Laundry Room Reveal!

I have been promising a laundry room reveal for a while now and yesterday I finally took the time to snap some photos of the finished room.  Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets look back at what we started with:  

SCARY!!! I know, it's terrible.  The dogs live in the laundry room, and I can't even describe how big a pain it was to move their huge cage EVERY time I wanted to do laundry or open the garage door.  I also used the cage to hold random junk I brought in every time I cleaned out my car (which isn't often enough). I knew something needed to be done.  

I wish I could say I'm one of those people who creates a mood board and knows in advance exactly what they want to buy and how their space will look before they've even started, but I'm not.  I start with the most basic thing: paint color.

I had been wanting to do a gray and yellow color scheme in a room of my house for a long time.  What better room to do it in than the laundry room?  A room that is anything but glamorous or fun to be in.  I already had the small gray sample paint from back when I was choosing colors for my dining room, but I knew I wanted a really bold yellow different from the golden yellow I used in my kitchen.  I chose Martha Stewart's Egg Yolk.  

I knew I didn't want to do a whole yellow room, so I settled for a few stripes and got to work: 

Next I knew I needed to decide on some storage for the items that stay in the laundry room, like the dog leashes, dryer sheets, fish supplies, etc....

So I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some cheap, plain cardboard boxes, which I beautified with a sheet of scrap book paper and mod podge:

 But it was still missing a little somethin' somethin', so I added some yellow ribbon and made a bow:

 Ahhh, much better!  I liked the ribbon idea, so I took some of the gray ribbon I had in my craft box and created a pretty band and bow for a mason jar:

The mason jar holds my dryer sheets:

I still needed more storage and this box just wasn't very pretty, so I headed to the dollar store, 

and found these:

Right around this time I knew I needed to stop being so cheap and splurge on a Silhouette Cameo.  This room was in need of some labels.  I ordered one and while waiting patiently for it to arrive, worked on making pieces to decorate the room with.  During a 50% sale at Hobby Lobby I picked up a "Laundry" sign and black scroll. I took down a cheap white framed print that my mom had since like 1980, painted it with the gray paint I used on my shelves, and framed a black and white piece of scrap book paper.  Then I topped it off with the black scroll:

(See my pretty stripe work?  I already had the white paint and used it to separate the yellow stripes)

A friend of mine found a pinterest idea involving cheap trays and chalkboard paint, so I decided to try my own.  I couldn't find any big, affordable trays, so I bought three tiny ones from the dollar store, sprayed them with chalkboard paint, and wrote some cutesy stuff on them:

 Then I embellished them with some more of my gray ribbon and hung them on the opposite wall:

I also created a paper flower arrangement, remember these:?

(You can see the tutorial for making them here)

 I was so happy with the way the space was coming together, and even more ecstatic when I came across this rug at Home Goods:

(Isn't it beautiful?)

and this doggy bed at Ross: 

It was meant to be!  The dog cage got folded up and stored in the garage.  I purchased a new doggy gate, so now when I want to put the dogs away, they have the whole room to move around in and I no longer have to move anything to do laundry.

Then my Silhouette came in and I was in label heaven.  Each of the baskets got a small label:

so did the boxes, a fish to identify the fish supply box and a dog for the box that holds their leashes and brush:

Finally the room was ready!

 So here it is:  

 The yellow boxes are labeled with "gardening," "car," and "upstairs."

The gardening box holds my gloves and trowel, the car box holds anything that needs to be taken to the car, and the upstairs box holds anything coming from the car that needs to go upstairs (much better than tossing everything on the cage).

I have one final wall next to the garage door that needs a little something.  I'm thinking a chalkboard with a hook for keys and a cute doggy saying hmmmm...

*************UPDATE************

The wall now:

See the chalkboard tutorial here.

 I will be replacing my old washer/dryer set with a new, front load set in either black or gunmetal gray once I research some models, but for now I'm very happy with the room:

 (of course a black or yellow chandelier wouldn't hurt, just something to think about :))

I guess some of you may be wondering if redoing the room broke the bank, but actually it didn't.  I'd estimate the total cost at somewhere around $100, with the most expensive things being the dog bed and rug, which I could have skipped since the dogs had an old bed and the rug isn't exactly a necessity.  Here's a break down:

3 yellow bins: $3
laundry sign: $5 (sale)
scroll: $5 (sale)
framed scrapbook sheet:  .59 
(already had the frame and paint)
mason jar: $2.99 
(already had the ribbon)
flowers: $5
(each sheet of scrapbook paper I used was .59 and I used about 4)
vase: $2.99
(already had ribbon)
2 boxes: $8.50
(.59 scrapbook paper x4, boxes 2.99 each, already had ribbon)
chalkboard platters: $7
(platters $1 each, paint $4, already had chalk and ribbon)
dog bed: $19.99
rug: $29.99
yellow paint: $13
(already had white & gray paints plus supplies)

~$103 total, the bed and rug took up half the budget!  So really I could have redone the room for about $50 without them, but they just make it, ya know?

The great thing about buying craft stuff and paint supplies every now and then, whenever they're on sale, is that you always have them for use later on.  I saved a lot of money by using paints, ribbons, paint supplies, and a frame that I already had at home.  You don't always have to go out and buy everything new.  Sometimes you can take an old piece and make it new again, like I did with my mom's dollar store print in the white frame.  That's the awesome part of thinking outside the box.

Here's a more dramatic before and after side-by-side:

Linking Up:

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