The New House: Laundry Room

We have a small laundry room in the middle of the new house. It is much bigger than our old laundry room and has an extra closet so I am one happy girl! It's also across a small hall from our bedroom which I like because it's just that much closer to where our dirty clothes hang out in the hamper until it's time to wash them.

The only problem is that it looks like this...

And this...



And this..

BEIGE. 

Lots of linoleum (which is also in the kitchen, dining, and both bathrooms, just FYI), lots of taupe paint, lots of dirt, and some not-so-pretty unfinished cabinets (which grace us with their presence in the kitchen as well).

The good (and very exciting) thing about this taupe-beige monstrosity is that it's basically a blank slate and is pure putty in this DIYer's hands :). 

As of right now, I'm thinking of some pretty tile. Maybe a classic hexagon or some sort of fun herringbone pattern. Or MAYBE a fun colored tile. (!) Who knows.

Source

I love marble. LOVE. 

Source

The doors will be painted...I don't know. I also love the idea of doing a pattern on the walls. I toyed with using a bold wallpaper, but I just don't think I can commit. My favorite stencil site I've seen so far is Royal Design Studio. If we don't go with this, I may end up doing some sort of bold color on the walls. Navy?

We will more than likely be doing wainscoting or board and batten in here because I just can't get enough of it and think it would be a good way to dress up the space. I'm also wanting to have a "drop center" of sorts with some hooks for purses, shopping bags, and keys along the back wall because I've noticed that these things tend to get thrown on top of the washer right now...and we all know that the perfect backdrop for wall hooks of any kind is a classic bead board. ;) 

  
Source


I also want to make sure that this room is functional. I'm thinking of some sort of pull-out drying rack and a little peg board for lost socks. Am I the only one who always has 595 lonely socks? I have our mail sorting center in our kitchen and I love it there, so I don't know what else should go in the laundry room. Right now it houses all of our cleaning supplies, detergents, iron and ironing board, batteries, small tools, and baby proofing supplies.... now that I've typed that it looks like a lot. Maybe I'm a laundry room pack rat, haha.

Source


I love the cabinet color in the above photo and the open shelving and bead board ceiling two photos above. I'm thinking that open shelving will be happening in our laundry room, but I'm not sure if I want to do big corbels or painted shelving or what... our washer and dryer are white so I don't want too much white and I'll already have the wainscoting going on (maybe that could be a fun color?)... we'll see what ends up happening. I'll probably change my mind at the last minute, knowing me.

Source

For some reason I am really obsessed with this laundry room. I love the black! I have never liked black much in rooms before. That rug is also great as well as the open shelves. I kind of want our shelves to look cluttered--lots of layers and textures, you know? I'm happy that we have the extra closet for our cleaning products so that I can make the shelving as pretty as possible. 

The lighting in this room will most likely be similar to the photo above as well. I have an extra drum shade from Ikea that I'm 99% sure will end up in this space. Talk about a happy accident!

So that's basically my jumble of thoughts about the laundry room... for the moment, at least. The BEST part about this is that the laundry room makeover will be the next big project that we do! I am pumped. I need a pretty place to do my least favorite chore. 

Am I missing anything? What are your favorite things/features in your laundry room?