"Change of Scenery" for My Home - Redesigning, Rearranging and Space saving

I recently started to redesign the interior of my house.  It's part of an overall larger project where I want to "freshen" my home, with some new paint and stuff like that.  I think one of the biggest aspects is going to be creating a "change of scenery", where it's the same home, but feels different because of the layout, colors, accessories, etc.  I really think it's going to be a big improvement.

Re-Designing and Re-Arranging (De-Cluttering)

So far I've found one of the best methods has been to re-arrange my current layout of furniture, stand-up cabinets, wall pictures, mirrors.  Pretty much anything that isn't bolted down has the potential of being moved around.  This gives a completely different feng shui to the whole situation, and it is exactly what I want out of this whole redesign.

This was a shot of my cluttered living room.  THIS is what I mean when I need a fresh, new, change of scenery.  Having the old situation would lead right back to this mess, because of the fact that I'm set in my old ways.  A brand new situation, fresh and clean, would jump me out of my old complacency (hopefully).

Saving Space

Generally speaking one of the benefits I've seen from this project has been the saving of space.  I've found and discarded lots of crap I really didn't need, and the moving of furniture really started to open up the space to where I felt free-er (if that's a word). 

It also brought up the key subject of the laundry room.  The laundry room has been a source of discontent between me and my wife for years.  If you look at the picture above you will notice that there are towels strewn about the table-top, this is because of the fact that our laundry room is cluttered and a mess and doesn't have room for a proper folding table.  So I decided to turn this "fall-cleaning" into an opportunity to change that. 

Laundry Room Tetris - Stacking the Washers

What do I mean by "Laundry Room Tetris"?  Well, unlike all the other areas of the house, the laundry room is a place where the largest appliances (i.e.the washing machine and the dryer) can be moved around and even stacked on top of one another (that is, if you have a front loading washer, which I would recommend).  After doing some research as to the right stackable washer and dryer to buy and eventually buying one from the Stackable Washer and Dryer Co. (neat name), I was able to save a tremendous amount of space.

Stacked Washer/Dryer After a Redesign - Looks Cool eh?

The new "vertical" orientation of the washer/dryer (see picture above) opened up enough floor space for me to put in a nice folding area, store some soaps/detergents underneath the table, and releived some of the pressure of having the laundry spill out into the living room set.  Overall it was a big win, and since we needed new washing machines anyway, it wasn't a crazy extra expense to get front loading/stackable ones.

New Paint Job - A Breath of Fresh Air

Now to sort of finish up the whole shebang, a new paint job will be absolutely wonderful.  It sort of seals up the new design and re-inforces the whole "new scenery" idea.  Have you ever been in a house with a redone paint job/color scheme?  It's like being in a new place entirely.

So that's why I decided to wrap things up with a new paint job.  We decided to go for a soft-yellow in the living room, and a earthy-cream in the kitchen and hallways.  We think this will give us a fresh new start for at least the next couple of years.

So what do you think?  Leave some comments with your thoughts, I'd love to have this start a conversation!