Blog Description

A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

French Country Laundry | ORC™ Reveal Week 6

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Welcome to the final reveal of the French Country Laundry with new insulation, washer/dryer connections, cabinets, tongue and groove walls, and white washed tongue and groove ceiling as part of the One Room Challenge™. 


French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Navy Cabinets Open Shelves Wood Ceiling

Is a project ever really finished or do you just get to a stopping point? 

Whichever is the answer, here is the final reveal of my first One Room Challenge™.  Thank you, Linda of Calling It Home, for the creative vision to challenge designers and guest participants to complete a makeover of one room within a six-week period and to share our progress in weekly updates. 

Thank you, also, Better Homes and Gardens for sponsoring the Fall 2019 challenge. 



F R E N C H   C O U N T R Y   L A U N D R Y

   O R C ™   R E V E A L   W E E K   6  



Each winter the laundry room was so cold from the lack of adequate insulation in the ceiling and three exterior walls. Now, the room is warm and toasty. What began as upgrading the insulation turned into a full-scale overhaul of the entire room to make it warm and functional with French Country style. 


French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal French Country Framed Parterre Prints

Since the room had to be taken down to the studs to add insulation, why not take advantage of the exposed walls of the room and update the washer/dryer connections, upgrade the lighting/electrical connections, replace damaged cabinets and sheetrock, and add tongue and groove walls and ceiling? While we were at it, why not add French Country style to another room in the house? 

Gracie, one of our cats, has that questioning look on her face, "Why not go for it?" So, we did. 


after 

French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Blue Toile Chair and Clothes Rod

The laundry room connects the garage to the entry hall of the main part of the house that is built in a functional post and beam style. The posts and beams in this section are purely decorative to match the style of the main house. The new tongue and groove ceiling and walls go with the style of the house much better than the old wallpapered sheetrock walls. 


Take a look at how this area looked before the renovation. 

before

French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Before Two wallpaper walls

Look again at the after photo above this photo. The old door trim has been changed to wider trim that is more in proportion with the new thick wood walls. 

And the sad, cat-damaged chair upholstery has been replaced with a  French Country multi-toned blue and white toile fabric. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal White Washed Ceiling and Six Panel Pine Door

Looking the opposite direction is the original white washed pine panel door that opens into the entry hallway. The new white washed ceiling blends with the door. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Window With Two New Glass Wall Sconces

New brass and clear glass wall sconces add much-needed light on this side of the laundry. The re-installed clothes rod fits beneath the new sconces and is out of the path between the garage and the entry hall. The clothes rod is the only clue on this side of the room that this is the laundry. 

Wood blinds were re-installed on the west-facing window. During the winter the bright sunlight helps warm the room, but during the summer the blinds help keep the room cooler. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Blue Toile Chair with Navy French Design Floor Cabinet

A pre-existing French Country floor cabinet was painted VERY NAVY by Behr to match the new wall cabinets above the washer and dryer. We store cat food and supplies in the cabinet, and the top is a great spot to place packages when coming in from shopping. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Navy Cabinets with Open Shelves

The washer and dryer sit out of the way in an alcove across from the window. Since we added 1-inch thick (really 0.71) vertical tongue and groove boards to the walls, there was no longer room for two 30x30 inch cabinets above the washer/dryer. Two new 21x36 inch cabinets, with open shelves between them, replace the old cabinets. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal glass light in white washed wood ceiling
Unfinished beech cabinets are painted VERY NAVY by Behr. Sunlight from the window reflects on the cabinets and makes them look different colors from this angle. 

A new ceiling light sits closer to the washer/dryer than the old fluorescent ceiling light did which gives more light where needed. A clear glass globe with daylight LED bulbs allows more light than before. 

Vintage and new French linens sit in a French wire basket on the dryer... for French Country style. 


F R E N C H   C O U N T R Y   S T Y L E 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Vintage French Seltzer Bottle on open shelves

White washed open shelves provide display space for some of my treasured finds with French Country style plus other vintage finds.  

On the right of the top shelf is a vintage bottle found in a small countryside town's brocante (market where second-hand goods are sold) one Sunday afternoon in France. The raised design on the bottle reads, "Sarlat," one of my favorite French towns. The other jars are vintage canning jars from antique shops in Alabama, my home state. 

On the second shelf is a beautiful blue glass flower frog, a Christmas present from my sister. She bought it at the Port of Vanves Paris flea market the last time we were in Paris. The hand-carved wood pedestal came from a store in Granbury, TX that houses a collection of small vendors on the town's square. 

Another prized treasure from the same Paris flea market is the vintage blue seltzer bottle on the bottom shelf. The clear glass seltzer bottle is from France, but was bought at The Findery in Waco, TX. The Findery is on the same street as the Magnolia Silos, just a block away. The canning jar holding the wooden clothes pins is from an antique store in Alabama. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal French Parterre Garden Plan Print in Navy Glass Frame

Reproduction antique French parterre garden plans come in navy, sepia, and sea glass blue from an Etsy shop. I painted wood frames in VERY NAVY to match the cabinets and the navy color of the prints. In fact, the prints are what determined which shade of navy I used for the cabinets. 



French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Blue Toile Chair with white tongue and groove walls

Light weight enough to move easily, the comfy toile print chair is a great place to sit to unload the dryer and to fold clothes. 




French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Black Wall Hooks with brooms and dustpan

New black medallion double wall hooks keep brooms and dustpan organized and handy. 




French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Black Wall Hooks on White Tongue and Groove Wall

The whisk broom also acts as a cushion for the wall cabinet's door handle to prevent the handle from banging into the wall. 





French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Navy Cabinet and Natural Wood Post, Beams as contrast for white vertical wood walls

Bring on Winter! 

The updated French Country laundry is ready for Winter's cold weather, all the while adding bright cheery walls and ceiling for the gloomy dark days to come. Navy cabinets and natural wood tones add enough contrast to keep the room from being too stark and cold looking. 


Compare how the room looks as the final reveal above with how the room looked below, before the One Room Challenge™ update began. 

before


French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal Before Cabinets with floral wallpaper

French Country style replaced the floral look of the nineties, and the laundry room now blends with the natural wood style in the rest of the post and beam house. 




French Country Laundry ORC™ Reveal a beautiful laundry can be created in a small space with easy to find materials, fresh paint, and your own style

Laundry rooms with style and personality are not reserved for only large rooms. A beautiful laundry can be created in a small space using easy-to-find materials, fresh paint, and your own personal decorating style. 




~~~~❦~~~~

For more information about my post and beam house, see Post & Beam Dream House for a list of blog articles, including an article about how a post and beam house came to exist in Texas. My house is still a novelty for this area. 


If you missed previous posts for the past five weeks for the laundry room ORC™, you can see them and my sources for materials used in the makeover at Source List. Special thanks goes to my brother-in-law for helping make this room a reality. 


You may also like to see my Pinterest board, One Room Challenge™ Botanic Bleu for materials and products I used to create the French Country Laundry of my dreams. 

Check out the final reveal for everyone else in the ORC™at ONE ROOM CHALLENGE™. Leave a little congratulatory comment for finishing by the reveal date, or leave an encouraging comment for how far the room has come for those not quite finished by the reveal date. 








Botanic Bleu is a blog about a French-inspired garden and home in a post and beam house on two acres in the countryside, twenty minutes outside Fort Worth, Texas. Built with help from family and friends, beginning with an old-fashioned barn raising, the house is now being transformed from American Country to French Country one day, one project, at a time. All done on a budget with easy-to-find materials. 


Don't miss the latest French-inspired project, garden tip, decorating idea, or holiday inspiration. Get every new blog post delivered to your email inbox. Sign up in the blue box at the top right of the sidebar.