Cleaning up! (The Laundry Room)

I can't believe the last blog post on the laundry room was when it got painted.  For quite a while, we had it functioning, but not looking so pretty.

I had lots of decorating plans for in here though!

Here's where we are now!

Well, that's with everything put away.  It's usually more like this... (I will admit I did remove several laundry baskets filled with dirty clothes out to the hallway for the pics!)

Having the laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms/bathrooms has been a game changer!  No more baskets of laundry waiting to be folded, or piles of folded clothes waiting to go upstairs, on the first floor. It truly saves time & effort.

I like that there's enough room for me to leave the iron board up.  I use it to sort clothes when I'm folding.  I'm also wearing more items from my closet because the decision isn't based on what doesn't need to be ironed!  It's not such a hassle to quickly press off a blouse that needs it, rather than pass right by it.

The shelves above the washer & drier were from the local home improvement store.

The old wringer was strategically placed on the washer to hide the hose connections in the back.

I still am annoyed with the plumber for placing them so high up.  Speaking of the plumber... he never did get the laundry room sink installed.  That's still sitting on the floor.

Can you tell the plumber was the one part of the project that I completely disliked?

After fighting to get him to fix the upstairs heat from November until June ('cause who needs heat all winter!?!) we're just glad to be rid of him. In addition to poor workmanship, he gave me the creeps.

Anyway, enough of that- back to the happiness of the finished laundry room!

This little guy is a clothes line...

On the wall above the ironing board, I hung up some cross stitching and sewing items.

On the wall behind the door, the blue cabinet fits nicely.   It holds all of the laundry detergent, drier sheets, etc.

I put some hooks on the wall to store extra hangers.
I still need to figure out something for the wall above the blue cabinet.

When the door is open, you don't even see that stuff.  

View from the hallway

Some detail shots:

Master Closet- FINISHED!

As I posted about the accent wall stencil, I was looking back and realized that I hadn't put up any photos of the finished master closet!

Here's the view when you enter (from the master bathroom)...  details on the print & stockings hanging there can be found here.

Looking back towards the doorway from inside the closet...

we hung a cabinet for holding perfume & cologne behind the door.

Once inside, Mike's section has been organized.  We placed a couple of baskets up top for hats & small items.

The vintage shoe shine kit (wooden box on bottom left) was a find at an annual rummage sale!






If you were to spin around the room, you'd next come to the vanity that I fixed up a few months ago.  And then my clothes.
























When you stand over in front of the mirror, and look back... you can see the other blank wall that I had to work with in here.  (To the right is the doorway into the master bathroom).

We decided to put the hooks I found at a recent yard sale here!

I also picked up the clothes hamper that mimics the accent wall pattern.

Accent Wall in Master Closet

From the master bathroom, you look into the master closet at a blank wall.  I considered filling this with hooks and hanging my scarves & chunky necklaces there, but was worried this would look messy & cluttered after a while.

This before photo is quite a bit before... the moldings & doors weren't installed yet!
But it's the best shot I had that shows the view of the closet wall from the bathroom.

I decided to do the same stencil that I did in the little hallway off the other side of the bedroom.
Instead of metallic purple on gray, I decided on silver over the purple wall.  But I used the same method, so feel free to check that post for more details.

This project was on the back burner, so to speak... so it took months to complete.  I had the stencil drawn out before Thanksgiving.

The wall is 4 feet wide, and just under 8 feet tall.

I bought 6 little bottles of the paint, but only ended up using 3 of them!  I found success using the little paint brushes- easy to control and stay in the lines.

Over the last 4 months, I squeezed this project in between work, kids' sports practices and other house projects (usually getting just 1-2 hours in at a time).  

The pattern took three coats of the silver to look really solid.
The first coat was the most tedious, but it got easier & faster with each additional coat.

The print was a yard sale find from two years ago!  I paired it with a brass hook & hanger that my mom gave me, and a vintage pair of stockings that were my grandmothers and were packed away, new in their tissue paper.

Here's the new view from the master bath...

Yard Sale Finds- April

Yard sale season has started!  On a rainy day last weekend, my mom & I went to one that was a fundraiser for a local wildlife sanctuary.  We had never been to this one before, and were worried it would be cancelled due to the rain.  But we headed over anyway, and we're SO happy we did- we found a bunch of great items!

Here are my finds...

This canister is going over on our coffee nook in the kitchen to hold packets of hot cocoa.



I loved the blue & yellow in the feathers of this chicken.

More fun decorating above the stove!

Next I found this fancy little cup that's on the left of the photo... It matches my canister set (bought years ago at a flea market in NYC).

For just 25 cents, I couldn't leave it behind!

The baskets were also just 25 cents each... I'm usually not big on baskets, but found these two that I think will come in handy.

This oval basket struck me as the perfect size for putting out
utensils at a BBQ or picnic.

This basket is hand-made.
It can hang on the doorknob or a wall hook.

For the outside, I saw these little garden markers.  

Sure, I could have made these myself... but for 10 cents, now I don't have to!  

Then there's the holiday decor... Halloween this time.  This pumpkin is made of metal and has a heavy duty hinged stand attached to the back.  It's about 20 inches tall and will be fun for decorating outside next October.

The next two finds I think I'm going to use in the master closet...

I've been on the hunt for pretty hooks, and these will fit right in.

I spent a total of $15, and had a fantastic time!

Dining Room Rug

Things are really coming together in the Dining Room... I've been looking for a rug that incorporates the brown of the walls and goes well with the dark wood floors.

Here's what we found..

The rug is 8x11, and looks fine when the table is normal size, but when we extend it out the table will go to the very ends of the rug.  We have 2-3 feet of exposed wood floors on each end, so could fit a larger rug (8x14?), but I'm not sure if that'll look funny when the table is normal sized.  Agh- I don't know... we'll see.

Anyway, I couldn't believe how well the pattern matched the new coverings I put on the chairs over the winter!  That makes me feel like it was meant to be!