Laundry Room

One of the things I love the most about this new apartment is that I have a dedicated laundry room. At our last place, there was a service porch off the back of the tiny kitchen and we had to crunch in a washer/dryer next to the water heater AND a cat litter box. 

Our laundry room here is its own decently sized little space, right off the entry way. As you can see it accommodates a side by side washer and dryer and has some old, kinda ugly cabinets above for ample storage. Right now I keep the laundering supplies, two drills, other small house tools, and hide the cat litter in there.

I'm very happy to have a window in the laundry room and I'm not tripping over the cat litter box to get to the dryer. 

Now that you've seen the room, here's what I plan to do in it:

• Obviously it needs a paint job. Nothing bright, just light and airy. A heavy cream or light grey.  As you can see in the last photo, the previous owner had (very badly) built a shelf under the window and I did my best to get it out without damaging the wall. Still, you can see that the room had been painted after the shelves were "installed".

• Window covering. I think I mentioned the other day that we had a company come in and put a tinted film on the windows to help cut down on the heat gain (and it's helped tremendously!), and during the day it keeps anyone from seeing inside, but at night it has a mirror finish look and if there's a light on in the room EVERYONE can see in. Plus with a window covering there, I'm hoping it'll deter the cats from jumping up into that window. I'm betting they'll show me otherwise, but... I'm gonna try. lol

• In the latest issue of Do It Yourself  they did a little bit of an ikea hack with the Lack shelving unit and  secured them horizontally on the wall for shelving. I'm not a big fan of the cabinets above the washer and dryer. They're clunky and I'd prefer something a little more open and airy, so I'm considering trying something like what they featured in the magazine...

• Next up is the flooring. I can't stand cheap vinyl/linoleum. And once you nick it, it just goes to hell from there. The laundry room, entry, and kitchen all have the same vinyl floor and as soon as possible it will all disappear. As the laundry/entry are pretty much connected they will end up with the same flooring, whatever happens to be chosen. I'm leaning towards a nice stone. I have no idea what, as we can far from afford to begin demo like that, but I'm hoping by next year I'll be able to start making my design mark on this apartment. 

• You can't see the light fixture in these photos, but you will in the next post which will feature the entry/hallway. It's very old and dated (and not in a good way). It shall be on its way out and a new, prettier fixture will replace it.

• All the switch plates in the house are a dark creme. Like the rest of the house, the switch in the laundry room needs to be changed out to a crisp white.

• The hollow core door is ill-fitting and the brass handle has seen better days. It would be my ultimate dream to see a lovely door with etched glass...

via  InteriorWoodenDoors.com

Of course I'd want it to be in white and the handle would (or something similar) be this lovely glass knob from Anthropologie...

Tea House Doorknob

• Lastly, I'm hoping one day we can afford to get a high efficiency front load washer/dryer pair. I'd most love to have one with steam option so I never have to pay for dry cleaning again! 

If and when we are lucky enough to get a set, I would put a countertop on top for in room folding.