The Laundry Room Saga…

The laundry room…. sigh…. one of the only rooms that did not turn out the way I had hoped. We’ve only lived in our new house for about 6 months, but for 6 months I have hated the way the laundry room turned out.

We were in such a rush to move into our house, that the builders got a bit sloppy with it… at the time I was just OVER the construction process and I wanted to move in desperately. So, I did what any desperate person would do, and I overlooked the glaringly obvious problems that were getting left behind.

Fast forward 6 months from move-in day, and I am irritated.

I should have made the builders re-do their mistakes. I should have made them pay more attention to the final details. And I shouldn’t have been SO EASY! I know what my thought process was at the time, so I can’t be too hard on myself but, darn it, it’s just not what I wanted.

However, I’m trying to look on the bright side by thinking that I wouldn’t have come up with my new solution, had everything been done right the first time. See how positive I am??

I’m going to show you why I’m so frustrated with the way the laundry room turned out. You’ll see…

Reason # 1:

They were suppose to build out the wall so that the upper cabinets looked built in. You were never intended to see behind them, or the bottom of the cabinet…. See the problem?

Reason # 2:

They didn’t do the tile correctly on top of the pedestal. See that lovely gap of thin set? You’re not suppose to see that.

Reason # 3:

This directly correlates with reason number 2. The grout has completely fallen out in spots on the face of the pedestal. They were instructed to use bullnose tile on the face so that it tied in with the top for a nice rounded edge. That didn’t happen. Obviously. And because it didn’t, every time I pull laundry out of the dryer my leg hits the grout and it falls out….. sigh….

Because I’ve been agonizing over this room since we’ve moved in, I’ve had plenty of time to device a plan of attack. And, luckily, it shouldn’t be too expensive.

Here’s the plan:

-To fix problem # 1 we are going to install plank paneling under the bottom of the cabinets and along the sides of the washer and dryer. This should hide the back and top of the wall that you can see with reason #1. Everything should look built in and finished.

-For problem # 2, since we will be installing plank paneling with quarter round on the bottom, this should hide the large gap on the side of the dryer.

-To fix problem # 3 we will install plank paneling on the left wall when you walk in the laundry room, carrying it across the face of the pedestal to cover the exposed chipping grout line.  Plus, it will give this wall a seamless look since the inside will be finished in plank panels as well.

After that, we plan on installing the cabinet hardware (which we’ve had for 6 months…), possibly repaint the walls… and make wood boxes to go under the pedestal. Add in a rug, some curtains, wall hangings and accessories, and we’ll have a finished laundry room… One that I won’t hate anymore!

Here’s some images that I’ve gathered for inspiration:

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So there’s the plan! Hopefully we’ll get started soon! Since the hubby is so busy with farming during the summer, we have to squeeze all of these “bigger” projects into the winter months.

Let’s do it!