After filming our episode of In With the Old for Magnolia Network two years ago, I took a step back from doing any more renovations on our house. Doing so much in such a short amount of time was way too much on top of having a new baby, running a business, and just life in general. I basically put everything on hold for 7 months while we worked on it. That doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been spaces we’ve needed to tackle. No, they’re just sitting there…waiting. Do I think about them every single day? Yes. Am I planning them in my head? Yes. Do I change my mind every single day? Yup! 2 years later I’m emerging and I’ve decided to focus on…dum du du dum…the laundry room.
Why start with the laundry room?
Why the laundry room? Honestly, if I was to do this home renovation differently I would have focused on all storage rooms first. Since we’re taking all of our rooms one by one (or at least that was the plan before the show), It’s so tempting to do the rooms that are more fun, but our house came with no storage options, which means that stuff just piles up and finding anything feels like a big mountain to cross. Knowing what I know now, I would have 1) brought in storage into the garage with great shelves so we could actually see our tools–ha! Then 2) tackled the laundry room which doubles as a mud room and miscellaneous room. There was one shelf that extended the length of the room that we took out for a shoot and then everything just went onto the ground. You guys, I’ve been going crazy.
I mean look at this! Piles of everything! We have buckets of house paint to finish the exterior of our house, folded sheets because they don’t fit in our tiny linen closet and random trash cans and diaper pails that we still use.
Workhorse and a show pony
So I decided enough is enough, we need a laundry room and we need it NOW. I mean, we can use the washer and dryer now, but it’s just an absolute disaster. Things sitting everywhere. Nowhere to fold, nowhere to sort. We need a laundry room that’s efficient AND beautiful–a workhorse AND a show pony. Right now, it’s just horse crap.
How the room is situated
The space sits off to the side of the main house as soon as you enter from the garage. I think originally it may have been closed off from the house because there’s a back door with its own doorbell and a hallway between the laundry room and the rest of the house. I’m guessing it was used as the entrance to the basement, which was used as an independent apartment. At the end of the narrow laundry room is a small walk-in pantry. We use it for items we don’t need for every day. It’s great!
Pros and cons to our laundry room
Like everything else in life, there are pros and cons to the laundry room.
The pros:
- We have a laundry room–hooray!
- It’s spacious for our needs and allows for lots of extra storage
- Outside the window is a lilac bush–score!
- There’s a door to the outside just outside of it incase we want to hang things outside to dry
- This is the only room in the house that came with existing flooring. We didn’t like it but that meant that we didn’t have to put in flooring right away and could pick something fun later on
- It’s one of the few rooms in the house that doesn’t have a textured ceiling so I’m considering adding a wallpaper to the ceiling
The cons:
- The laundry room is on the ground level whereas our bedrooms are all upstairs so it’s a trek to bring everything down
- the pantry sits on the end of the laundry room, which is kind of a trek from the kitchen
- we’re going to have to put our microwave in the room because the spot it was going to go in the kitchen didn’t work out
- it’s narrow
What’s on your laundry room wish list?
Not having a space suited for actual laundry right now, I’m unsure what my dream elements are so I asked everyone on Instagram for what their dream laundry room would contain and you gave some great answers! They’ve helped me hone in on some specific details. I compiled some of the most common responses below. I’ll share my comments in italics.
- “A professional laundress!” ok, this one is from my mom, and it all makes sense
- “A fold away ironing board cabinet” —love this idea.
- “Lots of baskets!” —I always wonder what all the baskets are actually for??? Anyone?
- “Two washers if possible”; “2 sets of stacked washer/ dryer combos” —honestly, I can see how they would be helpful, but it’s not an option for me
- “Sink with deep basin” —thankfully, we already have one–score!
- “Drying rack built into cabinets” | “Everyone should have a laundry pulley maid!” —The pulley maid seems like something I like in theory, but not sure I’d actually take the time to use? Someone please share your experience. I’m definitely down for a rack though.
- “Laundry chute if the layout upstairs coordinates!” —That would be dreamy! Unfortunately, our floor plan won’t align with one.
- “I wish my laundry room was on the same floor as the bedrooms where the clothes are” —me too! The people who owned the home before us started renovating it and put in plugs for a washer/dryer in the primary closet and in the basement. So we have the access for more, but right now we need the space more than additional machines.
- “We have a big basket on pull out shelves for each person in our family. They have been so nice” | “Large pull out drawers for laundry baskets for each family member” I love this idea…in theory…but what do you do with all those baskets? I just have questions about the actual flow.
- “A countertop over the two machines” —I think you can do this with front loaders, but not top.
- “Folding area” —amen! This is what I’m most excited about! No more bending over on beds!
- “A steaming hook! Like a specific place to hang things to steam!” | “Steamer closet” Great idea!
- “Washer and dryer on an elevated platform!” Is this so you don’t have to bend over? Please advise!
- “Top loading Speed”; “Don’t waste time get Speed Queens” I had to look this up. Looks like it’s a specific brand. Supposed to be the number one laundry machine–who knew?! Not cute–ha! If they just made them cuter you’d think they’d win the lottery!
- “A place to throw dirty dish towels from the kitchen or other dirty things that don’t have a place.”
- “Not in the basement!”
- “Art”
- “Not front load washers-too high maintenance!” | “Top load washer because the mold on the front load one is”–good to know! I see so many of the cute laundry rooms with front loaders, but our top loaders are just so great that I have a hard time thinking we’d get rid of them, so we’re keeping them!
- “Retractable clothesline”
- “Convenient detergent spot/shelf”
- “Mesh drying drawers” ooo, this is new to me…what does this even mean?
- “Rolling baskets” They sound cute–what’s the logistics of this? Why rolling? Where do you roll to?
- “High bath tub for bathing dogs” | “If you plan on having a pet someday, putting a kennel/water”
- “A pull-out counter, like you often see in kitchens…like a cutting board and cheery color!” Curious what for–folding?
- “A place for the pool/beach towels to avoid them holding up space with the bath ones” love this!
- “Bench space aplenty” ooo, what for??
- “A window for ventilation” score, we have one!
- “Room for trash can (lint)” smart! ours just sits in the way of everything
- “Dream would be extra outlets to charge cordless vacuum”
- “Area to keep dirty laundry unseen”
Laundry processes
This might seem very basic, but designing a room always takes me back to the basics–what exactly do we need and why? Do we just put in fun details because they are cute and because people say I need them or do I ACTUALLY need them? What’s the actual process of doing the laundry, like every single little step. Can you walk it through with me? I know we “get it done” and I also know it’s know the most efficient or best way to do it. Let’s explore.
Love this rolling basket! So cute! From here.
Right now I’ll bring down a basket from our living spaces upstairs when I notice that the person doesn’t have clean clothes or the hamper is full. I know some people do it every day on the same day. I’m not sure I can commit to that ever. I’ll put the basket in the laundry room, basically clogging up the room because it’s a narrow room. I’ll take out the lights and leave the darks and wash they separately. We have a drying rack next to the washer/dryer for drying stuff. It’s not always enough space so they end up lounging over everything in the entire room and sometimes in the kitchen too. I’m realizing how horrible the system is as I type. This is very embarrassing. Ha!
Then the lights are done I put the darks in and repeat the process. This might be a day thing or I’ll come back to it the next day. I put everything in the hamper and then head upstairs and fold on the ground or bed and then put away into the drawer.
Is this the most boring blog post you’ve ever read? Probably! I’m so sorry for the snooze fest, but there’s no other way around it. I feel like these are the things I think about, never vocalize, and then find out later there’s a better system. I vulnerably share my process knowing that there could be help!
What I’m thinking is that with the new design I can bring down the hamper, have a space to put the hamper while things are drying so it’s not cluttering the walkway to the pantry. Have a resting basket to separate lights/darks. Once it’s done drying, fold on a new counterspace. Have a basket for each person in the house where they can take up the basket themselves. Now, here’s my question–what do you do with the hamper basket that I’ve brought down in the first place? Is that just sitting around waiting to go up? Or do I even need that last basket? This, my friends, is what keeps me up at night. Seems like too many baskets.
What I’m excited about
Thank you for asking. I’m excited most to have counter space for folding. Not getting a sore back seems like a luxury I’m very excited to participate in. I’m also looking forward to having a drying rack meant for dresses. Right now they just lay on top of other things. Also, a permanent spot for an ironing board. Honestly, one of the reasons I rarely iron is because of the whole process of getting it out, finding everything etc.
What’s it going to look like?
One of the reasons we were going to tackle the laundry room first besides the reasons I mentioned up top, is because I got a cabinet company on board to provide the cabinets. I was so stoked! We met with the designer a number of times and it was going to be so so dreamy. Unfortunately, I found out last week that they had to back out leaving my laundry room dreams in jeopardy, not to be dramatic or anything. Since I wasn’t expecting the cost of the cabinets for this room, it has left us scrambling to figure out what we will do. Ultimately, I could pay for the cabinets but then we could do nothing else on the house for quite awhile, so we’ve decided to go with these plain unfinished cabinets from Home Depot and customize the color. For me, I’d rather have something I can customize rather than just plain white, and these will do the job.
These were the plans from the cabinet company I was working with. The color wasn’t necessarily this one.
The new plan is to do something similar to this but with the existing shapes/sizes they have at Home Depot. So it will be different for sure.
Once again, we are going to work with Fireclay tile on some gorgeous tile mosaic floors inspired by the ones at the Thorvaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, where Paul did an internship back in the day. They’re exquisite. This was an idea that my dear friend, Meta, had and I was all about it. This is kind of the idea, though the shapes and colors will be different. Fireclay even has their own designers who can design it for you with their 1″ tile. I’m very excited to see what they do!
I knew I wanted this room to have another great wallpaper. Since it’s so closet to the lilacs outside, it feels like the outside is coming in and I wanted to extend it into the room with one of my all-time favorites, the clover by Josef Frank from Svenskt Tenn. I went back and forth on a lot of options and ultimately decided to go with this. I’m thinking of a mustard yellow or pale blue for the cabinets. I’m still working out all the details. But remember–this is the one that I’d love to cover my ceiling with. Can you imagine?! This paper is expensy though…
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