Laundry Room Rescue

Our laundry room is pretty sad .  It gets high marks for function, and zip, nada, nothing for style or pizazz.    Last week I decided to fix that.   I had a few goals - banish the beige cave look,  add more light, get rid of the ugly tension rod. and not spend much doing it.

I forgot to take a real "before" picture until I was half-way through ripping out the wall to wall carpeting .  Really - who puts wall to wall in a laundry room?

Boring beige,  ratty carpeting and exposed pipes, including the PVC one with red printing the whole length of the pipe.  Not pictured, but prominently featured - old bookcase stuffed with art room overflow, plastic laundry baskets and a leaning mountain of boxes I've been saving for god knows what.

First up- painting everything - ceiling, walls and floor.  I used up some leftover paint, so walls are sage green and floor dark marine blue. Painted all the pipes so they aren't a focal point anymore!

Next up- the ratty dryer top.  Not sure why, but the top had rusted.  I had pasted some wallpaper to cover it , using enough glue to hold it down in a category 5 hurricane.  Scraping all that glue off was the worst part of the project.  I did some research about painting appliances and read good things about Rust-Oleum's appliance paint.  (Sadly they are not paying me for this glowing review!).

The stuff is freakin' magic!  Cleaned up the washer and dryer and then did a light sanding before painting.  I used a high-density foam roller which made all kinds of tiny bubbles that disappeared quickly, leaving a hard, enamel finish.  I brushed on the paint in areas that were too small for the roller - same great finish.  I did three coats on the body of the machines and six or seven to cover the rust on the dryer.    It's hard to tell in pictures, but honestly, they look brand new - all little nicks covered, plus all that rusty top mess on the dryer.

Now for the fun part - some decorating!   The bookcase got a coat of black spray paint and a serious decluttering !  I added a lamp to get some more light in this windowless room . A cloth Ikea storage cube got a big flower stamp treatment.

As you can see, the ceiling angles sharply behind the washer and dryer.  I saw this  shelf idea on Pinterest and The Captain made it happen.  I love how it is a place to add some interest and also prevents socks from jumping behind the washer .  I found some back there - go figure!  Laundry pods in the silver basket and items from around the house transplanted to the shelf.

The other Pinterest inspired project - a pipe-fitting clothes rack.  The Captain found this one as a kit at Home Depot - well worth  $25.00 .  He mounted it on a board and hung it with these nice brackets- a two-fer - hanging rack and a shelf.

Borrowed an area rug from the family room, added a new laundry basket, and a decorated a switch plate.

And one more fun addition - a metal hanging flower basket added to the boring ceiling light fixture!

Mission accomplished - more color, more light , lots more style for minimal expense.  Now I may actually enjoy doing laundry - WHO AM I KIDDING??!!