Friday, March 8, 2013

Laundry Room update...PAINT!!

I am so so happy because after 4 years of living in this house the ugly builder's beige is finally GONE!  In it's place?  Lovely, bright, make-me-smile-everytime-I-walk-in-the-room golden yellow!  I know, I know, how does that apply to this 31 day challenge since technically it doesn't add any storage or organization.  Well...I'm hoping that it will make laundry duty just a little bit more pleasant and help me want to keep this room from becoming a disorganized junk-bomb!  I would love to hear what you think about the color.  It's Sherwin-Williams Butterfield and I am in love! All my thanks goes to Org Junkie's 31 Day Organizational Challenge for this little push to get going on this project.



Okay so you're probably wondering why I have a big white drywall patch in the midst of all that lovely yellow.  Well I kind of got ahead of myself and wanted to paint before we even removed the sink!  We also decided to get rid of that random shelf that had been a clothes hanger and possibly will be stacking our washer and dryer.  Sooooo...we have some repainting to do once the husband patches up the drain hole from the old sink.  On an amazingly exciting note, I forgot that the sink would be sitting on the subfloor and not on top of that ugly vinyl flooring, so the husband is also going to tile before we put the washer and dryer back!  That happens tomorrow and I am so pumped.  Sad that the laundry room is getting tile before our master bath, but we had to start somewhere! 

I originally was going to just go with some grey and white accents, but after a recent trip to Target, I found a bunch of really fun turquoise accessories so I think I'm going to add that to the mix.  Of course I can't seem to find any of said items on thier website, so you'll just have to wait to see them after the final reveal.

My husband and I also just purchased this entry shoe bench and hooks with cubbies...so so excited to have a place to drop our bags, shoes, keys, etc.!


So the next step is to tile, finish patching the drywall, then repaint the two walls that need it.  Hoping to get that done this weekend so we can hang the cubby shelf and set the bench when they arrive on the 13th!  YAY YAY YAY!! 

As far as the other wall and my hopes to make it a huge calendar/command center, I am in the process of trying to figure out how to make my vision a reality.  My inspiration came from several places and as soon as I get started on that I will share! 

 
Ah, more smiles from that gorgeous ray of sunshine!!
 
Want to join the 31 Day Organizational Challenge?  It's not too late!  Go here to link up :)
 
 
Love, Pitter Patter
 
 

Friday, March 1, 2013

Organizing Journey: Laundry room

I absolutely love OrgJunkie's blog and have decided to start my own organizing journey with the encouragement and motivation from her 31 day Organizational Challenge!  My laundry room (okay, who am I kidding...my ENTIRE HOUSE) is in some serious need of organization and style.  I decided to start there because it is the first room my family sees when we walk into our home from the garage.  As it stands right now, it is quite a depressing way to enter and exit our home.  After four years of living in this house, the walls are still the ugly, cheap builder's beige that greeted us on the first showing.  I've managed to put a color swatch on the wall, but that's it!  Sad, but true.  And it's especially depressing because I adore color and don't shy away from bold statements.  
Join the 31 Day Challenge Here!


The clutter and piles are getting out of control and this challenge is just what I needed to give myself a little push to get started!   Ugh...these pictures make me look like a hoarder or something!  I really just need some better organization and to take out the things that we never use (soaking sink, anyone?!)
One would think these cabinets and sink would be handy, but for us it is just a dumping ground.  The upper cabinet usually looks WAY worse.  The overflowing papers from 2012 have all been filed away and sorted for tax time already.  Do I really need spray and sample paints in my laundry room?  I think not!  I really want to lose these cabinets all together and move the sink pipes to the outside (garage) so my husband can have a work sink for his beer brewing.  In its place will be a shoe rack, coat storage, and hopefully some storage bins for hats, sunglasses, keys, etc. so they won't end up dumped in the dining room/kitchen

This is the storage closet and over full coat rack in the room.  I'd like for it to become our cleaning closet and nothing more unless there is room leftover.   We thought that coat rack would be extremely helpful right there since it seemed like dead space behind the door leading to the kitchen/dining room.  Instead, it has become stuffed with coats and doesn't allow us to fully open the door!  Really frustrating when we have our hands full and need full access.

This is the shelf/hanging rack right above our washer and dryer.  What's up there, you ask?  Oh, just my wedding dress and a dress I wore to my rehearsal dinner almost 4 years ago!!  I'm terrified to get it down in case my wedding dress is ruined somehow.  Guess I'm going to have to face that fear soon with the 31 Day Challenge I'm taking on!  *terrified!*
See that pretty ray of sunshine on the wall?  I can't wait for that to be the all-over color! I'm thinking accents of grey and maybe aqua too. We'll see about that.

This is the view from the garage when you first walk in the door.  Shoes scattered everywhere, dirty clothes on the floor, blank ugly walls.  Are you as depressed as I am yet? For this wall, I'm hoping to create a huge command center for our family.  Think over sized calendar with spots for each member of our family to fill in with activities and appointments, a chore sheet space, and an area where we can sort incoming mail and to-do items.  I am VERY excited about this area of the room being finished!



This last picture isn't in my laundry room.  Look hard enough and you'll see that it's our dining table.  I took this picture to show you where the overflow is going since our laundry room/entry room is such a disaster!  Diaper bags, daycare bags, coats, clothes and usually stacks of mail and to-do items are on this table.  If not there, then just 3 short feet away on our breakfast bar!  Never mind that tub under the table.  It's usually not there.  It was my attempt to get some organization in the basement utility room and it hasn't made its way down there yet!  Story of my life right now..sigh.
 
I hope you enjoyed my first post.  I'm looking forward to more updates as I get going on this project!  Any constructive criticism and advice is very much appreciated! :)
 
 
-Love, Pitter Patter