Laundry was caught up, so why not overhaul the laundry room! Project phase 1

Those who know me, know that I cannot sit still, it’s just not in my nature.  I often explain this nature of mine in a story from a book I read way back that talked about ADD and the correlations between hunters and farmers. Those who are not ADD can sit on the porch, straw of wheat in mouth, rocking in a chair just waiting and watching the crops grow.  However…those of us who have ADD, well, we’ll try the rocking thing, but it won’t be long before we have to get off the porch grab a gun and go out and kill something for dinner.  Anyway, I’m that hunter, only I don’t do guns, I start projects and fortunately, I usually finish them!

So, back to projects. I’m in the middle of re purposing two pieces of furniture and while the paint is drying, well….gotta start another project, this time it’s a laundry room overhaul. It’s been driving me a big buggy for awhile now, as a totally ineffective use of space.  Here’s a before picture of the room That was looking at the closet and into the kitchen. Here’s another, looking at it from the kitchen; at the far end is the 1/2 bath.

See what I mean, totally useless space above the appliances.  Oh, did I mention that I’m 5’1″ and that’s on a good day, so getting to that top shelf is daunting, to say the least!  Plus, something was always falling behind the appliances, because I used the top of them to collect ‘stuff’. Anyway, Phase 1 of this project was to empty everything out, paint the inside of the closet and figure out what to do with it.

I decided that stacking the appliances would give me more useable (reachable) space, this would mean getting the washer and dryer off of the pedestals and getting a stacking kit (and some manpower to help do it).

Phase 1 is done, here’s the result so far! I decided to paint the interior the same color as the kitchen walls, love that rich Terra Cotta, don’t you?

Phase 1 laundry completed, appliances stacked

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the right hand side.  I found this awesome laundry room layout at www.marthastewart.com.

possibility

 

 

I won’t have the luxury of space on top of the appliances due to the framework surrounding the closet.

Some of the ideas I’d like to see incorporated:

I would like space for a drying rack, either wall mounted or one on the floor. I use racks alot in the winter (in the summer I have a clothesline, so not as necessary).

A place to hang shirts when they come out of the dryer as well as space for laundry baskets.

Now that the washer is on the floor and no longer at waist height, I will probably want a table to put a basket when I sort things from washer into dryer.  Trying to squeeze all this into a 32″w by 34″ by 90″ space will be a challenge!  I would love to hear your ideas!

That’s it for now, guess I’ll go back to painting. Stay tuned, I should have some furniture ‘re-do’s to post soon! Cheers!

Karen