Laundry/Mud Room Makeover

You know how I told you my mom was here all last week and worked on projects all over the house and I would post about them?

This post is not about them.

It's about something I've wanted to do since the day we moved into our house, but haven't. It's about our laundry/mud room/only way to access the only bathroom on the main floor. It's so bad it's embarrassing. Really, I tell people they have to swear to love me anyway or just close their eyes before I tell them how to get to the bathroom. If you're seen my front porch you have some idea of how bad a room has to be before I get embarrassed by it.

The other part of this problem is that we are throwing two parties in the next couple of months that will require people to use the bathroom you can only get to through this room. Clearly, something must be done and must be done soon.

The problems in the two spaces are  actually linked. I bought the wood for a project that will handle quite a bit of the disorganization in the laundry room months ago and it's been on the front porch ever since. Operation Use and Remove commenced on the porch wood pile last weekend (posts to follow, I swear).

This weekend I'm taking on that big (physically big, but not actually hard) project and helping out both spaces.

What is this mystery project?

Ana White's Laundry Basket Dresser. I'm not actually planning to use it for laundry though. I'm going to use it to keep our recycling sorted. That's the plan for now anyway. I suppose I can always change my mind and use it for laundry.

I also REALLY want to coat the particle board walls and bare sheet rock ceiling with a couple layers of drywall compound and paint it a cheerful yellow. And some day I'd like to buy an inexpensive butcher block counter top from Ikea and make a wood base for the sink and install some new hardware to give it more of a farmhouse look, but I'll settle for tidy and unattractive at this point.

Austin said he'll assist in cutting down the 4x8 sheets of plywood tonight so I can put it together tomorrow. I'll try to remember to take before and after shots of both spaces. Not sure I'll be able to work up the courage to post before of either though.