A Laundry room built for a queen!
Don't you love seeing super dramatic before and after photos? Me too.
My client approached me for this project because as a busy mom of 3 boys, her laundry room was causing her endless headaches. Or rather, her lack of a laundry room. She had plenty of space in her basement, but the space was dark, dingy, and a hodge-podge of laundry, storage, and even a rarely used air hockey table. Currently she was using the pool table in an adjoining room as her "clean laundry central" for piling, sorting, and occasionally folding the clean laundry before her boys carried it upstairs.
She saw a post of mine on Facebook with an inspiring picture of a bright and cheery laundry closet and called me up to assess her situation. She wanted an organized space, with a farmhouse/beach/glam feel to it, and definitely more light.
After our discussion, I drew up plans for the space which created a closet for her washer and dryer, a countertop for folding and storage for clean clothes hampers, as well as an open space for workout equipment. It also divided this new space from a small storage room that would remain unfinished.
We brought in the contractor, and quickly got to work finishing out the space. The plans called for building a finished ceiling over the currently exposed basement joists, and a few soffits to cover the bits of plumbing pipe for the bathroom above. Inside the laundry closet the ceiling had to be dropped to just over 6' because of all the mechanical stuff above that we wanted hidden (most main floor ceilings are 8' tall, but most basement ceilings in older homes can be somewhere between 7' and 8' tall). We were able to fit in a recessed can light however to keep the interior of the closet well lit. Although we had to have the builder frame the doorway and cut the new bi-fold doors down to the 6' height (instead of the standard 6'8" height) because of the dropped ceiling inside, I was able to mask this oddity by commissioning a piece of custom artwork to hang above the doorway.
On the opposite wall from this closet, is now the folding station with hampers below, and a tall cabinet for storing linens and cleaning supplies. The top surface of this table, and the door of the cabinet are finished with a burnishing technique that brings out the grain of the wood and adds a bit more of the rustic feel the homeowner wanted.
There are more pieces of custom artwork on the wall above this table, and space for the homeowner to add a wall mounted drying rack at a later time. The "chalkboard" tags on the hampers were hand painted by me. You can check out the FB live video of that here:
Other finishing touches include the crystal knobs on the closet doors and a hand painted frame designed to mimic coral (another beach element).
The other end of this L shaped room now has space for a small home gym, adjacent to a previously finished bathroom.
The flooring is a wood patterned sheet vinyl and the walls are painted in Sherwin Williams Sea Salt (SW6204). The crystal flush mount light fixtures were a find at Home Depot. I also found a rolling metal mesh hamper to collect dirty clothes from the pre-existing laundry chute and roll them over to the machines.
Isn't it time your laundry room made you enjoy doing laundry?
Thank you for your help on this project.