Laundry Room Renovation
After nearly two months, we have finally completed our DIY laundry room renovation! Because we completed all of the work ourselves, it took a long while. We worked in fits and spurts, fitting it in on weekends and a few very late weeknights!
This project had a total budget of about $2,500. It covered everything from a new washing machine, the lovely (and somewhat expensive) York wallpaper from Anthropologie to a budget friendly floor tile from Vitra, source from United Tile. We found several items at Ikea (#ikeahack), plus there was a fun thrift store mirror find that required a little love and care.
The images above represent our design intent and product and materials selection as we were planning and implementing the design. I wanted a vintage feel for this space. I believe my recent design influence has been inspired from visiting Paris and taking in the charm and patina of the centuries.
The odd shape (5 walls) of the room was the initial challenge. As you can see, the room has a couple of angles to work around. The space is about 10 feet long by 6 feet wide, but because of the angled walls, we do not get to realize a full 60 square feet. The limited space was probably our biggest challenge in space planning.
We selected 1 inch thick, solid wood butcher block countertops that we purchased from Ikea. We used our table saw to cut the large pieces down to the size we needed. We like the warm color that it provides in an otherwise cool color palette.
I have always wanted an apron front sink. I am hoping to install one in our kitchen, someday, but this seemed like a perfect trial run to test it out in the laundry room. We selected the sink and cabinet from Ikea. They were very reasonable in price and I did not want to venture into custom cabinetry for this small project.
Surprisingly (or not?), I went through much deliberation to pick the one door knob. I bought and returned a couple until I found the simple blue glass, jewel-like knob at Anthropologie. I appreciate how the color picks up tones from the wall paper and adds a little sparkle to the dark cabinet. Talk about over thinking it, but in the end, the little details matter.
Part of our program was wanting a way to store our dirty laundry out of sight. The black wood shelves hold the laundry baskets as our solution. The shelving is actually a bar cart from Ikea that we performed a bit of an Ikeahack to serve our purpose.
As we began the renovation we knew it was time to purchase a new front loading washing machine. Our old machine was in poor repair and had recently walked and wobbled its way to block the laundry room door (which was shut at the time). Let me just say, it took my husband and I a bit of time to come up with a solution for opening the then blocked door. I was willing to break down the door if we had to, but luckily we were able to pry the door open a small amount and found a steel carpenter's square to wedge in and push back the machine by its feet. An unexpected adventure, but clearly it was time for out with the old and in with the new!
The replacement washer is definitely an improvement over the old one, but it turned out to be a few inches wider and taller than the old one. This seemingly small difference required a few adjustments from the original design. In the end it all worked out, but I learned my lesson to double check specifications and measurements to avoid costly mistakes. We did keep our old dryer, but you can see the difference in size in the image above!
We brought in a number of black and white accessories to add a neutral contrast to the patterned wallpaper. The black vase was one I have had for over 20 years. I modified this item with black spray paint and now it has a new life in my laundry room! The hurricane lantern is a find from Pier1 Imports and has uniting elements with the ceiling light.
I randomly discovered a vintage mirror at a local thrift shop. The piece was a mere $7.99 at St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. At the time that I purchased it, I didn't know where it would use it, but as the laundry room came together, I realized that the windowless room could use some additional light and reflection, and this mirror could solve this problem.
The original state of the bargain mirror included a nice ribbon and laurel motif detail, but also was missing some of the detailed plaster pattern on the bottom edge.
Fortunately, this flaw was something that could be remedied with a can of silver spray paint I already had in the garage. Once I had the frame and detail covered in the metallic paint, the damaged portion of the detail was hardly noticeable.
It is funny how a little success like this mirror can make a big difference to the overall project. I think the mirror is one of my favorite features in the space.
There you have it, the summary of our laundry room renovation adventures!
Thanks for taking the time to read about our project. Please send me any project comments or questions to valerie@hillandvalleydesign.com.
I am also interested to know if you have design, decor, or renovation topics you would like to see addressed in future blog post. Please send your suggestions or questions to my email above.
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