Did you know that my plan for the laundry room was heavily inspired by what we'd originally planned to be the media room? It leads to the laundry room & was originally designed to be a lot of black on black, so I wanted to lighten it up a bit in the laundry room, while still carrying the darker hues into the space. But my do things change!

Where did I start?

To — literally — ground the space in darker tones, we chose The Tile Shop's Harley Lux Porcelain Floor Tile, knowing that whether we went with the black or the graphite, it would look good.

When choosing the appliances for the laundry room — in case you missed it, the previous owners did not leave the washer & dryer so, for the first time in life, my husband & I had to buy appliances — I knew I wanted them to be black and/or black stainless steel.

Continuing our way up, the laundry room would get more lighter and brighter by way of both paint & tile — SW 7661 Reflection — paired with The Tile Shop’s Metropolitan B&W Porcelain Tile. Textured black wallpaper would resurface the existing shelves and new semi flush mount ceiling light would replace the previous boob light, rounding out the black & white luxe laundry.

But what’s a design with a pivot?

The first pivot came after tiling the floor — we went with The Tile Shop's Harley Lux Porcelain Floor Tile in Black with a black grout -- when it was time to actually get the appliances into the space. While I'd measured for the overall space, I made the cardinal mistake of not measure the doorway. We ended up having to remove the entire door frame to get the appliances into the laundry room. One thing lead to another — if you follow my IG stories, you already know what happened — and the end result was deciding to open up that wall entirely.

What widening the entryway necessary? No. We'd gotten the appliances in place already; but widening the opened would allow us to comfortably — emphasis on COMFORT — use the laundry room.

This was one of the first times it hit us that we own this house. 

We don't have to work around the existing structure if we don't want to and if we have the means to make changes.

Opening up that wall turned out to be a huge game changer for us, and not just in the laundry room, but also for the adjoining space. From then on — in the laundry room — it was all about refining the design... all of which would be us DIYing from this point on.

Curious about what DIYing our very first renovation at the hygge ranch taught us? IN my reveal over on the Emily Henderson blog I share all about the peak adulting lessons this transformation taught us. 

Doing the renovation ourselves was a calculated choice, especially for the monetary savings. Materials we used to transform the laundry room included —

• Wall Paint: Sherwin Williams Reflection SW 7661

• Floor Tile: Harley Lux Black Porcelain Tile

• Wall Tile: Metropolitan Black & White Porcelain Tile

What was great about working with partners like Sherwin Williams & The Tile Shop is that both are one stop destinations for not only the materials but all the supplies that would be needed for the job —

• Grout: Ardex FL Black Licorice Sanded (floor) & Ardex FL Polar White Sanded (wall)

• Underlayment: Dural Backer Lite

• Mortar: Ardex X5 Tile & Stone White Thinset

Additional Supplies —  

3.5 Gallon Pail | 6 Gallon Pail | 3 Pack Pro Sponge | Grout Float Applicator | V Notch 1/2" Trowel | Square Notch 1/4" Trowel | 24" Spiral Mixer | 1/8" Spacers | Canvas Drop Cloth | Extension Pole | Matte Black Edging | Multi Surface Painter's Tape | Handy Paint Tray | Handy Paint Tray Liners | Handy Paint Pail | Handy Paint Pail Liners

Working on the laundry room gave us insight into what we could expect from an older home -- like fixtures that don't always cooperate with modern day appliances -- while also helping us manage our own expectations when it came to tackling work around the house. It was a sobering experience, not just the manual labor, but especially for me as a designer.

There were decisions that we made that required some pivoting, some compromising, and/or some good ol trial & error. 

There are decisions that we made knowing that we could/would change them later — doing a hall tiled wall, painting a light color, not adding doors... these are all decisions that we needed time to live with, assess how we fully feel about them, and then reserve the right to change our minds about it later.

From start to finish, with my husband working full time outside of the home & working on the house as time permits, the entire transformation took us about a month. Things had to happen in phases, at our own pace...

• rip out everything except the plumbing

• install new lighting

• install new flooring

• paint

• hook up new appliances

note: if we didn't have actual laundry to do, this would've happened after the walls

• install wall tiles

• mount new shelving

Then to the finishing touches that make a laundry room a laundry room... except I wanted the overall design to read more like a launderette... real fancy-like!

Wall Tile | Brass Basket | Towels

The design was largely impacted by the appliances, however, the vision for the design was the catalyst for our appliance choices. It was always a dance between creating a space that was utilitarian but good looking...without sacrificing either.

Wall Tile | Brass Basket | Towels | Floor Tile | Flush Mount | Shelf Brackets | Shelf Contact Paper | Tall Floor Basket | Low Floor Basket | Wall Grid | Retractable Clothesline | Picture Frame | Detergent Dispenser | Shelf Basket | Washer | Dryer | Pedestal Washer | Pedestal Storage | Wool Dryer Balls

As with the living room, being fortunate enough to work with brand partners afforded me the flexibility to not compromise... and instead to be wholly intentional about every choice. 

My husband was able to take on the tasks of tile installation & upgrading the lighting, for example, but knew to leave the wall to our contractor to demo & repair. When we uncovered some unpleasantry with the plumbing, we were able to tackle it ourselves once we ruled out the worst possibilities... you know... that would require an actual plumber. If the renovation had any major hiccups and/or demolition, we would be having a different conversation.

We were able to make the best use of our time and resources to create our Luxe Metropolitan Launderette our way.

Wall Tile | Shelf Brackets | Shelf Contact Paper | Wall Grid | Picture Frame | Detergent Dispenser | Shelf Basket | Wool Dryer Balls

What's a behind the design with a final total?

As always, I share the numbers so that you can decide for yourself where to save & where to splurge when taking on a project of your own. With all of the items in the laundry room being retail accessible, minus the items that we already owned, it was pretty easy to tally up the overall cost...

Final Retail Total: $7,832.93

This total also doesn't include anything we purchased to fix the plumbing nor does it include the cost to widen the wall. So you can just tack on, roughly, another $1.2K putting the total cost of renovation at about $9K. Yep... even the "smallest" renovations can cost the better part of $10K! Are there places that we chose to splurge versus save, and vice versa? For sure! But there you have it folks... the cost of a Luxe Metropolitan Launderette in black & white...

See what I did there?

Wall Tile | Brass Basket | Towels | Floor Tile | Flush Mount | Shelf Brackets | Shelf Contact Paper | Tall Floor Basket | Low Floor Basket | Wall Grid | Retractable Clothesline | Picture Frame | Detergent Dispenser | Shelf Basket | Washer | Dryer | Pedestal Washer | Pedestal Storage | Wool Dryer Balls

Things we may do later?

• paint the exposed walls Sherwin Williams' Tricorn Black — now instead of contrasting the dark media room, I need to contrast the light flex lounge, lol

• continue the half tile to the side walls… or not, but only time will tell

• swap out the single black shelf to walnut... maybe even two shelves

• mount a utility wall station (broom, vacuum, steamer, etc) on the wall opposite the shelf

• add bi fold doors... or glass French doors... we'll see how we feel

Are any of these a priority? Nope! We could be done today & totally be happy with the entire space... and yes, even without the doors! Our new machines are wildly quiet & we keep in there pretty tidy, so it hasn't disturbed us being open to the flex lounge (currently underway btdubs!).

If you read my living room behind the design then yep, the laundry room & living room cost close to the same amount...and only ONE was an actual renovation!

So often my e-design clients would get hit with sticker shock because they underestimated how quickly the details can add up or they wouldn't account for labor & other expenses. While on the surface, it seems impossible for a fully furnished living room to almost cost the same as a laundry room renovation — no matter which you thought was higher or lower — it is absolutely possible!

Would you have guessed this was the cost of the reno? Would you have guessed higher? Lower? No seriously I wanna know... so comment here, then check out the poll in my stories. 

Budgeting for designing and/or renovating, especially from scratch, if more than just about the size of the room or it's function. Tons of additional considerations to sway the costs. Now that we're two reveals into #thehyggeranch, I hope this has given your a brand new perspective, beyond the before & after.