Cob Jockey

Decorating this house has always been a challenge. Nick and I's style leans mid-century modern (no surprise given we live in MCM architecture mecca), and it caught us both off-guard when we fell in love with a house that hasn't changed much in 130 years. We've learned to compromise with it - not letting it become a time capsule, but still staying true to its roots.

Since this photo was taken, this room now has teal velvet curtains that match the center of this rug. It's one of my favorite rooms in the house. (This is the only wallpaper we left up from when we bought it - probably dates to the 1930s or 40s)

I'm not fast about making design decisions. I'll leave a room empty for years, thinking about it off and on until inspiration strikes. Some of my worst design decisions happened when I had to make a lot of snap judgments during the original renovation, and I learned my lesson.

The back hallway/laundry room area has always been my decorating Achilles heel. Part of my hangup: you can see four rooms in a row as you look back through the house, the back two being those two, and the sightline needs to be cohesive in some way. You can't just treat each room as of it was its own standalone thing.

In order: Nick's office, kitchen, back hallway, laundry room

Our kitchen floor is no longer sold, so I can't create continuity by carrying that through the back hallway and laundry room. Even if I did, it would butt up against my office flooring on the other side, which is also no longer sold (the common theme here is my total failure to plan ahead!). Plus whatever I do out here has to look good visually next to my purple office too, which is another sightline.

My office walls

Office on the right. The beadboard in the back hallway, at least, is done, painted and staying put, so it's just what to do above it and the flooring that needs decided...eventually...after the laundry room is done.

Anyway, all that is to say: wall and cabinet colors in the laundry room, and what to do with the no man's land back hallway, are going to be the LAST thing I decide. Hopefully once the elements I've already chosen are in place and I can feel the room a little better, inspiration will strike me like a bolt of lightning.

In the interest of not making the laundry room modern with a capital "M", almost all of the things I've picked out hearken back to Victorian-era style in some way, even if they feel modern, and that is very, very intentional.

So far I have:

White subway tile backsplash. Timeless, and will provide continuity from our kitchen, below:

The kitchen sporting its winter buffalo plaid Ruggable rug back in January

Shaker-style cabinets, not sure what color but it won't be white. Carcasses will be from IKEA, doors will be from Semihandmade. No upper cabinets  - I HATE open shelving in kitchens (hate hate HATE HATEHATEHATEHATE whew sorry triggered lol) but in laundry rooms, I'm fine with it, since you don't have cooking grease mist settling on the open shelving.



Countertop will be this one from IKEA. Gotta know when to splurge and when to save, and this will get the job done, as well as provide a much needed injection of warmth and depth in what may be a very light room in the end:


These cabinet pulls and knobs are on order from Lowe's:


The open shelving will be stained wood, maybe a shade lighter than the countertop, and they'll be supported by these reproduction Victorian-era inspired cast iron brackets I got from Etsy, spray painted a soft gold:


I hate stuff sitting on counters, but I couldn't figure out a way to build laundry basket storage into the cabinets, so I hit on this idea to build a washer/dryer platform tall enough to store my baskets underneath. This will also put my W/D at almost eye level, which will be great.


I wanted built-in drying racks, whether they were slide out, or wall-hung or...something else. I stumbled upon the Sheila Maid, a Victorian era ceiling-mounted drying rack on a pulley system. Period appropriate AND space saving? Yes please!


I struggled a lot with the lighting decision. In the end, I went with a long narrow fixture that shares common elements with our three 1890 chandeliers elsewhere on the first floor. The laundry room is long and narrow itself, almost galley style, and I plan to install the fixture's long side parallel to the room's long side

Unless you stand on my washing machine, you'll only ever see the short side of the chandelier, which is about one square foot in size - preventing it from looking super ostentatious like it would if you were always looking at the long side.  At least, that's the thought.  We'll see if I feel that way still when it's up! Also, bonus: it came in way under budget.

This, but you'll never see this side of it.

Finally, the floor. I was SO tempted to put some graphic tile in here, like this:


Victorian era homes often had gorgeous patterned tile floors, so it would be period appropriate. And it's trendy again. But after shopping graphic tile for months, I was never in love with any design enough to pull the trigger and I didn't know why.

I finally realized it's just too bold of a permanent design decision for me. If I hate it in five years, I'm stuck with it because we are NOT redoing this laundry room again.. So I looked for something that felt graphic, but was a little more timeless. Enter this tile, from one of my favorite blogs Young House Love:

Easy to clean and install porcelain that looks like Carrera marble, sign me up

It was a bit of a splurge (even though I reverse image searched YHL's source and got it for hundreds of dollars cheaper at Home Depot, who has the same tile under a different name), but I felt that pull of "THIS IS THE ONE" for the first time, and I knew I could live with this forever. You know, that whole Konmari "spark joy" thing. I get heart eyes when I look at it.

Whew. That was a long rundown. But all of those decisions had to be made and materials need to be ordered because THE DOOR GETS CUT TODAY!!!

Almost empty and ready for the saw! Goodbye, brown everything!