Our budget laundry room reveal {laundry closet}

Today I am sharing our budget laundry room reveal. We did buy a new washer and dryer as our other ones both stopped working within a week of each. I factored out the cost of the appliances when I say this is a “budget” makeover. Minus the cost of the new appliances, this makeover is completely do-able by anyone and the idea of adding your own DIY floating shelves and folding table is fairly inexpensive. For the cost of wood and a little DIY know how, you can “get this look” in a weekend. Ok, maybe two weekends depending on how motivated you are.

Here is the laundry room before,

Here is another shot of the laundry room before,

Here is the room during the floating shelves and folding table installation,

I think the after is much better dont you? My step daughters visit on the weekends and this past weekend they saw the room completed for the first time. One of them said, “did you add on space, why does it look so much bigger?” Mission accomplished! It’s amazing what adding floating shelves and utilizing the “upward” wall space will accomplish.

By placing the washer and dryer side-by-side, this allowed us to create a folding station as well as two large floating shelves above for storage. I removed all the old wire shelving and hardware, filled the holes with putty, sanded and repainted the space. The walls are very old, rough and some spots were marked and scratched from the previous washer and dryer so I did add a coat of white primer first. The green color on the wall is called “Dewy” and the white trim is “Extra White” by Sherwin Williams . Sherwin Williams is providing the paint for our study makeover so they were kind enough to let me add an extra 2 gallons to my order for our laundry room.

I did purchase a few hyacinth and wire baskets from the Container Store for storage. I cannot even begin to tell you how much better it is doing laundry because everything is clean and organized. I decided to remove the bifold doors permanently permanently and open up the laundry room (closet) to the existing bathroom. This gave us more room inside for the new washer and dryer. The doors, when opened, “took up 5 inches inside the closet which we needed in order to put the washer and dryer side-by-side. So guess what, we just got rid of the doors. No biggie!

The top plastic decorative bins hold batteries and lightbulbs as well as a few other random items that we don’t use often. The plastic bins are also from the Container Store.

The white lazy suzan from the Container Store is one of my favorite finds. It holds the detergent and dryer sheets along with a few other spot cleaners. I love that it spins!

If you are looking for storage for paper towels, these hyacinth baskets hold six roles perfectly. I couldn’t believe it when I found these, it’s like they were made for paper towel storage! My dad saw me removing the paper towels from the plastic bag and he said, “don’t show your mother those baskets, because she will want some!” ha.

I found the cute laundry signs for the wall in Home Goods.

I will share our floating shelf and folding table tutorial soon. They were very inexpensive to make and with a little sanding and paint, boring old wood can shape up quite nicely!

The wire basket is hung with picture hook nails. Just tap the tiny nail into the wall and leave a little bit of the nail protruding from the wall. The sign below sums up my view on laundry 100%.

Pink duct tape from a previous project was the solution to cover the existing electrical box.

This is probably the greatest invention on the planet. A grocery bag holder. I have always wanted one of these but never got around to buying one. This is from the Container Store as well.

This little framed dog saying is near and dear to my heart. My grandmother (my mom’s mom) had this in her bathroom when I was a kid and before she died, she gave it to me. Now it lives in our bathroom/laundry room.

This vintage inspired laundry sign was only $5 at Home Goods on clearance.

Having a folding station directly in the laundry room has helped me tremendously. I despise laundry and I will admit it, I am awful at keeping up with it. However, the clothes are now getting folded and not dumped in a pile on the couch. By removing the bifold doors, the entire bathroom/laundry room looks much bigger. I repainted the bathroom in the Dewy color and will share the entire space soon. I still have a little trim work to paint near the door.

We were sad when our old washer and dryer stopped working. There is never a good time to invest in a new washer and dryer but it was the perfect opportunity to renovate the space and create a functional and stylish laundry room.

It’s not the biggest laundry room that’s for sure but every square inch is now utilized and organized. The total budget for this makeover, minus the new washer and dryer, was under $325. That includes all the wood, baskets, storage boxes and other laundry accessories. Not bad in my book!

UPDATE: We just shared our Christmas Home Tour for 2013! Come take a peek!