Airing the Dirty Laundry

In an effort to post more photos of our new home despite the work that STILL needs to be done, I'm sharing our laundry room today. Honestly, is anything every really "done" in your home? I think not; if I continue to wait til a room is done, I'll never post a thing! And yes, I said laundry room. Out of all of the rooms in our house, THIS is what I choose to share first? I guess I'm taking baby steps here and starting with the smallest room of all.

So let's head on into the place where I do some of my best work...getting grass, dirt, chocolate, red juice and other such stain atrocities out of my children's clothing. (Mad props to OxiClean!)

Hang on a sec...
Let me show you what it looked like before, or else you may not be properly impressed with this tiny tour.

OK, now we can move on.
We repainted the room a Benjamin Moore shade of blue that I can't recall the name of now. And to be honest, it is the only color we've painted in the house that I'm not really happy with. I wanted a much lighter blue. Come to think of it, now I'd like to go with a frothy mint green. Don't tell Mr. Yankee that!

We painted a large chalkboard that keeps me organized with the goings on of the week. The door to the left leads to the garage and we often come and go through this area, so the memos are seen often. The previous owners added the beadboard on either side of the door from the garage and it is a high gloss for easy wipe down. Mr. Yankee added the thick trim to the top to finish it off, and let's just pretend that he has also added the thinner trim down the side. ;)

Behind the other door is our small pantry. See the trend here? Small.
I drug home this wooden bins from TJMaxx one day without a clue as to what I'd use them for and they landed in the pantry. The wire shelves can pose an issue for neurotic people such an myself. Pantry items were falling over, not sitting balanced, etc. The wooden bins remedied the chaos, for now. Eventually, I'd like to change out the wire shelves or wooden ones and move the bins to...who knows?

On around the corner is what I like to call the little sink nook. If I though this room was hard to photograph, I quickly learned that this area is virtually impossible! I contorted myself into a corner to snap shots of the nook. The shelves were one shelf that was left over from cabinetry that we had Lowe's cut down to size and added shelving brackets. (You can read about the utility sink's burlap potato sack front here.)

The vintage washboard was found in my parents' attic and I believe it belonged to my great grandparents. The old ladder was found at a vintage shop and gets moved all over the laundry room and kitchen so I can reach upper cabinets, shelves, and the tippy-top of the chalkboard . 

As you continue to shimmy around the room, you'll find the NEW washer and dryer, directly across from the sink nook. I love my new Samsung top load washing machine and matching dryer. Our clothes are cleaner and fluffier than ever! 

The cabinets were a DIY addition to the room that have been incredibly useful. I requested that Mr. Yankee hang them as high as possible so that I could have room to add a shelf below them/above the washer and dryer to hide the unsightly water and electric hookups. As you can see, not only have we not added hardware to the cabinets, the hookups are still in plain view. Keepin' it real people! To the right of the dryer is a small shelving piece that we added to hide another unsightly item...

See that silver monstrosity of a dryer duct? No? You're not looking hard enough!
The shelves work for now while I look for what I really want there, which is...I have No idea!
We added a bar to hang clothes on that we don't put in the dryer and it has been very useful.
The kids' backpacks go on the back of the door, which works well since, as I've mentioned, we enter the house this way often, via the garage.
(Let's ignore the brass handles and door knobs. I do!)

I keep laundry essentials at arm's reach so that I don't have to use the ladder to get into the cabinets every time I do a load of laundry, which if you also have messy kids you know is at least once a day.

And that's it! First room reveal done!

Whew. That was like ripping a bandaid off. Quick and painless. I guess. Sort of. Not really.

I'm off to ponder frothy mint green paint.