Before & After: Modern Laundry Room Reveal

Modern Laundry Room Makeover

In every place I’ve lived, there’s always that one room that accumulates all the extra.  The leftovers, the put-aways, the donations, the I-don’t-quite-know-what-to-do-with-this-right-now-so-I’m-going-to-leave-it-here-and-forget-all-about-its…you catch my drift.  In this house, it has become the laundry room (though sometimes it gets a little competition from our office).

Last week I wrote a post about the best ways to organize your laundry room.  At that point, ours was a catch-all for everything we didn’t want or couldn’t fit in any of the main rooms, as well as a temporary “Craigslist” room where we kept items we planned on selling.

This, of course, was not exactly conducive to the actual function of the room.  I was tired of finding my way through the maze of junk just to wash my son’s pajamas, and sick of dumping out our clean laundry onto the sofa in the family room to fold.  Enough was enough!  Time to get my hands dirty.

My requirements were:

  • A surface where we could sort and fold laundry comfortably
  • A place to hang our ironing
  • A better system for our ironing board, which hung on the back of the door and prevented anyone from entering the room while it was in use

If you are planning out an organizational space such as a closet, laundry room, or garage, I highly recommend making several sketches first.  It helps you visualize your concept and can illuminate any flaws in your plan.  I revised my sketch several times until it looked like this:

How to Get the Most Out of Your Laundry Room // Annabode.com

But even still, you will see from the After photos that my plans changed.  I decided to use the laundry baskets that we already owned, and simply hung them under the floating shelf.  Plus, the wall banner that I made last weekend didn’t quite “go” as well as I’d hoped, so I hung it in our family room instead and moved in a photograph from our bedroom.

Before:

Before & After: Laundry Room Reveal // Annabode.com

After:

Modern Laundry Room Makeover

[Plywood is actually not a great thing to put in your home because it off-gasses.  I broke my own rules here, but it’s a small piece and we keep the door to this room closed.  Don’t worry, you can totally build this shelf without plywood.]

The walls are painted with some oops! paint from the Home Depot, which cost all of $7, and I found the Ikea bar stool on Craigslist for $30. The clothing rod is actually a towel rack from Ikea that cost about $10. I built the peg rack using some extra lumber and Ikea pegs, and color-blocked my broom and duster with some white spray paint.

However, I’m most proud of the floating shelf which I built with some plywood, lumber, screws, and a few L-brackets.  It cost me $40, but only because I picked a more expensive piece of plywood.

I kept the baskets the same and borrowed the rug and artwork from the rest of my house, so all in all the whole project came to just under $100.  Not bad!

Before:

Before & After: Laundry Room Reveal // Annabode.com

After:

Modern Laundry Room Makeover

Now, you may notice there is no washer or dryer in these photos.  Believe me–we have them, but they are on the other side of the room.  However, our hot water heater and air conditioning are also in this room next to the washer and dryer, and there is no drywall on that side.  It’s nothing you need (or want) to see, believe me.

I still have to mount my drying racks, which will hang in between the ironing board (which is not pictured, but is now on the far left wall) and the cleaning equipment. I would also LOVE any ideas for covering up/fixing our fusebox.  Right now we have a piece of drywall on hinges, but as you can see from this photo there is a big, ugly gap.

Before & After: Laundry Room Reveal // Annabode.com

Of course at the moment I’m not loving how close to the ceiling the clothing rod is either, but it does allow extra room for dresses.

What do you think?  Would you have done anything differently?

Product guide: GLENN Bar Stool from Ikea //  Planters from Goodwill // Lumber from The Home Depot // MOLGER Wall Shelf from Ikea // Broom, duster, and rug from Home Goods

To see the rest of our house, visit our Before & After page. Check back soon to find out how you can build a floating shelf just like this one!

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Comments (11 )
  • thesunshinewindow
    | 24 July 2014

    Love your furry chair and the hanging baskets. Doing laundry is not my favorite job..but with a lovely place like this I guess it shouldn’t be very bad.

    • Annabode.
      | 24 July 2014

      Thanks! I wanted a sheepskin rug on the chair but don’t own one as of yet, so it’s actually just a pillow that I used as a chair cushion. But it does the trick.

  • MSaenz1
    | 24 July 2014

    I love the transformation! I really like the two tone wall colors & the hanging baskets. What a great laundry space! Our laundry area is just a closet, so I need to get creative about practical options.

    • Annabode.
      | 24 July 2014

      Thank you so much! The color-blocking was super easy, I really recommend it for adding a bolder color to a rooms without overpowering anything. I’ve seen some great laundry closet redos on Pinterest, and Young House Love is currently working on theirs: http://www.younghouselove.com/2014/07/moving-stuff-mo-money-and-mo-light/. Adding some subway tile would be an inexpensive way to make the interior pop, or painting it in a bright color. If you start working on it, I’d love to hear about the progress!

    • Annabode.
      | 24 July 2014

      *Here’s another, from Gusto and Grace: http://gustoandgrace.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/laundry-is-less-of-a-chore/#comment-954

      • MSaenz1
        | 24 July 2014

        Thank you so much for the design ideas! I LOVE the laundry space with the stripes! I want to tackle my space after I finish my current projects! I’m looking forward to it.

        • Annabode.
          | 25 July 2014

          You’re welcome–good luck!

  • jaclyn
    | 25 July 2014

    Where did you get those hanging baskets? Love them.

  • cassie8978
    | 25 July 2014

    this is gorgeous, anna! i adore the color scheme and modern clean style!

    • Annabode.
      | 25 July 2014

      Thank you so much Cassie! 🙂

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