I think I might’ve even said, “I wish I could go back to school just to decorate my locker!” Well, then smarty pants Brian looked at me and said, “Why don’t we do lockers for the cubbies in the laundry room instead?” DING! That’s it! That’s a brilliant idea that I didn’t come up with on my own (err…). Umm, where were these when I was an awkward teenager navigating the treacherous waters that are middle school? My locker could’ve used some of this “cool” factor back in the 90’s to go along with my C+C Music Factoryand En Vogue tapes, for sure.īack at the job site later, I reminisced about those super rad locker magnets and mini chandeliers that I saw at Target to my project manager (and boyfriend), Brian. I pushed my cart further down the aisle and became legitimately mesmerized at all the colorful locker accessories. Naturally, I needed to browse through these as I dreamt about our future children and their cute little backpacks filled to the brim with brand new folders and pencils (all color coordinated, of course). Since I was designing this laundry room at the tail end of fall, it was right around the time that “Back to School” accessories went on sale. Oh those stylish Nate Berkus desk accessories those colorful Oh Joy!and Design Love Fest end caps filled with fun little goodies that you just HAVE to have to complete your soul. Now if you’re like me, then you already know that feeling of unadulterated pure joy that can only be felt when going up and down every aisle at Target for no reason at all. When shopping for accessories for this remodel, Target was one of our first stops. I know, we got super crazy! Off to Home Depot we went to pick up the cabinets. But this time I wanted to do something a little bit different, so I thought we’d change it up and do a Shaker-style door instead. In the other laundry room that we remodeled, we purchased cabinets from Home Depot and then put in dividers to make individual cubbies and added colorful storage baskets for each of the tenants on that side of the building. That way they don’t have to carry them back and forth every time they want to throw a load of laundry in. I also knew that I wanted to add some cabinets with cubbies inside for the tenants to be able to store their laundry supplies like we did in the other laundry room. My color inspiration came from blowout salon, Drybar, since I love their color combination of gray and white with touches of yellow. I knew immediately that I wanted to incorporate a nod to the building’s 1950’s heritage and add in a bit of drama with dark walls. Part of the fun of a project like this is getting to design it – it’s a great creative outlet for me. Overall, the layout left us with a tight space with not much room to maneuver and a square room screaming for some perky paint and a new personality. We know from when we remodeled the other laundry room that both rooms were originally set up to have two cast iron sinks, but we’re not quite sure where they went or why they were removed from this one.

The original 1950’s back splash, while I love vintage charm, was way too big for that small sink and just looked odd because of it. The plastic sink wasn’t flush with the sloped floor and was made level by screwing it to a piece of wood that had paint peeling off of it (nice work, MacGyver). Then we had the unsightly water heater in the corner and an old table to set your laundry basket on that was found on the curb (thumbs up for recycling). The first issue in this room (other than it was just sad and ugly) was that it had an awkward layout with the dryers so far away from the wall that the previous manager had to run the exhaust pipes pretty much across the length of the room. The first thing we always like to do when tackling a project is to really take a look at the space and identify what the problems are (if any) and think of ways we can improve on them.

Laundry room hidden water heater