18 months ago, I wrote a post I never published, on refreshing my laundry space. I was aware at the time it was looking tired and old compared to the rest of my home. However, I was crazy busy at work and never got back to it, let alone starting the refresh process. The post is still a draft.
You may recall when I first updated it, it looked something like this:
However, over the last 6 months, my beautiful red machines have been having issues. We've made several repairs ourselves, but after the last one, neither machine sounds like it should. They both make rattles and squeaks that leave us...concerned. And while we are down to four family members living at home, the thought of going to a Washeteria (yes, that's what they really call it here in Houston!) to do loads of laundry isn't even close to appeal. A local home goods store that sells appliances had a 30% off sale on LG this past week, and we decided it was time to invest in a new set. We love our red LG units, and I was really hoping to get another set, just updated, but either they don't make them, or this store doesn't carry them. So we went with something completely different in both style and color.
We quickly realized that we need to update our laundry room. The sleek new appliances in the dingy laundry room look terrible. Also, we had to take the cabinet down because we now have a top load washing machine and the lid couldn't open all the way. When the cabinet was down, you could see EVERY anchor in the wall from the multiple changes we made over the years before we bought the cabinet. Apparently, we took the easy way out and just let the cabinet cover all those holes instead of filling them...oops.
So over the weekend, out came the folding shelf, which also no longer fits (and more wall anchor holes!) the cabinet, and the drying rack. Sigh. We have the machines plugged in because we have to do laundry, but I let myself really evaluate the space to make some long term design choices.
- No more folding table. This sounded really practical in theory, but all my kids did was dump the clean laundry on the table from whomever left it in the dryer, so they could dry their clothes. This became a vicious cycle of getting dressed in the laundry room, and it looked super cluttered because it's a stupid small space to begin with.
- Tile backsplash. I already knew this was something I wanted to upgrade, but I had never made a final decision, and now I'm glad I didn't. I would have based it around red machines, making my choices very neutral and limited. I've already picked the tile, and it's NOT neutral!
- Storage. This is huge because the cabinet is gone, and there's no shelf for my laundry soap, fabric softener, or paper items that I was storing in the cabinet.
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- Paint - we recently painted our living room Foggy Grey from Behr and I love it. That's the taupey looking color you see. Interestingly enough, it has a slight green undertone when it's on the wall, which is not at all apparent in the paint swatch here. And I really like the Tricorn Black as the trim paint. And maybe the door into the garage that always shows dirt so easy!
- Tile - Fiorella Matte Ceramic tile from Floor & Decor. This is really the showstopper in this small space. We're only putting it on the main wall where the machines are, and then only half of the wall at that. You'll be able to see the wall if the door is open, so I feel good about this decision.
- Light Fixture - so technically, this is a want, not a need. I have a perfectly good boob light that I could repaint the base and use. But this light is only $30 and appears to be nice and bright in our windowless laundry room.
