This before & after renovation stars a once messy, chaotic laundry area in the home of four small children and their busy, creative parents. What's truly wonderful is that they took an area that's usually an afterthought, the laundry room, and turned it into a well-organized, cheerfully stylish space.
According to Katie from Potluck Love, her old laundry room wasn't a proper room, but a "hot mess of laundry" crammed into a hallway in the back of their home. With four small children, the laundry area was quickly becoming unmanageable. So Katie and her husband took matters into their own hands and decided to embrace - dare I say celebrate - the fact that laundry was going to be a big part of their lives for many years to come.
The results are inspiring. The "after" was part of a renovation project to expand the back of their home, and included creating a proper laundry room. But it's not just the creation of a laundry room that inspires me, it's what they've done with the room. The cheerful colors, the artwork, the under-the-counter basket organization, the milk glass soap holder and vintage crate boxes for cleaning supplies. It's efficient but also very joyful and personal.
They've turned a utility room into a room that reflects their style, into a space that's nice to hang out in, and when you have four children, I'm sure you see a lot of the laundry room. If there is a laundry room you could enjoy a cocktail in, this would be it.
Head on over to Potluck Love for the details on this renovation project.
(Images: Potluck Love)
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My laundry room is the size of a closet but I've been thinking of the doing the same but in orange. I'm sooooo very jealous that you have a sink in yours!! Every laundry room should have one. This came out BEAUTIFULLY. You almost want to do laundry all day...okay, maybe not. WELL DONE!
Oh, BTW: Love the gal in the 'before' shot too!!
This is the nicest laundry room I have ever seen and if I could copy it exactly I would...
That looks great! What color are those walls? I've been looking for the perfect gray for-ev-er!
What happened to the window?
According to the original blog, the "after" laundry room is actually part of an addition to the house.
LOVE LOVE those green counters, btw..
::SWOON::
I love this!!!
OK I want that floor tile! Is it vinyl or ceramic and what are the names of the company and the tiles colors?
You’ve incorporated everything I love: checkered floor, gray wall and splashes of green.
What does one do with their laundry area in a dark cave-live basement?!
@bluemamie - "What happened to the window?"
Forget the window, where did the "little hipster" go in the after pictures?
floor and paint info, por favor!!
Wow it looks great!! So slick :). I actually have the same pepsi crate, but I made mine into an herb garden. (Here's how I did it: http://www.insideways.com/2012/01/diy-herb-garden.html) It's so neat to see how differently people use the same objects!
@hannahsharp - I know! I didn't care about the messy laundry room when there was such an interesting kid in the photo! Bring back the little hipster!
Thank you all for the kind comments. It's so exciting to see my laundry room on Apartment Therapy. Julia did a fantastic post, and the little hipster was super happy to see her face on the home page!
My inspiration for the wall color was Benjamin Moore's Antique Pewter, but during this remodel it was important to us to locally source as many of our materials as we could, so I picked out the closest match I could find at our small town hardware store. It's Valspar Medallion Basilica Grey in satin. I talked about how I chose the paint color in this piece that I wrote for the blog Eleven11Women. http://11letters.tumblr.com/post/13060931169/a-cup-of-november.
The black and white checkered flooring was purchased from our local furniture store. It's from Mannington's Resilient line, which is made with recycled content; the pattern is called Checkpoint. We used the same flooring in our new bathroom; you can check out that Before & After post at http://potlucklove.com/2012/02/24/the-new-bathroom/.
The countertop color is Vibrant Green MicroDot™ by Formica, one of the brightest, boldest colors that our local cabinetmakers offered, and it looks even better in person. I love it! You can see the link to the countertop, flooring and paint choices, plus lots of other laundry room ideas that I was inspired by on my project board at http://pinterest.com/ktlnvan/new-laundry-room-bathroom/.
As for the window, it's still there- directly across from the laundry room. It's now part of our new entryway, which is not quite finished yet. Today I'm headed to my favorite antique store (http://www.greenoakantiques.com/) in search of 4 old lockers to hold the kids backpacks and coats. Check back soon at PotluckLove.com to see pictures of the new entryway, and that old window!
That green countertop is AWESOME. Not what I would stick in a kitchen or anything, but to brighten up a small room it is just the best!
Best "before" picture I've ever seen! Lovely results too, by the way.
What a happy home!
Winning!
In a dark cave-like basement we painted the cement floor a glossy pale green. We put our old kitchen cabinets down there and painted them white. The laundry machines are while. It's looking good, but I want to add brighter lighting, which will be fluourescent. P.S. - that where we have our copy machine and fax/printer set up. We sometimes do art work there. too.
The coolest laundry room arrangement I have seen had the laundry room next to the Master Bath and Master Bedroom and it was also huge walk in closet. That means the clothes were taken off, washed and then stored in close proximity. That is great logistics.
Of course the rest of us have less than ideal laundry situations. My laundry room is in the basement while all the family lives on the second floor. Not good. I tried very hard to find a way to put the laundry room on the second floor, but it could not be done without losing a bed room, which won't work out for a few more years and by then we will probably move.
I do have the floorplan and some pics of the world's greatest laundry room on my website. It is from a house designed for someone in a wheelchair and they put a lot of thought into the layout. You can find it at http://www.house-design-coffee.com/accessible-laundry-room-ideas.html . I was given a private tour so that I could blog it and promote their cause, Universal Design.