Lovely Laundry

I can't believe it's been two months since we last updated the blog! This summer has been so busy for all of us. My husband and I decided to look into buying a house at the end of May and by mid-June, we were moving into our first house! As any homeowner knows, owing a house is a lot of work but super fulfilling. Mostly our house just needs paint but there are all kinds of projects I have planned.

My current project, the laundry room, is well underway. Since we walk through it to the garage, we needed some shoe storage but there is no room on the floor for a basket or on the wall for a cabinet. I decided that an over the door organizer was the way to go. Now our shoes are off the floor in the breakfast area and we have some additional storage for things like sunscreen and bug spray. Now for my crafted projects!

My first goal was to fix up the boring and not-quite-my-style key hooks. They were left on the wall by the previous owners and while very useful, the dark rack on the white walls just wasn't doing it for me. At first, I planned to paint it but then I decided decoupage was the way to go. I pulled out my favorite fabric in the world and got busy with the Mod Podge.

I love the way it looks and the colors will tie-in great with my color scheme. The alignment is super off but that's where it was before. Once the walls get painted, I'll move it over some.

How cute is it?! Yes, I'm in love with a key hook rack and I'm not ashamed of it. I wasn't sure how the oil rubbed bronze hooks were going look with the fabric, but luckily, they turned out looking pretty good.


I also decided to get off my Pinterest loving butt and actually make one of the many things I've pinned to my Things To Make board. I love the idea of clothespins in unconventional ways in a laundry room but I didn't want to outright copy Sherry at Young House Love's clothespin light. Then I found these pictures on Pinterest and knew I had my idea.

Adorable right? I was going to go the circular mirror route but I found a perfect square mirror at Target for only $6 and I couldn't resist. The only problem was the mirror had a green plastic frame and that wasn't what I had in mind. So, I grabbed my roll of white duck tape (also left by the previous owners) and covered all the green. The wrinkles and bubbles were fine because I was basically priming it for the pins.

I bought 3 packs of clothespins (and prayed they were enough) and some red paint. Now it was time to figure out placement! I played around with them for a bit before I started gluing and decided on changing the direction every other row. This gave it a kind of basket weave look that I really liked. So, I glued and glued and after I put the last pin in place, I realized that I wanted to paint them for sure. The acrylic paint was watered down with extender so that it was more of a wash and you could see the wood grain through it. It seemed like the painting took forever but in reality, the entire project only took an hour.

I'm really happy with how it turned out and can't wait to see it on the wall once they are painted.

Project costs:
Key rack - free (left by previous owners)
Fabric - free (given to me by my SIL)
Mod Podge - already had

Total: FREE!

Mirror - $6
Duck tape - free (left by previous owner)
Clothespins - $9
Paint - $1

Total: $16

Here are the rest of my plans for the room to make it more happy and less... white!

• paint walls -Sherwin Williams daffodil
• paint cabinets
• add new cabinet hardware
• paint hooks and realign 
• add bright rug
• clothespin mirror
• diy drum light fixture
• hooks for hats
• shoe storage

So that's what I've been up to! We are going to try and post mor of our projects and get the blog going again. :)

-Lauren