Create a Cheery Decorated Laundry Room

A little paint and some creativity can go a long way to creating a welcoming and cheerful home. I am preparing to move into the home my grandparents lived in for 60 years. Let's just say, the decor throughout the house needed a little updating. I decided to start at the beginning...or more accurately the back porch and laundry room where family and friends have come and gone to visit for years. I chose to turn it into a cheery room that reflects my love of the outdoors.

The back porch was added on after the original house so the kitchen windows over the sink overlook the washer and dryer and offer a view of the back door. Walk through the back door from outside and you can look into the kitchen, look to the right and there are windows giving a view of the driveway. Look to the left and you will see the steps leading into the basement, a storage closet and the door leading into the kitchen.

I felt it was fitting to start painting and decorating at the main entryway into the house then work my way inward. The back porch had been repainted at some time over the past several years and was a tired beige color. I chose to brighten it up and add some creative touches.

With four walls and a low ceiling to work with, I decided that I would turn the back porch into a scene from the outdoors. I painted three walls and the ceiling a cheery sky blue color then painted the fourth wall a darker blue. Along the bottom of the three day walls I painted a strip of green to resemble grass.

I called these my night and day walls. I decided to decorate the day walls and ceiling with a mixture of flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, ladybugs and bees. My original plan was to hand paint, stencil and stamp these elements but I found an easier way. I happened to run across repositionable wall stickers in two local stores. One set included tall, colorful Gerbera daisies, while two other sets featured butterflies, bees, ladybugs and dragonflies. An additional set was glow-in-the-dark stars, moons and celestial objects that were perfect for my night wall.

To complete the scene, I painted a sun around the light fixture, added a dragonfly pull chain and a butterfly rug.

The results? Beautiful! Everyone who has come to visit has oohed and ahhed over my back porch and I personally love the room. I might love it so much that I'll even look forward to doing laundry!

Check out a blog post featuring some before photos and a video tour of my night and day back porch HERE.