Laundry with style

We've done some behind the scenes projects that, while making the house more comfortable, no one ever sees.  New insulation and sealed duct work in the attic was a huge project, but fluffy cellulose fiber isn't something you blog about.  I needed a new project.

Our laundry room is the first room you enter the house through the garage and it needed some decorating love.

This laundry room also had an odd nook that held our water heater.  Built in the early 80's, these little houses all had the water heaters indoors - something that builders no longer do.  Our house inspector suggested we move it to the garage.  All I could see was closet potential for the nook.  $350 later, the water heater was in the garage and I got a weird closet.

See how boring?  My daughter and I painted the entire room the color Spiced Squash and I made curtains for the closet and window.

I love how it turned out!  A few tips on painting a laundry room:

• Go bright and cheerful!  You spend a lot of time in this room, why not make it pretty?
• Move the washer and dryer to the garage, it would have been a lot easier if we'd done this.
• Replace dated switches and outlets.  They were all that ugly cream color.  Changing them all to white make a huge difference.  We liked it so much that we will be doing this slowly throughout the house.
• When hanging curtains over a small window, put the bar 6 or so inches higher than the top of the window.  It makes the window look larger.  We also took the time to put a shade screen on that window, as it faces east.