Laundry room update

One shelf has been up for a while ... and just that one shelf feels like I have sufficient organization in the laundry room for the time being. Some things have a place. :) Have more to do in the "where to put stuff" department, but it's a start!

In my previous laundry room I had the coolest laundry sorting system. I don't have that here and I pitched all the my tall kitchen trash cans. I used those for sort and only had 6 of them ... which at $11 a piece ... I wasn't going to replace. One day I was at Fred Meyer and actually found these things that were called "Laundry Sorters". They do snap together so that they don't wander off, but I can't use that feature and be able to dump clothes into the dryer. (It's early in the morning right now, but I really do dump them into the washing machine first!) They certainly make life simpler. Each basket holds a load. Works great.

The laundry chute is working great ... have only had one hanger come down with something still on it that was clean. Nearly had a fit when that happened, but it hasn't happened again. I've found that if I spend 10 to 15 minutes down there every day ... it stays looking like I LIKE IT to look. I can find things. Skip a day or two and I pay for it!

Does anyone else have projects/ideas that niggle at them forever? More than a few years back, I saw a magazine picture of a bathroom that was done with wallpaper mapping. They had recycled maps for the walls. I started saving maps. I had old state maps, maps from Nat'l Geographic magazines, maps from looking at property up on the Mogollon Rim, maps that really had no relation to anywhere I'd ever been. Have been wanting that wallpaper wall for a long time.

So, the other week I hauled out the maps and started playing with getting them one of the laundry room walls. Initially, I was going to try and do 2 walls, but one ended up being more than enough ... and I ran out of my maps. I tacked them to the wall after moving them over and over again. (Isn't my ironing board cover just a dreamy one!?)

Ken had suggested that I use wallpaper paste to attach them to the walls. Remember that the wall behind these maps is plywood. With all the ridges and grooves of plywood. In order to use what we had around here and avoid a trip to the store, we used the glue we had from adhering linoleum to the floor. Jari and I did the first 1/3 together and then he finished it all one day while I was gone.

After looking at the wall ... I was highly disappointed. This was not the way I wanted the wall to look. Maps, yes. But this look was just not right. I wanted them to look like they had been there forever ... and aged along the way.

The only stain I had was VERY dark and I was scared to use it. So I tried tea. I tried coffee grounds. I tried coffee. I tried watered down craft paint. I tried anything I could find ... without going to the store. Still wasn't doing it. Liz happened to stop over. She'd been sharing my dilemna and went for that dark stain. Maybe 15 minutes .... and the wall was done. The lighting in this room just doesn't do much for these pictures. It really looks neat. :)

The edges curled a bit with the moisture from antiquing and need to be tacked down. Isn't this super? This particular map is one of northern Arizona. They certainly look aged. Next comes the poly coating. And .... I found 2 cans of that in the basement! Hopefully in the next week I'll have a few minutes to ruin a paint brush and get the wall done.

Feels downright good!!