From the very first day that we looked at this house, I have wondered what the designers had in mind when they built this mudroom/laundry room combo with the stacked washer and dryer hulking in the middle of the room, casting a long shadow over the cramped utility sink, and absolutely minimizing the square footage with the 'closet of doom' while somehow also leaving an excess of wasted space next to the washer/dryer tower. I have wanted to take a sledgehammer to that closet for six years now!
It's not exactly my style to have all the things on display either, so these hooks and hooks and more hooks have been the most annoying clutter magnets in the whole house.
Jason and I spent many long hours sitting on this bench and debating what or if we could do to this room to make it make more sense. A mudroom this big should be a delight! But the dryer vent hanging out of the middle of the wall, the poorly placed electrical outlets, and the random smidge of beadboard have always made me scratch my head. This room has so much potential! But even with the washer and dryer side by side, it just didn't make sense. (First. World. Problems. I know.)
We've had to replace every appliance in the house over the last three years, and the washer and dryer were the last to go. We (Jason) repaired both the washer and the dryer at least twice, but a few weeks before spring break, when the washer started acting up again, we decided that we were ready to finally replace them. We kind of jumped the gun on that and ended up without a working washer and dryer for at least three trips to the laundromat (including upon our return home from spring break) but nothing kicks a house project into high gear like the slow work days of February and a need for new appliances.
First things first, say goodbye to the Closet of Doom.
Once the door came off, there was no going back.
That felt really good.
Within the first month of living in this house, we absolutely trashed the utility sink with tie-dye and paint. It never really recovered.
And the exterior of the cabinet started peeling one day and just never stopped. Classy! It really wasn't that horrible, just a constantly nagging to-do that we almost always ignored, knowing we would have to fix it some day before we sell the house (someday! But we are not selling this house anytime soon.)
So this felt really good too.
And the demo continued with the not horrible but not exceptionally functional bench.
Look at all that square footage! And those gaps in the tile. 
Jason reluctantly accepted the fact that he did not have the time or know-how to complete every element of work in this room himself. We hired out the tile and the plumbing, and he was happy to do the electrical work himself. It's a hard reality of life that there is always more to do than time to do it, or to learn how to do it. But it is so nice to watch someone else do the hard work well and then pay them for a job well done.
There were no complaints from any of us when the old tile was busted out and hauled away and the new tile was expertly laid in a herringbone pattern.
Auntie Al was here when we selected and laid out the tile. Every notable pattern got a name, we called this one 'two snakes kissing'.
Gorgeous!
Eventually this transition piece was installed. Surprisingly, and not at all surprisingly, I didn't take any pictures of the perpetual pile of backpacks and shoes and jackets and instruments that sat in the middle of the floor for months while we worked on this room.
This right here might be my favorite picture of the renovation. Plumbing neatly tucked into the corner instead of taking over the entirety of the room, be still my heart!
We had the new washer and dryer sitting in the garage for months before they were ready to be installed, along with the old washer and dryer, the old sink and cabinets, and a HUGE pile of wood and drywall that was the closet of doom. This was easily the biggest project we've completed in this house to date, and it really got serious when we decided to buy the cabinet systems for both sides of the room from IKEA. We couldn't find anything locally that would meet our needs and dimensions, and this room went from a cute lil' update to a serious line item in our annual budget once we put in the cabinets. This is our family vacation for the year, I guess. (And I love it every single day, but still, choices are hard.)
Jason made my dreams come true with Chromebook charging stations positioned inside the lockers! And somewhere in the middle of this renovation I realized how good a lamp looks in here! 
The closer we got to the arrival of guests for Leah's graduation weekend, the harder we worked to get everything in place. In the hours leading up to the first arrival, Jason whipped out some gorgeous finishing trim work (he has definitely honed that skill over the years!) and I painted the room. I drove to the airport to pick up my parents with my hands covered in the last coat of paint.
And I took very few pictures of the process! But here are the 99% done results of months of chaos and dust and paint and decisions, all leading up to a beautifully functional and aesthetically pleasing mudroom!
And laundry room!
With a plethora of drawers for all the things-
and a sweet little lamp that makes it feel much more welcoming when you come in from the garage at night-
Laney's new bathtub is so bougie!
The new mudroom has a longer bench, two beautiful charging stations,
and the overall feeling that this is an intentional room instead of an awkward afterthought! Now I'm on the hunt for a copper watering can to put on that high shelf, a small gold clock to put on the ledge by the door, and some way to guarantee that everyone will actually put their shoes into their designated drawers!
Before-
After-
Before-
And after!
Three HUGE cheers to Jason who worked so hard making this room a reality! He took three trips down to Ikea in Kansas City to get all the right parts, listened to all of my ideas (even when I had no idea what I wanted at all), and spent more nights and weekends than he wanted to working to finish everything up just in time for the arrival our graduation guests. He is an excellent laborer, and I am an excellent general contractor, and together we make a pretty great team! (And he's already told me that we're not doing another house project until we go on an epic vacation - deal!)
