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Room Plans: Laundry Room

By Dawn Sailors In Around the House, Laundry Room, Room Plans

A while ago, I told you all about our laundry room makeover, which was the first room project we tackled after buying our house. What I didn’t mention at that time was how that room and multiple others had been planned well in advance.

I have this… idiosyncrasy, where I can’t let something go once I get excited about it, until the entire thing is pulled together in my mind. It doesn’t matter if it’s a room or a website or an animation. I immediately have to visualize the whole thing completed, and then I get the overwhelming urge to get that visualization down in some tangible form before I forget any important detail.

With websites or animations, sometimes a written description or quick sketch in my trusty Moleskine will do the trick. With rooms, I can occasionally get by with a mood board or inspiration collection, but more often than not, especially when it comes to my own home, I love the thrill of a room plan.

Essentially, this consists of me taking a photo of the empty room, sometimes from multiple angles, and then digitally placing every major piece of furniture and/or decoration into it until I’m satisfied.

Once I’m to a point where I have all the essentials in, I can get started on the actual room. I’ve found that this is helpful in decorating for many reasons. First of all, it gives me a place to start and a place to test out different items in context before I spend my whole paycheck on an impulsive shopping spree. I can swap out different curtains or wall colors and see exactly what everything looks like together and in the space. The second, and sometimes biggest benefit around the S house, is that these room plans give the hub a chance to get as excited as me about the potential outcome of the big projects we tackle together. Me telling him how awesome something will look only goes so far. Him seeing it for himself is much more motivating and keeps us on the same page. (Not that differing design styles is much of an issue though, since his design style usually boils down to the good old ‘happy wife, happy life’ motto.) But motivation is a big deal when you are basically renovating an entire home. It can be so tempting sometimes to just accept things the way they are and live with it ‘for now’.

Anyway… back on track. Room plans. If you still don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, here is a great example of the laundry room makeover:

Before:

Room Plan:

After:

Obviously this is a simple example and it isn’t an exact science. Without doing a complete 3D rendering of the room, lighting and angles won’t look perfect, but it’s perfect enough for me to visualize the outcome, and that’s my goal.