laundry wallpaper border

How to Love Your Laundry Room

Have your ever thought about how many hours you spend in your laundry room if you added them up at the end of each week? If you're like me there are very few days that go by without doing at least one load of laundry. This being the case, it makes perfect sense to decorate your laundry room in a style or theme that pleases you and helps the chore of doing laundry a little more enjoyable.

What makes you happy and pleases your eyes? Is it the beach, antiques, art work, the color red? Whatever it is, just remember that you don't have to decorate your laundry room in the same style or theme as the rest of your house. The first step to decorating your laundry room is to pick a theme. Whether it be a tropical them or a vintage them, carry it out through your entire laundry room.

For example, I decorated my laundry room in a vintage theme. On my neutral colored walls, I placed a collection of vintage washboards on one wall and a faux antique piece of artwork on another wall. I also added a few authentic old irons on a shelf mixed in with vintage detergent boxes. To continue my vintage theme, I added an antique looking wallpaper border close to the ceiling with old looking irons and washboards on it. To give the room a cheerful look, I added a collection of weathered baskets and greenery on the top of the cabinetry above the washer and dryer. I placed coordinating throw rugs on the tiled floor to cushion and comfort my feet while I'm doing laundry. Finally, I added the perfect window treatment to let just the right amount of light in and make my laundry room look complete.

If you choose not to use a decorating theme in your laundry room, you can easily liven up the room with colorful paint on the walls, updated or painted cabinets, artwork, flowers, and upgraded flooring. Be sure the flooring is forgiving of spills. Vinyl flooring, laminate flooring, and ceramic tile are a good choice.

If you decide to paint the walls in your laundry room you may want to paint only one wall leaving the other walls neutral in color. Deeply hued paint colors will reflect on the clothes making it difficult to see stains. If your laundry room has fluorescent lighting, which has a blue cast, neutral colors with yellow undertones can help combat the blue.

Perhaps the best way to love your laundry room is to organize it so that you know where all of the detergents and stain removers are. The following tips can help you organize your laundry room.

* If your laundry room has counter space, keep it uncluttered so that you can use it for folding clothes. If you don't have a counter in your laundry room, purchase a small melamine table which is stain resistant and water resistant to provide you with a space to sort and fold your laundry.

* Store detergents, stain removers, sponges, and other laundry room supplies in a cabinet or on a shelf above the washing machine. You might also want to install additional shelves or premade cabinets in your laundry room for additional storage.

* Opt for an ironing board that can be mounted on the wall or an over-the-door style. The over-the-door style requires no installation and hangs over the door frame, drops down when you need to use it, and snaps back in place when you are done.

* If space is an issue, consider installing a retractable clothesline for air drying clothes. This type of clothesline is convenient, affordable and easy to install.

* Purchase a laundry hamper on wheels so that you can move it out of the way when necessary.

* Consider hanging laundry bags that will help you to presort laundry on a daily basis. This setup requires no floor space so it is ideal for a small laundry room.

Decorating your laundry room in a style that pleases you may in fact change your attitude about doing laundry. Since laundry is a daily chore for most of us, we might as well try and make the best of it with a great laundry room!