Laundry Room: One Room Challenge Week 1

If you’ve been following my Instagram stories, we just wrapped up an amazing transformation of our Master Closet (details to be shared on our blog in the next few weeks)! In the meantime, onward to the next project. I’m excited to join as a guest participant of the One Room Challenge! The challenge brings together a supportive community of talented designers to transform a room or space within 8 weeks. And guess what? It kicks off today! As newbies, we’re looking forward to connecting with inspiring individuals and in return inspire you!

If you came here from the ORC site, hello! I’m Sanju Patel. By day, I work behind a desk, typically crunching numbers. By night, you can find me in a garage. My wife and I purchased a home in Texas 2 years ago – a quick close without costly bells and whistles. As lifelong fans of DIY, we’ve decided to invest into our home as our family grows with an open invitation to see our process from start to finish.

In continuing with our Spring theme of decluttering and creating sensible storage space, we’ll be transforming our Laundry Room. We have so many projects for our suburban home (purchased on inventory), but the laundry room is TERRIBLY cluttered and a catch-all for everything. Doing laundry is impossible without knocking things over.

We’re crossing fingers that 8 weeks will be ample – after all we decided to join the challenge on a whim! The space is a rectangular 9′ x 6′ and we think complications will be rare (i.e. no electrical or plumbing), but you never know until the work starts (even then we might change design!). Of course, to help anticipate, we plan to begin an assessment this week, focus on design, and then begin the transformation.

Oh boy, what a mess!

I know what you’re thinking. Ok, ok, it’s not THAT bad. And you’re right! There’s so much potential. Maybe we’re just embarrassed (a little) to have a coffee bar for our guests next to this whopping disarray.

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We not have 1, but 3 coffee machines (your guess is our guess here). In addition, our builder threw in some plain vanilla shelves, which have served a purpose, however, the bottom portion of the MDF is starting to bow. We always suspected these would give in.

And finally, the other side features an assortment of brooms and sticks for your cleaning pleasure. We certainly have our work cut out, but we’re optimistic in transforming this space and show it some love. What do you think?

Design Plan

Plan A: keep the washer/dryer units in place. Add storage all around. For example, replacing the coffee bar with a full size Ikea Pax unit followed by pre-built cabinets right above the washer/dryer. Tie it together with wall and/or floor treatments – tiles, paint, wallpaper.

Plan B: reconfigure the room entirely. Rearrange the washer/dryer units by 90 degrees and slide it against the right wall. Add pre-built cabinets above. Then split the room by adding a wall with a sliding door. The new space would contain a nice marble counter for our coffee bar with top/bottom cabinets and a new mini refrigerator. Plan B will require a re-route of electrical, plumbing, and dryer ventilation. Though not impossible and the preferred option, our budget would be completely shot. Whomp, whomp. So, Plan A it is.

Inspiration

We’re thinking of a fresh, refreshing vibe in this space with contrasting colors and a sense of natural elements. Of course, this could all change once the samples arrive next week. Since the laundry room is part of a larger area and connecting hallway to our guest bath and pantry, we’re hoping to introduce some shared elements for flow.

The flooring is still up in the air, but we’re considering vinyl flooring. We do like our existing tiles, but may fit with our proposed design elements.

Weekly Play-by-Play

Here’s how the next few weeks will unfold – we’ll aim to follow the schedule.

• Week 1: Measure, design and prep
• Week 2: Clean up and tear down
• Week 3: Floor treatment
• Week 4: Build out storage solution (where existing coffee bar sits)
• Week 5: New cabinetry/shelving above washer/dryer
• Week 6: Wall treatment
• Week 7: Light fixture replacement
• Week 8: Bring everything back in. REVEAL WEEK!

As always, send us any questions and don’t forget to follow our Instagram stories. By the way, there are 20 SUPERB featured designers participating in the One Room Challenge with Better Homes and Gardens as a media partner. These guys and gals totally rock and will not disappoint. Check it out!

#oneroomchallenge #bhgorc