Laundry Room Mini-Makeover

The laundry room has to be my least favorite room in the house. It even tops the nasty upstairs carpet on my list of not-so-awesome spaces in the house. As far as laundry rooms go, ours isn't bad and I am thankful for that. After all, it is a finished space and isn't in a dungeon. There are actually lights in this room vs. most laundry rooms in the torturous basement of a home. Plus, it is spacious. We can even store some things in there in awkward nook that leads back to our electrical panel/breaker box. Despite all of these positive qualities, it does have some negatives:

First, it's a bug haven. Sick. This is probably my #1, 2, 3, and 4 reasons for not liking the laundry room. I've seen more than 5 spiders in there. Thank goodness I have Monkey to protect me! Seriously, that dog and I were meant for each other. A few mornings ago, I heard her clamoring around in the dining room while I was upstairs getting ready for work. I thought she was getting into mischief, her usual mode of operation. I came down stairs to find her pawing at a spider, a giant nasty disgusting creep-tastic huge big extra large spider with scary legs. She plays a game with them, a game that usually ends in their demise. I typically notice the noise of her paws against the wood floor and come downstairs. Yikes! Then I grab my kills-any-bug-within-a-10-foot-range spider spray and take care of business. Unfortunately, I'm left with the aftermath of this bloodshed to clean up. You know, so the toxins in this arsenal don't kill my beloved spider killing dog. Back to the topic at hand, my laundry room.

Susie, Tim's mom, got us this cute little sign a few months ago (has it really been that long!?). Tim sweetly put this up in the hallway that leads from our living room to our bathroom, opposite the laundry room. It has a great vintage look.

Next, I installed this:

 

 

Can you tell what it is? Curtains! The previous owners had a curtain dividing the hallway from the laundry room. At first, I wasn't sold. They put up a tension rod and paisley/floral print, which made it look like a shower. It took us a while to find curtains that matched the look we were going for. This is a very large doorway, so it needed two tall curtains. Of course, I'm cheap so I wanted something that wasn't crazy expensive. We ultimately went with Woolrich Neutral Stripe Curtains from Target. The curtains were $29 total. Initially I researched making my own, but I found that the fabric was going to cost... wait for it... almost $100! Nuts! Absolutely nuts. I washed these curtains twice before hanging them to make sure that any shrinking happened prior to positioning the rod.

Please be advised, the photos are terrible. This is a very awkward space to photograph, but I assure you it does look nice (thanks Natalie!). Oh, and I still need to iron those curtains. Someday I'll get around to that, someday. We also struggled to find a curtain rod that didn't cost a fortune. We visited several stores and I was astonished at the price of curtain rods ($50 or more for just the rod)! This blog has a familiar pattern: I get a great idea, embark on said DIY project, and complain about the outrageous price of some of these items. I recalled that we so easily found a cheap one for our dining room ($15 for the rod and finials and $10 for the hold-back) from Meijer. Back to Meijer we went. I worried that the color wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but I was willing to spray paint it for that price!

Positioning the rod was also a dilemma. We didn't know whether to put it inside the laundry room or in the hallway. When I really examined the hallway, I knew that I would need to put it in the laundry room. There is very little space between the doorway in which this curtain is positioned and the doorway to the stairwell/living room. I hung the curtains so they would fall just above the floor. I don't like curtains dragging the floor. I know that creates a romantic look, but I prefer a crisp, meant to fit the space perfectly look.

 

I have many plans for this space in the future including: refinishing the floors (concrete) with some kind of epoxy or paint plus adding organization and storage. After we finish the upstairs with new paint and carpet, I think I'll try to tackle this room.