Sunday, October 27, 2024

Post 2 of 2: Finally, the laundry closet, before and after.

Okay, now for the fun post. I don't know how many of you have been waiting to see the finished laundry closet, but I said I'd post the pictures, so here you go.

The before...

...and the after.
My previous posts on the project are here, here, and here. I'm going to try to avoid repeating myself, so check those out for the blow-by-blow.

This is not, as you can see, an Instagram-worthy wall o' cabinetry. I didn't have the money for that. What I do have now, though, is a functional laundry space. There is room on top of the machines for my laundry basket (when it's empty, which presently it, um, isn't). I have a shelf, two drawers, and a cubby for storing supplies; for a bit of extra storage, there's also a little plastic cart from Ikea on the right side of the machines, which Ikea was more than happy to ship to me for five bucks. The stacking kit between the washer and dryer also has the pull-out shelf I wanted.

The shelf on the wall came via Etsy from a guy in Ukraine. I ordered black, but he sent me walnut. No matter -- it looks great on the wall. And the packaging alone was worth it.
Lynne Cantwell 2024
The "countertop" is another Etsy purchase. It's a melamine-covered shelf in a custom size. I've bought shelving from this guy before, so I knew I was getting good quality.

The most troublesome improvement, apart from getting the machines delivered, was that cute little pendant light. I bought it from Amazon for $50, thinking I could turn it into a plug-in swag lamp, but it came with a copper grounding wire that made it unsuitable. So I called my very expensive electrician to put it up for me -- and that's when we discovered that the back wall of that closet is concrete-filled concrete block. Which explains why the old wire shelves were falling down: the wall anchors were just sitting in the layer of drywall over the concrete. It also explains why the new shelf is on the side wall, which is a regular stud wall. I wasn't about to try to install that thing in drywall-over-concrete. Anyway, several thousand dollars later, the light is up, the walls are all patched, and I can finally see what I'm doing in there.

That style of light is called a Moravian star. It shows up a lot in Mexican interiors, and since I'm going for a Southwestern boho vibe, it works on that level. But also Moravia is a province of Czechia, and since I'm half Czech, it works that way, too. The things I do to amuse myself...

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A couple of people have asked about the countertop in the bottom left corner of the "before" photo. That's the edge of the 72-inch, two-sink vanity. I am eventually going to replace it with a shorter vanity with just one sink installed. That will allow me to get into the laundry closet without having to move Tigs's litter box. But first I need to get over the electrician's bill from the laundry closet.

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2 comments:

Ey Wade said...

It's very pretty. The yell brightens the room so much it doesn't look like it's the same place.

Lynne Cantwell said...

Thanks! That paint color and the improved lighting make such a big difference.