A Happier Happy Place

It was the room that sold me on this house. I took one look at the cheerful yellow gingham wallpaper, the light streaming through the window, and the door leading to the patio and I thought "I can be happy here."

It was a perfect laundry room.

Hey, don't judge! Everyone has their happy place. For me, my happy place is wherever I'm doing the family laundry. With all the boys currently living under the same roof, I'm spending more time than normal in the laundry room. Not that I'm complaining! This Mama Bird loves having all of her baby birds in the same nest. And when the laundry room is this cute, who can complain?

One of the things I've learned about moving into a new home is that you can't be married to the original concept of an item from your previous home. You may have always had a certain painting decorating the walls of your kitchen, but in your new home it may actually work better in the dining room. A furniture piece that always graced your family room may turn out to be just the thing your living room needs.

Case in point: the braided area rugs that are now warming up the tile floors of my laundry room were actually used to warm up the concrete floors of the front porch at my previous home. I found the homespun charm of a braided rug went perfectly with the gingham in this room!

I got my laundry chute! This was a wish list item when we began house hunting back in March. Whenever we toured a house with our realtor, she made sure to point out if it had a laundry chute for me. This chute starts in the master bedroom, hidden in the floor of a cabinet in the bathroom. My little guy, Sam, has had fun sending things down the chute. It reminds him of the movie Stuart Little, when Stuart accidently goes down the chute and ends up in the washing machine.

This room does double duty, serving as our dog's feeding station as well. She would probably prefer to eat at the kitchen table with the rest of the family, but she's learning to adjust. This little braided rug works well for those times when she's too thirsty to drink like a lady.

The previous owners must have used this room for their dogs as well. They left this sweet little wall plaque that has hooks for dog leashes.

Do you have a happy place in your house? If so, where is it?