House Tours - Laundry Room - Before

As you know if you have been reading along, I am looking to make some design changes around my house.  Maybe it's because I'm a Libra and I like pretty things, or maybe Astrology is bologna, and I just want my house to look better, who knows.

I asked for a little help in deciding which room I would work on first in my original post.  I got a little input and it looks like I'll be doing my laundry room.  I'm pretty excited to start there.  You might think I spend a lot of time in there, but I don't really.  I deal with my laundry machines or whatever else I need in there and get the heck out as fast as I can.  It's super convenient to have a nice laundry room on our first floor, but I hate being in that room.  It's also our coat closet and first floor storage area, so it's cluttered.  On top of that, there is a problem with the vent for the dryer, which my mom has been on my husband since day 1 to fix, so some of the lint from the back escapes and gets everything linty.

I'm a little nervous to take the true "before" pictures.  But I am all about honesty.  Maybe you'll feel a little better about having a gross room in your house.  Other people have gross rooms right?

So, here goes.

The lighting in my house is lousy at best, so bear with me.

From the hallway looking in.  There is a glass door that doesn't stay open, and also doesn't stay shut. Awesome

From the doorway.  Like I said, lighting = bad.  That's a fold out ironing  board to the right (I hate it).  The floor in that corner holds our floor cleaning stuff, and bulk TP and paper towels. 

The "coat closet" part is directly next to the door leading in. Our few board games and random blankets are above.

Below the hanging part, I have our laundry sorter (which my husband can't seem to figure out) and reusable shopping bags.  

To the left of that is our tools and odds and ends.  We have a lot of places like this.

Where do we put that comforter with holes in it that we don't use anymore?  Oh yeah, above the tools.

The storage cabinets above the washer and dryer.  Yep that's a crockpot to the right, and a roasting pan top left.  We don't have a lot of kitchen storage.  

The view from inside.  That green basket is my sons dirty stuff

Top of the dryer.  Another place for random stuff.  I clean this off all the time, but it  looks like this again within a few days.

And the dryer vent.  Sorry mom. 

This is the one room in the house that we didn't paint before we moved in.  We actually bought enough paint but it just seemed silly because it's such a small area with so much going on, And we were sick of painting.

What I am thinking of doing now, is painting the doors to all the cabinets to add some color to the room.  Also I need to reorganize pretty much every area.  I am thinking of a ocean vibe in there.  My mom gave me some cool shell decorations for Christmas that she got at Cape Cod that I have to find a home for, so I think this would work well.  More than anything I just don't want to dread walking through the non-closing, non-opening door anymore.

I'm giving myself a month to complete my project here, I think that should be enough time.
If you have any suggestions, PLEASE leave them! And, wish me luck.