The Laundry Room, part 1

We have a good-sized laundry room. It's one of the things I love about our house. It has a long L shape and plenty of storage space. When we bought the house, the walls on both sides of the narrow section had a row of coat hooks on them. There was one 18" wall cabinet above a freestanding laundry sink. There was one 24" base cabinet (which doesn't match the upper) sitting next to the sink, with a fake butcher block laminate top.

The original laundry room

In the back of the room, on the east wall in the deep part of the L, there was a very large cupboard, presumably built by the previous owner. While we've seen some examples of DIY efforts in the house that are less than stellar (note the wanna-be electrical outlets that are at the wrong height and covered with plates in our bedroom) one thing I have to say is he built things to last.

The cupboard, christened "The Beast" by Ken, is 86" high, 68" wide and 24" deep.  The doors to the beast are two solid wood 32" doors, attached to each other so you have to open both together. They take up a LOT of space when open. It's painted a not-so-lovely shade of yellowish green. It provides great storage and work space, especially since The Beast includes a pull out table for working on crafts, folding clothes or sewing. (Sewing is what I think the previous owner used it for. Me, let's not go there!)

The Beast

The first thing we did in the laundry room was replace the flower print vinyl with a neutral vinyl. No more daisies! Then I took down the coat hooks on the west wall. We put up wire shelving on the west wall above the washer and dryer, and where the hooks had been. It's messy, but functional.

Messy wire shelves -- but at least things aren't on the floor!

With everything else we (me especially) want to do with the house, the laundry room hasn't received a lot of attention and love. It's been a place for love-lorn boy cats who need to be separate from the girls. It's been the place where all our crap valuable possessions land if we need to hurriedly put things out of sight. It's been a place to give cats baths before shows. And of course, it's been the place to wash and dry clothes! But in the back of my mind, I've had a plan to put in cabinets all along the west wall where the shelving, sink, washer and dryer sit. I hadn't really considered doing anything with The Beast. First, it's perfectly good storage. Second, I suspected it would be a pain in the *** to move.

But a couple of weeks ago, Ken informed me that we were going to get rid of The Beast.The conversation went something like this.

"What? I like The Beast."

"It's in my way. We need storage that we can use. I'm tired of tripping over things."

"If I'd keep things picked up, it wouldn't be so bad in there. I'll clean."

"No, The Beast must go. We'll put in cabinets with shelves above."

"How about wall cabinets above?"

"No, they'll be a pain to put stuff in."

"But stuff on the shelves is just an invitation for the cats to sleep on it.... or worse."

Sigh.... after an extended discussion, I conceded that shelves would be okay. For now. I still think there could be cabinets in our future, but on the plus side is the fact that we already have the brackets, standards, and shelves. No cost (now) remodeling! Gotta love it! Of course the no cost designation doesn't apply to the entire project, as we do need to buy base cabinets and a countertop.

Having settled that, I broached the subject of cabinets for the entire west wall of the room. A girl can always dream. Unfortunately, the family budget director replied, "this winter." He did, however, ask me to design and price everything out -- both for The Beast replacement and the west wall.

Keep in mind that we are on a limited budget here and we have limited options for purchasing home improvement materials unless we want to go out of town or shop on the internet. Home Depot is our favorite place and after the Money Pit remodel last year, I'm VERY familiar with their stock cabinets, etc. I asked Ken whether he wanted white, hickory, oak, or unfinished (which I -- not he -- would need to stain or paint.) He replied, whatever you want.

I priced out three of the options (having crossed oak off the list). While The Beast replacement had only about a $200 difference between the least and most expensive, I could see that being multipled considerably by the number of components needed for the west wall. That was confirmed when I had the final numbers -- $1550 for unfinished (not including the paint or stain and my labor), 2280 for the white, and 2770 for  the hickory.

But numbers aren't the only consideration. (yeah, I know, I did mention that limited budget, didn't I?) I was batting around the idea of the hickory because I truly love hickory and had been considering it for the someday, in-my-dreams kitchen remodel. However, I think I've decided against them and so the idea of matching the laundry room to the kitchen is moot. No expensive (relatively speaking) hickory for the laundry room.

Unfinished won my mental debate. I've had a color scheme in mind for the laundry room for awhile: sky blue walls, with a lovely sandy cream trim and cabinets. I could see it in my head -- something light, airy, beachy (never mind that we're 500 or so miles from the ocean!) I don't mind painting and even with the painting supplies this choice would be the least expensive.

Then I suggested Ken and I go to Home Depot and look at shelving. I knew what the white cabinets look like -- no need to stop by there. We headed off to the corner of the store with the shelving, closet organizers, etc. And there is where the plan changed....

Home Depot carries a line of ClosetMaid utility cabinets that are just slightly shallower than standard kitchen cabinets -- 18 5/8" vs 24". While this might not sound like a plus, the west wall (remember those future plans?) is exactly 24" deep from the wall to the door moulding. This means that we'd have to notch the moulding to accomodate a counter top. Doable, but not optimal. The shallower cabinets mean a much easier and neater project. The only minus is that we have to assemble the cabinets ourselves. But this option is about the same cost as the unfinished cabinets, without the need for painting (or the cost of the paint). They are white -- which works fine with our white washer and dryer. And it will still look good with the sky blue walls. No sand in the color scheme, but the fresh airy look is still there.

We are doing The Beast replacement (Laundry Room, part 1) this weekend. To be continued...