Laundry Room Mockups and Floor Plan

Imagine the cardboard box is a wooden counter. Imagine I’ve installed the sink and faucet, caulked the gaps along the foundation wall, and faced the toe kick. You can see it, yes?

I shared a preliminary design when I first started planning the laundry room. Now that it’s nearly complete, I wanted to share the floor plan and mockups in their own post. I stayed fairly true to the original vision.

I go back and forth between SketchUp and Photoshop when designing. Sometimes I think I should learn to render for SketchUp with Podium too, but should I really? (Anyone with experience there, is the learning curve steep?) I did learn how to make my renderings look like line drawings, and I’m like great. That’s one cool trick for now, let’s move on.

I can touch the ceiling easily (I have to pay attention when folding big things like bedding). It’s a weird old basement, not an ideal space, but the worst of it is in the corner by the gas meter. We have a secondary fridge downstairs and to the right of it, there are lots of pipes coming out of the wall, hooking up to the meter, and then running across the ceiling. It’s not the prettiest spot, but adding a cabinet instead of the antique treasure chest left behind from the previous owners is an improvement in storage. (Kind of a downgrade in terms of creepy magical items though.)

I’ve added more cabinets to the other side of the room and a pair of sconces above. There’s also an adjustable-height stool because I like to include a seat in the laundry room when possible. Sometimes we like to have a chat while one person is down there moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, or folding clothes. Or maybe there’s five minutes left in the washing cycle and I want to sit and scroll through Instagram? I don’t know. A seat comes in handy!

I could hang this abstract landscape painting above the counter and be done. But I got it into my head that I should paint my own thing because why not. Yay? Nay? It’s a laundry room. I may be overthinking the importance of its decor, but it makes me happy when it looks nice.

I’ll tell you what I was convinced I didn’t want, which is a sign that said “laundry” or “fluff ‘n’ fold” or “drop your pants” or whatever, until I saw this 8-foot vintage sign and I wanted it real bad. There are always exceptions.

I’ll share the counter-making process, and then it will be reveal time!