Luxury laundry rooms. I don’t get them.
This is a space where you wash dirty clothes. Dirty. Clothes. Also sheets and towels.
Luxury kitchens I get. If I had disposable income to burn I would totally go for one. Luxury bedrooms I get. You spend a lot of time in there and it should be a place of comfort, calm, and beauty. (Not that ours generally looks calm or beautiful what with the piles of unfolded laundry, but you get where I’m going here.) Even luxury bathrooms. If there’s a place to blow some cash it’s a high-end shower system that you’ll enjoy EVERY DAY.
But luxury laundry rooms I just don’t get.
« Surround yourself with beautiful fixtures to make mundane tasks more pleasurable! » « A beautiful laundry room makes doing a simple household chore more fun! » I call b-s. Nothing makes laundry fun. It is boring and annoying and necessary. It’s like washing the dishes. Maybe you don’t mind doing it, but your certainly don’t have fun doing it. What, do we kick back and watch the spin cycle go? Woo-hoo! Party on!
A certain blog which recently announced a month-long hiatus (whose name might or might not rhyme with « rung-mouse-dove ») recently spent over $4000 on their laundry room makeover. Granted they actually re-built the room from scratch, but seriously? $4000 is a lot of money, even for people who DIY-blog for a living. I mean, you can go to Europe for that kind of money.
Take this one for instance. This baby is from Interiors by Studio M. Check out those pricey light fixtures! And that beautiful white marble countertop! … wait… marble countertop in a laundry room?! My kitchen doesn’t even have marble countertops! And let’s not forget the crown moulding, wall-to-wall cabinetry, and subway tile backsplash.
Or what about this one from Elle Decor? Check out that wall-paper! In a room where humidity is the name of the game! Did you see that beautiful faucet? Or the in-cabinet lighting? Points off for no crown moulding, though.
And sure, I get wanting a sink in the laundry area: makes sense for hand washing. But I think we can all agree that this is just ridiculous:
$869.00 for a SINK?! In which to wash bras and panties?! You have to be kidding me!
« But Sarah, you’re just bitter because you don’t have money to spend on one! »
Nope. Even were I lucky enough to have several hundred dollars to spend on a laundry room makeover, I still don’t think I’d invest it in a room that a) I spend so little time in and b) almost no-one else sees. Somehow it seems over-kill and even frivolous. And I love me some frivolity! Maybe I’ll feel differently some day when I’m doing load after load of dirty kids’ clothes. Or if I suddenly become a stickler about folding laundry just so. Probably not.
Or maybe I’m just feeling cheap.
Whatever. I do my laundry here:
Despite the dubious yellow wall colour and exposed vent, somehow I manage to survive my 5 minutes in this space every week. And once the load is in, I can do this:
Yup, those doors are definitely crooked. But at least fixing them won’t cost the same as a European vacation! So here is my rallying cry: embrace your un-prettified laundry room! It never asked to be gilded and then paraded around for all to see! Just say « no » to the tyranny of the luxury laundry rooms! It’s fine the way it is!
I mean, until you run out of DIY projects. And then by all means: fill your boots. 😉
