A Place To Air Our Laundry

One of my recent room makeovers was the laundry room.  This was one of the few rooms left to paint and put our stamp on.  

There wasn't much here to begin with other than our washer and dryer on pedestals and a wire shelf. 

Before - laundry room

Before I show off the finished result, I have to give my mom a shout out, as this room would not have been made over if it wasn't for her help.  Sienna was having a fussy week, which limited my ability to do anything other than give some direction, slap on some paint, and use a few nails.  THANKS MOM!

After - laundry room

This was one of the most intense, frustrating, and complex rooms I've ever redone.  It took one week (or two months depending on how you look at it) and roughly eight trips to Lowes.  

We started out by removing the pedestals from both the washer and dryer.  I debated over this for a while, as the pedestals provided nice storage and lifted the washer and dryer up for easy use.  However, I really wanted a flat surface for folding clothes, and if the pedestals stayed I wouldn't have been able to make that work. 

Then came the paint.  For this room I chose Valspar "Apricot Jam" which is a bright, happy orange color.  It made a huge impact on this small, windowless room. 

We then tackled the wainscoting.  For some reason, we had a really hard time finding studs in the walls which resulted in using a lot of liquid nails to keep the boards up.  We were still able to sink a few nails in when we were able to locate a stud.  The wainscoting covers four of the five walls, as we didn't place any behind the washer and dryer.  My mom finished off the look with the chair rail nailed in over the boards.  

For storage I decided on a tall freestanding cabinet and some shelves.  I knew I wanted shelving that came out farther than the previous wire shelf so it would be easier to store and reach items.  We headed to Lowes with measurements in hand and found a 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood for our table top.  Once cut, we realized we could utilize the excess wood for shelving.  I wanted the shelving to come out the depth of the cabinet to give the illusion of one large storage unit, so we had them cut the remaining wood into two pieces 18 inches deep to match.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find cute brackets that fit 18 inch shelving, so I resorted to smaller black brackets meant for 15 inch shelving.  I don't plan on putting much weight on the shelves, so it seems like the smaller brackets will work just fine.  To finish off the storage area, I found cute storage bins at Homegoods for items like toilet paper, towels and iron.  I also hung a paper towel holder under the lower shelf for convenience.

Shelving

I tossed around the idea of using a Formica countertop over the washer and dryer at the beginning of this project and even came home with a six foot piece of Formica to use.  However, we quickly realized the Formica didn't have the depth needed to cover the entire washer and dryer.  We returned the Formica and decided to make a table instead.  This turned out to be my favorite piece in the room.  We stained the plywood black, added white spindles as legs, and had a notch cut out of the left corner for the water hook-up.  

On the opposite wall, I have a simple white shelf with some pieces of scrapbook framed.  I might add a message station of some sort under the shelf at some point in the future.  

The last corner was a tough area to figure out.  There is an angled wall with little space next to it.  This space ended up being perfect to store our ironing board.  I also added some wall mounted hooks for hanging up items like coats, purses, diaper bags, etc.

On the flat wall, we have an electrical panel for some of the wiring in our house, which I wanted to cover up but still be able to get to if needed.  With leftover bead board and some composite, I created a mounted back for our drying rack.  We hung this up by sinking it into drywall screws which we'll be able to unscrew when needing to access the electrical panel.  I added a black "laundry" sign I found at Hobby Lobby to finish off the space. 

Drying Rack

I hope you like the laundry room makeover!  It's nice to have a fun space around me when there seems to be endless amounts of laundry :)

My fun new space!

Next room up - our upstairs bathroom!