the frame, $1.50 for fabric and some more $5 cork it wouldn't break the bank!

Maybe I can make them and give them away as Christmas gifts?

Pantry Re-Organization

Since I removed everything in the pantry to paint the laundry room/pantry, I figured that afterward was the perfect time to do some re-organization.

I went to a local discount store and found these white hanging baskets on clearance for $2 a piece. They're pretty great!

I grabbed these drawer dividers at the dollar store back in the summer and had them lying around. I decided to use them to store our spices.

 

 I don't have a huge number of spices, so they all fit into the 3 dividers I had.

I also printed out these labels from the Better Homes and Gardens website. I love the colors and having everything labeled and organized.

 

 

With everything labeled it will always stay organized, right? ;-)

Apple Green!

I recently recruited my friend Kelly to help me paint my laundry room/pantry which has been boring in beige ever since I moved in. I wanted to paint it green so I got some samples and after observing the samples in different light, I settled on Hampton Green by Benjamin Moore. We spent a few hours painting and then over the next couple of days I slowly started to feel worse and worse about my decision. I wasn't in love with it. I feel like when I paint a room, I should love the color or it's just not going to work. Soooo I went back to the drawing board and tried again with Apple Green by Benjamin Moore.

But first things first. Here's the room as it looked when I first moved in.

So pretty right? Um, no. Last year after getting hardwood floors, it looked like this.

 

Yowza. That's a lot of stuff chillin' on top of the washer and dryer.

So anyway, after I painted the room Hampton Green I couldn't hardly tell that the room had been painted after a few days. I would walk by and then remember, oh yeah, I painted that wall.... Hmm, how boring.... So after round 2 - Apple Green here's what we have.

The view from the kitchen. Love that vacuum in the pic!

 

I could have cleaned up before taking pics, but oh well - keepin' it real!

After painting for about 10 minutes I was already so much happier with the color choice. It's bright and peppy and exactly what I was hoping for in this space.

I still have so many plans for this room:

* Stepping up the pantry organization
* Building a "command center" (the door to the garage is in here and that's the door I go in and out everyday and right no there is 0% functionality for us)
* Hanging some pictures to make it more personal
* Covering the washer and dryer so I have a surface to fold clothes and store laundry items without fear of scratching the tops of the machines
* Hanging the ironing board
* Creating storage for cleaning supplies and other miscellaneous items

But for now I'm just glad to have the painting finished because the room is already so much more cheerful! =)