Laundry Room

 Of course, in my true fashion, I forgot to take "before" pictures of the laundry room.  There was a wall that had, like, an open nook area where the previous owners had shelves and I was storing a desk.  There was a small coat closet to the left of that, with a standard 30" door on it, that was jamb packed with coats for our huge family of nine.  Then, there was a solid wall with dead space behind to the left of that.  Since moving in 12 years ago, I suspected that that space had a duct in it but couldn't make sense of why SO MUCH space was walled off.  So, we opened it up and took out that entire wall to reveal the suspect ductwork.  I then designed a mudroom around it, with a cleaning closet around and to the left of the duct where the dead space was and a bunch of lockers for the family to the right for far more efficient storage.  The existing cabinetry is getting the same treatments as the common bathroom vanities, with the doors and drawer fronts being converted to inset instead of overlay.  My contractor, Shane Chunning, who is building the mudroom also installed gorgeous slate flooring in a herringbone pattern and is in the process of finishing up the mudroom and the laundry cabinets.

Laundry Room BEFORE

Mudroom Design Drawings

Wall removed

Wall removed and ductwork exposed

Flooring layout plan

Laying out the actual flooring

Flooring getting installed

Mudroom lockers getting built:  Shane's the man!

Already enjoying the function of the lockers in doing laundry.  Cannot wait until they are done!

Lockers are getting painted. Bench and clothes rods are walnut and will look gorgeous once they are oiled or clear-coated.  I'm so excited to get the doors, feet, shelves, outlets, drawers, and hardware in!

Doors are also getting painted and the radio weave caning installed (with walnut backstop trim).

It was a prcoess getting the right color of cane that complimented the paint color but also coordinated and tied in well with the existing oak cabinets.  Shane did a great job installing the cane, despite having never worked with caning before.

Feet are made (and painted, though not in this picture) and ready to install below the lockers.

I had Shane cut the routed edge off the overlay doors and inset them to give them a more timeless, less dated feel.  We also added antique brass hardware which will tie the oak cabinets together with the painted lockers.

The new area rug pulls colors from both the old oak cabinets and the new painted lockers (as well as the slate flooring).  That was a lucky find from Home Depot.

Doors going in

Had Shane route and add trim to the existing oak cabinets and a tile chair rail cap to the existing basic white tile.  It looks so much better and more finished.

Feet and front bench edge added. Shane biscuit-joined it to the benchtop so it should be very secure.

New quartz countertops added, as well as the routered base trim, on the oak cabinets.

These dated '90s honey oak cabinets now have a timeless feel.

In an excellent last-minute decision, I asked the countertop place, Granite Connection, to make a little quarter circle floating shelf (that matched the new countertops) as a drop zone for keys and wallets.

My uber-talented son, Jesse (14yr old), turned the gorgeous walnut bowl for me. It makes me so happy!

I am incredibly grateful to have others who can bring my designs to life now so that I may focus on my family and design work instead of still having to build everything myself.

Shane's painter, Omar, did a beautiful job.  He got the walnut bench and clothes rods sealed and finished (he also did an excellent job painting the whole unit). He also matched the new oak trim perfectly to the old oak cabinets.

Built a custom walnut wall mirror that serves as a secret door to the cleaning closet. Looks gorgeous and gives us a mirror to get ready in front of before leaving the house. Also loving the area rug that pulls all the colors together and ties the oak and walnut and painted wood together with the slate flooring.