powell brower at home: laundry room

Showing posts with label laundry room. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Nancy's Apartment Therapy room entry

My laundry room has been entered in Apartment Therapy's Room for Color 2014 contest.

You've probably seen this laundry room of mine before. It was revealed as part of the "One Room Challenge"hosted by Calling it Home in March 2013.

Apparently if you "Favorite" this room from September 8- October 3rd, my entry will move into the finals and then October 7-8 people vote for the winner.

I really get queazy asking for people to vote for one of our room designs. If you'd like to pop over to the contest and take a look, feel free to weigh in! You can go to the link here and click on 'Favorite" if you so desire.

Lots of fun entrees and thank you to Sherwin Williams and Apartment Therapy for the chance to get our designs 'out there'. It's fun to see my room among all the others.

Thanks in advance for your vote!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Faux Roman

When my son was in Rome for the first time many years ago and again this yearthere were these all about town... a FAUX ROMAN!

Here is my version for my latest laundry room One Room Challenge:

Knowing it was not an operable shade but just a valance I used one yard of "Cub Fossil" fabric

and purchased drapery lining for the reverse side.

I sewed them together in one large rectangle and ironed the seams before reversing it to the front and finishing all edges.

I couldn't find a trim I liked that went with my area rug so we remembered Bethany had some leftover fabric "Fratelli Tea Rose" from her master bedroom One Room Challenge and the color is brilliant and the perfect coral color.

So I cut 3" strips and ironed over the edges and because the fabric was so thick I used 'stitch witchery' inside the ironed seams to hold them in place until I could sew them on.
I wanted the corners to look special and tried several arrangements .

Then I decided on a picture frame corner and I 'tacked' it by hand so it would 'stay' before sewing it down on the machine.

I have professionally made roman shades all over my home, made by our local workshop. Simple, I thought, just copy what they did. It can't be 'brain surgery'.

I bought the plastic rings, the correct string, and proceeded to spend an hour or so measuring and remeasuring the placement of the rings so they were straight and I did 5 rows in the back to keep it from sagging. MUCH HARDER THAN IT SEEMS! I sewed on all the rings and secured the strings and TA DA!

It was AWFUL, crooked, didn't hang right. (wasn't picture worthy!) I even fastened it on to the header board and tied them up to the valance height I wanted and STILL AWFUL. It was midnight by this time, and I hated it. So I took off all the strings and the plastic rings, back to a plain rectangle of fabric, and square one (or two).

The next day I folded the front folds to LOOK like I wanted it, pinned it, turned it over and hand stitched it in place. The key is to tack it up across the fold in alot of rows to prevent sagging. This was 53" wide and I had 5 vertical rows.

So I staple gunned it onto a 1" x 3" board, wrapped the fabric around it and screwed into the ceiling.

It's not going anywhere and I am certainly not going to do this for clients- that's why we use a workroom, but dang, our whole mantra is to try things ourselves so we know how they are made. I have been letting these romans get the best of me! I should buy a pattern next time- what a novel idea.

Have you had any luck with roman shades? I know there are alot of DIY's out there, I have seen many of them, and tried to follow a few. I must have a ROMAN brain block.

Nancy

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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

One Room Challenge Week 5

Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4

Greetings challengers and friends! This week we have been waiting for fabrics to arrive, installing a light fixture and working on a wall treatment that will be revealed next week. Today's progress shows my fabulous new Morovian Star pendant; a light I have oggled for years and finally found a place for it! Do you know about Dovecote Decor? They have a great store in Winston Salem, NC and their prices are so affordable. There are many of these star styles available, but mine is antique bronze and clear glass. I do love the mirrored glass, but opted for this beauty, and I am so happy with it.

Here is how you get into it to change a bulb, so cool, right? I hope you're making the switch to Eco friendly bulbs like this one. It will only cost about $1.10 per year in electricity.

Here it is at dusk:

And did I mention I never install a fixture anymore without one of these? Ceiling medallions just add a little layer (for as little as $9.00)...

As I've mentioned, this is the room people come into from the driveway, not my front door, so I wanted to make this laundry room more special. The fabric that I've chosen is Lacefield's Cub Fossil. It is $40 a yard and is a heavy cotton that could be used well for upholstery, but I did find it here . There are so many other colorful choices I was wanting, but this one melds the best with the Turkish Runner I am using, which makes the whole room:

In searching for the perfect color trim, we tried Bethany's Fratelli Tea Rose fabric from her ORC draperies and it is a perfect match to the rug, and just the pop this room needs. Luckily she has some leftover fabric, so I am making trim pieces from that.

Check out my girls today!

Chattafabulous

Hodge Podge

Kim Macumber Interiors

the Peak of Tres Chic

the Pink Pagoda

Powell Brower Home

Simple Details

Best of luck on your projects challengers! It is so fun to see what you're up to, and wishing you the best in your final push to the reveal March 20th!

xo
Nancy

Looking for help with your home? We have consulting services starting at $50. Contact us today for information.

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Week 4 One Room Challenge update

Week 4 Progress

Check out Week 1, Week 2, Week 3

The base cabinet is complete! We installed the face frame and doors, and had to adjust the hamper and put 'stops' on it so it wouldn't fall forward-- but it's done and I'm so happy with it. I have to wait for a nice day to polyurethane the inside of the hamper so the exterior door can be opened for ventilation. We should have done this prior to installation...

This is the Lews Dolin hardware we installed. They are really great quality!

Next I painted the closet in the laundry room, so it will be ready for organization! Plus, Gibbs sleeps in there, so it is his 'apartment' we call it.

I started collecting vases and glassware around the house to store in my cabinet. I'm so glad it finally has one place where it is all located.

The new sink is such a hit. I bathed a bull dog and a shih-tzu in there this week!

Next on my list is window treatments, wall treatment, closet organization...

Let's see what these superwomen are up to:

Hodge Podge

Kim Macumber Interiors

the Peak of Tres Chic

the Pink Pagoda

Simple Details

Good luck ladies! I hope your projects are going smoothly!

Thanks for stopping by to see our progress.

Nancy

see us on Savvy Southern Style!

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

ORC Update Week 3

See Week 1, Week 2 here.

The major addition this week was the hanging of the upper cabinets! So exciting. I debated about painting the uppers white, but the quality of these handmade cabinets is really nice, so I wanted to honor the integrity of the material and try staining it first. (I can always paint it later, but it's hard to paint it then go back to raw wood and stain.) These cabinets weigh a ton, since they are solid 3/4" furniture grade white birch.

I stained them with Varathane's Golden Pecan. I love how they repeat the color in the wooden counter top. Everything in the room is gray and white, it's kind of nice to add warmth.

This double wide cabinet took three men to hang it--it was so heavy. Next dilemma is how to hide the ugly hoses and knobs behind the washer, but we're getting creative so wait and see!

I had the sink and a new faucet installed, after returning the white faucet...just didn't look right.

Did you check out our post on being my worst client yesterday? I finally decided on a fabric and ordered it! It was none of the choices I posted about...naturally. Hope I like it when it comes.

Next job is to finish the base cabinet next, i.e. hang doors, install and secure the hamper, polyurethane the inside of the hamper to seal it, mount hardware... see you next Wednesday or hopefully sooner!

Check out my girls and their progress:

Hodge Podge

Kim Macumber Interiors

the Peak of Tres Chic

the Pink Pagoda

Simple Details

Good luck ladies! I hope things are moving along swimmingly!

Nancy

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Are you your worst client?

I am.

I'm trying to make decisions for my small laundry room project for the ORC and honestly, because I see so much decorating on a daily basis, I love too many things and can't narrow it down for myself. My current dilemma is the window treatment. This is what I have to work with:

You'd think the sky's the limit, but I'm being sooooo picky. Here's my mindset:

I want a decorative pattern, something that stands out, designer-y
I don't need full privacy, but would like a valance or something to come down 1/2 way from the top window
I could do a faux roman shade
I''m not sure if treatment should hang from the ceiling
I do love the white molding of the window to show
Alot of color or neutral? ( I'm thinking no on neutral...TODAY)
Layered treatment with woven shade under a topper?

Here are some choices I've considered:

Have you seen this hand stitched detail on this fabric! WOW.

Bethany's opinion of her Mom as the client:

Whew, good thing I love her.... :) She loves everything but will only fire on neutrals, Scandinavian or traditional things. She can get me to fire on something that I'm hemming and hawing over, but as good as she is at execution, she can't seem to do it herself. At least on her laundry room. We've looked at fabrics until we're blue in the face but still she second guesses it. Bottom line, if she was a real life client, she'd better be paying me some good money because she would be a tough one. That brings me to another point. If we had all the money in the world, she would have the most beautiful things. But since we always have a budget in mind for all of our personal projects, we have to get creative. But most things she likes are pretty timeless and she's always been way ahead of the curve.

Nancy's opinion of Bethany as the client:

I absolutely love Bethany's aesthetic. It is fresh and a little different than me. She is ~~young~~ fickle though, and buys (and returns) a lot online. I feel there is no compensating for touching, feeling and seeing the actual scale of the print. Of course that takes time and legwork and if you have to wait for samples to be mailed, that's time lost. Shopping in real time, that's when we have the MOST fun; sourcing and doing our 'market research' out in the real world, not virtual world.

Personal projects are probably the most fulfilling because we can stretch our imaginations and convince each other to do things we otherwise couldn't impress upon a normal client. But even so, I still find myself stuck on this fabric dilemma.

What is your dilemma room in your house?

-Nancy

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Week 2 One Room Challenge Update

This week was the fun one, where an application of color made this room come alive! I absolutely love the way this Benjamin Moore's Gunmetal( 1602) color looks with the white trim. I had to paint before the cabinets go up, so it took 2 coats for best coverage.

Next I painted the base cabinet white. Since it was raw wood, I used an oil primer first, then semi gloss white for the exterior.

( yes, that is green astro turf in my husband's man cave. He was a high school football coach for 40 years.)

This is the hamper piece that will go in the base cabinet, which I am ecstatic about!

Then we had a test run of the base cabinet install to see how the sink is going to look! I absolutely love this self rimming acrylic sink ( 25" x 22" x 13" deep).

It has a washboard side to it and my Shih Tzu fits in it. My golden retriever is going to have to go in the bathtub!

SNAG...the washing machine has been leaking on the floor, so we had a repairman in to fix it and found out we bought it in 1996. No thank you on a $300.00 repair! So we had to purchase a new machine. I bought a Speed Queen for $700.00. I took the advice of my repairman who said all those fancy front loaders and computer panels have lots of expensive repair problems, and I do alot of heavy washing (i.e. horse blankets) so I'm happy to go with a heavy duty tried and true commercial brand.)

The center white faucet I ordered online was too clunky and massive, so I returned it in favor of a chrome single faucet. I had the plumber in to connect the sink and faucet and it is fully operational! My husband needs to finish the base cabinet ( install face frame, mount the doors, secure the hamper on the back wall with a chain so it doesn't fall forward too far).

Next is to install the upper cabinets and figure out the window treatment, install a new light fixture and do a custom treatment on the walls...oh, and the fun part: hardware, accessories and staging.I need to paint and organize the closet in there as well. Can't wait!

Good luck to all my challengers who are:

Hodge Podge

Kim Macumber Interiors

Little Black Door

Matters of Style