Well, we finally finished our little makeover of the laundry room. We started it over a year ago but then got a sidetracked with some other projects and just finally finished it up last week. Well, technically I still need to hang some more hooks on the wall you can’t see opposite the washer and dryer but other than that it is done for now. Some day we would love to add a proper counter in here and sink and put down the floor we used in the upstairs bathroom but we don’t have any plans on doing any of those projects for quite a while. Even though we don’t plan on doing those big projects any time soon we did want to update the laundry room inexpensively so that it felt more like the rest of our house, especially because the way we go in and out of our house (we rarely use our front door) this is the first space you see.

The first thing I did last year was paint the trim and the cabinets. I used leftover paint from our kitchen and painted it in London Fog. Then when I repainted the kitchen and family room I also repainted the trim color in here Simply White so now all the trim in every square inch of this house finally matches. Yay! I left the cabinets London Fog though in here when I repainted the trim and still haven’t decided if I am going to keep it that way or not.

After I painted I bought some peel and stick floors from Lowe’s to cover up the old vinyl ones for now. Eventually I’d like to do the same floor we did in our upstairs bathroom but seeing how this only cost about $35 it was a nice inexpensive improvement for now. I did replace two of them last week because a year and a half of the washing machine vibrating on them had wiggled two of them a little bit. They are so easy though – it only took about 2 minutes to pull up the two old ones and stick two new ones down. 

Then last year I also got a huge piece of plywood to act as a countertop for above our washer and dryer. Eventually I’d like to replace it with a proper counter but for now this works and makes the whole space so much more functional! I stained it with Rustoleum’s Weathered Gray and Minwax’s Provincial. Getting that huge piece of plywood in there was a huge undertaking. I did that project while Jon was out of town and have to say it was probably one of my least intelligent moves. Just trying to get it down off the top of my car by myself was interesting enough and then I got it stuck trying to get it in the laundry room, and I really mean STUCK- let’s just say a few tears were shed doing this project. Haha! Although the countertop was a nightmare the floor was the opposite. I would say it only took about an hour to install it and it was actually pretty fun! I added some baskets from HomeGoods – one for Jon, one for myself and one for each of the girls. I have to say this system works so amazing! It’s been over a year now since we did that with the baskets and it has made a huge difference to our laundry routine. 

I quickly sewed a basic little skirt using some basic ticking striped fabric that hides where we keep our larger trash can and some dustpans, little brooms and other little things like that. All of those changes were done a while ago and I think cost a little over $100. 

Later on we got rid of the fluorescent light and took the mini chandelier that was upstairs and moved it in here. 

Last week we added this beautiful wallpaper from Wallpaper Direct. We’ve gotten several different papers from them (you can see them here, here and here) and love their selection and quick delivery. This wallpaper was a little more traditional looking than I was originally planning on but when the samples came the other papers I had in mind didn’t look quite right and the color on this one matched our washer and dryer perfectly (and yes, we have a very blue washer and dryer thanks to a huge sale on them when our old washer and dryer decided to die one right after the other right after we moved in – haha!) The fact that our house is a very traditional looking Williamsburg style home helped me pull the trigger on this paper because I knew it overall went with the feel of our house and even though it wasn’t what I originally had in mind I am really happy with how it turned out. When we walk in the back door you see this straight ahead and you can also see the dining room and the color on this coordinates really well with the Kendall Charcoal color of the dining room walls. 

After the wallpaper was hung we added this little chalkboard sign from HomeGoods and wrote the word laundry on it and then the year long process of what really was just a mini makeover that should have taken a few days was finally finished – haha! 

And sorry – the pictures are awful because there is ZERO natural light in this space and it’s small and nearly impossible to photograph from just about any angle but the little tiny hallway outside of it. But you can at least get a general feel of how it looks. 

Sources:

Wallpaper – Wallpaper Direct
Trim – Simply White in Semi-Gloss by Benjamin Moore
Cabinet Color – London Fog in Semi-Gloss by Benjamin Moore
Baskets – HomeGoods
Chalkboard Sign – HomeGoods
Bag – was a gift from my aunt
Hamper – HomeGoods
Mini Chandelier – Lowe’s
Washer and Dryer – Lowe’s
Vase Holding Flowers from our Yard – Emma pitcher from Pottery Barn
Fabric for curtain hiding trash can – Joann Fabric
Floor – Peel and Stick from Lowes (can’t find the name brand or color info)