Fresh and Functional Laundry Room

What an exciting moment here! Finally, the makeover is over. The laundry room has been completely transformed from an unorganized dark cave to a new and fully functional space. The makeover started with the need to declutter my pantry in the kitchen. We have a good size pantry but not big enough for me. I enjoy cooking and baking, so over time, I have collected many pantry essentials and small kitchen appliances. The laundry room is conveniently located close to the kitchen about six steps away. It is the perfect place to offload some of my pantry goods there. Before we get to the “Ahhh,” let’s take a moment back to the “Ugh” with the before photo, my plan, and the process for space.

BEFORE: A DARK CAVE TURNS LIGHT BLUE

The left photo: This this how the laundry room looked like in its original condition. It was just an empty room with no appliances, painted in a dark gray color with a busy feather pattern. The laundry room is located at the back of the house so this color is way too dark for a small room that has no natural light coming through at all. Again, it felt like a cave. Not knowing what to do with the space just yet, I painted it blue (right photo).

Just to have something to help organize all the cleaning tools, I got a wall organizer and a cheap shelf for detergents and fabric softener. Over time, other cleaning tools and laundry items had been randomly added to the shelf. It’s messy and an eyesore every time I walked in here.

DESIGNING & PLANNING

So here’s what I planned: 

• Make this room functional by adding storage to the vertical empty wall space. With these extra storages, I can declutter my pantry in the kitchen.
• Create a cleaning supplies and tools hub.
• Make this room more enjoyable to do laundry – well, at least try.

All of the above is just a quick recap – more details go into this makeover. I have posts that talk about Design and Planning, which is Part 1, and the second part is the entire process of revamping this room. But for now, let’s take a look at the after.

THE AFTER

A little sneak peek 🙂 My goal for this the laundry room is to create a fresh looking functional space. I have to say that I love how this room turned out. I think we are making the best use of every square footage in this room without crowding the space.

WALLPAPER

After I finalized the layout mockup of the room, I started the design process with a wallpaper. I know that using a wallpaper that is fun, lively, and with just the right amount of boldness (like this botanic pattern) would work with my plan of having a few decorative pieces. Functionality and practicality are important key things I tried to think about. The design of the room should be able to stand on its own without adding too many things to collect dust and get in the way of doing practical chores.

WALL CABINETS

On the designing and planning post, I have a different layout for cabinet placement. After playing around with the designs, I ended up with this layout. It works best for this room. Adding cabinets to the empty wall space way a great way to add more storage. And I could have put one more cabinet to this wall, but too many of them in a small space like this room felt heavy and crowded because of the big, bulky, and boxy shapes of the cabinets. So I left one out to have some breathing room. Then installed a small floating shelf and a hanging rod to create a visual interest and additional functionality to the area.

A COUNTERTOP

One of the must-haves for this room is a wall to wall folding countertop. Aside from having a big space for folding clothes, it also prevents small items like socks from falling in between gaps.

The process of making this countertop is simple but took time. We got Birch plywood from Home Depot, cut to size, and added wood veneer strips to hide unfinished edges. We then sealed it with Polyurethane. I decided not to stain the wood because this wood tone is perfect for this room. It added just the right amount of warmth.

For convenience, I added a lint roller and a jar of dryer sheets in a small woven tray on the countertop. Then placed them on the side to keep the space clean and ready to use.

HIDE ALL THAT OUTLETS, WATER PIPES, AND HOSE

“How can I hide all of these and still be able to access it when I needed to?” This is the question/concern that I had when I saw all the cords, electrical outlets, and water hoses on the wall behind the washer and dryer.

So I came up with a simple solution to this problem. “An L shape shelf.” Basically, these are two pieces of wood that have the same length and the same treatment as the countertop but cut in different heights. Secure the two wood pieces together by screws. Then flipped it against the wall as shown in the photo above. It would hide all those cords and outlets by covering them, and it can be easily removed if we needed to access that area. The best part is that it looks like a component of the countertop useful for other small items if needed.

ARTWORK

I wanted to keep it clean and simple, I found these prints from Etsy and a door sign from Target. They are just perfect for the laundry room.

MORE STORAGE

Moving to the next wall, we added floating shelves to create more storage space without closing the entire wall with cabinets. With open shelves, I used tall baskets to store small cleaning supplies like Windex, cleaning sponge, kitchen towels, etc. While these plastic woven baskets keep everything tidy and organized, it also adds texture to the room. I like how the weaves on the basket is small, but there are enough holes for you to see what is in the basket — so no need to look inside each one every time I need something.

I have thought about changing the container of laundry detergents, softener, and Clorox to beautiful glass jars I saw on Pinterest. As much as I like how it would look on the shelf, I don’t think it is practical for me. Our laundry room is one of the busiest rooms in the house. We do laundry so often that it will become a hassle for me to refill the jars every time we run out of detergents. So instead, I got a laundry detergent cup holder that also prevents drips drop on the floor. It fits most laundry detergent spouts, easy to clean, and easy to use.

At the bottom of the shelve, I added a round plastic woven basket for throwing dirty towels in.

THE CLEANING TOOLS HUB

We want to keep most of the often used cleaning tools such as vacuum cleaners, mops, and brooms in the house instead of in the garage. But having them hanging on the wall or leave it by the corner look messy. So I create a “cleaning tools hub” to hide them.

90″ tall and 24″ wide, the cleaning tool hub fits all of the cleaning tools that we want to keep in the house. It’s also big enough to store other needed items like trash can bags, cleaning gloves, toilet papers, and paper towels.

BEHIND THE DOOR

Behind the door, I hanged an ironing board and a steam iron. Even though we don’t do ironing often, I still want to have them in the house just in case we need them.

Aaaand that is it for this laundry room. No more cleaning tools hanging on the top of each other, or socks falling in between laundry machines gaps. Whatever cleaning tools we need to use at any moment are easy to find because every item has its spot. I was skeptical about adding the big boxy tall cabinet. I was not sure if it will make the entire room and make it feel smaller; however, it did just the opposite. The entire room feels bigger. The vertical line and the height of the cabinets that go up almost to the ceiling help draw the eyes up and give a sense of openness.

I love how the entire room has been transformed into a fully functional space. What’s more to love about this makeover is that I did not go over the budget. My budget was $1,000 and the final cost is just a little bit under the budget. 😉

<< Laundry Room Makeover: Process

Cost breakdown & link to where I shop:

Wallpaper: $279.93 (7 rolls / $39.99 each)

Ikea Cabinets : $480 (a tall cabinet, two wall cabinets, suspension rail, door hinges, and door dampers)

Black Stainless Steel Cabinet Pulls: $33.55 (4 pcs – 6.75in, 1 pc – 13in)

Wall Brackets: $26.40 (12 pcs / $2.20 each)

Birch Plywood: $99.98 (2 pcs / 49.99 each)

Wood Veneer Edging Band: $19.98 (2 rolls / $9.99 each)

Water-Based Polyurethane: $16

Hanging Rod: $11.99

Total: $967.83