Well golly, this reader project gets the award for ingenious — and adorable. When they remodeled their laundry room, Natalie and Graham noodled how to best use some additional space. They didn’t need a laundry sink — so instead, they added shower for their dogs Reelee and Maeybe. Not only is their dog shower adorable — and useful — but I also love the retro style tile they put into the laundry room — they designed it using Daltile’s mosaic design tool. (Mavericks’ colors?) As usual as with all our projects here on Retro Renovation, some of their contractor dudes thought they were crazy. But oh my gosh, it turned out great! Read on, Natalie sent me a bunch of great photos and details on the project –>
Natalie writes:
Hi Pam! So, I am not 100% sure where to start and what information to give you, so I’ll just talk. Ha. So here is what we started with:
The washer and dryer stayed on the right side of the room, as did the water heater. What you can’t see on the left side of the room are the same crap cabinets that leave only room for a deep freezer. It was very cramped and wasted a lot of space. When we started to remodel the kitchen, we decided to remodel the laundry room as well. We wanted a half bath in there — toilet, sink, and stand up corner shower with tile about 4.5 feet up around the perimeter of the room to match the era and style of our house. We ran some numbers on it and installing toilet plumbing is EXPENSIVE. So that was out of the budget and nixed pretty much immediately.
Then I started googling and brainstorming. What could I do with all this space?! We have two corgi mixes and I (although Graham would say differently) plan on having dogs our whole lives. Anyhow, I thought maybe a big utility room sink would work, but I didn’t really have any use for one. I don’t soak anything and if I do, I do that in the washing machine. Then I remembered that my Aunt and Uncle have a cute little half shower in their laundry room. They’ve never owned a dog in that house, so they use it for umbrellas, cleaning shoes, cleaning large kitchen items, and dirty grand-kiddos. That was it. A dog shower!
I hated bathing the dogs in the bathtub, and they hated it too. Also, when we have kids down the road, I don’t really want to bathe them in the same place I bathe the dogs – especially if they shed as much as now – the dogs, not the kids. So I told my tile guy, Scott, what I wanted, and he looked at me like I was crazy. He understood and we drew it out on the floor and went from there. (P.S. I think Scott is fabulous.) After we had the drawing set out, I called my plumber, Buddy. He came out and ran the pipes for the drain and hot and cold water. Once that was done, I called Scott back and he got to work. I had already order my floor tile from Dal-tile (online custom design application) and he worked with Interceramic. He had some left over gray tiles from a previous project in his car that looked great with the floor AND they were the 4.25 x 4.25 tiles I wanted. We discussed tiling around the whole room, but it was expensive – not to mention Buddy about flipped when I told I was considering tiling the wall where the pipes were for the washer.
Scott is the one who came up with the 45 degree angle for the front of the shower and I use the 10 inch ledge to sit on when the dogs are showering. Graham has also used it to wash off after working in the yard.
The tile: We used Matte Smoke Tile from Interceramic – I can’t find the name of the line but the label says IC Mattes. The floor is Daltile’s Block Random Pattern with Golden Granite in the big squares, Navy Speckle in the little squares, and Desert Gray Speckle in the rectangles. They do require you to buy a certain amount of the custom to avoid a surcharge. If I remember correctly, the surcharge was $150 for not ordering 100 sq. ft. or more. We ordered tile for this room and both bathrooms when we bought it and were charged the surcharge 3 times. Guess that’s what happens when you are trying to stay true to the era. =)
“I’ve also learned if you just ask for a discount
at Sherwin Williams,they will usually give you one.
Most of the time it is 30%,
but I can sometimes swing 40%
if I bat my eyelashes.”Oh and the walls are Site White from Sherwin Williams. I’ve also learned if you just ask for a discount at Sherwin Williams, they will usually give you one. Most of the time it is 30%, but I can sometimes swing 40% if I bat my eyelashes.
Some side notes: we bought the fridge for $100 in working condition. We rewired the plug and then plugged it in. There was a big spark and it no longer works. Oops. Maybe someday we will get it repaired, but for now it is a linen closet, holding dog blankets and cleaning rags.
The light fixture is from my friend’s house that was built in 1961. She hated it, I loved it. Free!
Washer and dryer – Dryer was $50 from a friend and I think the washer was $50 from an old coworker. We started out with the washer and dryer from the house, circa 1985 – but they finally gave out. I’d love to have something sparkly and new, but if mine still work so why get rid of them? I just can’t justify spending that much money to replace something that works. I almost bought a vintage set the other day, but they were sold by the time I got to the estate sale. Maybe you could start a #lovethewasheryouhave campaign?
Pictures –
The fridge linen closet. I keep small hand towels in the drawer and floor cleaning attachments in the freezer.
- My restaurant quality sprayer. I did lots of research on what I wanted. Hold the handle to spray and the metal piece will lock it in place. That is a very nice feature.
Let me know if you need additional information! Enjoy!
Natalie, this is over the top fabulous. I love the retro look of the laundry room — that tile turned out great. And the dog shower, well, golly, I didn’t even know I needed one, but I do! Thank you so much for sharing. You and Graham continue to just crack me up. xoxo
TappanTrailerTami says
This is an awesome re-do! The fridge-as-a-closet idea is grand especially since it found a new lease on life even though it isn’t working, and it is too cute for words.
The dog shower will be a huge bonus, and is a perfect use of that space, and it looks great too. I currently have to take my 3 dogs to the self service dog wash because I don’t have a handheld shower in my bath/shower unit. I’m going to install an outside dog washing station so I don’t have to do that anymore. Eventually.
And speaking of washing dogs, and dog bathing ideas – I recently took my dogs to a groomer, and she had a PINK deco American Standard bath tub installed, but elevated so no bending over. It was the model with the one end having the outside curve, so it was built for a two wall alcove. Pretty ingenious idea of putting a great old tub to good use.
Thanks for sharing your utility re-do, it turned out most excellently, and your fur friends are so adorable!
Natalie says
Yes! That dog bath sounds amazing. I ran across some of those while searching dog showers/baths.
Kari says
Was there already a floor drain? So wanting to get this idea rolling. Love it.
Natalie says
There was not a floor drain. We have a pier and beam house so installing one with a licensed master plumber was a breeze. Well for me it was – I just wrote the check. Ha.
Eartha Kitsch says
That’s WAY cool! And super cute pups too! Even if the next people who live in their house don’t have dogs, there are so many uses for that little shower that will be appreciated. My one suggestion (if they don’t already have one) would be to pick up one of those rubber thingies at the hardware store that you can put over shower drains to help grab hair so it doesn’t go down the drain, causing problems later on.
Natalie says
The current drain actually prevents a lot of the hair from going down it and I always wipe up all the hair with a rag afterwards and throw it away.
Thanks for the suggestion, I actually thought about doing something extra after reading your post last week about the flood in your house. I am so sorry that happened. I hope things get cleaned up real soon. =(
Eartha Kitsch says
Thanks Natalie! : ) We’re still dealing the flood and are one frustration away from building our ark! I’m overly paranoid now when it comes to anything that can clog a drain, I’ll tell you that! : D
JamieAbe says
I love this! Not only is the laundry room remodel a homerun, but I’m guessing they’re also fellow Texans with their love of the Mavs. We too, named our dog Maeby via A.D. Way to go you two, job well done!
Natalie says
Fantastic! We <3 AD! And yes, we are Texans – born and raised! Glad to know another Texan RetroRenovator!
Kate says
Ohhh this is so great! I have a full shower in my laundry room that is never used (I mostly keep mops in it) and when I get around to reworking the laundry room, maybe I’ll have to turn it into a dog shower! Leo hates baths, but it would be so much easier to have that spray attachment! Thanks for sharing!
Natalie says
Thanks guys! We love the laundry room now. It’s so bright and happy!
Jody says
Absolutely fracking BRILLIANT! I can think of a dozen uses for a half-shower, and cleaning pets is only one of them!
miked says
Sweet! Nice work!
Kelly says
What an AWESOME idea! Definitely stealing the dog shower idea when we re-do our laundry room. The finished room is beautiful!
KathyC says
That looks really amazing! I could find a ton of uses for that dog shower! I’d be washing all kinds of stuff in there. And I bet if you ever have kids, you’d have a tough time keeping them out of the dog shower! If my boys ever saw this they would think we made a tiny shower just for them! This is making me think I should add one to our basement when we try to make it more functional this summer. Great job with the tile floor!
ChrisH says
Looks terrific. Ingenious use of an old fridge.