Tiny Laundry Spaces

So one of the blogs I follow was talking about how to make a laundry room nice even if it's small! (Remodelaholic.com) oh how I wish I would have taken pictures of all our funky laundry rooms over the years!

We've done them all I think from coin ops to washer and dryer side by side in the kitchen (no hiding them!), hiking down 4 flights of stairs to shared machines in the basement, an actual decent laundry room with storage space, side by side by the back door, to a laundry "room" where you couldn't open the dryer and stand in front of the washer at the same time and the kids had to sit on top of the machines for tornado warnings, back to hiking down stairs to shared machines (2 flights this time), to a nice laundry room right off the garage that I actually was able to make into a craft room as well (tight but it worked), living in a tent for a bit and now this house where the washer and dryer is in the kitchen again but semi- hidden in an alcove.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat!

So the discussion was on how there's no good ideas on Pinterest for itty bitty living spaces -- but I beg to differ, I think you can find tons of ideas and adapt them to your situation. I also highly advocate praying and asking the Lord for a vision for that space! It works every time .... sometimes you just have to live with it for a bit too while you wait for inspiration to strike or rearrange the whole space, it's worth it if it makes you happy doing a chore!  In that vein I thought I'd share mine:

So here tis:

    

        Yes that's literally the whole width, the brown strip to the right is the hallway door. So when we moved in it was dingy white, had wooden shelves,etc. I originally fronted those shelves with fabric I liked, hung up curtains and we had a file cabinet by the machines. It was never exactly what I wanted but it worked and it was accessible.  Because we are selling our home to move to the next duty station I decided to revamp it and have gotten to enjoy it for the last 6 months. Painted it a lovely Hawthorne Yellow (Benjamin Moore), hung up the white wire shelves. Gathered matching baskets I already had and glued clothespins on the front with labels (ala Pinterest!) ...

                      Because I wanted it to still be a pretty space I added a couple framed sayings I liked (also found on Pinterest) and kept my sad iron and tailors ironing board in plain view.

 The other side has the ironing board and a dog food container now, plus my clothespins holder which is also decorative and says "a tisket a tasket, clothes pins and clothes basket"

      And another inspiring saying for the times when laundry seems ridiculous -- or smelly like yesterday when son came home from Boy Scout camp!! :D  (sorry for the blur)

And there you have it, so much better, goes with the Kitchen (Kitchen walls are Macadamia color by Martha Stewart. You can see our kitchen redo HERE)! Took me less than two hours (paint has to dry) and I love it!

Don't let a small or funky space keep you from loving your home .... take it as a challenge and you just might wind up with it being one of your favorite spots!