Laundry room - update #2

It's unnaturally quiet around our house today. While the boys are  off school for the whole week and the University is closed, Alan and I both have loads of work to do. Luckily, our parents agreed to watch the kids for a couple of days apiece so that we can work. And since the University is closed and likely really,really chilly as they turn the heat down for cost savings over the two week vacation, we're working from home.

In turn, since staying home saves a total of 60 minutes usually spent walking to and from work, I decided to put that saved time to good use this morning and got a second coat of paint on all the trim in the laundry room. I still have to prime and paint the cabinet, but I want to use an alkyd base on it to ensure that the finish is durable.

I have all the pieces needed to complete the room now. I picked up a curtain rod with glass finials that coordinates with the chandelier (which I am sure that Matthew will also construe as "unnecessary")

and I have chrome rings with clips to hang the curtains. I think that I'll use them to "fake" a pinch pleat.

source

There's a great tutorial over at House of Hepworths for how to do this.

The one part of the room that's going to take some thinking is the drying racks that I plan to put up over the counter. We air dry a lot of our clothes, so racks are a must. When the laundry was down in the basement, we had three big drying racks to hang clothes on. I hate them; they take up so much floor space, and there's no space for them in the new laundry room, anyway. Plus, I love the look of the wall mounted racks.

Before Christmas I found these bamboo and chrome drying racks at Costco. They're meant to hang over a door, but I plan to mount them on the wall. I thought about building my own using wood, but these ones seemed too good (and easy!) to pass up.

The wood matches the countertop perfectly, and the shiny chrome bars match the curtain rod and chandelier.

I ordered three of them so we'll have drying space along the length of the counter.

The wall behind the washer is very strange. There's a large brick chimney running up the center of it, as well as the plumbing stack in the corner behind the drying rack, so there are no regularly spaced wall studs to attach anything to.

Initially I was thinking of building wood frames to mount the racks on the wall, but now I'm thinking I might use the hooks that are meant to go over the top of the door to hang them from a piece of wood suspended from the top of the wall by chains. Whatever I go with, it needs to be good and strong because the weight of wet clothes can add up pretty quickly.

Luckily, since they used blue board because it's the laundry room, the location of the studs in the wall is still visible through the primer as you can see where they patched the screw holes. I'm going to take advantage of this and mark the location of the studs using some painters tape on the ceiling and countertop, which will make my life much easier when I go to hang the racks. If anyone has any suggestions for a simple or clever way to hang them, I'm all ears!