Laundry Room Re-Do

It's kind of unlike me to post 2 days in a row (and as a result I might not have time to post again all week), but I just can't help it- I'm so stinking excited to share with you guys what I did over the weekend.

I don't know why, but I've had the decorating itch lately.  I think I read too many blogs and magazines- because then I see projects and I become obsessed with them.  My latest obsession has been surrounding laundry rooms. Check out these beautiful spaces

Top Left:  kevin & amanda
Top Right:  Kim Keller, featured on IHeartOrganizing
Bottom Left: Centsational Girl
Bottom Right: The Container Store, featured on decorating your way

So, after several months of drooling over all of these laundry rooms- I thought I might give mine an upgrade.

I've posted about it before- and showed probably the most embarassing "before" photo to date on this blog.

The "after" was definitely an improvement, but all I did was move stuff around and throw stuff away.

This closet is Prime Realestate in my home, and we're in and out of it so often that it's rarely even worth the effort to close the closet doors. I started thinking that if it has to be open all of the time, I might as well enjoy looking at it.  And with my decorating itch, I thought that tackling a small job like this would probably be a fairly cheap way to get my fix.  I promised myself I would only buy paint.  (But I cheated a little and bought 2 laundry baskets as well for $4 each).

As you can see by my inspiration I was drawn to shades of aqua/blue and I wanted to pick one that would work with the red bags I already had (since I was trying not to spend money).  Here's what I picked.

It's by Behr, and now that I see these pictures side by side I see that it looks very different in different lights! I am not sure that either picture really looks like the color that is up in our room- but the following pictures are a little better.
Sorry guys!  

     

Anyway, I was pleasantly suprised at how quick the project was.  I cleaned the closet out Friday, had the entire thing painted in under 2 hours on Saturday morning, and then did a little re-prioritizing of what was going to go back into the space before filling the closet back up Saturday afternoon. The result?

Isn't is beautiful?? I could just look at it all day! (And it's a good thing too because shortly after finishing this project, my oldest kiddo got a tummy bug, so I've had ample opportunity to admire how beautiful it is while washing every set of sheets that we own)

The only things that I bought were the laundry baskets- so now all of our towels and blankets are accessible, but not on display.  I'm also in the process of re-organizing some other spaces in the house, and I just happened to find a few clear plastic storage tubs that weren't being used. 

I decided to fill them with all of our cleaning supplies- and I was perfectly ok with leaving them clear until I found this striped tissue paper.  The great thing about cleaning out storage closets is that you find stuff you forgot you even had!  So I gave the clear plastic tubs a 2 minute makeover using clear packing tape. (Same technique as I used in the basement for toy storage).  Now the cleaning supplies are disguised, and the room is even more cohesive thanks to the multicolored stripes on the paper.  The fact that I already owned these tubs AND this tissue paper just shows me that it was meant to be!

I Just Love It! What do you think?

* A few months later I was given some amazing storage boxes as a gift- and I added them to the space. Check out the new and improved version in my 2012 Home Tour post*