Loving the Laundry Room

So this has been a LONG time coming. After a couple of years living in fear of each load of laundry that needed to be sent to the dreaded utility room, I'm happy to announce that I am one very blessed and happy girl.

When I first moved into my home, there was green indoor/outdoor carpet all over the patio and into the utility room. Well needless to say neither of those locations were well suited to carpet. One night, a couple of months into living at my tiny ranch, I was filling a bucket in the utility sink and some friends came over to surprise me with a little party. Of course, I forgot about the water and three hours later.......my poor roommate and I were dealing with a house flood. The carpet had to come up and out and here's what was left.

Can you say Asbestos?

And I'm embarrassed to say it stayed this way for 2 years. It was hideous, never clean and frankly a danger every time you tried to sweep, up until a few weeks ago there were still exposed carpet nails on the sides.

And here's where the new floor enters! Yesterday a crew came and safely covered the asbestos tiles and installed some inexpensive vinyl flooring and it's wonderful. I chose to go with the graphic black and white because of it's vintage appeal and clean contrast. I did have a bit of fear that I'd feel like I was entering a hot rod shop every time I went in, but as the room came together it toned down and in the end ties in well with the rest of the black/white and pops of color theme in my house.

Scout can hardly contain her enthusiasm!

While the guys were installing, I went and did a little thrifting to pick up some goodies to make this room more functional. My first stop was to BRING Recycling, a place full of junk that other people dropped off after they remodeled, but you know the saying....their trash, someone else's treasure. And this time I found lots of "treasure"!

I knew I wanted a peg board to help organize some of my sewing and crafting supplies. I'd seen a ton of great ideas on Pinterest of course! And was planning on going to Jerry's to buy actual peg board and ask my handyman Dad to whip something up for me. Instead I found this jewel for $10! It's some sort of metal pegboard display cap from a shop and who knows what the weird little display thing with all the arms held, but I had visions of sewing thread and twine spools sitting pretty on it's appendages. I also found a great upper cabinet that I hoped to put in above the utility sink but decided to return the following day when it would be 1/2 off. Why pay $30 for a cabinet when I could bay $15?! By the way, the cheapest I could find a cabinet at Jerry's or Home Depot was $100, so BRING it on. (Ew, that's bad)

The great thing about BRING is that when you're paying, the cashier always asks what you plan to use the item for, because remember most the time you're buying junk so of course they're curious. Well it's like a game now, because I'm pretty sure you could say "oh, I'm just going to hang some cat carcasses I have lying around from this thing" and they'd say "oh, what a great idea"! Because in Eugene, when you recycle, it's always a great idea.

Ok, let's focus on the good stuff now. Please excuse my bad pics, and it's all still a work in progress, but it's fun to see what a difference a day makes!

New craft/workspace

And here's the cabinet that we picked up, I was trying on paint colors. And no, it won't be green,  I'm thinking gray?

Random artwork that didn't have a home inside, now makes a "unique'" gallery in the utility room 

Peg board, all purdy with blue spray paint and ready to load up 

The decal on the window is literally one of the first things I did when I moved in....odd I know.

A little vignette for your viewing pleasure

The weird arm thing holding some thread.

What a treat to have a functional room I now love to enter!  Many thanks to my handyman dad for all of your help hanging and moving, literally couldn't do this without you.....because I'm what you'd call a panicky mover, meaning I tend to freak out and drop things mid move.

Other thoughts for this room:

• Jute rug in front of washer and dryer
• Natural blinds, roman shades etc. on windows
• Fun cabinet hardware
• New utility sink or skirt for current sink (Like this?)
• Pendant light above back counter
• Some sort of folding desk for sewing to post under pegboard (Like this?)