Our Budget Friendly Laundry/Mudroom Makeover - Adding Wallpaper and Board and Batten

Well, I finally finished making our laundry room/mudroom makeover. Usually once I start a project I am impatient and want to get it done as quickly as possible. This project though I got stuck on. I added the built in back in January, then the first week of March I added the board and batten to the rest of the room. But then I got stuck. I was so torn on whether or not I wanted to paint the board and batten to same Soot color as the built-in and cabinets or white. I really really wanted to go with the Soot color but the room is very narrow and has no natural light so that left me a bit unsure. I think I still would have gone with it but it left me with a bit of a problem in how to deal with the door framing for three different doors in here so I ultimately just played it safe and went with white. However I added board and batten to our powder room yesterday and put the first coat of Soot on that last night so I will get to do that after all – just not in here! Haha!

Once I painted the board and batten white then I got really indecisive. I had eight different wallpaper samples up in here at one point and couldn’t pull the trigger. On a complete whim I bought this inexpensive peel and stick paper from Target and as soon as I hung the first piece I knew it was NOT what I wanted in here. I had planned on going with more of a sophisticated look. However, I just kept going because I wanted to be done with it. So, this was actually not at all the overall look I had planned. This is definitely more “fun” than I intended. I should say I do love the wallpaper itself. I would love it in Lola’s room or her bathroom or a nursery! It’s just this isn’t what I had envisioned in here. But oh well, I am happy to have this room finished. And this paper was considerably cheaper than the other wallpaper I was deciding between so that kept my overall cost on this makeover down!

So here’s a reminder of what the room looked like back when we moved in.

Because this goes out to our garage and is how we enter our house most of the time, we wanted this to function as a mudroom as well as a laundry room. So with all of that empty space over to the left I decided to add a built-in. Now that we have had it for three months I can say it has been such a huge addition. It has added so much functionality to this room for us and has really helped us keep things organized.

Here’s another before shot:

My original hope was to keep this whole laundry/mudroom makeover under $500. Because I ended up going with a cheaper wallpaper than I had originally planned on I actually came in somewhere between $350-400. I used paint that I already had so it was basically all the wood and supplies for the built-in and board and batten plus the wallpaper and then the new hardware for the cabinets and the hooks.

Because this room doesn’t get any natural light whatsoever I had to open up the door to the garage so I could take these photos.

I added a bunch of hooks to this wall. Right now they are just holding decorative stuff and a hat I wear regularly but in this summer I feel like it will be a great spot to hang towels and bathing suits!