Our laundry room was dark, crowded, lacked storage, and awkward. See how we transformed my least favorite room in our house into a room I can't stay out of!
*We haven't put the final touches on this room yet, but a final reveal is coming soon. Here is the process of our laundry room transformation so far.*
We moved into our first home 3 years ago this spring and ever since the first day we toured our house I have wanted to make countless changes. Not extreme changes, but changes that make it feel like ours. Our house is a small 1,064 sq. ft. beginner ranch style home with no character. Every room was a tan box. We've been trying to work on each room a little at a time. One of the most challenging rooms for me was our laundry room/mudroom off of our kitchen. When we toured the house, there was an open archway off the kitchen that lead into this pretty large and long laundry room. Honestly, the laundry room is what sold me on this house. We had been living in a upstairs apartment with no on site laundry. I had to climb icy stairs to and from my car with laundry baskets. Then drive down the street to a laundry mat with my daughter to wash our clothes. After 2 years of that and another child later; I had just about enough of it. Therefore, having a laundry room on the main floor (our house is one story/no basement) that was large and bright was all I needed to say yes. That and my husband was basically done house hunting at this point. The house felt like home when we walked inside.
our laundry room after
At first our laundry room wasn't even something I thought about changing much. The only thing it lacked was storage space. We didn't have a budget to buy cabinets when we first moved in so I went a different route. I really liked the trendy open shelves look that display dishes and cake stands that was flooding my Pinterest and Instagram. I thought that would be really cute above my washer and dryer off the kitchen to display my laundry soap or dishes. Shortly after, it became a catch all for everything that wasn't suppose to be up there. Printers, random papers, and even bike helmets were sitting on these shelves. The shelves constantly were collecting dust and it went from a great and expensive idea to a "I told you so" situation. I wasn't going to let my husband win on this Pinterest idea fail. He hated the shelves to begin with, but put them up because he loves me.
- Tackling A Design Challenge -
At first, my goal for this room was to create the most practical storage as humanly possible. We don't have a garage and finding ways to store our stuff was challenging. We only have a shed and this laundry room to store basically anything and everything. My husband has the weirdest views on building a garage. It's like a war every time I bring it up and tell him he should just build one. This laundry room was multifunctional. It was a laundry room, a storage room, a tool room, a computer room/office, and a pantry. It was a chaotic mess. The other problem I had with this room is the awkward window that is shoved in the corner of the room. WHY?! Why did the builder make the room like that?! On the back wall there is a back door and this awkward window. Personally, I think it would of been better to center the window on the wall and get rid of the door. Although, I don't have the funds to make those kind of changes. We're just gonna work with what we have.
The problems kept growing; I made a mistake by adding shelves. The laundry room was super bright before the shelves and adding the shelves blocked the majority of the light coming through. Apparently, we spent a lot of money on the shelves. I wouldn't know because we also bought the washer and dryer on the same day. I don't think they were THAT expensive, but my husband said they were defiantly over $200-$300. I'm not exactly sure what I spent, but I knew if I took them down my husband would be mad that I spent the money on something that I now hate as well.
Lastly, we quickly discovered that we hated people viewing into our laundry room when we would gather at the dinning table during holidays. Most of the time, the laundry was done and picked up, but it still felt weird for us. We fixed that problem by creating a sliding barn door. You can find that project here. Then for a short time, we used this nook off the laundry room as my husbands computer space. I didn't mind him using the space back there for it, but if you have a husband that plays video games on PC or XBOX you know exactly how loud and annoying they can get.
what our laundry room looked like before
How were we going to make this room work for us?! It seemed like it would be impossible to ever have it be practical and functional. The space went through several changes since we've moved in. It wasn't until Spring of 2020 that we finally agreed upon an amazing plan to tackle this room. We all know what happened next... covid-19, stores shutting down, etc. Our amazing plans were put on hold and I could not be more frustrated. Fast forward to Fall of 2020 and I set myself a goal to at least do this: paint the walls.
I decided if I wasn't going to be able to afford to make my dream plans a reality; I could at least paint the walls that desperately needed painted. A fresh coat of paint can really transform a room! I figured maybe the new paint color would make me happier for now. I chose a paint color that my husband didn't agree with... oh my gosh. I promise we don't argue much at all, but when it comes to home remodeling we don't see eye to eye too often. I just wanted this laundry room to feel bigger and brighter. I would just continue dealing with what I had and make the best of it. I set myself a goal to paint the walls before Thanksgiving dinner. Which unexpectedly turned into a snow ball effect and got my husband moving on this laundry room makeover!
- The Design Plan -
We had several ideas of how we wanted the laundry room remodel to go. We created a priority list and tried to come up with ways that would be practical, functional, and not break the bank. That main priority was to add more kitchen storage space, additional counter top for parties, and be able to reuse our living room coat closet as a coat closet (we had moved the pantry into the coat closet). At first, my husband thought about making a "butlers pantry" type of cabinet set up in this back nook of our laundry room. It's about a 4 foot by 5-6 foot space. It was just going to be 2 base cabinets with a counter top and 1 upper cabinet. It was something we felt that was affordable at the time and was also going to provide us with enough storage for what we were trying to accomplish. The thought of having an additional 4 foot counter top for more prep space during parties excited me! That was the original plan before things went south and the whole plan was shelfed for 6 months.
I knew I wanted to make the space bright and light again! I wanted WHITE walls! This terrified my husband and he straight up said NO.
"It's a laundry room mudroom Jackie! White walls are going to constantly show dirt and what happens if you get mud on the walls?!" He said.
Ummmmm.... you wipe them off?!?! I forget, we must not own cleaning supplies. *eye roll*
I went back and forth on some other color options. I had greys, blues, greens, and lighter tans. Nothing really excited me like the idea of just going white, bright, and light. To achieve this, it also meant ripping those shelves off the wall. Then one day when I can afford it; replacing the back door with a door that has more windows.
I wanted a overall feel of calmness and a place I would enjoy being in. I'm not the biggest fan of doing laundry, so if I loved the room, maybe I would enjoy doing it more?! I wanted white walls, natural tone woods, white counter tops, white trim, light pouring in, maybe a live plant (if I can keep it alive), pops of blush, rust, creams, and sage/hunter greens. That's the vibe I wanted to achieve and it would soon be my reality.
- Making The Changes -
I set a goal to just paint the walls. I didn't expect my husband to offer buying the cabinets and counter tops we had talked about. My goal of painting just the walls before Thanksgiving dinner turned into transforming this laundry room in one week. I went to my favorite hardware store, Home Depot, and picked out the perfect white! That perfect white for our space was Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee; the perfect warm white. My daughter says it looks like the color of butter and in a way it does. Trust me, it's beautiful!!!!
The first thing we had to do was remove EVERYTHING from the room and purge out anything we didn't need. It felt so good to let go of so much stuff we didn't use or need. Having the space empty and open felt so good! The best day ever was removing the shelves off the wall and saying SO LONG! I will never have open shelving like that, on that size scale, ever again! The dust it collects was gross. If you have open shelving in your home, like the kitchen, with all your pretty serving ware displayed... I have to know: Do you dust it everyday? It's so popular these days, but I feel like I would have to wash every dish before I used it. I was going to wait for my husband to come home and take the shelves down for me, but I'm too impatient. Here are some before pictures of me taking out the shelves. I then went around the room and patched every whole, nick, and any other imperfection.
That craziest of decisions we made in this room was to remove our utility sink. We were trying to make the most of the space and along the way we decided to add more cabinets. We started with a plan to buy three and ended up buying a total of 6 cabinets. Behind the washer and dryer is a lot exposed plumbing, the dryer vent tube that runs outside, and cords. We had an idea of sliding the washer and dryer down to the right. Then adding base cabinets to the left and a counter top under that window. This would require us to cut the cabinets to feed the vent tubes, plumbing, and everything else through the base cabinets. In return, we were going to loose storage space inside those base cabinets. Then my husband had the idea of sliding the washer and dryer to the left under the window. We would then have base cabinets on the right hand side of the washer and dryer. We could install two 24 inch base cabinets, not have to cut into the cabinets at all, and we could buy a precut 4 foot counter top to fit it perfectly! All we had to do was disconnect the utility sink, shut off the water at that point, and remove the sink from the wall. Easy right?!
Removing the sink was the best option for us because we hardly used it. It was just waisted space and a item we didn't need to have. We left all the plumbing and hook ups though, this way if we ever want to put a sink back in; we can! If we ever did, we would modify the cabinets and counter tops to include a sink. If we ever move, the new owners could easily install a new sink too. Once we had made our final decisions on the layout, the rest just flew by!
We primed our walls first with KILZ original brand interior primer for heavy stain and order block. The Home Depot employee talked me into this product. I was a little worried because it's oil based. He warned me that my house would be smelly. We would need to air out the space for a day or two. He recommended that we used this specific item based on our situation. I honestly don't believe our laundry room was ever primed. Before the original owner put the house on the market, he must of went around the house and painted over errors in the paint with a shade of tan that just didn't match up right. Our whole house needs repainted because of this. There was also crayon, pencil, and whatever else was on the walls in the laundry room. The laundry room was also a tan shade and we were going white. Priming the walls was necessary and I wanted the truest color we could get! Smelly primer it is! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad. I couldn't smell a thing! hahaha. Two coats of primer hid all the imperfections pretty well!
Next step was to paint the color! The gorgeous warm white that I picked out; Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee! I've never been more nervous and anxious about a paint color. Oh gosh, I was so worried my husband would not like the color at all. He already told me no white and I picked white anyways. I had to deliver and prove him wrong. haha. This paint was shockingly whiter than I thought. Paint colors always look way different in the can vs how they look dried on the walls. I swear I was sweating and my heart was probably racing as I painted the walls. I just wanted them to be perfect and not have to go pick out a different paint color. In the end, Aaron wasn't too negative about it, and I think he kind of likes it. As for me, I am totally in LOVE with the color of room. It's the perfect shade of warm creamy white and it's so bright in there ALL DAY LONG! eeee! I love it so much! It's hands down my favorite room in the house and were not even close to finishing!
These pictures don't really do the color justice. The walls were still wet and it was dark outside. I'll get to the better pictures soon! Are you seeing my vision come to life yet? Once the paint was dry, we ran to our nearest Menards store and grabbed our cabinets! Thank you to YouTube for a mini learning session of how to install cabinets and a lending hand from my father in law. Having his help made installing those cabinets a lot easier and a lot less stressful for Aaron.
We did have to do a little jimmy rigging for the cabinets to hang up on the walls. That's because our studs were not spaced well in the room. My husband was not comfortable with only having 1 screw holding up a cabinet with a Kitchen Aid Mixer inside of it. My father in law used this trick with his cabinets that he recently installed. I had never in my life heard of anyone doing this, but I went along for the ride. How did we solve this problem?
They bought some 1x2 boards and cut them to the length of the cabinets. They installed 1 board across the top backside of the cabinets and 1 board across the bottom backside of the cabinets into the wall. They screwed these boards into the wall/studs. Then the cabinets were screwed into the boards instead of the wall. Are you following? This way it would be more secure and anchored.
So far so good! My Kitchen Aid Mixer hasn't caused the cabinet to rip off the wall. haha. We have a 1 inch gap behind the cabinets and the wall. That's one reason why we haven't finished the space yet. Cabinet side panels are made to finish the cabinets perfectly; 12x30. We need them to be 13x30. I suppose we could purchase base cabinet side panels that are 24 x 34 1/2 and then cut them to the size we need. We've also tossed around the idea of bead board, but using the base cabinet side panel cut to size would match our wood perfect and take the stain color in the same way.
The base cabinets were easier to install since those could be installed to the wall. We didn't have to worry about those falling down. My husband cut the trim boards away from the wall and removed what we needed out of the way. Slid the cabinets into place, leveled them, and screwed them into place. The counter top was easy too since it was a perfect fit! We may not of done this whole project to professional standards, but for DIYers on a budget we made this room look GOOD! We were so proud of what we had accomplished together!
We still need to purchase a toe kick board for the base cabinets too! We added in so much more storage space for our kitchen appliances, serve ware, and bake ware, that we actually haven't filled the spaces completely. It's lovely! I absolutely love and adore my new counter top space! I love that I can plug in my crock pot and cook dinner on that counter top without having to crowd the kitchen counter tops even more. Most of all, I love that I have room to actually fold clothes! The laundry gets done now. It's incredible!
When it came to staining or painting the cabinets, I knew I should probably stain them first. We both agreed that the room was very white now and white cabinets was just too much white. That doesn't mean we agreed on stain colors. My husband wanted me to stain the cabinets dark walnut. The same color we used for our sliding barn door. I love the barn door and the color it is, but I felt that would be too dark for the vibe I wanted in the room. I didn't want dark cabinets. I'm okay with the barn door being it's own shade of awesomeness and the cabinets being a totally different stained wood color. I was actually considering clearing the unfinished cabinets as is, because I liked how it looked already. Husband wasn't a fan of that. I stained my piano bench a few months before using Weathered Oak. The wood of the piano bench had lots of orange/reds pulling and the weather oak did a great job of toning down those tones. I was hopeful it would do the same for our cabinets. I was very nervous for how the wood would take the stain. It went smoothly and covered exactly how I hoped it would. I didn't want the stain to read gray. I just wanted it to mute any reds that would pull and still give it a natural wood tone look. Luckily, everything went according as planned and I didn't run into any hiccups. I was not about to sand cabinets or paint them.
I picked out black pulls with bronze copper highlights for our cabinets. We have the same brand and style in our kitchen. This way it ties the two rooms together since the laundry room is right off the kitchen. Even though we have the sliding barn door to divide the spaces {`click here for sliding barn door plans} I didn't want them to be too different from each other. Overall, I am loving how the room is turning out! We still have a few minor things to finish the space. Maybe this year I will replace my back door with something more my style. A rug or runner, a candle, maybe a live plant, a few pops of color, and this room will be finished... for now! ;)
the laundry room after
- Our Supplies List & Budget -
I was lucky enough to only need 1 can of primer and 1 can of color paint. I already had some leftover trim paint from previous projects. I spent around $60- $80 in paint, primer, a trim paint brush, rollers, paint tray liners, painters tape, and whatever else I may of needed. Paint is not too expensive and is the easiest way to transform a room.
For our cabinets, we chose to use unfinished preassembled oak cabinets from Menards called Quality One. They were most the affordable route for us. We considered building our own cabinets, but with the lack of necessary tools and our time frame, buying unfinished preassembled cabinets was our best choice. We bought (2) 24 inch base cabinets, (3) 30 inch upper wall cabinets, and (1) 18 inch upper wall cabinet. We spent around $500 in cabinets, but the trade off was receiving mail in rebates for some of that cost back.
For counter tops, we chose to use Menards Custom Craft Countertops precut 4 foot laminate counter top in Calacatta Marble. I wanted white counter tops and this marble look was beautiful! Even more so in person! I've gotten so many compliments about it. This precut 4 foot counter top that is usually kept in stock at the stores and cost us $55! WHAT!? I thought that was crazy cheap!
I wasn't sure what route I wanted to go for finishing the cabinets. I knew it would be best stain them first and try that before jumping into painting the cabinets. We chose to stain the cabinets with Weather Oak wood stain. I used two small cans of stain and that only cost me about $10.
Our cabinet pulls we used are Home Depot Liberty Brand arched black and bronze copper highlight pulls. They were cheaper to buy a pack of 6 and that cost me around $20. I needed two packs of them.
Therefore, we have spent around $700 (give or take including extra costs of materials/wood/screws/stain/pulls/etc.) so far to transform this laundry room! Did we have a budget? I would say Yes, because we started out not wanting to spend over a certain amount on cabinets. Otherwise, we probably would not have done this project. Did we plan to spend close to $1,000 on one room?! No. I don't believe either one of us expected to spend near $1,000 on this room. It's just a laundry room, but this transformation has provided us with so much more storage and organization that we desperately needed in this smaller home. Going forward, I don't want to spend much more than additional $500 on the room. That $500 would include materials we need to finish the cabinets off, replacing the back door, and any décor items I may purchase for the room.
We are not finished! We still have some things to address in this room before we can say it's 100% finished. We need to buy side panels for the cabinets or create our own method for covering them up. We need to purchase the toe kick board for the base cabinets. I'm undecided if any kind of blinds or window treatments need to go on the window. I would love to replace our back door and storm door in the laundry room one day soon (maybe this summer) and paint it. I would like to buy some décor for the room including: a rug, maybe a live hanging plant, candles, laundry baskets, or whatever else sparks my interest. My husband has said we would like to change the lighting in there possibly. I would like to switch the outlet and switch covers. I would love to do board and batten, but I doubt I will win on that idea.
There's really not that much to finish until we can finally say it's done! I am hoping by summer we can finish up this room & fully reveal the transformation! Make sure you're following us on Instagram, so you don't miss a thing!
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