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| Better Homes & Gardens |
A beautifully blank canvas! This is what the space looked like when we first toured the home:
It didn't wow us, with its 20 year old appliances, dark yellow walls, oak trim and doors, wood peg rack, dated towel bar, horrible melamine cabinets . . .
After working on the house for a few weeks we only made it worse. It became our dumping ground.
Our sad little laundry room deserved more respect than that, though, because it's arguably the hardest working room in the house: it not only serves as the laundry room, but it's also the only access to the powder room and attic. Plus it houses our electrical panel. It's also our makeshift mudroom: when we enter through the main door, this room is immediately to the right and the kitchen is to the left. To avoid cluttering up the kitchen, I drop my purse and wet mitts in the laundry room. Szuka also calls this home, enjoying her meals and evening snooze here. To further complicate things, I air dry almost all of our laundry inside, on a collapsible, wall-mounted dry rack. Oh, and did I mention two doors open into this room? The only thing it's missing is a window - but it gets some light from the adjacent powder room.
So far, the laundry room has been cleaned, de-cluttered, and scrubbed thoroughly. My Dad and I worked like mad to quickly paint the walls, trim, ceiling, and doors (including the attic access) a clean white. A new Ikea light was an inexpensive change. I'm trying to corral all of the unsightly things to the side of the room with the washer and dryer because I'm going to pull a townhouse-trick and sew floor to ceiling curtains to hide the whole kit and caboodle. No need to air my dirty (or clean) laundry to any guests needing to use the loo. Eventually we plan to buy new appliances and a new laundry tub, and then build more attractive storage - especially something floor to ceiling to disguise the electrical panel. When we give the kitchen it's phase two renovation, the kitchen, entry, powder room, and this room will all get new flooring as well (yay!).
For now, washer-hiding curtains, cheery art and useful accessories are high on my to-do list. Mom and I also bought supplies to sew Szuka a colourful bed. And she needs a proper set of bowls.
Also on the list: a pretty, washable rug. Szuka picked this rug after refusing to lie on anything but the smaller version we bought for the front door. I'd prefer something a little more lively.
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| This is her, "uh, no" face. I asked her if we could buy a new rug. |
Hilariously, when we were teaching our pups "go to the mat" at obedience school, a woman with a small little puppy leaned over and quipped, "you must use a floor rug for her mat". Everyone laughed heartily. Her joke deflated a little when Hubs and I looked at her, totally serious, and asked, "how'd you know?" Szuka broke 80lbs this week (and she's still growing)! She seems pleased with herself. She should be: she recently learned how to "spin" and "shake a paw" for treats.
