One Room Challenge: Fall 2015-Week One (Clickety-click)
It’s time! It’s time! It’s time! I’ve been waiting for this moment since last Spring, when I revealed my Home Office for the last One Room Challenge! I can honestly say I am hooked on participating in the One Room Challenge, and I foresee myself doing it for as long as I have a space to make over! I must resist the urge to buy a new house just to continue to participate. Seriously, it’s that addicting. Some of you might not be familiar with the One Room Challenge though, so let me fill you in on it’s goodness!
The One Room Challenge is a six week challenge, created by Linda from Calling it Home, to motivate designers/bloggers/home owners, anyone with an unfinished space and a blog really, to focus on a space, put together a plan, and execute it, all while documenting it on your blog for the world to see. 20 featured bloggers (The talent is insane y’all!) will share their process each Wednesday, and the rest of us are invited to link up our own projects the following day in what must be one of the biggest link parties around. Sound easy enough right? Well, I thought it would be a walk in the park last Spring, my first challenge, but I quickly found out that not only does the challenge make you do everything I stated above, it can make you go a tad bit insane. Just ask anyone that has ever participated. It’s a good insane though. I promise! My attention to detail was on overdrive. Not that it’s not in my nature to already be that way so maybe it just exacerbated it a bit in my case? Haha! Even so, it was a thrill, comparable to the most thrilling roller-coaster ride of your life. Imagine the planning stage as the clickety-clicks of the chain as it is pulled up the rails. The execution of your plan as the hands in the air position so many take right before they reach the peak, and the reveal and all the goodness that comes after it, as the ride down and around until it comes to a stop. You’d want to ride again, wouldn’t you? Well I do, and it seems like so many others want to too!
So here I am again, preparing to share a new space in my home to be made over. The clickety-clicks can be heard all around my house as I pull together my ideas and materials to make this space come to life. I’m excited, and nervous all at the same time! Not only am I excited to get this space complete, I’m excited to get to know so many of you all again! This challenge has a way of bringing out the most supportive group of people, and I’m so thankful for that!
Being a stay-at-home mom, and one that doesn’t really get out much, I truly appreciate being able to connect, even virtually, with so many people. Decor is my passion, and blogging is my tool to share that with y’all. I hope you will come back week after week to follow along with my progress. Of course, if I don’t get to the reveal of the room pretty soon…..haha!
I won’t make you wait any longer! Here is the space I will be transforming over the next six weeks!
My Laundry Room!
Look at that boring space! Ack! I’ll admit, this is a bit cleaner than it normally appears, but I literally didn’t want to air my dirty laundry for all to see on the internet. Can you blame me?
The room appears to be spacious, and I guess it could be, but it wasn’t planned out correctly, at least I don’t think it was. You see, I have a thing with ill planned spaces, like they drive me crazy, and I really have a bone to pick with the designer of this one. I can’t understand why they planned a space with two doors that open into the room to be so small! I mean, they almost touch each-other when you open both of them at the same time! It’s a rare occurrence, but it happens. I think a few extra inches in the space would have cleared that issue up, but that didn’t happen. Sadly, I really can’t do anything about this issue unless I want to knock down some walls, and well, I don’t have the budget for that. What I can do though is be happy that I have a dedicated room at all for my laundry, and plan a very functional space inside of it. Luckily, the space is very tall so I have a lot of wall space to work with, and boy am I going to take advantage of it. No wall will be left untouched as you will see when I reveal the completed space. That day seems so far away, but it’ll be here before you know it!
So here is the plan I’ve come up with. I’m tearing down that useless wire shelf and replacing it with cabinets. Add to that a set of cubbies that I plan to build to house baskets and the junk that will surely find its way inside of them, and I have ample storage space on one wall! I think all laundry rooms need a space to hang dry clothes too, so I hope to have two options in the room. One is the drying rack, and the other is the bar located between the two sets of cabinets. I’m going to attempt to DIY the drying rack too, in order to save money, so wish me luck! If that project doesn’t turn out, I found an alternative rack in the form of a fold away, located on the bottom right of the mood board, that doesn’t cost much money, so I might end up going that route.
I’m adding a countertop to the space so that I can easily fold laundry, but I haven’t decided if I want to go with a wooden top, or my other budget friendly option, laminate. I’ve been doing a lot of research and I’ve found that laminate is making a comeback in the countertop world. With options ranging from marble look-a-likes, to granite, to just your plain old surface, it has come a log way. I’ll be honest, I did get a quote on a remnant slab of Carrara Marble, but I just can’t justify spending that amount of money on my laundry room. I wish I could talk myself into it, because it was a beautiful piece, but since this is just my laundry room and not a gathering room for all my visitors to see, I feel that the price I’ll be paying to have the laminate countertops made and installed instead is a wiser use of my money. Plus I have a couple of major makeovers planned for the near future, so every penny saved is a penny that will go towards those projects.
To give the space some character, I plan to plank the walls and decorate with my favorite kind of decor. Yep, you guessed it! Coastal decor! I’m telling you, it’s going to be in every room!
I’m still on the fence about what paint colors I want to use, so I’ll share that in a future post. I think I’ll say goodbye for now, and leave you with a few images that I have run across while planning this room. They gave me inspiration, so I hope they do the same for you!
Until next time friends!
-Iris
Hold on! You don’t have to wait for the next post to follow along with what I’m doing! Join me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to see ALL of the projects I’m working on! I can’t wait to see you!
The action to acquiring a good on-line casino is to obtain an out of personal computer is authorized.
I love the visions you have for the room! I love the color scheme! You always do beautiful work so I can’t wait to see what you do with the room and watch the transformation!
Thank you so much friend! I hope I don’t disappoint!! 🙂
Stopping by from Collette’s Spindle and Rye… You have me so inspired to redo my laundry area! I love all of the inspiration photos you have posted, and cannot wait to see what you end up doing! Love this! <3 I look forward to catching up with your lovely blog!
We had the same exact layout in our old house and it drove me crazy, too! A completely unusable wall! I so understand. In our new house, we only have a laundry closet and it’s literally the same amount of usable space. I can’t wait to see what you do in here and get some inspiration from you! Love all your ideas so far!
Thank you Samantha! I think sometimes these builders don’t really care for function. They just want to build and get their money. Sad. I guess all we can do is make the best out of the situation. I hope you enjoy the final outcome of the space!
Love your design plan & inspiration images! I am also doing my laundry room for the ORC (1st timer), & cannot wait to follow along with everyone’s projects. Best wishes!
Thank you so much Holly! Your design board looks sooooo good! I wish I could use some sort of wall paper in my space too, but my husband has never been a fan, so I haven’t pushed the subject on him. I love it though, and can’t wait to see how your spaces turn out! 🙂
Iris, It’s been a crazy few weeks, but finally making the ORC rounds and love your back in this round! I’m loving your inspiration board and plan to make your laundry room fit your coastal home! I thought about doing our laundry room closet, which is part of our kitchen, and can’t wait to get inspiration from you! Let’s do this! XOXO, Sarah
Thank you friend! I really want this space to function as much as possible, and I have to say, something about adding those cabinets makes the space seem even bigger. We wouldn’t have thought, but it’s true! Now it’s time for the “hard work”. Cutting, building, painting…it’s going to be a messy weekend!
Yay for the #LaundryRoomsOfTheORC! I’m excited to be working on a laundry room along side you and I can’t wait to see your transformation!
I love that we have so many cohorts in this challenge! It’ll be fun to see how different everyone imagines their laundry room. Maybe we should do a feature at the end, if the others would like to join in? It would be neat to present them all to people so that they can find inspiration for their own type of space. 🙂
I love a good, functional laundry room that has major style & that’s what you have going on. I look forward to seeing it all come together. I am riding on this crazy ORC train too! Hollie
Thank you so much Hollie! I can’t wait to see it finished myself!
I love your inspiration pics. I would love to do laundry if I had a room like that to do it in. I will be watching your progress.
Thank you Tiffany! This is the first “room” I’ve ever had dedicated to laundry. For years we had closets only, so it’s a treat despite the errors in the build design. I can’t wait to make it more functional and pretty! Thanks for following along!
I’m doing a laundry room too! This should be fun! I love your inspiration photos.
I love that so many of us are tackling this space. It shows just how important a space it is in the house! I can’t wait to see your space!
I can’t wait to follow you through your transformation! This is going to be amazing!
Thank you so much sweet friend! I am so excited to have you follow along! 🙂
love your colour palette. So clean and calm. Perfect for a laundry room. Marble is on my list as well when I do mine. Can’t wait to see the progress.x
Thank you Karolina! I wish I didn’t have another project going on right now, or I’d end up buying marble for the countertop. I can’t wait to share what I am going with though. I hope you like it!
Okay, this is very exciting for me. We just moved into a new home and your laundry room and my laundry room are IDENTICAL TWINS!! LOL I can’t see the brand on your washer/dryer, but they look almost identical to mine as well! AND, I have some of those same laundry rooms pinned on Pinterest…that’s probably not that much of a coincidence, since they are all gorgeous! I will be very excited to see how your laundry room turns out. It will inspire me to do something with my laundry space! 🙂 I’ve just come across your blog today and look forward to reading more of your posts!
That’s awesome Benita! (Great minds think alike, right? 🙂 ) Your excitement is such motivation for me to do this space right. I can’t wait to share the final outcome with you! Thanks for following along!
The inspiration and finishes look soo pretty. Also, love the rug you already have. Can’t wait to see it all pulled together!
Thank you Katy! I really like that rug too! Who knows, it might end up sticking around if I can’t find one like in my moodboard.
It’s going to come out amazing, Iris! Love the room board you created. Excited to follow along 🙂
Thank you so much for the confidence Tee! I really hope we can pull this off! We’re going to attempt to hang the cabinets either today or tomorrow. Will depend on how the day takes shape honestly. Honestly, it scares me. LOL!
I love all of your inspirational rooms, I can’t wait to see the transformation!
Aw, thank you so much Roxanne! I’m excited to get started on it!
Hey, Iris! So glad to be doing the ORC again with a familiar face. Last time was so scary! I love your laundry room plans and I’ll be looking forward to seeing how your cabinet installation goes. Y’all are brave! I’m sure the space will be beautiful, just like your office.
Oh my gosh, I know what you mean! I was like a little fish in a huge ocean last time, but now I see so many familiar faces and couldn’t be happier, or more comfortable about being a part of it again this season. I’m pretty apprehensive about the cabinet installation. My husband and I work well as a team, but sometimes we bicker about it and that’s no fun. Hopefully we stay on the same page while trying to get them up! LOL!
Yay!!! Another laundry room buddy! Looks like you have some BEAUTIFUL inspiration with those pictures. Can’t wait to see how this space turns out!
I know, I’m excited to see that you are doing yours as well! It’s going to be fun to see how different yet amazing they both will end up being!
Nothing better than a great laundry room and I love your inspo board and images. The farmhouse look is so my favourite right now so excited to see what you do!
I’ve been daydreaming about this space for over a year. It is constantly starting at me when I’m in the kitchen or living room since we have an open floor plan. It’s high time it looks nice, and functions better!
I love your inspiration! My laundry room is one of the next things to tackle – so I’ll have to grab inspiration from you when you’re done! Can’t wait to follow along.
Oh I hope you do, or at least from the rooms I’ll be sharing that have inspired me. I am amazed at how different such a common space can look!
I’m loving the direction you are going! I live white so this space is right up my alley. It’s going to be beautiful!
I really want it to be bright, since it doesn’t have any natural light. Hopefully the white will motivate me to keep it sparkling clean, which it isn’t right now. LOL!
I think you will have one beautiful laundry room in the end. I love your inspiration!
Thank you Nancy! I really hope it turns out like it is in my head. We will see!