Stephanie Kane’s remodeling mission is to make the most of every space. She documents her ongoing renovations and spruce-up projects in her 1940s Colonial Cape via her Instagram, @the_seasoned_home, and blog of the same name, but until recently, there was one room in the house that wasn’t pulling its weight: the downstairs powder room. “It was so large that I was able to put two tables and a bench in it,” she says. “It didn’t fit, in my mind, and the space was wasted. That’s when we came up with the idea to make our hall closet into a tiny bathroom and the large powder room into a laundry room. Our laundry was down in the basement, and this would make it so much more accessible.”
Stephanie demo-ed the oversized W.C. and set about engineering a laundry space that would be equal parts functional and appealing in shades of blue. “I wanted the focal wall to be the one with the window on it—what you see when you walk in. We had to actually move the window to make it symmetrical and build out the wall a bit too. We played around with the layout for months and finally settled on the washer and dryer at the entry of the room.”
For the utility sink area, Stephanie ordered cabinets from Cabinets.com in the “smoky blue” colorway. “We were originally going to order wood cabinets and paint them, but since these came in blue, we decided to get them and if we didn’t like the color, we would paint over them. We ended up loving the color,” says Stephanie. But there was one hitch: “We didn’t realize the kick plate was not included with the cabinets.”
Enter the ColorReader EZ from Datacolor, a handy tool that allows you to scan any color and get the three closest color matches from the most popular paint brands, plus coordinating colors. Take a look at Stephanie’s transformed laundry room—perfectly matched toe kick included.
Photography courtesy of Stephanie Kane.
After
Above: “I tend to keep spaces pretty neutral, but I feel like small spaces are where you can have some fun,” Stephanie says. She opted for a palette of cool blues: paint, tile, and grey-blue slate floors. But when the cabinets arrived sans toe kick, Stephanie needed to seamlessly match the blue of the cabinets without trying endless paint samples (a task both tedious and messy).
Datacolor’s ColorReader EZ solved the problem. “We placed the device on the cabinet, and within seconds we had a few paint matches,” she says. “We went with what looked to be an identical color: Sherwin Williams’ Smoky Azurite. It was truly a perfect match. So perfect that when we realized we wanted to box in the washer and dryer with a cabinet, we built it ourselves and used the same color. It saved us so much time and money. We didn’t have to order the pieces; we were able to make them all and just use this little device.”
Above: Art finds a place in even the most utilitarian of spaces.
Here’s how the ColorReader EZ works: Download the Datacolor ColorReader app and sync the device to your smartphone. Then, use the small, portable tool to scan any color—from a textile, piece of art, or, yes, an already-painted cabinet or wall. The device will offer three color matches from the most popular paint brands as well as coordinating colors and palette ideas. You can save and share color ideas, including with your paint mixer or designer.
Above: “I didn’t use a farmhouse sink in my kitchen renovation and wished I had, so I knew that was what I wanted for this room,” says Stephanie. The wall behind is tiled in a pale blue design.
Above: Function meets beauty: The counters are polished Carrara marble.
Above: “We decided on a stackable washer/dryer because it would save space,” says Stephanie. She built a simple wooden box around the appliances, painted the exterior in matching blue (again using the ColorReader EZ), then hung a space-saving wall-mounted drying rack.
Above: A look at the tiny ColorReader EZ and companion Datacolor ColorReader app.
Before
Above: The powder room, before.
N.B.: Save $10* on ColorReader EZ now through October 31st; enter code REMODELISTA at checkout. (Valid in US and Canada only.)
For more about the Datacolor ColorReader EZ, see The Perfect Palette: A Color-Matching Tool for Finding the Ideal Paint and head to the Datacolor website.