Project Santa: Laundry room makeover

If you’ve been following our journey, you know that we’ve been living with my parents since we sold our first home last summer to embark on building our Dreamhouse. In the nearly year and a half we’ve been back home, there’s almost never been a time that they haven’t put our needs above their own.
From getting up early to help with our weekday morning routine, to always being available for ‘at-a-moment’s-notice’ babysitting, and even putting up with us having taken over their garage to store our belongings, my parents have opened their home to us asking little more than a tiny contribution to the grocery bill.

So when the time came for us to decide on our first PARA Blog Crew project, we thought it might be time to give back. So for Christmas this year, we’re giving their house a bit of a facelift.

The project:

With 4 adults and a pre-schooler in the house, the laundry room is definitely an area that gets a lot of traffic.  It also happens to be the only room in the house that after 7 years is still ‘builder beige.’ But beyond the aesthetics of paint, the function of the laundry room as is, leaves much to be desired.

The laundry room: before

The laundry room: before

The major offenders?

  • Laundry basin – it sits unlevel, and therefore doesn’t drain properly. There’s also no backsplash on the surrounding wall which can be a bit problematic when you’re trying to clean muddy boots in the sink and the faucet seems to go from gentle trickle to fire hose with the slightest touch.laundry basin
  • Work surface – there isn’t one.  Unless you count the top of the washing machine & dryer which have become the home for everything from cleaning supplies, to clothes waiting to be folded.work surface - or lack there of

     

  • Storage – again, relatively non-existant.  The small wall-mounted cabinet that was originally supposed to house the laundry supplies, has since deteriorated to a cross between cat food storage for me & a place where random things go to die. There’s no place to hang clothes. And because the laundry room also doubles as the garage entrance to the house, it’s become a place to store shoes, knapsacks & other things that my mom doesn’t want to clutter up the front door entrance.storage issues

The proposed solution:

A near complete overhaul of the space.  We’re thinking a proper work surface, some tile on the walls, a functional laundry sink & cabinet, some sort of mud-room type storage, and of course a few fresh coats of PARA paint to bring it all together.  😉

We’ll be taking you all the way through the DIY in a series of posts over the next couple of weeks leading up to the final reveal just in time for Christmas.

Be sure to also follow along with us for some behind the scenes pics using #ProjectSanta on Twitter and Instagram!

Comments
  • December 11, 2013

    My laundry room is small, but somewhat organized. I’d love to give it a fresh coat of paint and add a little personality in the new year. Good luck with all your plans! It’s going to be so much nicer to do laundry in!

  • December 11, 2013

    I think it’ll look great!! My dad recently redid his laundry room and he found a laundry sink that was super stylish and even had storage underneath. there are definitely sinks on the market now that arent “utlity sinks”!

    I have seen some wall mounted drying racks on pinterest. Would be perfect for this space. something like this:
    http://www.pinterest.com/pin/224757837626410580/

  • December 11, 2013

    Fun project! I get abnormally excited about these kinds of spaces

  • December 11, 2013

    Can’t wait to see how it turns out! odd….if you told my 18 year old self I’d be excited (and yes, a bit jealous of you!) about a laundry room reno…well LOL:) life! funny thing:)

  • December 11, 2013

    This is such a wonderful idea! Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

  • December 11, 2013

    Oooh – Can’t wait to see what you do with the space!

  • December 12, 2013

    Can’t wait to see what you guys do with it! 🙂

  • December 12, 2013

    What a great thing to do for your parents! I’m sure they will really love the makeover. Can’t wait to see it!

  • December 13, 2013

    What a fabulous idea! Can’t wait to see the progression of the laundry room project!

  • December 17, 2013

    Following from bloggy mom. Love your adventure!!!!! *I currently am working on redesigning my laundry room….. yikes, never ending project at our house 🙂

  • December 17, 2013

    Very excited to see what you do and what colours you pick! I have my laundry room on my “to-do” list as well

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