Laundry Room Face lift Reveal

After eight years of living in our home, I decided it was time to pretty-up my laundry room.

I posted the before pictures here.  Pretty messy and pretty boring.  I had no intention of major overhauls or to spend very much, I just wanted to make it a little more enjoyable room to be in.

Here is the result:

Not a lot of time or money put into it, and I'm liking the result.  

Here's what I did:

1.  Removed the door between the laundry room and mudroom.  There is another a door that leads from the mudroom into the hall, so it really wasn't a necessary door.  The front loading washer requires the door to be left open after using it which meant we couldn't close the laundry room door anyway.  By removing the door, I essentially gained a wall of storage space.  I was able to move the iron and ironing board from the storage room to here where it should be.  I did purchase a new ironing board cover that matched the room better. The old one was probably 25 years old and had ducks on it!  It was definitely in need of replacement.

2.  Added quotes in spray painted old frames and large clothes pins to the same wall.  More information on that can be found on this post.  

3.  Added some baskets that I had laying around to store light bulbs and misc. supplies.  I used the same brown spray paint on the one and the other already matched well enough.  

4.  Added some labels to my sorting bins using some card stock, ribbon and my label maker.

5.  Covered the washer and dryer in contact paper.  Not only does this make it a little prettier, it's also very easy to wipe down.

6.  The biggest impact is from the new paint color.  In our community, we have a paint recycling program.  I was returning my cans and bottles at the local recycling depot, and decided to take a look to see what was there was for paint.  I found a can of this color which was almost the exact color I was looking for.  It was in great condition, about three-quarters full, and free!  

7.  The idea for the color all came from this basket that I won in a raffle.  The paint color looks closer to a match in real life.  The basket is now my lost sock collection spot.  I also added a few other decorative items I had around the house and a small jar for buttons all arranged on an old plastic Ikea tray which I also lined with contact paper.

8.  Added these tin decorative panels which used to hang in our half bath.  Visitors always seemed to knock them off the wall, leaving marks and me questioning what they were doing in there.  They did look better hung one above the other, but I think they work okay in here on the separate walls.

9.  Decluttered and organized the cabinet above the washing machine and lined the shelves and back cabinet wall with the same contact paper.  I already had the baskets in there, but for some reason it seems far more organized now.  And I have half an empty shelf, which I'm sure I'll find a use for soon.

10.  Added a dryer rack to the inside of the lower cabinet for wet rags and such.

11.  Re-purposed an Ikea bag holder to use for rags.  I don't use plastic bags much anymore so this holder was also just sitting in the storage room not being used.

Not a lot of work went into this to, but I'm happy with the results.  Total spent was $30 - spray paint ($6), clothes pins ($5), ironing board cover ($10), dryer rack ($1.50) and contact paper ($7).

From this:

To this:

Now can I keep it this clean for long!!!

joann



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