One Room Challenge: The Laundry Room Week 4 | Homespun by Laura

One Room Challenge 2016: Week 4

Welcome to Week #4 of the One Room Challenge!  This week, I started bringing color into the bare space, and it’s beginning to come together.

Here’s a reminder of what I started with in Week 1:


In Week 3, I shared our new entry table and cabinet knobs.  This week’s more colorful changes include a new hamper, rug, and a few functional and decorative items.

My original plan of sticking with black, gray, and white started to change in my head after I saw the gray on the walls.  I love the color, but when combined with the grayish-green of the tile, everything looks kind of the same color and boring.  Perhaps if the floors were hardwood, the original plan would have worked, but it just started to look a little cold to me.  So I decided to add a few pops of color instead, primarily using similar shades of turquoise/teal/aqua/blue-green.

 
The hamper we’ve had for the past 8 years was starting to fall apart, so I replaced it with one I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond a few weeks ago when I had gone in looking for something else. 

I also found a bathmat that day that I thought could replace the chef one I stand on while sorting laundry.  It seems to be wearing down a little quicker than an actual rug would, but it only cost about $8, so if it doesn’t last for 8 years like its predecessor, I won’t be too upset about it. 
Combined with a $10 off $30 coupon, the grand total was only $20!
20% off $10 makes $8!
The last turquoise item I’ve added is this little vase from Hobby Lobby, which cost around $3.50.  I added a cutting of philodendron from another plant to give this room a little life.
The H is a souvenir from our afternoon in Waco, TX at Magnolia Market and Harp Design Co. back in April.  It’s made from reclaimed wood and came from Harp.

The wooden letter and sprig of philodendron also add a little warmth and life to the gray room.

 There are also a few splashes of pink.  The first is in a watercolor I did earlier this year.  It was already framed and sitting on a shelf in the office, so I stole it and brought it downstairs to live. 

Second is a little bowl that came from….either a thrift store or estate sale for a few dollars….at the moment, I can’t place exactly where I found it.  It’s great for corralling loose change and receipts from various pockets or collecting tags and buttons that come with new clothes.
Plastic bags for walking the dogs are easily accessible in the Cafe du Monde coffee tin
 
Before I changed the original plan of black, gray, and white, I spray painted and made new linings for two baskets that now hold mesh laundry bags and cleaning rags for easy access.
Before = Boring.  See above and below for After!
The white basket on the dryer holds the dogs’ walking harnesses and leashes, along with a little microfiber mitt for drying them off after a trip outside in the rain.

Next to the door, our key hanger is back in action, keeping everything organized.  I’ve changed my mind on the framed magnet/chalk board above it, though.  I’d like to replace it with something a little more colorful.  We haven’t written on in well over a year, so I don’t think we’ll miss it.

 

If you look really closely, you’ll see our Jeopardy scores and how often I beat the Mister. 🙂

I also love this new clock I found on Amazon after an extensive search both online and in several stores.  I wanted something white with a vintage-type look.  I also wanted one that didn’t tick as it drives me crazy.  This one is even metal and turned out to be nicer than the ones in all the stores I looked at.

 

Two posts remain in this fall’s One Room Challenge, and here is my updated plan and remaining items:
 1.  Continue to add color, mainly turquoise-ish and pink.

 2.  Add something large and colorful on these two walls.  They’re giant gray walls and they need a little something.  

 
Something made me think of Monet a few weeks ago, but I couldn’t find prints that I liked at the right price – and the ones that did seem to be priced well had varying reviews on the coloring.  When I realized we’d be going very near to his home in Giverny, France, I hoped we might be able to find a couple of prints there at a reasonable price.
Even in the final week of October, the garden was full of blossoms and color.
Good news and bad news on the prints in Giverny:  Good news is, I found one and it was only 13 Euros!  Bad news, they wouldn’t let me take the tube it was in for protection on the plane, and it was too big to fit in a suitcase. We had to go off in search of the Orly airport post office and ship it home for 23 Euros.  Hopefully it will arrive next week like the postal worker said it would!  Even with the additional shipping cost and converting back to dollars from Euros, it was still less expensive than the prints with questionable reviews that I’d found prior to our trip.
Taking refuge from a sudden downpour under the trellis on the Japanese Bridge.
 
3.  Light fixture.  I haven’t found anything I really like that’s under $150 – and that, of course, is entirely too much – this is, after all, just a laundry room.  But something nicer than our spiky dome light would be awesome.
 
4.  I have some ideas brewing in the back of my head for a drying rack that will cover the fusebox.  The tricky part is to leave the fuse box easily accessible, so I’ll have to get a little creative.  I hope to have begun on that process by next week’s post.  We’ll barely have gotten home from Europe, though, so it will be a challenge!
 
 
I still have the cabinet door from before but never loved it: the hinges don’t fit right, it doesn’t open all the way, and it’s so close to the corner that it looks funny.  And while it’s certainly better than just a bare fuse box, what I have in mind will be much better if it comes out the way I plan.
That does it for Week #4.  Here’s to getting something accomplished to share in Week 5‘s post!  Don’t forget to check out the rest of the One Room Challenge participants’ progress!