Three Inspiring Laundry Rooms

I was up doing laundry late Sunday night, and I couldn't help but start to think about how the space could be updated.  Below are three of my favorite laundry room updates that inspire me to want to update my own space!

First up is this epically awesome makeover by Sharon Joyce Interiors.  She made over her laundry room for the One Room Challenge last spring.  The stenciled walls and mirror are everything!  I also love how light and bright the space is even though it doesn't have any windows.  

Sharon Joyce Interiors

Next up is an inspiring makeover by the talented Julie Blanner.  I love that she elevated the look of ho-hum original cabinetry with the use of gold toned hardware.  And do you see what she did to a basic utility sink?  The skirt and gold faucet are to die for!

Julie Blanner

And finally the wonderful makeover by Jennifer over at Dear Lillie.  She also took dated cabinetry and updated them with paint and hardware.  I also love that she has folding space over her washer and dryer.  This room's layout is the most similar to mine.

Dear Lillie

Blue and white seem to be a common theme and something that I want to incorporate into my own laundry room makeover.  It's also great for a space that's all about water!  I will be back to share a design board on Wednesday.  The walls in my laundry roon are begging for paint, although I may have accidentally started stripping wallpaper in the bathroom.  Somebody help me!

For more inspiring laundry room photos, check out my Laundry Room board on Pinterest.

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Painting the Master Closet

After moving, everything felt chaotic and disorganized.  Clothes have been in boxes for weeks, and we lived out of suitcases for nearly two weeks. So while a closet wasn't what I thought would be my first paint job, it was needed to help get our lives back on track and begin a little organization.  

The closet isn't huge, but it's enough for us.  The walls were pretty beat up and need of paint, and the shelving had this sticky, brown residue on them.

The shelving was scrubbed with more Bar Keeper's Friend, and rinsed with a vinegar/water solution.  This seemed to remove the dirt and the sticky feel.  Then the walls were painted BM Grey Owl and the trim BM Simply White.  The floors were replaced with wood when we had our new floors laid.  

The space feels so much fresher and cleaner, and ready to hang clothes in!

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Design Plans-{Guest Bathroom Refresh}

It's been about three weeks that we've been in the new house.  I feel like we are still settling in and getting used to calling this place home.  We have had our share of things to go wrong, but we are pushing thru!  There are three bathrooms straight from the 1980s with classic pink tile and one even with floral wallpaper.  And while it was probably 'on trend' at the time, I want to bring these bathrooms into the 21st century.  We're planning to do a smaller refresh with the secondary bathrooms, and save up to do a complete renovation of the master bath in the future.  So below my plan is to update one of the secondary bathrooms.

To begin with, I plan to keep the existing floor and shower tile.  While pink is not my color of choice, they are in decent shape.  To update the space, I'll paint the vanity a soft shade of gray and replace the countertop, sink, and faucet.   Then bringing in accessories like a white floor rug and shower curtain, metal baskets for storage, and decorative hooks for hanging bath towels will also help update the space.  I found a remnant yard for a granite installer who has a flat price for any material that you find, so I've got a marble remnant saved.

Both of the secondary bathrooms have the same tile on the floor and in the shower, and I haven't decided which one I will do first.  So some of the accessories may change if I do the upstairs first.  I can't wait to show you some progress!

  

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Operation Habitation-Setting Up House

This past week has been a whirlwind.  Tuesday was the last day of the flooring work.  They came out and finished up the final details and put in quarter round.  We also had a few more installers out that day so I was running between all three answering questions.  After they left we started bringing in some of the basic necessities and were completely exhausted by the end of the day.  

The next few days were spent cleaning and setting up house--having somewhere to eat, sleep, bathe and sit.  While it is nowhere near finished, we've gotten to the point where a few rooms feel somewhat setup, and the boxes are hidden in closets.  One happy surprise has been that I actually like the paint color in both the master bedroom and the Bub's room.  

This is the only corner of the master bedroom I can show.  We haven't set up our bed yet!  But our bed, linens, and drapes all coordinate with the existing wall color.  I feel like it's the same color in both the master bedroom and the Bub's room, but it reads more green in this room.  Either way, I kind of like the color in the Bub's room too.  All of his existing bedding, drapes, and furniture coordinated pretty well too.  I really wanted to get his room setup so that he could feel that at home.

Before:

Progress:

 The bathrooms here were completely dirty and dusty.  So first up was a major cleaning to get them up to speed.  I also brought in accessories from our previous house, put up a new shower curtain, and I found a couple of sets of cabinet hardware I had stashed away and put those on the cabinet.  But I have come to the conclusion that in addition to paint, at the bare minimum, the countertop and faucet will have to be changed out.  I think I could have lived with the countertop, but it's an all-in-one sink and countertop and the sink base is cracked.  I'm also planning to repaint the walls a creamy white.

Before: 

 Progress:

There's still so much of just the basics to do, but I'm starting to feel like I am getting close to busting out my paintbrush!

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The Oak House Reno-{Staining the Wood Floors}

After my mini freak out yesterday about the new stain color I was finally able to come in and get some pictures today. The color doesn't look too bad in rooms with more modern paint colors. But in the rooms with the older paint colors are still see a bit of red or yellow. Hopefully with fresh paint they will grow on me and be ok. We decided to keep them as is because we're already going to be out of the house for 5 days, and at this point we're ready to get back to regularly scheduled programming, aka life.

These first few pics from upstairs, I don't really see red.

 But downstairs, tell me what you think?  Is it me or do you see red?

Either way, paint is in order once we get moved in!

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The Oak House Reno-{Old and New Floors & A Stain Dilemma}

What an amazing sight this was to see!  Although I didn't care for the original finish, these floors were in pretty great shape. And to see them with the old finish removed...wow!  I can hardly believe they are nearly 30 years old.  Our flooring contractor said they were probably select grade oak floors.  Whatever they are, they're beautiful.   I'm in love with just this step being done. 

Upstairs the flooring crew removed the old carpet and particle board underlayment and laid new oak floors to match the ones downstairs.  These were number one red oak, so they have a few more knots in the wood, but we think it adds a bit of character.  We went with a 3 1/4" wide plank upstairs, even though downstairs is a traditional 2 1/4" board.  In the one bedroom downstairs, we matched the wood width to the existing floors downstairs.

Oh those beautiful piles of wood!

It is so much work to have these put in.  Even if I knew how to do them, I don't know that I would have the time or energy to do this amount of flooring.  Plus the amount of sanding they do is impressive!  They have taken out bags and bags of sawdust.  The staining began on Friday, but I haven't been able to get to the house to see it.  We went with Minwax Provincial stain.  I didn't want to go as dark as our previous wood floors because they showed every bit of dust, but now I am second guessing the decision and hoping they aren't too light either.  I'm hoping we can walk thru in the morning after they have dried and see the stain color in the light of day.

{I started writing this post before the stain went down.  Even though we had about 8 different samples put down to choose from, I am still second guessing my stain choice.  The flooring is red oak which has red undertones.  So now with the stain on the ENTIRE floor, I am feeling like I see red undertones.  But I reeaaly don't like wood with red tones.  And although it may be slight, I don't want to have floors that I hate...grrr!  But I also saw how much work the gentleman in the photo put into sanding these floors down, like literally the whole house, and it seems a shame to say, "I don't like the color, please start over."  We were at our closing when the staining was done, and I didn't get a chance to see it go down.   What would you do knowing you've got to live with this decision for the next 20 plus years?  I ended up having car trouble to deal with and forgot to get a picture of the stain.  I will try to get one tomorrow.  Let me know what you think!}

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