Laundry Room Reveal

Finally I am finished, finished with the laundry room. Oh how I love my laundry room!

I started this so long ago that I almost forgot why I started this project. Replacing the machines -last December(!) created the domino effect which ultimately led to this renovation. 

Ok so, new machines, new folding table, new skim coat walls, new rug, new hamper, new drying rack, new lights, but the real standout change in here is the mural. 

I was originally inspired to paint the walls by the work of Florence Lopez -one of my style heroes. In researching Lopez's work, I learned that some of her painted walls are inspired by the late artist Sonia Delaunay, whose textile design from the 1929 book Tapis et Tissus is shown above. There is a really great post with more examples from this book from this excellent but now no longer active blog. And, there is a great summary of Delaunay from the Tate, which describes the breadth of her career far better than I can.

One of the things I've noticed in studying Florence Lopez's walls is that there is a lot of variation in the opacity of the paint -this keeps the walls looking organic and loose and painterly. A very uniform paint pigmentation would look far more graphic and read very differently. It is for this reason that I used only 2 coats of paint -with visible brush strokes and left some of the pencil lines from my layout. I wanted this to look handmade, as opposed to like wallpaper.

The color is Benjamin Moore Glimmer in flat. I taped the straight lines and used a 1" foam brush for the curves. The taping took forever. 

I made a template for the curved sections out of card stock and traced these on the wall as I went. The ogee was made by tracing two different sized overlapped plates and I kept it symmetrical by mirroring the template on the wall.

I laid out the pattern with a 18" vertical format for the larger pinwheel section, which repeats itself (making that pinwheel 3x3'). To either side of the large format, I played with the basic geometric forms to finish out the pattern and divided the space so that I finished the pattern without a wraparound at the corners.

This pattern got very confusing at times so I used the blue tape to mark which areas were getting the yellow paint. 

As I've said previously, this took a bit of time -at least 18 hours of work but probably more.

And yes, I guess I've become a decanter. I was never a decanter before, and will admit that previously, I secretly sort of scoffed at those who decanted, thinking it sort of up tight. The only reason for my change is that I switched up my laundry game. I now buy my detergent from Amazon and switched to Persil -German edition, which comes in enormous boxes and has a whites and a cold version. Plus I am a overly enthusiastic oxy-clean user. So that ends up being a lot of boxes. Additionally, I decided to do away with the floating shelf I had in here above the folding table -so....now I decant. One of those canisters perfectly holds a 100 load box of detergent. 

But I digress.

So as not to overwhelm, I only painted 3 planes in the room -the wall opposite the door, the wall adjacent above the folding table, and the wall behind the sink.

This is my favorite part of the room. I used to hang my hand dry clothes on a tension rod above here and it completely obscured this sink. I don't know why I did this!!! Notice that bitchin marble shelf? My dear friend had it cut to size for me from a remnant from her lovely new kitchen. Yay! That shelf makes me rediculously happy. I installed it using some trim stock. It's screwed into the stud and also with anchor bolts because that shelf weighs a ton.

I stole the photo from the shed. It seemed a perfect fit for in here.

Now I hang my air dry and need-to-be ironed items on this copper rack I made. Very easy to make and instructions can be found here. I made that coil basket a while back. These are really fun and easy to make, I have instructions and other versions here and here.

Barely visible in this photo but a huge upgrade for me, I bought a Steele rolling hamper for under the counter. One of those 6 bushel kinds (no affiliate, I just dig it). It's divided into two and really does contain all my dirty laundry and is as sturdy as a horse. Well worth the investment, I think. I stow my ironing board on two hooks on the back of the door. 

I'm usually a less is more thinker, but here I decided more is more.

Some final detail notes. I replaced my old vintage lights with some new vintage porcelain ones -I found these at a local salvage yard for 2 dollars (for both!). The rug is a vintage Anatolian kilim from the 1970s, which I purchased on Etsy.

Storage and style. I'm not into upper cabinets, which I know a lot of people use in laundry rooms to house cleaning supplies. I store mine in a bucket in my garage (and I have a few spray bottles in the kid's bathroom cabinet). I do have a few baskets for loose socks, dry cleaning and change. There are often piles of folded laundry on the folding table, I don't mind that. I love that there is like an acre of space, it makes folding much more pleasurable.

Peace and love and happy laundry. Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them.