Laundry Closet: DIY Shelves

My laundry closet is one of the more… uh… interesting improvements made by the previous homeowners. It was created by cutting a large doorway into the hall wall and taking space from an already small bedroom. While having the laundry on the main floor (rather than in the basement) is very convenient, what's left of the bedroom is an awkward L-shape and only six feet (about 2 meters) wide.

The laundry closet is behind the large set of bi-fold doors on the right side of the hall.

Apologies in advance that some of the makeover pictures are a little awkward. With the narrow hall, it's impossible to get pictures of the closet from a distance.

The laundry closet was functional but not at all attractive - dreary beige walls, white laminate shelves, and a sad little fluorescent light. It needed a makeover!

I began the makeover by taking the shelves off the walls. I discovered they had been hung with toggle bolts. Ugh. Removing toggle bolts is the stuff of homeowner nightmares.
The fundamental problem is that removing a toggle bolt requires contradictory motions. To turn the screw, you have to push on it with a screwdriver… but at the same time, you have to pull on the screw because otherwise, the toggle is just merrily spinning around and around, mocking you from inside the wall.

With the perfect combination of tools, technique, perseverance, and luck, you might be able to accomplish the simultaneous pushing and pulling, remove the screw, and be rewarded with the sound of the toggle falling down inside the wall.

If you can’t get the tools, technique, perseverance and luck just right, you will not be able to remove the screw. You then have the pleasure of using more tools to decapitate the screw and hammer it and the toggle into abyss behind the wall.

After this epic struggle, you are left with a large hole in your wall.

Or in my case, several large holes. On a textured wall which makes holes difficult to patch. The makeover would need to include some way of hiding those holes.

Removing the washer and dryer revealed a patchwork of vinyl flooring, clearly remnants of the sheet vinyl that had been put in the kitchen around 1994. There was obvious water damage to the baseboards, though thankfully none to the subfloor underneath. I removed the baseboards, which had been glued and screwed into place.

After cleaning the walls, I painted them. For a change from the black, grey and purple that fill the rest of my house, I chose a dark aqua/sea blue color.

I installed new flooring. I used the same waterproof, wood-look vinyl plank as in my bathroom.

 
Then commenced my futile quest for studs in the wall. Despite an exhaustive search, I found nary a stud in the upper half of the wall. I think the builder must have hung the drywall sideways, spanning the entire width with one 8’ piece.

With no studs, I’d have to resort to toggle bolts and/or some other type of strong drywall anchors to hang shelves. Many of the previous toggle bolts had pulled halfway through the wall, leaving the shelves hanging rather precariously. I did not want a repeat of that. I decided to build something like a freestanding shelving unit which would have "legs" or side supports down to the floor.

I measured the space and the items I would be storing to determine the size of the shelving unit. The top shelf would be 28" below the ceiling, and the bottom shelf would be 12" below the top shelf. I would have preferred to place the bottom shelf lower, just at the top of the washer and dryer, but the electric outlet and water supply lines were in the way.

I sketched out a plan which would use standard sizes of 1" thick boards (which are actually 3/4" thick, because that is how much sense the American system of measurement makes). I purchased the wood and had it cut to size at my local home improvement store.

To build the shelving unit, I first secured 1” x 8” boards to each side wall. These would be the legs of the shelf and bear much of the weight.

For the top shelf, I placed a 1” x 12” board on top of the legs and secured it with screws down into the legs.

For the bottom shelf, I created supports by screwing short pieces of 1” x 3” to the legs. Then I placed a 1” x 8” on top and secured it with screws.

For additional support, I used a 1” x 4” to create middle legs. Later, I also added a metal shelf support in the middle for the top shelf.

I installed new baseboards around the shelving unit, then painted everything the same color as the walls.

The washer and dryer then returned from their brief vacation in my living room.

Up next... storage and decoration. :)

Laundry Closet: Decor

As I've mentioned before, I like cottage style decorating... but with black and dark colors in place of the white and pastels. Gothic Cottage style, if there is such a thing. Befitting that look, I wanted to add black lace trim to the new shelves in my laundry closet. I pulled some venise lace from my stash.

Thumbtacks seemed like an appropriate way to attach the lace. I had plenty of thumbtacks; alas, they were white. No problem! That's what spray paint is for. I stuck the tacks into a piece of foamboard and spray painted them...

The newly black tacks worked perfectly to attach the lace along the edge of the shelves.

To hide the plumbing and electrical, I hung a piece of black jacquard fabric on a tension rod under the bottom shelf.

On the top shelf went some new black baskets for laundry and storage.

Just a few finishing touches, and the laundry closet makeover will be complete!

Laundry Closet: Lighting

My laundry closet had a sad little lamp mounted on the side wall. It had one of those old fluorescent bulbs that produced a sickly sort of yellowish light. Blech! It had to go.

The lamp protested its forced retirement by damaging the wall on its way out. I patched the damage, but it's difficult to discreetly patch a textured wall.

Replacing the lamp with an overhead light would have been ideal, but there is no light fixture or switch in the laundry closet. There is just one electric outlet behind the washing machine. Thus I needed a plug-in lamp.

As it happened, I had a pair of wall-mount lamps that I purchased from IKEA some time ago but could never decide where to use. They would finally find a home in the laundry closet.

Taking advantage of the lamps' extra-long cords, I was able to mount them to the wall above the closet doorway so the light would shine from above, almost like an overhead light.

Each lamp has an on/off switch on the cord. I used mirror clips to hold the cords so that the switches would be easily accessible. I just have to reach up right inside the doorway to flip the switches.

I ran the cords across and down the wall, then across to a small power strip I mounted on the wall near the electric outlet.

I used a plastic cord channel to house the cords running across the wall.

Painting the cord channel to match the wall disguises it nicely. A raven plate hides the huge patch on the wall, and some fabric hides the power strip.

Laundry Closet: Damask and Labels

During my laundry closet makeover, I decided it was only fair for the hardworking occupants to get a makeover as well. I dressed up the washer and dryer by applying black and white damask shelf liner.

The laundry baskets were adorned with goth-appropriate sorting labels. XD

And the laundry closet makeover was complete!

November Theme Post: Hosiery

The November 1 theme on Sophistique Noir is Hosiery. This is an easy one for me. I love legwear, especially funky socks and leggings in stripes and prints. :)

My love of funky socks began in Catholic school, where wearing bright red socks beneath my dress code khaki pants helped me feel more like an individual and less like a clone. In my early 20's, I became enamored with striped tights and wore them nearly every day. I’m a little more conservative now, often wearing opaque black or solid color tights.

Though I love the fashion of hosiery, I'll try to keep with the spirit of GIY and make this post more about the practicalities of hosiery, such as organization and laundering. :)

I have an embarrassingly large collection of hosiery. It's shameful, really. Being a neat freak, I keep everything very organized. Three dresser drawers are dedicated to socks – one for ankle socks, one for crew (mid-calf) socks, and one for knee socks. Yes, I separate my socks by style. No, I do not color-code or alphabetize them. (Yet.)

I keep pairs paired by rolling them together. I never thought much about this – it’s what Mom always did – until a couple of college friends laughed at my sock rolling. Clearly it’s not as universal as I’d imagined.

Three drawers in this small chest house tights and leggings. The drawers are the perfect size for tights, and it turns out that the boxes from Converse Chuck Taylors are the perfect size for drawer dividers. I have one drawer for black (leggings on one side, tights on the other), one drawer for colors, and one for stripes and fishnet/open weave patterns.

If left loose in a drawer, tights will inevitably knot themselves together. (Or is it just me that they do this to?) To avoid this problem, I fold/roll my tights. (Except fishnets, which don't fold well.) Seems like overkill even for an organization nut like me, but I prefer spending a few extra seconds when putting the tights away instead of fighting to untangle the mass when I'm short on time in the morning.

Part of the reason my horde is shamefully large is that I buy new items every now and then, but rarely have to throw any away. I've had those white striped tights since 1998. :o The key to longevity is proper laundering.

Loose in a washing machine, tights tend to get wrapped around the agitator, caught on zippers, and/or tangled up with other clothes. Hosiery washed in a mesh bag enjoys a much safer laundering experience. You can get mesh wash bags in a variety of styles and sizes. I prefer small bags with a zipper closure (2 for $1 at the dollar store).  I keep them near the laundry hamper so that when I take off tights/leggings, I can immediately put them into a mesh bag and then into the hamper. That way, I don't need to later sort through the laundry and pull out all the hosiery before it goes in the washing machine.

Heat from a dryer can degrade the elasticity of hosiery. After a few rounds of tumble drying, you might find that your tights have become "looses." Hosiery will last much longer if hung to dry. Drying racks are available in several styles. I have a folding rack similar to this one:

source

Finally, no hosiery post would be complete without mention of my holy grail of tights: stripey tights that fit. Stripey tights are always too short for me. I have to cut off the top, turning them into socks/stockings, or cut through the toe seam, turning them into leggings. It will be a glorious day if I ever find stripey tights that are long enough!

EDIT: Here's a photo of tights-turned-leggings. Sometimes I cut the bottoms straight, along a stripe; sometimes I just snip off the toe seam, retaining as much length as possible. The fabric stays intact, so I don't bother finishing the cut ends. They're hidden under my socks and boots anyway.

Nook Does Not Like Change

My new washer and dryer have been delivered. The delivery guys seemed intrigued by the damask paper on the old machines. ;)

I have been catching up on laundry while pulling up the old flooring.

All this activity has traumatized my fearful little dog Nook. She is scared of the new sounds coming from the laundry closet, and she is scared of the new floor. I carried her outside to go potty, and she wouldn't come back in the house. I had to carry her inside. I set her down on a rug, and she wouldn't leave the safety of her "island."

Nook does not handle change well. New = terrifying.

And lest anyone worry... no, I didn't leave her stranded there. After I took the picture, I carried her into the bedroom, where everything is reassuringly unchanged. She is once again ensconced in her nook, where she feels safe.

Laundry Closet: Hanger Holder

With my laundry closet makeover, I needed somewhere to keep clothes hangers handy. I considered several options. Hooks could hang on the wall next to the dryer, right where I needed them.. but hooks wouldn't hold many hangers. What I really needed was something that would hang on the wall like a hook, but would stick straight out instead of curving. It needed to be fairly short; long enough to hold several hangers, but short enough to be out of the way. And of utmost importance, it needed to be not sharp on the end... because I would definitely poke my clumsy self. ;)

I wandered around the home improvement store, trying to come up with a solution, when I spotted something that would be perfect.

A door stop. :D

It was just the right length, and the rubber end cap would serve a dual function of keeping the hangers from sliding off and preventing me from stabbing myself or poking an eye out.

action shot of the typical use for a door stop

As with most of my projects, I spray painted the little guys black and added bats. :D  The bats are wooden shapes from the craft store.

I spaced them out appropriately on the wall...

and they work perfectly. :D

Workroom is Done

As mentioned in a recent post, I had just two projects remaining to finish my workroom - organizing the closet and installing baseboards. I'm happy to report those are now done!

The tools and supplies in the closet had been organized, but in a random assortment of shoeboxes and crates. To make the storage more consistent and make better use of the space, I bought eight plastic boxes and consolidated/reorganized stuff. Then I printed labels... black and white damask because even utilitarian boxes deserve pretty labels. ;)

With two sets of plastic shelves, the small closet holds a lot of stuff.

As an aside... In the photo below, you can see how ridiculously narrow this room is -- 6 1/2 feet (just under 2 meters). It began as a reasonably sized bedroom 10 feet (3 meters) wide. Then the previous homeowners took space from it to make the laundry closet. (The wall to the right is the back wall of the laundry closet.)

After putting in the new flooring, I installed baseboards and shoe molding. While they're not exactly a prominent feature, I'm proud of them because I've finally had enough experience installing trim to get them right. Just look at that nicely mitered corner! ;) 

And with that, the workroom was done! :D