While working on children’s rooms for a client, I was asked to also fix up the laundry room easily and inexpensively. We wanted it to be simple and fun.
Laundry room before.
I decided to design a stencil of “double hangers” as the wall pattern. I simply drew the stencil design and cut it out of clear mylar with an exacto knife. We used blue craft paint to stencil, so it was very easy. My client ended up doing alot of the stenciling herself, (its addicting). We did use a clear plastic 18″ grid to measure placement of each print.
Here’s another towel idea to add to Betty’s previous post. I used 2 blue plastic hangers to hang 3 towels, as curtains (no sew) over the windows. The corners of the curtains are held up by white door stops screwed into the window trim.
We wanted something fun to hang on the wall, and came up with a Laundry List of our thoughts on laundry…needless to say, there’s nothing positive to say about laundry. So we had a good laugh.
I had the Laundry List copied from the printer onto a cotton t-shirt at a copy center. We thought this would be fun to hang in the laundry room. There were more sayings but, I think, the point was made…laundry is no fun… LOL. We still need to add some accessories, but I thought you might like to see how easy this was to do… Happy Laundry… 
1. Wow! What a wonderful idea. I’d love to do the same window treatments with the towels. Any chace someone could walk me through on how to do them??
by tracybeans71 — 2/9/08 at 7:45 am #
2. What clever ideas you had for this laundry room — the towel -drapes are fabulous and they would work great in a kids bathroom too. Loved your stencil of the dual hangars. I’m sure your client will be smiling a lot more when she does her laundry.
joan k.
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by joan [...] — 2/9/08 at 2:39 pm #
3. Cathy,
You are so brilliant! How did you come up with this? This is great! I love the way you are able to size things up and come up with wonderful ideas of how to make them different and exciting.
Keep on Keeping on!
Betty
by Betty — 2/10/08 at 10:07 am #
4. Hi Tracy,
Glad you like the window treatment idea. I’ll try to walk you through it.
For a small window….
1. 1 towel, if trimed, (blue stripes), should be the same on both sides ( you can add ribbon, ric rac, or fringe). You will see both sides of the towel when finished.
2. 1 heavy duty plactic hanger
3. 1 decorative … (to hang hanger from) that projects about 2 inches from wall.
4. 2 - 4″ … in door stops, for corners of windows. to swag towel over.
Fan fold the towel lengthwise on the counter, slip the towel on the hanger to the middle, hang towel on hook, swag ends of towel over the door stops in the wall, arrange the folds and draping.
For a double window…
1. Same as above but buy 2 towels.
Fan fold one towel and drape 1/4 of the towel through 1/2 of the hanger, hang the hanger on the hook, swag the rest of the towel over the door stop, arrange the folds and draping. Repeat this on the other side to cover the bigger window. You can adjust the size to most windows.
* Use an anchor in the wall to hang the hook and door stops if not screwed in wood.
* When they get dirty just take them down to wash and put up again.
These were fun and easy to do. Hope the directions help. Enjoy!
by Cathy — 2/10/08 at 3:34 pm #
5. Sorry… insert HOOK after DECORATIVE on # 3 above. (writing faster than thinking.) LOL
by Cathy — 2/10/08 at 3:38 pm #
6. Hello Joan,
Thanks so much. Yes, this would be cute in children”s rooms or bathrooms also. You could use beach towels in a beach themed room.
The hangers can be changed to any smalll rod or interesting hanging piece as well. The hanger stencil seemed to pull the theme through and add a bit of fun. Super easy.
I checked out your website, great organizing business and ideas. Much success to you.
Thanks for joining us, please write back.
by Cathy — 2/10/08 at 3:50 pm #
7. Thanks Betty,
This was fun to do. I love to see how much “bang” you can get for a “buck”. Usually the cheapest and easiest ideas turn out the best.
Take care dear friend.
by Cathy — 2/10/08 at 3:58 pm #
8. Fabulous…love the stencil and window treatments…..
also the laundry list on the t-shirt….
Your mind just never stops…
Great job
by Julie — 2/10/08 at 11:02 pm #
9. Hello Julie,
Thank you. Usually the laundry room gets ignored, but this one is upstairs with all the bedrooms and can be seen from the open hall. It makes it a little more fun when you have to do the laundry.
Great to hear from you as always.
LYC
by Cathy — 2/11/08 at 2:50 am #
10. Cathy,
You did an awesome job. I just love it. Thank you for sharing it with us. You brought a smile to my face with your ideas. As I am getting ready to do my laundry, I will think of you!
by Dana — 2/11/08 at 12:04 pm #
11. Awwww, your’re great Dana. Thanks for your nice thoughts…and thanks for thinking of me while you’re sorting the whites and darks!
Drop back soon.
by Cathy — 2/11/08 at 1:44 pm #
12. Wow…you actually made laundry fun! Great job! I love using words in decorating. I own way too many of the wooden words from HomeGoods — Indulgence, spa, family, dream, cafe, and Love (who say’s you can’t buy Love? LOL).
Another word thing I like to do is use acrylic lettering - looks like you painted the words on. I wrote “Once upon a time…” in my little girls room.
Keep up the great inspirational work Cathy!
Susan
http://www.roomsthatwork.com
by Susan — 2/12/08 at 8:44 am #
13. Hello Susan,
Your “Word” ideas are great. I love all the inspirational saying, nursery rhymes, bible quotes, poetry verses etc. that can be written on the walls. It makes it so personel and adds to the decoration and feel of the room.. I bet your girls rooms are adorable! You are a talented lady.
Thanks, as always for joining in.
by Cathy — 2/15/08 at 6:51 pm #
14. Absolutely adorable!! I love the fact that you have made the laundry room fun and upbeat. I especially love the Tshirt hanging on the wall with all the clever sayings!
Keep up the good work!!
Pug
by connie — 2/17/08 at 9:31 am #
15. Hi Connie,
I’m glad you liked the laundry room. It helps make the laundry routine a little more enjoyable. If that’s possible! HA.
by Cathy — 2/17/08 at 4:10 pm #
16. Cathy, what a cute laundry room! Thanks for the inspiration. Could you give me some ideas for my little laundry room, which is located off my red, black and white kitchen. I’m the person who has a kitchen similar to yours (red walls and black and white backsplash). In fact, as you enter the back door, you’re in the laundry room, and then the doorway leads into the kitchen. So, it’s a pass-through, of sorts. The wall to the right is blank. The wall to the left has a white washer and dryer, with a shelf above. Do you mind sharing with me some cute ideas for this room that would relate to my cheerful red kitchen? Thanks.
by Janice — 3/3/08 at 11:16 am #
17. Hello Janice,
I’m glad you’re enjoying the site and leaving some great comments and questions.
There’s nothing easier and cheaper than stenciling. You could stencil your own design in black or your red. I spaced these apart on an 18″ grid. Space the design in a square, 18″ apart and then stencil one design in the middle of the square. Keep repeating that pattern.
Find a great little stencil in a craft store, or make one,… apple, square, swirl, flower, dot, star, ….anything that would look repeated many times.
Let me know what you come up with.
by Cathy — 3/5/08 at 1:03 pm #
18. I’ll definitely consider doing that. But, do you think it would look too busy, as I’d like to find a large print or fun poster to use on the big, blank wall opposite the washer and dryer?
by Janice — 3/6/08 at 2:04 pm #
19. Janice,
Sure, you could add a print or poster as well to the wall, just like I did with the t-shirt and little prints. The stencil is just like wallpaper only much easier and less expensive. Let me know what you stencil on the wall. It’s really fun.
by Cathy — 3/8/08 at 1:42 pm #
20. Where did you buy the acrylic lettering for the l laundry room?
by Teresa — 1/16/09 at 1:03 am #
21. Hi Teresa,
The lettering in this post was just photocopied onto the t-shirt at a copy center. You may have confused this with Susans post about her laundry room with lettering. Go back to the main page and look for “Does your laundry room need a little flair “.
Hope that helps you out.
by Cathy — 1/16/09 at 3:35 pm #
22. THANK YOU so much for this quick and stylish makeover for a laundry room. I’ve hated mine since we moved in 2 years ago but wasn’t sure what it was about it I hated. In the exhausted mode, I let the painters paint it the same as the hallway, but realized after looking with fresh eyes that it IS the wall color that doesn’t go with anything in that little room. Even a laundry room deserves a “look”. I’m painting it today a “barely” gray and plan to stencil white with the towel window treatment. It’s hard to believe I’m excited about redoing a laundry room, but I really am! Thank you again for such a simple, but great slant on the usual (and usually overly cutesy) laundry room look.
by Vicki — 1/22/09 at 12:14 pm #
23. Your welcome Vicki,
I know you’ll have great fun livening up the laundry room. Anything to make laundry bearable is worth doing!!
Thanks for your great comments and taking time to write in.
by Cathy — 2/10/09 at 1:58 pm #