Laundry Room Makeover: The BEFORE

Here’s to hoping our laundry room makeover goes from drab to fab in under 4 weeks. 

This post is sponsored by Blanco but all thoughts, opinions and sad before photos are my own. 

For the past year and half, it seems I commit to doing at least 2-3 big room makeovers per year in our home. I’ve participated in 3 one room challenges which kicked my butt into completing our guest room, Emmy’s room and main level bathroom. Last winter, we transformed our family room with Home Depot. I’ve always wanted to update our laundry room so when the opportunity to partner with Blanco arose, I happily accepted. The mood board I created above shows my vision for the laundry room makeover. As always, I’m completely transparent when I show the BEFORE photos. Are you ready? These are not pretty. I’m going to share the reasons why this laundry room is by far the strangest room in our home. 

Exhibit A: KOREAN FOLDING TABLE: Do you see it next to the dryer? We can’t live without one because when we entertain and have guests over, it’s an extra table for the kids to sit around and eat. If you’re Korean, you probably have one too and know it’s a necessity. 

Confession: I’m terrible at laundry. Maybe you have this false idea that I’m Martha Stewart and super woman when it comes to all things housekeeping. Sorry to bust that false image but I’m the worst at laundry. My mom would agree because she always says something about my dry and wrinkled laundry still sitting in the dryer or in our basket waiting to get folded. Thankfully, Jimmy folds all of our laundry. Hey, I’m good at starting it, just not the end part! See the photo below and you will see the clean laundry still sitting in the dryer. Ha, I told you! If  you see us wearing wrinkled clothing, you know why. #ihopemymomdoesntseethis #sorrymom

Exhibit B: SINK: We have a fairly large laundry room equipped with a laundry sink. We have maybe used the sink two times while living in our house. Do you know how it’s been used for the past 5 years? Don’t judge us. 

It’s basically a holding bin for whatever lands in there. I forgot to take a Before pic so this is actually after I cleared some things out of it. There are so many great uses for a laundry room sink and yet this is it’s sad purpose. It’s basically a basket/trash can. I wish I took a photo of it when it had a plastic bag hanging around the faucet. That’s where we collect all the lint and throw it away when it starts to fill up. 

Exhibit C: PINECONES: Do you see those cinnamon pinecones in the basket up top? How random is that? Well, my mom told me to use them to keep the air fresh and smelling nice by spraying water on them every once in a while. Yeah, I didn’t do that. #sorrymomagain

Exhibit D: SWIMWEAR: This one isn’t that random but there are so many swim suits and pool items scattered around the room and basket. I need to figure out a better way to organize and hold all of our swim wear. 

Exhibit E: WINTER GLOVES: You see all those winter gloves hanging up there? It’s been hanging up there for the past 8 months ya’ll. Do you know when we wore them? Eight months ago, we went to Snow Mountain with our friends. It’s a little snow sliding park at Stone Mountain. This is what you do when you live in GA and get no snow. You go to Snow Mountain.  

Exhibit F: YELLOW PAINT: The yellowish-green paint is the bane of my existence. Yellow can be pretty, soft and happy. Not this yellow. Instead, it’s the kind that makes you feel queasy and irritable. The room is dark as it is so the yellow doesn’t help. Actually, the whole upper level was this color when we moved in and we’re still slowly getting rid of it. 

Exhibit G: BOOB LIGHT: If you’re never heard of a boob light, go look in your home. Most likely, they’re hanging in one or some of your rooms and they resemble a boob. They are builder grade flush mounted lighting. You can’t tell because it’s lit but the one in our laundry room doesn’t even have the nipple part of the boob light. It’s basically the cheapest kind of light that builders install. 

Exhibit H: SKI WEAR: Ya’ll we live in GA. We ain’t need no ski gear. Do you know when that was used? Snow Mountain at Stone Mountain. Basically, the only time we need it is for 3 hours every year at Stone Mountain. 

Writing this post just reminded me of the time we had a flutter of snow and my children were the happiest kids on the planet. And yes, they are making snow angels. It may look sad to you but trust me, they were in heaven! 

Okay, back to my laundry room.

Exhibit I: LARGE MIRROR: This is where some of my decor go to die. As you can see, this is the graveyard where so many random things go to rest. 

Exhibit J: LETTER JACKET: Idk why but Jimmy’s old high school football letter jacket is hanging up there. You know what it’s sitting next to? His blazer from the Atlanta 1996 Olmpics!! He volunteered that summer and it’s his little memento. You know what else is up there? My ugly Christmas sweater vest. Sadly, these items are not helping my laundry situation one bit. 

Exhibit K: LINOLEUM FLOOR: The ugly beige flooring was pulling away from the edges of the room and needed to be replaced. We already tore it out and it looks so much better. 

I could go on but you get the gist. The wire shelving wasn’t helping us as it wasn’t being utilized in the most space efficient way so that’s now gone too. 

I hope you’ll stay tuned and watch the progress unfold. I’ve already painted the walls and Jimmy and I laid new flooring on Labor day. We actually love working together on these projects because we learn new things every single time we tackle a room. On Monday, we grouted tiles for the first time and next on the agenda is to build a base for our new Blanco sink. We’ll see how that goes since we’ve never built anything like that from scratch. My design route is always to tie in functionality with beauty so that’s my goal. 

Wish us luck!

Yuni

Let all that you do be done in Love. 1 Corinthians 16:14