The corner decorative thing? Are you talking aobut the fru-fru trim under the cabinet doors? The trim that looks Victorian or Queen Anne or Colonial (see how much I know!)?

I think it has two problems. It is not a similar style to the shaker door frame and the cottagy bead board. The shaker and beadboard may not go together either, but if the frame is painted, I may change my mind. But the trim piece is too different. JMHO!

Then there is a problem with the corner trim and the furniture it is on. If a piece like this was going to have a trim like that, it would be only on the front. The side of the trim bracket looks funny to me. I would prefer that it be a plain piece of wood going back to where it attaches to the cabinet, not have the same carved profile as the front.

Last, the trim piece looks to me like it prefers to be the trim for the top of something, reaching for the ceiling, not hanging upside down below cupboard doors.

Gee Marti, I hope all this criticism does not seem mean. I am looking for flaws and trying to imagine what exactly you are looking at!

I wouldn't have a clue - other than what nancy said about it maybe should be at the top instead of the bottom. wouldn't have thought of that - but she said it!

Are you going to put doors on the two side cabinets? The cabinet on the left side will be shorter because of the ?box? at/on the ceiling.

To me the trim needs to be painted to blend in. Add side doors the same as doors that are there paint on all. I am ok with............... wait............. There is a slight gap in the left back corner where this cabinet meets wall in the center section. Can it be calked?

Not really sure what you are seeing but the picture is taken at an odd angle. Maybe in person it looks different???

I actually really like it, at least on the front part. I would cut off the little knob on the bottom (too fancy) and make the side solid, even to the bottom of the curved part. Pretty much what Nancy said, but I do like the curved part in the front.

If you like the curves and are trying to dress it up a bit, you could always finish painting the trim and open shelves...and maybe put a beefier edge to the front of the shelves, especially the ones on the right. Don't know if that's your plan, but I love that look :)

Nancy saw most of what bothers me. If you didn't read the other post, these doors aren't finished yet, just up there to see if they fit before taking down to paint.

What bothers me about the corner things is
1) they have a routered edge and nothing else does
2) they are too big
3) the part on the side looks funny because it is cut off by the side cabinet

I want to take them off and dh doesn't want to because it will be more work. Well, good grief, 30 minutes of work to make it look right for the next 10 years?!!! I know he worked on it a long time, and I did too, and I liked it at first, but it's just not what I wanted.

This is my inspiration picture

Marti can you back away to get a picture of the whole cabinet like your inspiration picture? Really hard to tell from the close up picture you are showing. I like the down routed things but then I like different things than most.

If you are not happy then take them off. I have spent hours ripping back a crochet piece or scraping off a mosaic piece when I was not happy no matter how long it took me to do to begin with. You really need to make you happy.

I don't think so, but I'll try. That's the problem with a small room and this is basically in a hall. If I back off, it will be a sideways photo. (and you'll get to see all the crap I cropped out of the first photo, lol)

This probably doesn't show much more. One photo from outside on the right and one photo from outside on the left.

{{!gwi}}


{{!gwi}}

WOW Marti. I think it looks almost exactly like the inspiration picture. Really pretty. If it were me I would just keep following the picture as close as possible in your situation. I do know some times some thing I am working on gets to that odd moment and I kind of go "what was I thinking?" Then continue on and it turns out fine.

dang, I didn't even follow all of that stuff you said about it marti. not even with looking at the pic.

i think it's looking fine. great laundry area!

Thank you Steph. I think those top doors are going to have to be remade. Dh will just love that. lol But there isn't enough room to stand in front of them and open them both without ducking.

That looks great. I have always liked the look of those enclosures for the washer and dryer. I have one question though - were are the water shut off valves for the washer? I can't figure out how to get to them when the washer and dryer are enclosed and the countertop is put in.

Marti! You live in a Smaller Home. If you don't have to duck, slide over, step back, or do contortions worthy of Cirque de Soleil SOMEWHERE to access SOMETHING, we will have to consider throwing you out of the club.

You can live with ducking. Really, you can! Don't bother DH with remaking the doors. What would you do, anyway, make them bifold-beadboard-shaker doors? Nuh-uh. Leave them be. You may want to slightly round off the edges with sandpaper, though. Strong, sharp blows to the temple are known to have caused instant death.

I have a metal office storage cabinet across from my washer. There is just enough room to open the front-loader door without hitting the cabinet. If I stand in front of the washer, facing the cabinet, and "suck it all in," standing as far to the right as possible, I can open ONE door of the cabinet. To open the other door, I have to step two steps to the left, then re-enter the space in front of the washer once the second door is open. If a dog has soiled a pee-pad and it has been thrown onto the floor in front of the washer, I must first move the pee pad (preferably into the washer) before I can open the doors. Guess where we keep the clean pee pads? Yup, in the metal storage cabinet across from the washer!

Warning. My DH has declared a three year moratorium on "projects" after the library is done. Be careful, or yours may revolt, too.

Then what would we have to talk about?

"Marti! You live in a Smaller Home. If you don't have to duck, slide over, step back, or do contortions worthy of Cirque de Soleil SOMEWHERE to access SOMETHING, we will have to consider throwing you out of the club."

LOL Yep Been there done that dance too. It is close from laundry room to guest bath. It is either the laundry stroller or kitty litter refill box or that same pile of pee/hair pads Nancy has on the floor in the way. Funny how the animals rule in our small houses.

Oh it won't be me deciding it needs to be remade. I'm 5'2". It's dh who will crack his head with a door for the last time and decide to redo them. He's 6'4". The edges are rounded already though they may not look it.

dekeoboe, we built it so the top will lift off and the lower cabinet around the washers will slide out so we can pull the washer & dryer out easily and get to the connections back there. We were going to make the top hinged but then decided it would be in the way so just made it so there is a latch inside the lower cabinet.

Marti that is very clever to make the break away cabinet.

Thanks. I told dh that's the way I wanted it, so the washer & dryer would be easy to get in & out, and he said it would never work, never support the weight of the doors, etc.

So he built a 3" base and nailed the cabinet to it. Then we had to lift that washer onto the base. Heavy! Then I couldn't access the detergent drawer on the washer and we had to lift both the washer and dryer off the base. My back, my back! So then I convinced him to do it my way.

Thanks for the info Marti.

Oh boy, how did I miss this....
Marty, I think you did a remarkable job of reproducing the inspiration picture to fit your purposes. Even the turned down routed-edged ornamental thingy is an exact copy.

I could do without the button on the bottoms, but for softening the look, that curved front element looks fine.I might consider a 4" deep shelf in that hidey hole above the lower cabinet, but it might be a trashy catchall.

Then on your side cabs, I'm sure you plan to put some doors there. Depending upon their width and height, think about going the easy route, and buying a pair of prefinished (or not, if you want to do the painting) bifold shutter doors. Louvered doors and beadboard go together very well. And they come in several door widths too, and you might consider using a pushy magnetic catch instead of a door knob. But match the knobs to the beadboard doors.

And I love the doors. Awesome. Your DH did a great job with those. When the borders are painted too, they will be first rate.

I have front loading laundry equipment too. But mine is a stacking laundry center from Frigidaire, now a few years old, and (knock on wood) never had a problem. Very easy to use, and not huge, which is important in a small home.

BTW, when it looks that nice, you won't mind doing the laundry. So tell your DH that he doesn't need to get his head cracked, stay out of that laundry! It is built for us shorter folks. All he need do is drop his dirties in the basket, and wait for the laundress to do her magic with them. With a smile worthy of the 1950s GE ads too, wearing high heels, crinoline petticoats, and makeup. Doing laundry in the 50s was a privilege to young housewives with brand new tract homes, new Buicks in the driveway, and new appliances to make housework easy. And then they all began to go to work too.......oh well, it was good while it lasted I suppose.

Marti, sorry I missed this. I think it will look great when you are finished and have doors on the side cupboards. Those finials add a nice decorative touch. If, after everything is done, you don't like the finials, then you can ask your DH to take them off. But wait until everything else is done. Otherwise, if he is anything like my DH, he will lose interest in the project.

I would trade your laundry room for mine any day. Mine is a tad bigger, but I do not have any cupboards. Enjoy!

Thanks colorcrazy. For the last 15 years I had an open cabinet that didn't fit the space above the washer & dryer. But it was given to us, and I filled in all the other spaces with those wire shelves and then griped because stuff either tipped over or fell through the wires. It will be soooo nice to be able to put stuff in there and shut the door on it.

Marti, I love that inspiration picture and I feel once the cabinets are painted, yours will look as nice! What color white are you choosing. The inspiration picture to me looks like BM Cloud White but I could be wrong. That is one of the cabinet color choices I want to use when I paint my cabinets next year. I wanted to do it this year but I had other pressing matters.

"Then what would we have to talk about?"

all of those projects you're planning for 3 yrs from now...

I just noticed that in the inspiration picture that the contrasting countertop extends wall to wall, even through the middle of the side tall cabinets. I think that is pretty, BUT it is totally unnecessary for the look you wish.

In that instance, the laundry is out in the open at the top of some stairs, so it is more like a piece of furniture. It is not necessary in your case, because your laundry is in its own little room. Sort of a "butler's pantry"....and the extended counter top does not need to go through the middle of your storage cabinet wings.

That's why I suggest that you might want to buy some already painted louvered doors from Lowes or Home Depot. Jeldwen makes them. Thing I like about them, they are dimensionally stable so they do not warp, something that you have to think about with a door you build yourself. But depends on the skills of the builder, of course. If you remember the "tower" that I put in my new master bath in Mobile, it had a solid wood board back, screwed to the wall to get it off the tile floors. And then each side was one of the 12" wide shutters, and the door was another 12" wide shutter. We bought the unfinished doors, and I painted them with the same Behr ULTRAPURE WHITE latex enamel as the rest of my woodwork. Now I have one spare 12" wide x 80" tall panel that I am saving for the kitchen project.

A girl can never be too slim or too rich or have too many shutters!!!

Well, I guess I need to get a new camera. These photos do not have a very clear look to them. Drats.

I'm not sure what color it is. It's a Kelly Moore Dura Poxy white. I like it because it can take a fair beating without chipping.

We already have all the doors made, just not installed yet. Some of them did warp because we don't have a workbench (yet) and made them on a piece of plywood laid over a card table. Dh thinks he can square them back up. I clamped them together and if dh had done them, they probably would be fine, but I need the experience, right?

ML, I have noticed that pictures from my little camera aren't as clear as they used to be. I was just wondering if that happens when they get older.