Have you ever had decorating paralysis? Let’s discuss the ways to break through it!

If you’ve never heard the idea of decorating paralysis before, it’s the feeling of wanting to change a space, but being either uninspired, or over-inspired by it, so much so that you end up not doing anything with it at all for a length of time.

And that, my dears, explains my laundry room!

If you’ve been around a while, you probably can’t think of a time when I’ve shared about our laundry room before, and that’s intentional.

It’s the worst room in our house.

I’ve never shown it on the blog before, but today is it’s official debut!

When you see even professional designers and bloggers sharing their beautiful spaces, rest assured that they probably have these secret spots of their own, also! None of us are immune!

History

When we moved into this house eleven years ago, the laundry room was actually one of the best looking rooms in the house!

(And that just speaks a bit to how bad the rest of the house looked at the time!)

Fast forward 11 years… and it still looks pretty much exactly the same as when we moved in.

Current Condition

Here’s what’s going on in there now:

• Holes in the walls

• Some walls un-finished (bare open studs)

• The world’s cheapest linoleum on the floor

• Free cabinets that were stuck here from another part of the house during the big remodel. (Hey, at least they’re functional!)

• Food storage that is functional, but not pretty.
• Basic utility sink

When we were remodeling the rest of the house the changes we did make were:

• New wiring
• New lights
• A bead board ceiling (that just never got quite finished.)
• Instant water heater

The Cause of my Decorating Paralysis:

Now my decorating paralysis for this area is caused by having ideas that are much bigger and actually impossible in our current space.

See, we’ve always wanted to add an addition onto our house in the exact back corner that this laundry room is sitting at.

We want to eventually add:

• A sun room
• Butler’s Pantry
• Office
• Guest room

That space would also still house the laundry room, just reconfigured to move the food storage to the butler’s pantry and a few things like that.

I know it could be absolutely beautiful when it’s all done – but we’re nowhere near ready to take on a project of that scope yet.

We chose to pay for our home improvement projects with cash, so meanwhile we’re stuck with the laundry room layout we already have.

And that all makes it hard to want to make changes in this room, when I know that eventually we have bigger and more exciting plans.

But, after 11 years I’m ready for a change, and to love this room!

It’s time to talk about some options! Here are my inspirations:

I just love this kitchen by Miss Mustard Seed.

You KNOW I love those green shelves, but I also love all her different containers for storing necessary items in a beautiful way.

And I actually have a really similar shelf from Hobby lobby that I got from my Mother in law, so I could do something like that above my utility sink.

Next is this lovely room by French Country Cottage.

I just love their simple butcher block counter top above their washer and dryer!

These cabinets by Jenna Sue Design are really smart and the details add such a beautiful look to these basic cabinet doors.

She added the wooden “x” pieces on the doors, and gave them interesting new hardware.

She also stenciled the wall – gorgeous.

Last but not least is this cute room by Dear Lillie.

They also have the cute butcher block top above their washer and dryer, but my favorite part is the stenciled floor!

Now that you’ve seen the vision – here are my 5 basic rules for “curing” decorating paralysis, and how I’m hoping to implement them in my own laundry room in the not too distant future!

5 Cures for Decorating Paralysis

First of all, know this is a budget cure! My suggestion would be to spend no more than $200 on all of these items combined if it’s a space you know you’ll eventually want to modify or change in a big way.

Tip Number One | Make Repairs

Do the basic things you can do to make sure everything is functional and finished.

For us, this means patching all of the drywall holes, finishing off the un-finished walls, and finishing the bead board on the ceiling.

Tip Number Two | Shop Your Own House

Look around your house, and garage (if applicable) and pick out the pieces that could work for your mini renovation.

For me, it’s the big slab of butcher block we have out in the shop that we should be able to easily use to top our washer and dryer like my inspiration pictures.

In this older blog post from four years ago, Butcher Block Counter Top Tutorial – I shared how we added the butcher block counter top in our kitchen. I still love the detail we added to the edge with the router!

I also have the hobby lobby shelf I mentioned previously.

Tip Number Three | Use Paint

You had to know this was coming! Paint can be such an easy way to transform a space!

My plan would be to paint the walls a beautiful light color, and paint the bead board fresh white.

I really want to stencil the floor – just straight over the linoleum for a better, but inexpensive look!

My idea is to do a Moroccan tile stencil, in a cream and grey color scheme.

And lastly I’d like to paint the exterior of the basin of our sink black – because I love that look when I’ve seen it before.

Tip Number Four | Use Fabric

You know I love my fabric!

In this room, I think I’ll make a small curtain out of ticking (stripes) and attach that to the bottom of the sink as well for a more charming feel.

Tip Number Five | Thrift!

I’m hoping to find some neat old cabinets on one of my thrifting adventures to replace the old white ones.

That, or I’ll find some really simple cabinets and do Jenna Sue’s idea.

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful as I’ve walked through our current decorating paralysis cause, and some of the cures we’re hoping to implement before too long!

Let me know in the comments where your biggest area of concern, and what you might tackle first to get it started!

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