Another room (pretty much) done!

I think any room nearing completion deserves a big "Hoorah!" This week, we had a little coming-out party for our...laundry room!

You may recall that back in July (immediately after we moved in--and right before we bought our washer and dryer), I cracked open a can of Oops Paint from Home Depot and painted some fun stripes on the walls of our little laundry room. That was just the beginning!

Our laundry area in NC had some cabinetry, but our new space was a clean slate...and that meant no cabinets or shelves. Luckily, I had these cute shelves that I grew up (cue the fond memories)!

I bought a can of Sunshine Yellow spray paint at Home Depot, so I could breathe a little life into the shelves.

Here they are (fully stocked)...hanging out with our new appliances.  :-)

The room started to feel a little beachy, so I shopped around our house for some fun art and a few other things that reminded me of water (seemed appropriate for a washroom!) and the ocean. These included the house numbers from our first two homes (#11 in NC with tiles we got on the island of Ponza in Italy and #3 in MD that I bought in Paris while visiting my sister when she was studying abroad); a framed print that my mother-in-law gave me from her trip to Greece--has that perfect cobalt blue in the picture and frame; a postcard I found in Hawaii in 2007; a favorite painting from Ponza; and, finally, three water knobs that I snatched up at Home Depot. I sprayed the red ones with two coats of the aforementioned Sunshine Yellow spray paint.

Here they are on the walls...perfect!

What's still missing...hmmm...a rug!  For weeks, I looked for a cobalt blue rug with a pattern (think lattice, geometric, and even floral), but nothing was the right size or cost (seriously...who pays $100 for a 2'x4' rug?!).  Then I spotted this one on Overstock.com (currently on sale, I might add). Nautical? Navy? Braided? Indoor/outdoor (=washable)? Well, wouldn't you know that it was meant to be!

There was only one thing left to do* and that was to think of a creative way to cover the bare light bulb that left the laundry room feeling a tad unfinished. For months, I'd been admiring Capiz shell chandeliers and light fixtures online, but always thought they were too pricey. Again, we're talking about the laundry room. So...I randomly Googled "DIY capiz shell chandelier," and wouldn't you know that this site jumped out from the list! (Maybe because Sammy and Brie's buddy is named Brenna??)

The instructions seemed simple enough:
1. Buy a hanging planter basket and paint it white (or whatever color you like). I just used extra trim paint that we had in the garage.

2. Measure out ribbon to hang your "shells" from. I tied on 3 tiers of 16" long ribbons, so they were each 8" long from the knot.

3. Iron together three sheets of wax paper (between two sheets of parchment paper, so the wax paper doesn't stick to your iron) to make thick sheets of wax paper. I probably made a dozen or more of these. Then cut out 2" wide (give or take) circles that will become your shells. On the DIY site, the woman used a paper cutter, so her shells were more uniform than mine...but obviously, you can just use scissors and they'll turn out fine.

4. With a hot glue gun (fancy!), use a small dot of glue to affix the shells to the ribbons. Work from the bottom up, so they overlap like a chandelier would. I did this while the basket was hanging from a hook in our spare bedrooms ceiling (it was already there).

 

And, tada! Done! The assembly part was actually REALLY quick and easy. And I think it looks pretty similar to my beloved (yet expensive) Capiz chandeliers from catalogs and the web.

All that was left to do is remove the chains that you would use to hang a potted plant, and then attach the remaining planter to the ceiling with three simple screw hooks. (This worked well for us because our bulb is literally screwed into a socket in the ceiling.)

Here's the finished room (at night, so you can fully appreciate the illumination). Like I said before, "Hoorah!" Who says you can't have a pretty space to wash laundry in? I look forward to enjoying my "Mediterranean escape" laundry room year-round!

*What else might be left for us to do, you ask? One day we might stack our washer and dryer to one side, and then put in a utility sink...and possibly a cabinet or two.  But for now, it's finished! :-)