One Room Challenge | Blank Slate Laundry/Office Reveal!

Six weeks of blood (blisters! cuts!), sweat, and no tears have brought us all here today. I am operating on very little sleep at this point, but it thrills me to have the blank slate laundry/office complete. Yes! I’m marking it off the list and slamming the figurative book shut. Tada! Behold the place where I shall work and be domestic simultaneously.

I believe the laundry/office combo is the wave of the future. It’s already happening in the IKEA showroom, so why not everywhere? The smell of fresh laundry and productivity go hand-in-hand, no?

Let’s take a pause and look at a a before shot or two. Way back in 2014, it looked like this. I slapped a coat of white paint on the fiberboard walls and walked away for five years.

It’s worth noting that the office side of the room looked like this:

Funny story: BHH did not have any laundry hook-ups or power at all when we moved in. Dorothy washed her clothes at the laundromat, and she hung them on a clothesline in the sleeping porch off the master bedroom. The night after Andy and I made an offer on the house, we were laying in bed, thinking about the house, and it dawned on me that I could not remember seeing a place to hook up a washer and dryer. I asked Andy if he remembered, and he did not. We both figured the facilities were in the basement and we missed them. Nope.

As complete novices with this sort of thing, we had the electrician put the the power in “somewhere that made sense,” and the plumbing followed. As a result, we ended up with a haphazard set-up, but it beat the laundromat.

Earlier this year, while Andy was away for a few hours, curiosity got the best of me, and I started tearing away the acoustic tiles in the ceiling and the fiberboard walls. I expected cracked plaster. What I found was original shiplap–the real deal.

OK, I need to get this reveal post moving. Andy forgave me, we refinished the floors, blah blah blah, and here is where we started at the beginning of week one of the One Room Challenge.

By the way, you might notice some missing details in the reveal photos, but let’s pretend everything is exactly how I meant it to be. If you don’t see anything, bless you. You are now my favorite. Also, this post contains affiliate links.

After I read Daniel’s post on Manhattan Nest about channeling his inner grandpa, the decor plan for this room fell into place. I wanted it to feel like Grandma’s house–a combination of function and a little bit of fancy created with everyday items. By the way, I’m nowhere close to being a real grandma right now.

The Laundry Side

What this entire room lacked was storage. It became the catch-all for our dirty little disorganization secrets, and there were often baskets piled high with clean laundry because the folding table, which was a finger smashing card table, was piled high with stuff that did not have anywhere else to go. For this round of the One Room Challenge, I knew I wanted to take advantage of the space and add cabinets. For the lowers, I chose unfinished Project Source base cabinets from Lowe’s.

I waffled back and forth on the color scheme for the first couple of weeks, but I finally settled on Mount Etna from Sherwin-Williams as the primary color. I cannot even believe that I wanted to paint this room white six weeks ago. Different people read this shade differently. You may ask, is it blue? green? black? The answer is yes to all.

For the uppers, I made cabinets with my own two hands. Dale, of Street Side Front Porch fame, helped me plan everything, and he taught me how to use tools that I had never used before, including SketchUp. He’s a fantastic resource and a generous friend.

And, remember the Rifle Paper Co. fabric color saga? (Should I pick navy or mint?) I chose navy, and I love it so so much. Curtains instead of solid wood doors add lightness to the room. The navy vs. mint poll was nearly 50/50, so I went with my gut. Mint felt a little too country.

We hired electricians to terminate all of the knob and tube wiring, and Dale I built a soffit to house four of these cute lights (only $27.13 each!) that operate with a newfangled light switch. Old house owners, you probably know how exciting it feels to have lights that work with a switch instead of a knob on a sconce.

Although I am excited about the entire room, my very favorite thing is these national park posters from the artist, Rob Decker. And look! They are hanging from old wooden slack hangers that I looted from Andy’s mom’s guest room closet about two years ago. (I finally used them, Maureen.)

The artist signed each poster, and I chose the parks for these reasons:

• Great Smoky Mountains – I was born there.
• Zion National Park – I lived there from ages 2-12, and I moved back solo when I was 20, AND I met Andy there, and we got married in the park.
• Sequoia National Park – This will always be home to me. We moved to BHH from Three Rivers which is right outside of SNP
• Kings Canyon – It borders Sequoia
• Yosemite – Andy chose this one, and it is close to Sequoia.
• Grand Canyon – This is the site of Andy’s infamous coin toss that eventually led to our meeting and well, everything else.

Those are the highlights. Now, let me toss a load of pictures your way, and we will go from there.

More Photos Including the Office Side

Through the years, I’ve moved my desk all over the house looking for just the right spot. I chose this weird laundry/office combo because I love looking out these windows while I work. This room gets ample morning light and sunsets views in the evening.

Now, let’s share a few moments. I don’t know exactly what that means in design-speak, but I think it’s this:

In case you are wondering where to find the laundry/office in BHH, here’s how the rooms flow together.

I realize that I’m not getting any awards here, but I want to take a few moments to thank some people who helped me during the past six weeks. First, thank you to Dale. He’s not the kind of person who needs a lot of praise, but I’m giving it to him anyway. (See you at running club, Dale!). Next, thank you to Erin C. who works for Sherwin-Williams. This is not a sponsored post, but Erin often gives me paint choice advice and support along the way.

Also, there are a few wonderful supporters on Instagram that always keep me going. Crystal found the lights for me on Amazon. Frauke cheers for me from Germany, and Swank Surroundings helped me with lights too. Kalila and I could just hang out and build things together if she would move here. Kathleen just completed her first One Room Challenge, and her sewing room turned out beautifully. Behind the scenes, she has sent such kind notes of support.

Additional thanks go to Linda from Calling it Home for hosting this challenge and Better Homes and Gardens for being an excellent media partner. Finally, before I get kicked off this fake award show, thank you to Andy for taking an extra day off of work last week to paint boring things and make me food. xoxo

To enjoy the projects from the featured design influencers and the rest of the guest participants like me, please make sure to visit the One Room Challenge blog.

If you need me, I’ll be sleeping, and there’s no way I’m getting up at 5:00 tomorrow morning. Congratulations to everyone who completed the One Room Challenge no matter how your project looks today.

(All sources listed below.)

-Stacy

Rolling Hamper | Soffit Lights | Office Side Light | Towel in the Basket| Dryer Balls | Rifle Paper Co. Fabric – Wildwood Collection | Office Chair | Bird Clock (similar)