Farmhouse Laundry Room Makeover

Look, I’m not above admitting when I’ve made a design mistake.  But this week was a doozie.  Since we first looked at our new house I knew I wanted to make some changes in the laundry room to make it more functional.  It was too dark, the doors open in weird ways, there’s nowhere to put your laundry baskets…  it needs help.  The first step (lighting!), started out to be a big design fail, but ended up to be a major win.  Today I’m sharing that fun little project, along with the rest of my plans for our Farmhouse laundry room makeover.

This is what the laundry room looked like the first time that we saw it.

I couldn’t stand the darkness in here for one more second, so on Monday I went to Lowes and picked up the cutest little Farmhouse style pendant light that you ever did see for a mere $20.

I quietly drug the ladder into the door-infested space and started putting this sucker up while Lane was putting baby girl to bed.  (She wants him to put her to bed now, not me, so instead of sobbing over the knife through my heart, I hang light fixtures.)

I had juuuuust gotten to the part where I needed the wire strippers when Lane Jones banged the door into the ladder came into the laundry room and was none too pleased to see his preggo wife perched atop a ladder with a light fixture and screwdriver in her swollen little paws.  He took it from there.

We did the traditional, “a little higher, a little lower”, until it was just right.  He clipped the wires and wrapped it up.  I grabbed a bulb and was so pumped to flip the switch and see the finished product.  3…  2….  1…..

OHMYGAH BLINDING LIGHT from eye level down and complete darkness from eye level up.  Our laundry room looked like a lunar eclipse.  And if you tapped the light to make it swing a little, it was like you were trying to get your whites whiter in an interrogation room.

Not wanting to admit defeat immediately, I looked at my sweet husband (through squinted eyelids) and proclaimed, “I LOVE IT!”  We then both quickly exited the room and didn’t say another word.

Of course my lighting design fail haunted my dreams that night, but the next day I had an epiphany.  I was not going to go through all the b.s. of taking the light down and returning it, but instead I was going to modify it.

I’ve had my eye on some cutie wire trash cans?  bins?  baskets? at Target for months now, and I always thought they would make a cute light fixture.  I couldn’t get to Targ fast enough the next day to snatch up my magical design fail fix.

When I got home that night I wrestled the ladder into the laundry room again and lo and behold if the damn thing did work like a charm.  I absolutely LOVE my custom fix and it couldn’t be more perfect for the “farmhouse” feel that I want to create in here.  I ended up spending $35 for this fixture, instead of $20, but I guess for a cute “custom” light fixture that’s still not too bad!  Plus I’d pay $15 to not admit defeat any day of the week.

WHEW, so now that the lighting crisis is averted, on to the rest of the plans for this space!  Here is the design board I created for it.

So far we know that the pendants are out.  I also know that we’ll end up building some floating shelves that are deep enough to hold the laundry baskets above the sink instead of the ones pictured here, but you get the idea.

We have already replaced the countertop, sink, faucet, and cabinet hardware and it has made a huge difference!  Can’t wait to get to work on the rest, I have high hopes for the finished product.  And at least I can rest assured that whatever we come up with will be better than the lunar eclipse we were working with before.