Hello everyone! It has been a long time. As seems to be the drill with me, life over the past three months has been manic to say the least. With Thanksgiving rolling around, Matt and I are nearing the end of our "commitment-every-weekend-since-September-1st" marathon. We have literally had at least one commitment every weekend since September 1st, be it Aggie football games, 3 weddings, out-of-town guests, Texans football games, etc. It has been pretty wild I tell ya! Today I am stopping by to talk about one of my favorite blogs - The Ugly Duckling House. Sarah is hysterical and the fact that she loves beer as much as I do, makes me love her even more! Sarah is completely remodeling her home (on top of a full-time job and earning her MBA...my life does not seem so busy anymore!) and today has asked her readers their thoughts on front-load versus top-load washers and dryers. Here is what her laundry room looks like now:
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She mentioned that she likes the idea of front-load washers and dryers because she is limited in storage options with the window and will be able to put a counter top above the washer and dryer. But she is concerned about the smells. Matt and I purchased our first front-load washer and dryer in 2009 when we moved back from Scotland and haven't looked back since...I L-O-V-E THEM!!!! They can wash a ton of clothes in each load and have all sorts of cool programs that you can use (like delayed wash so that you can load the laundry before bed and it will start washing the cycle in just enough time for your load to finish right when you wake up. Money!). As far as the "stinkies" that can come along with front-load washing machines, Matt and I have found that keeping the door cracked at all times when it is not in use resolves this issue. We also have the automatic dispensers, which I think help significantly because you don't overload the washer on soap. With respect to Sarah's design dilemma (i.e., the window smack dab in the middle of the wall above the washer and dryer), I took some cues from the laundry room design that I put together for our house (Here and Here), and came up with the following:
First off, I selected front-load washer and dryers without pedestals in order to maximize the space between the top of the washer and dryer and the bottom of the window. I decided to carry the color scheme from her kitchen into the laundry room and chose the dark grey washer and dryer from GE and added a dark counter top above. In order to protect the wall above the washer and dryer from water, I added bright white subway tiles up to the base of the window. Although the space is small, I chose regular-sized subway tiles, because in my view, the larger scale tiles will help the small space seem bigger. To help with storage, I added three shelves (one just under the window, one just above the window, and two small shelves on either side of the window). I chose the open shelves instead of cabinets because of the window and also to help keep things nice and airy. And again, to keep with the kitchen color scheme, I chose a soft grey for the walls and bright white for the shelves to make them pop. To hide all of Sarah's laundry room accoutrement, I brought in lots of wooden baskets (I chose brown wooden baskets to bring some warmth to the grey and white color pallet and also to add another layer of texture, but this time in an earthy wood to balance the industrial ceramic, metal and glass textures). I like the idea of using the same baskets to keep uniformity, but if Sarah wants to mix things up, she can add different color cloth liners that wrap around the top of each basket (or can just use an assortment of baskets). And to keep tabs on what is in which basket, she can add one of these handy dandy Martha Stewart label to the outside of each basket:
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These little guys are great and I use them on everything! And to give the room a nice finished look, I added some bright white crown molding. Not only does crown molding give rooms a more tailored look, they also help make the ceiling appear taller. So those are my thoughts! I hope you enjoyed my suggested makeover for Sarah's laundry room and have a wonderful day! Thanks so much for stopping by!!!
