Laundry rooms are special, because they are daily, mundane places. And it is in those places where we most often meet Jesus. This quote by Elisabeth Elliot inspired my entire laundry room, and is a sweet reminder that we are called to simply be faithful - right where we are - even in the laundry rooms.

“This job has been given to me to do. Therefore, it is a gift. Therefore, it is a privilege. Therefore, it is an offering I may make to God. Therefore, it is to be done gladly, if it is done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”

— Elisabeth Elliot

THE BEFORE AND THE PLANNING

Wow. The only place to go is up from here. I am so thankful for a laundry room, but my aesthetic heart was hurting looking at this space. Not only that, but it was so impractical and the whole space was so underutilized in regards to storage, organization, and function of doing laundry in this space.

WHAT WAS IMPORTANT TO ME?

When designing this laundry room, there were a few things that were important to me:

Drawer Storage: The built-ins had to have pull out storage. We don’t have great storage options in our home, so anywhere that functional storage meets beauty, I celebrate.
Place to Hang Dry Clothes: I hang dry so many of our clothes, and since we have a second floor washer and dryer, I did not want to have to go up and down to hang clothes for them to hang dry.
Deep Ledge above Washer and Dryer: It had to have a ledge deep enough for me to apply treatment to clothes, or do some light folding.
Keep the Natural Light: It had to keep the beautiful natural light that we have. There is a very short and wide window that allows me to work in the day without turning the light on. I did not want to lose that.
Cover the Washer Cords: The solution had to cover the washer cords that were exposed above the washer. This was the Achilles heel of the built-ins design process.
Access to the Water Shut Off for the Washer: The built in solution HAD to have access to the water shut off and washer plug-in in the event there was a leak. This made the design tricky, but led to a really fun ‘faux drawer’ in the built in. But you would never know. ;)

I drew up the quick vision in my head, and I sent it over to my dad. He is a world class New England carpenter, and loves to serve by using his hands. He said ‘I can do that - but only for my girl!’. (Daddy’s and daughters are a special thing.)

The week before we were planning to start on this mini DIY and remodel, our washer and dryer completely broke. They came with the house when we bought it, and turns, out they were way older than we thought.

There were three things that were important to us when looking for a new washer and dryer:

Front Loader: It had to be a front loader so that I could place a shelf over the top of the washer and dryer. We have a small narrow laundry room, and I wanted that above space.
Washer Self Dry Feature: It is very, very common for front loaders to have mold grow in the front lip because it never dries. That is what was happening to our old one.
Lock Feature: I have a very curious 2.5 year old who loves to help with laundry, but also, loves to push all the buttons on the washer and dryer. I needed a way to be able to lock the buttons so she could not turn them off mid-cycle.

The washer and dryer set we found hit all of those must haves, and we absolutely love it! It is by GE, and visually, it is beautiful. I chose the matte nickel finish and it almost looks like a dark tan color. It does have a clean white option, and that would be stunning as well for a different vibe.

HOLD YOUR DESIGN LOOSELY

If you are in the middle of doing a home remodel, especially if it is DIY, always remember to hold your initial design and plan loosely! It was one thing to draw out my vision, but then when we actually tried to add the shelf right under the window, it caused two main problems:

It blocked SO much of the natural light - I did not expect that. It was an immediate no go for that reason.
Functionally though, I forgot to account for the height of the rod, and the height of the hangers, and it simply was not going to be functional to hang clothes once we saw it there.

So we scratched that plan all together! And honestly, it turned out better than my initial vision. So hold your plan loosely, and watch it turn out better than you thought it would.

In a perfect world, we would have redone the floors, added bead board and wallpaper, and put in a new light fixture. But when we realized we needed a new washer and dryer all together, that plan changed. We decided to pour that money into more functional appliances! I hope to add a new light fixture at a later time (I would like one on a dimmer for late night laundry) and paint/spruce up the inside of our linen closet. This was our solution for hanging clothes and it has worked out perfectly. Don’t let not doing everything perfectly stop you from doing something.

If you can’t do everything, choose the things that will make the biggest bang for your buck, and break it up in buckets! This is not our longterm home, so we were ok to not go above and beyond, but still maximize the right things. This update will be a HUGE selling point for home buyers in the future.

BUILT IN PROCESS

Below you will see the process of how the built-ins were designed, especially around that plug in and the water shut off. All the drawers slide out, even the faux one. You can also see where he tried to put the wood under the window to see how the shelf would work. As you know already, it didn’t! But at least we tried.

PAINT SAMPLES AND FINAL COLORS

Paint is so hard. It is hard because it looks different in every home and every room. It can vary based on the colors you have in the room, the lighting, and the accents you choose. There are a few things I always do when choosing paint colors:

Multiple Swatches: Always get multiple swatches and place them in the room you want to paint. I have started with as many as 30 swatches to as little as 2. But it is usually around 10-15 that I tape on the wall.
Day vs Night Lighting: Look at the swatches in both day and night lighting. You may love one color in day and hate it at night. That will not be a winner. As I rule a color out, I will simply take the swatch off the wall to eliminate them.
Paint on the Walls: Once I narrow it down to 2-4 options, I will buy paint samples and place the samples on the wall. It is best to use a roller instead of a brush. Learn from my mistakes!
Paint on a Piece of Wood for Non-Wall Colors: For the built-ins, I took a cheap piece of wood from Lowes and painted the four samples on the wood. I then placed the wood along the built in so I could see how it would look in the place that it would actually be in the room. This was very helpful to come to my final decision!

Below are the paint colors we went with: