Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Luxe Laundress

Found this post gathering dust in the depths of my stash of blog entries. It's from before we made the move to The House....

Today as the jungle of moving boxes encroaches upon my sanity, I find myself escaping to a wonderful fantasy world: My future master suite and strangely enough, laundry room. You see, in a week and a half we are moving out of our crowded townhome and into a single family dwelling. We are doubling our square footage and as a result, the size of our master bedroom.

The new suite of dreams includes, but is not limited to: a large walk-in closet, a dressing area, a four piece ensuite including soaker tub, space for a reading nook and a yoga mat and pleasingly, a general feeling of spaciousness. But of all the things our master bedroom has, I am most excited about what it hasn't: laundry.

You see, for the past five years I have lived with laundry in my bedroom. Our townhome had what can only be described as a laundry closet. This is a space-saving torture device invented by some developer out there who is either a) a nudist who generates no laundry, b) wears exclusively dry-clean only garments, or c) and most likely the case, a wealthy middle aged male who does not live in a townhome and has never thrown a load in or much less seen the laundry room in his sprawling McMansion perched Frank Gehry-like on a cliff overlooking a stunning vista....but I digress.

Anyway, for the rest of us, a very basic stacking washer and dryer wedged into a narrow closet of an even more narrow hallway covered by a bifold door seemed like a great cost cutter. Since the washrooms and children's rooms are too tight for even a hamper, guess where the laundry ended up? That's right! This entire time my boudoir multitasked as the familial laundromat. The hamper, iron, ironing board and drying rack have all taken up residence in my sanctuary and I can't tell you how miserable this has been.

When company came a-calling, or at least company whom I knew would appreciate a home tour, I would have to shove all the laundry accoutrements into our master bathroom shower and close the door on the situation. This was disheartening, especially given the fact that my hubby did some really charming work in our bathroom with beadboard, crown moulding, cottagey hardware and vintage-chic mirrors and medicine cabinet. Sad.

But on the horizon is a master bedroom and ensuite that is free of ironing boards and the like. Truth be told, it's not as though I am ashamed of the laundry gear. It was just the glaringly obvious fact of its wrongful placement. "And here we have our master bedroom, oops! Careful not to trip on the drying rack, you wouldn't want to get tangled up in my unmentionables..."

While all the rooms will need remodeling at some point, I am very excited at the prospect of a real, true laundry room. I actually take some pleasure in laundry and fancy myself a bit of a domestic diva in this particular division of domesticity. (I apologize for that random attack of alliteration, it just happened.) Anyway, I like that while I have no control over the many crazy events that unfold in family life, I can control laundry. I can get a stain out of damn near anything and uniformly folded towels and bedlinens fill me with a Napoleonesque sense of power. It's a small thing but moms must savour these moments.

In the new house I shall eschew the condo-sized stacker in favour of something much more substantial. Something with the words "heavy duty" or "commercial grade" in the name. And then all around my glorious new workhorses will be beauty! Crisp white paint, beautiful slate floors, charming storage baskets and (gasp!), a built-in custom drying rack, even a closet in which to store the ironing board, iron, hampers and my sewing machine. Just imagine shelves with beautiful bottles and jars to contain the various lotions and potions used for stain removal, whitening, brightening and the scenting one's linens. Oh, and the always useful utility sink with a shelf above for vases, floral frogs and other flower arranging delights! I am nearly breathless with excitement.

As the great Mies van der Rohe once said, "God is in the details." And a luxe laundry room is nothing short of heaven.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

My Life Under Renovation - Part Two



Today in a rare quiet moment I managed to write a few paragraphs. With one child in school and the other, miraculously playing contently, I brewed fresh tea and consulted my favourite little gem called Your Home As A Sanctuary by Josephine Collins



It is a modest hardcover design book given to me by my thoughtful hubby as a Christmas gift. This volume is filled with stylish, almost minimalist but never austere interiors. Simple spaces flooded with light and filled with favourite objects. These are not the homes of Hollywood royalty or any other kind of royalty for that matter. Just real places of real people who assembled their living spaces with care and attention. Not just to the paint, flooring and furniture, but to the space within the space. Which, if you think about it, is just as important as all the stuff we put in our homes, though sadly it is usually given much less thought.

Does your space reflect who you are? Would a first-time guest walk in for the first time and immediately get a deeper feeling for who you are just by looking around? Some of us will gasp in horror at this concept, especially those of us living with small kids on a constant rotation of strewn toys, messy finger prints and inevitable disasters. But those are superficial wounds easily mended with toy bins, elbow grease and that most fleeting element, time. I am talking about the essence of our homes.

As Josephine puts it so eloquently:

“You and the people you live with are the most important elements of your home… Your home sanctuary is a place for your spirit to rest as well as your taste to be expressed…. It is the one place where you are completely free to express yourself, your hopes and dreams. It’s also a showcase for who you are, and where your guests can feel completely at ease and see the best you in your own environment… It should have an atmosphere that encourages the pursuit of heartfelt ambitions and desires”.

That’s a mighty tall order for your average suburban dwelling, yet I think it can be done. Homes, like their inhabitants, evolve over time. Our homes are a living, organic thing that grows and changes just as we do.

As I prepare to move my family into a new space, I will be giving this concept a lot of thought. Family life can be hectic and the best laid plans for our interiors can easily be railroaded from an insightful evolution to dashing to the local big-box retailer because company is coming and they probably won’t enjoy sitting on cardboard boxes full of mom’s books, even if they are draped in pashminas from Paris.

Despite the unavoidable busy-ness of our household, I will try to be true to staying on course with plans of remaining thoughtful in my acquisitions for the new place. A little openess never hurt anybody. Besides, kids love running around in big empty rooms. Frankly, as long as my girlfriends and I have a spot to sit and sip lattes or wine I think life is good.