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Loblolly Manor: Adding Shelves to the Laundry Room

Today, I’m excited to share the shelves we installed in the laundry room at my childhood home, Loblolly Manor, as we celebrate Week 5 of the One Room Challenge hosted by Linda creator of the One Room Challenge and media partner House Beautiful. You can catch up on Week 1: The Laundry Room Design Plan here, Week 2: How to Cover an Air Conditioner Return here Week 3: Laundry Room Buffet Makeover here and Week 4: Laundry Room Folding Station if you missed it.

Just to catch you up if you’re new here (Welcome) we’ve only been working on the laundry room at Loblolly for the past few weeks but we’ve actually been working on the entire house for a while now.   We had to pretty much gut it and take the house down to the studs in late 2015. We took it from the construction zone stage to house stage in 2016. And now that it’s been lived in a little more we’re ready to give the house a bit of a refresh and make it feel more like a retreat space for our entire family to use. It’s been so much fun working alongside my parents to make this house a home.

If you’ve been following along, you already know the laundry room is one T-I-N-Y space. In fact, it’s probably more like a utility room with a separate laundry closet inside. Given the air conditioner return is in the utility room portion of the 5 x 8 space, we’ve had to be super intentional with all of our design plans because there is no storage or extra room in laundry room at all.

Throughout our weeks of working on this project, we’ve decided the best way to add additional storage is to create vertical storage with corbels and white oak shelves. Both the corbels and the wood for the shelves we chose were especially heavy, so my dad added another layer of support to the back of the corbels and secured them place with screws, wood glue and dowels.

We used a stud finder to find the studs in the wall, then attached the support plates to the wall with screws with a cordless drill before adding the corbels.

As always, make sure all sides are level!

We painted the support plates the same color as the corbels are painted in order to camouflage them.

Even when you look at the corbels from the side, you can barely see the support plates.

We chose a piece of white oak for the shelves which my dad planed and sanded all of the edges smooth.

The woodgrain was so pretty we decided against painting it. I used a wax brush to apply

dark furniture paste wax to help bring out the richness of the woodgrain and to seal the wood as well.

After the shelves had been buffed with a lint free cloth, we secured them in place.

Again, you can barely see the support plates.

Given the laundry room is about a 5×8 space, it’s exciting we’re going to be able to pair the two shelves with the laundry room buffet in order to create extra storage.

Just for another frame of reference, you can see the air conditioner surround we created during week 2 just to the left of the shelves.

We’re still waiting on the artwork, the new light and a few other accessories to arrive but we’re definitely excited about all the progress we’ve made on this laundry room project so far. I can hardly believe the reveal will be next Thursday!

I hope you all have a peace filled and happy weekend. We’ll be working from Loblolly Manor over the weekend and into next week to finish not only the laundry room but also the other rooms that need to be completed in an effort to make our Mother’s Day (fingers crossed) deadline. It’s going to be close!

We have a great week coming up next week. On Monday, I’ll be partnering with a fun group of fellow bloggers and social media influencers for a Mother’s Day blog hop. Tuesday, I’ll share a desk makeover we created for the kitchen. Wednesday, I’ll share how we created the artwork for the laundry room. And on Thursday, we’ll finally be able to share our One Room Challenge Laundry Room Reveal! I can’t wait to see you guys back here on Monday. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo

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8 Comments

  1. Oh my gosh CoCo – these shelves are gorgeously fantastic! Your dad is so handy and talented. The shelves will be perfect for storage for the small laundry room BUT this room is looking so cute, who is ever going to want to do laundry in there? Can’t wait for the big reveal! Hugs and Love!

    1. Thanks so much ladies! It’s been fun to see how everything is coming together despite a few challenges that set us back a bit. I really think the shelves are going to help add a lot of extra storage which will be nice because this room is so TINY! Hugs, CoCo

    1. I appreciate it, Stacey! We’ve had a blast working on all the projects related to this little house. I’m definitely going to miss working with my parents each day but I’m thankful for all the great memories these past few weeks. Hugs, CoCo

    1. I appreciate it, Kristin! We always say the One Room Challenge is so much fun and so much work all at the same time. We’ll definitely be rallying to the finish line! Hope your day has been a great one, CoCo

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