Laundry Room Redo and Tag Fetish

There's nothing like that fresh laundry smell is there?!  

I know some people prefer to hang their laundry outdoors, but I'm too hooked on carrying a warm pile from the dryer that I thank God those things got invented.

I really think people underestimate the potential a laundry room has.  We view it as our catch-all place for shoes, diaper bags, winter accessories, linens, and of course clothes everywhere.
I know most people are perfectly content with that!
And maybe I'm discontent.
Whatever I am, I decided I wanted mine to be pretty.  And it looks anything but pretty in this picture...

When I told Steven I was tackling this room his reaction was..."It's a Laundry Room, Mary Beth."  "Exactly, hun.  And I spend the better part of my day walking in and out of there."    

Steven agrees that a major design challenge with this room is that it is a high traffic area because it opens out to the garage.  I swear I come in and out of there 50 times while loading up the kids to go somewhere.  Someone took their shoes off and left them inside, someone just spit up all over themselves, someone forgot to put makeup on, someone wants a book to read...you know the drill.

As you come in and out, the doors open up partially and bang into our hampers and Steven hates that.  

And that, you all, was my in!

I slept on it for a few days and came up with the cheapest way I thought I could redo it.  After getting the go-ahead from Stevo, I dug in.

The next morning, I asked him for permission to buy the cheapest off-white paint I could find at Wal Mart.  

A $9.97 gallon of paint and a temper tantrum or two later, I headed for home.  

My strategy was to take half of my cheapo paint and mix it up {in my mixing bowl from the kitchen} with some leftover paint from the bathroom project.  I thought about taking a picture, but you all it looked so pitiful I was sure you would think me officially nuts.  Ever tried dipping a roller into a kitchen bowl full of paint?  Pitiful, just pitiful.  And laziness on my part.  Pure laziness.

But I did it. And here she is midway through...


And the other half of my cheapo paint would go towards painting the shelves and some little finds I made and upcycled {I'll be showing you that next week!}

Now here we get into the tag fetish.  You might as well know this about me sooner or later.
 I keep my tags on things I buy FOREVER!
It's because I'm fickle.
Now, I get made fun of a lot for this, {particularly by my dear husband} and it's ok because I do realize that it is weird of me to keep tags on storage containers for almost 2 years.  2 years people!
I cannot believe I'm telling you this.
Anyway, scroll on up to the top and notice the red fabric storage bin to the right of the "before" picture of the laundry room.  It came from TJ Maxx 2 years ago and I have 2 others just like it that don't match with a thing in my house and never have.  I don't know why I hung onto them, but I did.

So I took the kiddos back up to TJ Maxx this morning {2 years later with 2 more children} because those fabric bins were in perfect condition and - of course - still had the tags on them.  They gave me a store credit for $43 and some odd cents.  No questions asked.  And look what I spotted for $15 a piece...

Those 2 metal wash bins on top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And of course.  

They still have the tags on. ;-)

Back on Monday with some more details and my progress in this room!