Rustic Pantry & Laundry Nook Reveal

At the beginning of September we decided to tackle a portion of the current bathroom, laundry room and wasted space room.

We have one indoor bathroom (and an outhouse!) but part of that bathroom included the washer & dryer and a good size space with a corner closet.  Wasted space if you ask me.

And the corner closet?  I hated it.  I could never figure out how to arrange stuff in there where whatever ended up in the back corner of the closet wouldn’t be swallowed up and forgotten.  It was also scary to me and I wanted it gone.

I wanted to convert the wasted space into a pantry.  A place where we could store all the stuff we’ve canned that was sitting on the floor in the dining room, on a cabinet we tore out of the old kitchen, on a spare table, and wherever else we could find room for the jars.

So, we decided to go for it and tackle that room (with the exception of the bathroom) so that we could have our dining room back.

As with any project we started it thinking it would be a fairly simple job.  Pshaw!  You would think we would know better by now.  Ha!

Anyhow, this is what we started with…

A bouncy floor that we had to cut into last winter to repair busted pipes and wrap heat tape around.

A wall that we had to cut into to also repair busted water pipes.

And, of course, the corner closet.

Bye, bye closet!

CountryBoy pulled all the old 1/2 inch plywood flooring up and replaced it with 3/4 inch plywood in the soon-to-be pantry and laundry nook areas.

Much sturdier to walk on now.

Then he spent many hours sanding some old fence boards he salvaged from the neighbors burn pile (with permission, of course) and started covering up the stained and holy drywall.

He covered up the ceiling, hung a new light fixture, put new light switches and outlets in, made and installed shelves, and we both tackled the floor which is peel and stick vinyl.

I have to say, it looks amazing!  What a transformation of a wasted space into a beautifully rustic and useful space to showcase all our homegrown goodies!

Yum!

Pretty and practical.

While we were working in there we spruced up the laundry nook.  Here’s the before…

The shelf was too high for me to reach; there was a hole to the left of the washer where we had to, you guessed it, repair busted water pipes; and there were ‘lips’ on the side walls leaving gaps between the washer & dryer and the wall.  I wanted it flush.

So, CountryBoy removed the ‘lips’, extended the wall by the washer which will be part of the future enclosed bathroom wall, added the rustic fence boards and made and installed a shelf just above the washer and dryer for me.

We found an antique washboard and a Laundry sign to finish off the Rustic Laundry Nook.

I love it!  I am, actually, one of those weirdos that enjoys doing laundry and this nook makes me want to do a load every day but we just don’t have enough laundry for that, ha!

Just about my only contribution to these spaces, besides design ideas, were helping to carry the 3/4 inch plywood, ‘stocking’ the pantry, helping with the vinyl floor and making the curtains.

I used pieces of leftover sheer curtains from when I hemmed our bedroom curtains and some burlap that I had.

I originally planned on a valance type curtain for the top of the window but CountryBoy had a better idea of a café style curtain to help with privacy and so he could still look out the window.

So, I added another scrap piece of curtain to the bottom of the burlap to make them longer and into the café style curtain.  I like the way they turned out and I like his idea!

Eventually we will close off the bathroom from these two areas but, for now, 2/3rds of this space has had an amazing transformation.  I’m a happy girl!  And, so very, very thankful to have a handy husband!

Till next time friends 🙂