A while back I was in a car accident that significantly weakened my back. Laundry happens to be an even more unpleasant experience than usual when my back is feeling tired, so we decided to do something about that.
When we purchased the home, the washer and dryer were not part of the package deal. Luckily we purchased the home around Thanksgiving and found a great Black Friday deal on a beauty of a pair! I wanted red, but they only had the washer in red. (I wasn't feeling the candy-cane theme.) I love my boring white ones regardless, but they are front loaders. When we were looking at purchasing them, our sales agent suggested we purchase the stands they sit on so I wouldn't have to bend down as far to load and unload a million loads of laundry. I was all for it until they told us they cost $225 ... each! And that was the sale price. We were already shelling out a pretty penny for the luxury of doing our laundry in our home. I couldn't see myself handing over another $450 so I could do it standing a little straighter.
But remember, I'm married to an engineer. He solved my problem, and I'll show you how.
 |
| This is our "before" laundry closet. |
First we took everything out, even about 12 inches of dry wall. I have to say I was a little skeptical about this plan at first. You can see the hack job one of the previous owners did a little higher up when they tried to move the water hoses and decided better of it. However, behind the drywall we found some early-stage mold issues so we luckily took the time to patch everything up and waterproof it. (Water + Florida = Mold) In order to get a level line all the way around we set up a laser level. It made fast, easy work of getting it just right (we only had one shot at that).
Next, Ben created a platform and hooked it into the wall.
Pretty nifty, huh? But would it be strong enough to hold the laundry machines?
It's blurry because my sister and I are having a dance party on it. We deemed it strong enough shortly after.
The next step was to put up quarter round along the edges and then to paint. I decided the laundry room (ok closet) would be a good place to have a little fun with the paint. I decided on a bright teal. The paint is the inspiration for this blog post's title. If I had to pick out a paint color based on a name, I don't think this one would have made the cut. Magical oasis ... what every laundry room (ok closet) should be.
Next I cleaned and painted the old shelves that were originally in the closet and put them back up, but this time a little farther apart so there was an even amount of space on all sides. Then we added a new light, which I LOVE!
Finally it was time to see if our dance party was correct in assessing the strength of our newly engineered and constructed platform. (Disclaimer: I do not suggest that an actual dance party be used to test the strength of anything! I'm married to an engineer who went to college to design stuff. If you don't have a degree to do that, I'd suggest getting a professional opinion on the matter.)
Ta-dah!
Prettier photo of it created by my sister at KelseyKlausPhotography.com. I love it! I can now do laundry standing upright, under the glow of our new light or the lamp my hubby got for me, and with smiling faces in the shelves above. I can even reach the shelves now thanks to the platform. Maybe it is a magical oasis?!
No comments:
Post a Comment