One Room Challenge - The Laundry Room

Follow this One Room Challenge from the launch On October 2, 2013 to the reveal on November 6, 2013 by clicking on each post link, updated weekly -

One Room Challenge - Week One - The Laundry Room 
One Room Challenge - Week Two - My Laundry Room Inspiration
One Room Challenge - Week Three - Laundry Room Progress
One Room Challenge - Week Four - The Fun Has Begun!
One Room Challenge - Week Five - A Personal Reveal
Laundry Room Pineapples and DIY
My Laundry Room Reveal - A Sneak Peek
*****One Room Challenge Finale*****
One Room Challenge Revealed
One Room Challenge - Creating a Mudroom

My One Room Challenge laundry room has been featured on -
The Pink Pagoda
The Glam Pad
AnthologyHouse
The Decorista
The Pink Pagoda
Mimosa Lane
Aesthetic Oiseau

Welcome to the launch of the newest edition of the One Room Challenge. For those of you new to this blogosphere sensation, Linda of Calling It Home is the creator of the One Room Challenge, or the ORC. In this semiannual event, Linda invites 20 interior designers, interior design bloggers, and DIY bloggers to redo a room in 6 weeks with weekly post updates each Wednesday. This is my third One Room Challenge and I am so happy to have been asked again. I have chosen my laundry room, a truly ghastly room that even my dog avoids.

A few months ago there was a Pinterest contest called "Laundry by Design" to win a laundry room design by Hillary Thomas. I didn't want to enter and win the contest, but it did motivate me to create a Pinterest board here to start my creative juices flowing on the one awful room in my house, the laundry room. I created these inspiration boards built around an iconic wallpaper I have always wanted to use in my laundry room called "Ironing Bored" by Brunschwig & Fils. It has always been the "it" paper in laundry rooms in Palm Beach estates. It was actually discontinued and then brought back thankfully.

The good news about my laundry room is that it is HUGE - over 250 square feet. The bad news is that it was the garage before the previous owners added a large new brick garage and brick garden shed to the house. The old garage was then converted to a laundry room and "finished" most likely by the homeowners themselves, and it is VERY bare bones with an ancient washer and dryer - over 30 years old, horrible cabinets, and very rough walls and ceiling. I have just ignored the room since we moved in, hoping it might be magically transformed while I slept. Over the years it has become the dumping ground for all unwanted things in my house.

These four inspiration boards are my fantasy laundry rooms, all using the same Brunschwig & Fils wallpaper and lots of Chinoiserie. None are exactly my current plan for my One Room Challenge laundry room makeover, but each has elements in it you will be seeing in my room as it unfolds.




I had two New Year's resolutions for 2013 - to redo the powder room off the laundry room and to redo the laundry room.

I did the powder room for the last One Room Challenge - you can see the reveal here. To see both my previous One Room Challenge rooms - my kitchen and my powder room from start to finish, you can click on the links in my sidebar.

Powder Room Reveal

So by doing the laundry room for this ORC, I will have actually accomplished both of my resolutions for 2013!!!!! I can't believe it.

Given the large size of the laundry room, I would love it to be a multi-use hub for me to do laundry, ironing, sewing, flower arranging, gift wrapping, crafts, washing the dog, even playing on my iPad or catching up on paperwork. It will also be a mud room as this is the way the family enters the house from the garage.

These two Chinoiserie laundry rooms are an inspiration to me -


I saw this laundry room above by Draza Stamenich at the Washington DC Design House in the spring of 2009 and have never forgottten how impressed I was. Who would have thought of using Gracie Chinoiserie wallpaper, a Niermann Weeks lantern, and garden antiques in an itsy bitsy laundry nook? It was the smallest room in the house, and the only room I remember.

The "laundry lounge" below from this past Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Decorators' Show House 2013 is by Loren Audrey Taylor. Like the laundry room above, it has luxe details VERY rarely seen in a laundry room.  She brought in blue and white Chinese porcelain as well as high end furniture, lighting, and fabrics.


Both these rooms are from show houses. I would like to create a stunning REAL laundry room in a REAL house - mine. Here is my laundry room now - this is after a month of cleaning out many years of junk. I couldn't bear to show you that!




I have made the command decision that I am keeping the cabinets and the flooring. While neither would have been my first choice, I know I can make them both work and save thousands of dollars by not gutting the room and starting over. I think that this very dramatic wallpaper will distract the eye from the fact that the room has nothing going for it architecturally. This will be a challenge though, right?

Since the wallpaper I plan to use is very bold with a huge repeat and my floor is a very bold black and white tile, I have made these decisions so far -

*An entirely blue and white color scheme. There will be enough going on in the room with the dramatic wallpaper and flooring. I also love blue and white rooms and blue and white seems like such a natural for a laundry room. So clean and fresh and bright.

*Lots of blue and white Chinese porcelain, mostly from my own collection.

*Keep the existing cabinets that are wonderful for storage and hope that lots of good paint makes them more presentable.

My goals are -

1. Paint the cabinets, ceiling, and trim Benjamin Moore Aura Decorators White. This is my go-to white. I love this white for ceilings and trim. Not yellowy, not cold or blue, it is warm and and modern and works in any light with any color.



2. New lighting to replace the existing florescent tubes. As much as I would have liked to use lantern style lighting, the dropped ceiling over the washer and dryer requires flush mounts. I found these at Lowe's and love the price and the modern clean look.



3. Wallpaper with Brunschwig & Fils "Ironing Bored."


Still in the planning stage -

4. New washer, dryer, and clothes hamper
5. Mud room area
6. Table and seating
7. Window treatment
8. Chinoiserie touches of course!!!!!!

On tap for this week will be my painter coming over to paint the cabinets, ceiling, and trim, and my electrician coming over to install new lighting. I certainly hope you will follow along on this adventure. The laundry room is one of the hottest rooms right now in interior design. Heretofore people never spent money on their laundry rooms and now it is a well planned multi-use hub of the house in many homes. Perhaps this will inspire you to redo your own laundry room.

Many of my sponsors and supporters of Chinoiserie Chic have graciously agreed to provide beautiful items to help me turn this laundry room into a very special room and I would like to thank them for their support. To me, it is the finishing details that make all the difference in interior design. I frankly don't care if a room has "good bones." I care if it is filled with beautiful things. Mine will be, I promise. Thanks for supporting these wonderful businesses that support Chinoiserie Chic.


Now please go see who else is participating in this One Room Challenge. I am dying to see if mine is the only laundry room.