The Finishing Touches!

I just noticed this post that I was supposed to upload months ago about the laundry room. Oops! 

Even though the bathroom/laundry room was officially open for business it didn't mean that it was completely finished. There was still a little bit of installation and decorating to be done!!!

I knew that I wanted there to be a shelf directing behind the washer and dryer. There's nothing worse than having something fall behind there. Michael used the same wood and stain as he did for the other cabinets he built me. He also installed the two shelves between my cabinets. I know that the whole cabinet fiasco was an accident, but honestly I LOVE it. I'm so happy they didn't fit the way they were supposed to. I did lose out on cabinet space, but you know what this room would have lost out on a lot of character if they had fit. The area above would have been just a big white bore! The tile and those shelves are just so gorgeous!

I had purchased these under cabinet lights at IKEA and we put them in the closet where the cubbies used to be. Since the cubbies are built in now and aren't tucked into a closet where it's dark they were no longer needed there. I thought it would be so fun to have them above the washer and dryer. It looks so neat when the lights are turned on...illuminating the washer and dryer and all there wonderfulness! They were a pain in the tushie to put up though. Michael had to drill holes in the cabinets and staple gun all the cords so you couldn't see them. Of course he worked his magic again and it all worked out and looks amazing!

I wasn't sure what I actually wanted to put on those two shelves....I didn't really like the idea of covering up the beautiful tile, but Michael did go to the trouble of mounting them so I needed to make use of that space. I found these two matching baskets being used for various things around the house...the bigger one was the library basket and it was actually too small and the littler one was used to hold the kids Halloween bags. They work perfect in those spaces and look so nice. I bigger basket is actually perfect to put the kids clothes in so they can take them upstairs and put them away. Of course I only load one kids clothes in at a time. The littler basket I used to store my Norwex clothes. 

Michael had packed up all the previous bathrooms decorations and put them in a storage container. I knew that not everything would look right in the new room. For one a lot of the old decorations were purple and that just wasn't going to fly. So I just through them and picked the ones that would work. I love the metal pitcher and I'm using that to put all the change I find when doing laundry. The washboard is something I probably picked up at a garage sale and the candle is one of the crafts we made at MOPS this last year. 

I saw a bunch of cute things that people had done on Pinterest for lost socks, but I just didn't really want them displayed on clips so I went with this cute bucket I got at Lowe's and then I used a chalkboard label to add some character to it. The old HEAVY metal iron and the wooden bar of soap I found years ago at an antique store.

I found these cute printables online. You could download them for free in all different colors. I just like the chalkboard look. I printed them in 4x6 from the library for free and then went to The Dollar Tree and picked up the frames! 

This over on the windowsill. Random cute laundry things I found at garage sales probably. The picture frame with the cute poem was given to us as part of a housewarming present from some friends of ours almost 11 years ago now! 

This is the utility garage that's behind the door and just to the left of the sink. I love the functionality of it. Michael put those two shelves up to hold those baskets. They have random vacuum attachments, vacuum bags and mop attachments. What I don't like is how the baskets don't match and I don't really want my guests to see all this functional stuff when they go to use the facilities. 

I knew I wanted to put a curtain up and at first I was just going to cover up the vacuum and mop at the bottom and let the shelves be exposed, but then I decided I'd rather cover that whole section. I figured I'd find material at Joann's and then sew it....when I got around to it. I'm so behind on my sewing! Then when I was at Lowe's picking up a few things I saw that they sold curtains. I ended up finding this perfect match on clearance for $15. That was still a little expensive for my blood, but I figured with the time it would take me to actually sew the curtains it was worth $15! 

We didn't really want to attach anything with screws to the wall in this area so I went to Fred Meyer's and picked up a small tension rod. The next day I was able to hemmed the curtain about 3 inches and  it looks great! 

While I was at Fred Meyer's I found this in the clearance section....for only $5.99!

I had been looking on Amazon for something like this and was so excited to find one in the store. The only problem is you can't put them on freshly painted walls. You have to wait 3 weeks after you paint to apply them.....one more week to go! 

That was my original post and here is what the laundry room looks like now. The sun was shining in through the window so that's why the picture is so washed out. 

I love how the laundry sign turned out and it was super easy to put up. I didn't end up using any of the other stickers that came with the set. I really wanted it to be more of a minimal look in regards to decorations. 

The latest addition has been my Grandma's cabinet. I posted about this on Facebook. My parents when back to Wyoming at the beginning of October and brought this and a bunch of other stuff back. My grandma had this cabinet on her kitchen counter-top and it looked great. I didn't have the room in my kitchen for it, but I had been really wanted something in the bathroom to set a laundry basket on when I'm folding clothes. I don't really want to set a basket on top of the dryer because I don't want to accidentally scratch the finish. This cabinet is the perfect size. First off the dryer door can open all the way without touching it and the cabinet is small enough that it doesn't stick out too far into the room and it doesn't cover up the heat register. 

The only thing that we did to change the cabinet was spray paint it white. It had been a cream color, but that just didn't look right in the laundry room. I also added the old clothes pins to the drawers. It's really nice to have some extra storage in the bathroom and a place to put a laundry basket so I'm not having to bend over again and again taking clothes out of the basket. 

The only other change that's happened is Charlie's litter box is where the vacuum and mop were. They have now been moved out to the garage and that's okay with me. The litter box fits in there perfectly and when no ones in the bathroom and the door is open you can't even see it since it's right behind the door. Having it in such a central location has been great too because we are always on top of cleaning it.