A Brighter Place to do a Dark Job

 Alright, so it's not that dark of a job but at least now it is a bit brighter.  I painted my entry/laundry room over our break and it looks so much cleaner and fresher. Last year sometime in one of my painting fits I painted that room a muddy gray/brown color.  It just felt so dark in there and just dirty.  

This is what it originally looked like about two years ago:

A bit crowded, the dogs stayed in here as well and it just wasn't working for me.

Here is what it looked like after the painting fit with the muddy color.

Now it was just dark and small and still no room.

  So we built a little locker to put our shoes, hats, mittens, etc.

That seemed to work well but every time we opened the door we would get hooked on the chicken wire and or the kids would get scratched.

So I had enough and last Friday we went and picked up some white paint and went to town.

Here is what it looks like now.

I took off the chicken wire from the locker and we replaced it with beadboard. 

No more poking and scratching and I just love the look of it, much cleaner lines for me.

Picked up a few baskets from Meijer and TJ Maxx to give it that natural coastal feel,

and shopped around the house for some other treasures to add like my whale and some beach grass and rug.

(not sure why there is a phone plug in the laundry room, for the life of me I can't imagine why they put it there)

We also got a new washer, I was done cleaning up floods and having my clothes smell  nasty.  The salesman said that the biggest complaint of the front load washers is the smell but he couldn't tell us why the dumb thing flooded all the time, he thought perhaps we had a lemon......no kidding!

I love my new top loader and now with a bright clean room and a new machine, washing is actually tolerable. :)

There are still a few details that I would like to do like a new light and I have to paint the ceiling which probably would have been smart to do first, but I don't think that way.  I can see by the last picture that I need an outlet cover too.  

Details, details. :)

I love how how it turned out and even though there is less room with the washer and dryer having to be side by side now, it still feels bigger to me.

I heart white paint.

Laundry/Entry Room Locker

Hello there!! I am so excited to finally show you my laundry/entry/dog room dilemma solution!!

You all have been so great and so full of wonderful ideas, thank you, thank you!!!

I teased you with my pile of stuff that I found last Friday,

and Sunday hubby and I went to work on my vision!

(Although it took a bit of explaining and poorly drawn out plans to help him envision my vision!)

I started by putting together this very cheap bookshelf from Target.

I just did the frame and left out the shelves for now and threw away the icky back board that was really flimsy!

I knew the dimension were a bit off from my screen door that I wanted to use (I will show you that in a minute) so we had to build the shelf up higher buy adding this base from a 1x12.

We also had to make it a tad wider so we added 1x2's around the outside frame of the shelf. This also gave it some more stability.

Then we added another frame to the shelf, this time on the front to give it more of a clean look and also to be able to hang the screened door onto it.

Screwed in a board onto the bottom of the middle shelf in order to anchor the whole thing to the wall.

It is now ready to paint!!

I probably should have painted it before I put it up but I am so ADD that I HAD to see what it looked like up in the room!

While the paint was drying I moved on to the screened door. This door was hanging in our garage entry to this particular room but we had removed it because it was in the way of my brother-in-laws wheelchair and it was slowly falling apart.

I know I could have have re-screened it, but I liked the chicken wire better!!

I also did a poopy paint job on it a while ago but little did I know that it would be perfect all shabby and chippy and beat up!!

I lined up the chicken wire (which hurts by the way when you are trying to cut it)

and stapled it into the door.

I then hung the door and added a simple little latch to help keep the door closed.

Put these little metal baskets that I also found at Target in and labeled them with the first letter of our names.

Hung some pretty little hooks on the inside for our coats,

and wah-la!!!!!!

A great little locker to hold all of our coats and shoes and dog food!

(sorry about the picture, i was in a hurry last night)

I would still love a little farmhouse table over the dog cage for folding laundry and also some shelves above that for more junk!

I am really happy with the way it turned out. There is more room and now and it just looks cuter than a bunch of coats hung all over the place!

I hope you like it!

I am linking up to the parties in my Linky Parties tab.

Getting Closer!!!

I just wanted to thank all of you for your help with your awesome suggestions regarding my little dilemma in my entry/laundry/dog room, I can't tell you how much it meant to me!!

Click here if you missed it.

I took a little bit from everyone's advice and creativity, went hunting for some things at various stores and around the house and found these little goodies!

Add some 1x2's, a 1x12 and some chicken wire to that pile!

(Even Bosco wonders how he get his paws on that stuff!!)

Come back and see what I came up with!!!!

My Dilemma...

Thank goodness it is Friday!!! I am ready to write this week off and never to revisit it!!

Nothing really major that happened it was just a compilation of those annoying little things that finally get to you and break you down!! My daughter has been having issues sleeping at night off and on for about 4 years now. This week it hit the breaking point. We are all tired, stressed and and when that happens even a fly landing on your food can start a flood of tears.

BUT,

It is a new day and the weekend is here, so I will put my big girl panties on, suck it up and go

JUNKIN!!!!

However,

I need your help!!

remember my little teaser last week?

Here is what my entry/laundry/dog room looked like before

Not bad, I really liked my beachy thing going on here, but it didn't flow with my kitchen anymore.

So, I took the paint color (wood smoke) that I used for my hutch, added some white to it to lighten it up and painted!

I still have my beach thing going on, but here is my dilemma..

I have nowhere to hang coats. I have a few hooks, but in the winter when there are heavy jackets and wet snow pants, gloves, scarves, etc there is no place to put them and it gets a little crowded in there!

I put the dog cage up on a little table that I made (which was for a bench that didn't turn out) so I can have more floor space for shoes and boots.

My room is seriously only 5' x 8' and I need there to be enough room for my brother-in-law to get in with his wheelchair.

I was looking at Houzz and found some of these ideas that I really like.

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I would LOVE a locker system like this. This is pretty narrow and I think that we can put one where the Lake Michigan sign hangs.

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This is very similar with just a wide open section to hang coats and a narrow bench. I would put hooks on the wainscoting to hang coats.

OR

I can put the house up for sale and move into one with a beautiful room like this!

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I would love any ideas, suggestions (offers on the house) that you may have for me.

Hopefully the new house will have a bathroom like this one!

Molly Frey Design

Just kidding, I like my house, but these teenie tiny rooms are making me crazy!!!