Why would we spend a long weekend relaxing when there is a room in our house we could demolish?

Waaaay back in July, I was sort of obsessing about my laundry room.  We have a laundry closet, really.  It's in our basement family room (which is actually the entry level floor of the house) (which is one quality of the house that I LOATHE ("Welcome to our home!  Please ignore the bachelor pad tv room, exercise bikes, and Mt. Washmore!")), with the machines and a very utilitarian shelf hidden behind some bi-fold doors.  It is UG-LYYY.  (See?  That's it, in all its bi-fold door glory over there on the left.)  I spent a good couple of pre-vacation weeks drooling over gorgeous, Hollywood fantasy laundry rooms, and making Mark promise that we can build something like that in our long-term house, wherever that is.  Then I went on vacation and toured The House, promptly fell in love, and forgot all about the ol' laundry nook.

Well, now that Mark has denied me The House*, my thoughts have returned to laundrylaundrylaundry.  We decided to stay home this weekend rather than travel back up to MA, and the laundry room is on the agenda.  We spent some time down there last night, measuring and planning our attack.  Our first step was to remove the bi-fold doors and OMG, it looks giant already.  (Trust me, it's more dramatic in person.)

If you recall, our original plan was to sort of follow the Young House Love approach and remove the frame around the laundry area, turning it from a closet into a recessed nook.  However, if you can see on the edge of that second photo, there is an identical door frame right next to it for the HVAC closet.  After some debating last night, we decided that if we were to remove the laundry door frame, the wall might look a bit unbalanced.  Not gonna lie, this was kind of a relief.  While Mark is really, really handy, he just cannot do drywall.  Well, he can hang the drywall just fine, but mudding?  Forget about it.  We're also thinking that if we decide later on that creating a true nook would be better, it would be much easier to take out the frame then than to try to recreate the frame if we don't like the look of a nook. 

I have been playing around online, bookmarking and pinning away, and this is what I have come up with for a motif:

Here's what we need to do to make this happen:

1. Demo!  This is now exponentially easier since we are not cutting into the wall.  However, we need to pull out the washer and dryer, and oh my hell, are they heavy.  In addition, it's a gas dryer, so a plumber may be required (OH PLEASE GOD, LET A PLUMBER BE REQUIRED).
2. Light fixture:  Remove the nasty fluorescent bar thingy, paint ceiling, and install adorable Schoolhouse-esque fixture (which is actually the cheap knockoff available at Lowe's.
3. Patch and paint walls and trim.
4. Install self-stick vinyl tiles in the pretty slate-ish color while reminding selves that it's only a laundry room and the floor will mostly be covered by the washer and dryer and it won't scream "LINOLEUM!".
5. Install pretty Ikea cabinetry!  This is our splurge, but I think the added storage will be both pretty and really helpful.  We've settled on the Akurum cabinets in Stat White; we'll do a 36"x30" two-door cabinet (glass doors) in the middle, and a 15"x30" single-door cabinet (solid doors) on either side.  We had originally planned to do single glass doors and solid doors on the double cabinet, but we had to flip this to get the 30" tall cabinets.  This will give us some float above so that we do not need to move the light fixture.
6. Reinstall the washer and dryer.  It does, after all, need to function as a laundry room.
7. Install pretty Ikea countertop!  Did you know they sell gorgeous slabs of butcher block countertop?  They do!  It's called "Lagan" (of course it is), and it's solid beech.  Best of all, for a 96"x25" slab, it's only $59.  I know!  This will give us plenty of material for the 67" width of the closet, plus some extra to create simple brackets to support the counter.  (We're planning to just rest the counter on top of the brackets so that it is easily removable in case of repairs.)
8. Decorate!  Because, as we all know, the only thing that separates us from the animals is our ability to accessor-ahz.  I am totally stealing the YHL tack of covering up pipes and hoses with framed art.  Have you all heard of Vintage Printable?  It is the greatest thing ever -- all of this public domain artwork, ready to print and display.  I'm thinking a couple of botanicals popped into some Ikea Virserum frames would be perfect.  I'm also planning to snag a tabletop ironing board to hang on the wall.  I might even try to make a pretty cover for it!  (Though I'll probably just buy one on Etsy.)  I'm also planning to grab a couple of simple glass canisters at Crate and Barrel, one for detergent and one for clothespins.  I have the same ones in my kitchen and love them.  What else?  Oh!  Maybe a little countertop trashcan for lint and a cute soap dispenser for hand sanitizer.  I also love that little "Keep Calm and Wash On" poster, which could be cute on the wall.  Basically I'm trying to create a pretty little corner of the male (ahem, Red Sox) dominated basement.

Oh my GOD, I need to stop talking now.  But there it is:  the plan.  We're going to hit Home Depot and/or Lowe's tonight, then be waiting on Ikea's doorstep tomorrow when they open.  Keep your fingers crossed!

*I kid, he's not "denying" me; it's just not buttering his bread, so to speak.  What can you do?  We'll just keep looking until we find one we both love.  Don't worry -- there's another house across the street from The House that's for sale for about $150k less.  It's a knock down (teeny tiny, vintage '60s (not in a good way) with '70s decor -- lovely), but I think we could buy the land and build the house we really want and still not outspend the neighborhood.  We'll see...