Welcome to the final reveal of the French Country Laundry with new insulation, washer/dryer connections, cabinets, tongue and groove walls, and white washed tongue and groove ceiling as part of the One Room Challenge™.
Is a project ever really finished or do you just get to a stopping point?
Whichever is the answer, here is the final reveal of my first One Room Challenge™. Thank you, Linda of Calling It Home, for the creative vision to challenge designers and guest participants to complete a makeover of one room within a six-week period and to share our progress in weekly updates.
Thank you, also, Better Homes and Gardens for sponsoring the Fall 2019 challenge.
F R E N C H C O U N T R Y L A U N D R Y
O R C ™ R E V E A L W E E K 6
Each winter the laundry room was so cold from the lack of adequate insulation in the ceiling and three exterior walls. Now, the room is warm and toasty. What began as upgrading the insulation turned into a full-scale overhaul of the entire room to make it warm and functional with French Country style.
Since the room had to be taken down to the studs to add insulation, why not take advantage of the exposed walls of the room and update the washer/dryer connections, upgrade the lighting/electrical connections, replace damaged cabinets and sheetrock, and add tongue and groove walls and ceiling? While we were at it, why not add French Country style to another room in the house?
Gracie, one of our cats, has that questioning look on her face, "Why not go for it?" So, we did.
after
The laundry room connects the garage to the entry hall of the main part of the house that is built in a functional post and beam style. The posts and beams in this section are purely decorative to match the style of the main house. The new tongue and groove ceiling and walls go with the style of the house much better than the old wallpapered sheetrock walls.
Take a look at how this area looked before the renovation.
before
Look again at the after photo above this photo. The old door trim has been changed to wider trim that is more in proportion with the new thick wood walls.
And the sad, cat-damaged chair upholstery has been replaced with a French Country multi-toned blue and white toile fabric.
Looking the opposite direction is the original white washed pine panel door that opens into the entry hallway. The new white washed ceiling blends with the door.
New brass and clear glass wall sconces add much-needed light on this side of the laundry. The re-installed clothes rod fits beneath the new sconces and is out of the path between the garage and the entry hall. The clothes rod is the only clue on this side of the room that this is the laundry.
Wood blinds were re-installed on the west-facing window. During the winter the bright sunlight helps warm the room, but during the summer the blinds help keep the room cooler.
A pre-existing French Country floor cabinet was painted VERY NAVY by Behr to match the new wall cabinets above the washer and dryer. We store cat food and supplies in the cabinet, and the top is a great spot to place packages when coming in from shopping.
The washer and dryer sit out of the way in an alcove across from the window. Since we added 1-inch thick (really 0.71) vertical tongue and groove boards to the walls, there was no longer room for two 30x30 inch cabinets above the washer/dryer. Two new 21x36 inch cabinets, with open shelves between them, replace the old cabinets.
Unfinished beech cabinets are painted VERY NAVY by Behr. Sunlight from the window reflects on the cabinets and makes them look different colors from this angle.
A new ceiling light sits closer to the washer/dryer than the old fluorescent ceiling light did which gives more light where needed. A clear glass globe with daylight LED bulbs allows more light than before.
Vintage and new French linens sit in a French wire basket on the dryer... for French Country style.
F R E N C H C O U N T R Y S T Y L E
White washed open shelves provide display space for some of my treasured finds with French Country style plus other vintage finds.
On the right of the top shelf is a vintage bottle found in a small countryside town's brocante (market where second-hand goods are sold) one Sunday afternoon in France. The raised design on the bottle reads, "Sarlat," one of my favorite French towns. The other jars are vintage canning jars from antique shops in Alabama, my home state.
On the second shelf is a beautiful blue glass flower frog, a Christmas present from my sister. She bought it at the Port of Vanves Paris flea market the last time we were in Paris. The hand-carved wood pedestal came from a store in Granbury, TX that houses a collection of small vendors on the town's square.
Another prized treasure from the same Paris flea market is the vintage blue seltzer bottle on the bottom shelf. The clear glass seltzer bottle is from France, but was bought at The Findery in Waco, TX. The Findery is on the same street as the Magnolia Silos, just a block away. The canning jar holding the wooden clothes pins is from an antique store in Alabama.
Reproduction antique French parterre garden plans come in navy, sepia, and sea glass blue from an Etsy shop. I painted wood frames in VERY NAVY to match the cabinets and the navy color of the prints. In fact, the prints are what determined which shade of navy I used for the cabinets.
Light weight enough to move easily, the comfy toile print chair is a great place to sit to unload the dryer and to fold clothes.
New black medallion double wall hooks keep brooms and dustpan organized and handy.
The whisk broom also acts as a cushion for the wall cabinet's door handle to prevent the handle from banging into the wall.
Bring on Winter!
The updated French Country laundry is ready for Winter's cold weather, all the while adding bright cheery walls and ceiling for the gloomy dark days to come. Navy cabinets and natural wood tones add enough contrast to keep the room from being too stark and cold looking.
Compare how the room looks as the final reveal above with how the room looked below, before the One Room Challenge™ update began.
before
French Country style replaced the floral look of the nineties, and the laundry room now blends with the natural wood style in the rest of the post and beam house.
Laundry rooms with style and personality are not reserved for only large rooms. A beautiful laundry can be created in a small space using easy-to-find materials, fresh paint, and your own personal decorating style.
For more information about my post and beam house, see Post & Beam Dream House for a list of blog articles, including an article about how a post and beam house came to exist in Texas. My house is still a novelty for this area.
The whisk broom also acts as a cushion for the wall cabinet's door handle to prevent the handle from banging into the wall.
Bring on Winter!
The updated French Country laundry is ready for Winter's cold weather, all the while adding bright cheery walls and ceiling for the gloomy dark days to come. Navy cabinets and natural wood tones add enough contrast to keep the room from being too stark and cold looking.
Compare how the room looks as the final reveal above with how the room looked below, before the One Room Challenge™ update began.
before
French Country style replaced the floral look of the nineties, and the laundry room now blends with the natural wood style in the rest of the post and beam house.
Laundry rooms with style and personality are not reserved for only large rooms. A beautiful laundry can be created in a small space using easy-to-find materials, fresh paint, and your own personal decorating style.
~~~~❦~~~~
For more information about my post and beam house, see Post & Beam Dream House for a list of blog articles, including an article about how a post and beam house came to exist in Texas. My house is still a novelty for this area.
If you missed previous posts for the past five weeks for the laundry room ORC™, you can see them and my sources for materials used in the makeover at Source List. Special thanks goes to my brother-in-law for helping make this room a reality.
You may also like to see my Pinterest board, One Room Challenge™ Botanic Bleu for materials and products I used to create the French Country Laundry of my dreams.
Check out the final reveal for everyone else in the ORC™at ONE ROOM CHALLENGE™. Leave a little congratulatory comment for finishing by the reveal date, or leave an encouraging comment for how far the room has come for those not quite finished by the reveal date.
Botanic Bleu is a blog about a French-inspired garden and home in a post and beam house on two acres in the countryside, twenty minutes outside Fort Worth, Texas. Built with help from family and friends, beginning with an old-fashioned barn raising, the house is now being transformed from American Country to French Country one day, one project, at a time. All done on a budget with easy-to-find materials.
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