This blog post has been sponsored by Samsung Home Appliances

“I love doing laundry! Except for the putting it in the dryer, folding it and then putting it away”

Every mom (or dad, if you’re a laundry guy) knows that whether you like it or not, hours of your life are spent wasting away in the laundry room in front of the washer and dryer. It’s a tedious job that no one really wants to do…and when there’s five people in your home, it NEVER ends. I mean, NEVER. There’s a pile in the dirty basket, theres a clean basket ready to be folded, and there’s the folded basket waiting to be put away. Somehwere in between the never ending baskets, we live life…I thought that since I know I’ll be spending half my life in the laundry room, I might as well make it pretty to look at.

In 2013 when our home was being renovated, my husband and I weren’t dating yet. I was fortunate to find a few picture of what the laundry room (at that point it was the pantry area) looked like during the process.

When Jeff and I started dating in 2014, I couldn’t have cared less what his laundry room looked like. Not my house, not my problem! I sure as heck wasn’t doing his laundry, so the cheapy metal racks didn’t upset me at all….Until we moved in together. With two little boys, a lot of sporting equipment, snowmobile gear and countless shoes, the laundry room metal shelves started piling higher and higher and higher. A couple years ago, I had had enough. ENOUGH, I say! If I was going to be doing laundry day in and day out, I wanted a pretty laundry room. Like one you’d see in Country Living magazine, the size of my bedroom, with its luxurious wash tub, dog bath, and endless cabinet space. HA! In my dreams. But I was on a mission to fix up our tiny little laundry room and make it more organized. The clutter was making me crazy. First stop, Lowes for new washer and dryer. Having the new washer and dryer made laundry go faster, smell better, and rotate it’s way through the baskets quicker. Our Samsung dryer cut drying time in half from our other one, and looked much fancier. It even played nice fancy music when the load was dry. The nice song it sang was so much better than that obnixous BEEEEEP noise that the old ones have. So step number one, complete. We could check getting the new appliances off the checklist.

The next step was taking down those gosh darn ugly metal shelves. They were great when Jeff was here alone. They served their purpose, they stored his things, and he didn’t care one bit! He had shelves, and that was that. Never another thought about it. I could have taken them down and watched them burn in the firepit while smiling with joy! Adios ugly shelves!

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We debated for a while about what color we were going to paint the room, and since it was such a tiny room, we went with white shiplap. Instead of painting the room, we ordered shiplap tongue-in-groove planks and put them up on all four walls. That was a complete game changer. The room felt double the size.

I complain ALL of the time (just ask my husband!) about how much junk and crap are in our barns. BUT there are times where I find some awesome junk for my house! I love the décor in our house to be a combination of old and new. I love finding things from the barns and adding them back into the house…scales, jars, frames, and old, old wood. I found two pieces that were perfect for the shelves in the laundry room. Wood and white together is one of my favorite combinations and knew once the white shiplap was up that I was going to be doing wood shelves, and I was thrilled to find 100 year old rustic, weathered pieces to hang.

After adding the shelves, we put a few hooks up for the kids to hang their backpacks from, we found two baskets at Michaels and added little details that I’ve had around the house! A tip I’ve gotta throw in a budget tip for you, SHOP YOUR HOME FIRST! Look at different spots in the house, décor you already have, small pieces you can switch to a different spot and it’ll look new!

Obviously, the main item in the laundry room is the washer and dryer. I’m so thrilled with how well our Samsung dryer works, and how great it holds up to the countless loads of laundry that I wash per day. It takes a strong machine to withstand the amount of clothes that filter through, and for that I’m thankful. Couldn’t survive with that thing that’s for gosh darn sure!

All in all this took about a weekend to completely finish. The hardest part was the shiplap because our home is so old that nothing is level. But besides that, it was an easy job and totally transformed the space. Hopefully this brings you some inspiration to redo yours! It doesn’t cost a ton, and you can do it yourself, which is lways my favorite part!

Til next time friends!