A Beverage Bar In The LAUNDRY ROOM!?

  

A beverage bar in the laundry room sounds like a strange combination, but  stay with me, and I will explain……..

I think we will all have to agree laundry is a chore we probably don’t enjoy doing. We might enjoy the smell of clean clothing, and the soft warm touch of a fluffy towel, but overall the chore itself is mundane, and frankly never done. 

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We might think we have the laundry done, but the people we live with are out there, wearing the clean clothes that we carefully washed, dried, folded and put away! They are out there getting dirty, only to create MORE laundry to do, so you see my friends it is never truly DONE!!

 You know the kind of laundry rooms we see in magazines, or  on design shows that are spotless, and perfectly appointed, not a stitch of actual dirty laundry in sight, only prettiness to look at………..

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I must admit I am just a slight bit envious of the size of these laundry rooms. I have a little laundry room, just wide enough for a washer and dryer. I am not complaining because it is in the house, and not out in my garage. I love that feature.

Since I love pretty things to look at, and I am also somewhat of a practical lady I felt the need to make my laundry room more of a pretty space rather than the , “PIT!,” that is what I use to call it.

Last year we painted the laundry room a pretty blue, in fact it is the exact same blue as my bedroom, but appears slightly different due to the lighting. I chose blue because it is a soft soothing color and I think it is just down right pretty!

First I tidied up the shelves that held useful household items……..

I have a thing for stacked toilet paper, as you can tell from this image.

Then came the blue paint!! I decided after the room was painted that I wanted to make it look even better. At least better to myself.

Did you notice how pretty all the laundry rooms look in the above images? Did you notice that you don’t see one single bottle of fabric softener, bleach or laundry detergent?

I know that some of them are hidden behind the cupboard doors, but what about the people that don’t have cupboards in their laundry rooms? What about we gal’s that have shelves?

Martha Stewart has a solution………

Notice how she has crocks, and she has corralled her detergent ( The Laundress products) in a basket tray. We all know that Martha’s touch always seems to add prettiness to even a common working space as the laundry room.

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I started looking at more laundry rooms to get more inspiration……

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Cute idea but not very practical for me. I would never close the curtain, so what is the point?

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Getting closer, but not quite right for me either. I use liquid detergent and I don’t want to see the softener, or bleach bottles. Keep looking Kathysue!

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Love the idea of matching bottles, but I would have to be filling these up every day. This would only add to my list of things to do.

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This is getting closer to being a bit more practical, and also attractive. I have to be honest, I don’t think I want to bend over to get the softener, and  the heavy bleach bottle with each load. I have a shelf above my washer and dryer to put all of these items.

What is a girl to do?

I put on my thinking cap, and came up with my own remedy to make my functional, small space a bit more pleasant to my eye!!

This is where the beverage bar comes into play……

The large beverage dispenser holds my liquid detergent.

Two wine carafes hold the softener and the Oxy-Clean. The juice pitcher holds my bleach. Keep in mind you need to have a vented container for bleach because it has to release chlorine gasses.

It is surprising how easily the liquids pour out of each container without drips.

One important thing to mention. Laundry detergent is very thick so in order to make it come thru the spigot more easily I fill the jug up half with warm water, and then add the detergent. To allow for the diluted solution to do its job properly I just double the amount I put in the washer. Voila! problem solved.

Granted this will not work for everyone, but for those of us that need a little pretty in the practical parts of our lives I think this is a fun and attractive solutions.

I hide my cleaning supplies in two baskets that have blue and white striped fabric on them. You will also notice the white dish on the dryer, that holds my laundry dryer sheets.

We also put in a fun but functional light………

I like it's industrial look, and the metal echoes the metal on my shelving unit that holds the laundry baskets.

I still have some tweaking to do in this room. I purchased a stencil for the walls several months ago. I have not applied it yet. 

I got the idea from my friend Terri from La Dolfina blog. She literally has a closet laundry room . I think she has shown that size does not mean you can not get creative. Here is the image of her laundry room and also it shows the stencil I am using………

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Another picture of the same stencil…………

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Mine will also be in white.  I think it will be soft and fresh on the blue wall.

So now you know what I mean when I said,

 “ Beverage center in the laundry room!” I have beverages for my washer!!

I hope this gives you all some inspiration on ways to make your functional laundry space a little bit more pretty.

“Enjoy the Process!” Of:

Thinking up your own solutions for your design dilemmas!