Our laundry room is a crying shame. It’s dingy, it’s messy, it favors function over style a thousand-fold. This didn’t used to bother me. After all, it’s just a laundry room. But now that I have an infant and am doing approximately 65,000 loads of laundry per week, I find myself wishing it was a slightly nicer place to be. The best part about this laundry room is that it’s conveniently located on our main floor. But this can also be the worst part, i.e. if I accidentally leave the door open when friends stop by. Exhibit A (ok, I cleaned it up a bit for the photo shoot):
I think we’ll eventually try to spruce up this room and do so with some color since the rest of our house is mostly white – I’m thinking black and white checkered floor, kermit green walls and a royal blue washer and dryer set. I’d like for it to be somewhat quirky — why not bring a modicum of fun to an activity that can feel like drudgery?
In the meantime, I wanted to share a little DIY I tackled a few months ago that has made a just a teeny bit of a difference in there and also served to organize my buttons so that I might actually use them. (Mind you, I did this pre-baby. Though this project didn’t take long, I’d unlikely have my hands free long enough to complete it now…)
First, I picked up a cork board from good ol’ Target. I chose frame-less but you could get one with a frame or even get several squares of those adhesive ones and cover a whole wall. I also picked up a package of straight pins – I loved the colors of these:
Then I gathered together all those extra buttons that came with sweaters or shirts over the years (or fell off clothing and never got re-attached…) I’m thinking: even if some of the sweaters are long gone, it’s possible their buttons will match a future piece of clothing. It was nice to have a variety of button sizes and colors to create some visual interest on the board.
I planned out my design by laying the buttons in the configuration I wanted – I went with my first initial but you could do a flower, a punctuation mark or something abstract.
Once I had my idea set, I applied the buttons to the board by angling all the pins upwards slightly so that the buttons didn’t slide once I hung up the boards. (Actually, I have to give a shout-out to Rob for reminding me about a little thing called gravity…)
And voila:
Next time I need a button, all I need to do is go into the laundry room and choose the best one. And the next time I go in there to do a few loads of wash, I can look at this board and pretend that this is a fun place to be…
those buttons look very cool in the long view picture, like some fantastic button boardwalk on a cork beach somewhere – great shot.
…with stick pin sunbathers and lint flavored cotton candy…
How cute is that! I would have totally forgotten about our little friend gravity too, and ended up with a floor full of sweet colorful buttons. But a cute and quick project nonetheless. I’ll have to give it a whirl.
oh gravity…always lurking. yup, this project is a snap…as long as all the buttons don’t fall to the floor 🙂
You’re so creative. Love.
Thanks S-dog/Shmooples. You’re rather creative yourself!
This looks so pretty and is such a functional piece too! Thanks for the idea!
Thanks! I was sick of the buttons swimming loose in my little sewing tin…
What did we all do before there were blogs to give us such useful ideas? Seriously, I have a box of buttons that haven’t seen the light of day in years… I’m more likely to simply not wear the pants that need one replaced than go dig through it.
Now, if you can solve my thread-organization issues, I’d really appreciate it.
Ha! I’ll get on that right away! (Though I must confess my own issue is never having any thread at all when I need it…OR it’s white when I need black or vice versa…) 🙂
very cute idea!
Thanks – now can you teach me to actually sew a button on correctly? My own method is a little…ad hoc…
You just kicked form and function right in the rear! Love the combination of the buttons against the cork. Nicely done!
Isn’t it amazing how much laundry one tiny person can generate?! They go thru like a thousand outfits a day. So worth it though. 🙂
Yes, I have never done this much laundry – I used to be able to go for about two weeks, ha! 🙂 (But I must confess that I do enjoy folding his teeny little clothes…)
I wish my L mat was on the same floor. We have the funniest little mini washer and dryer on the sencond floor that I used when Annabel was little, hidden nicely in a cabinet in her bathroom. No mess there as luck would have it. But, no more, due to load size;(( Nice button idea…gotta love it. !
Yes, convenience is key at this point…but not so convenient if you can’t fit much in!
Great idea! I have a drawer full of mystery buttons.
I recommend some Mystery Button Art 🙂