Makeover: Tiny Laundry, Tiny Budget

I’ll just start this post with a confession.  I have a problem with doing laundry.  I wouldn’t say I hate it, anymore. I’m just really, really good at finding other, more important things to do than laundry.  The game changer in my attitude came from a speaker who suggested that you should turn the process of doing laundry into a time to be grateful.  So now, I consciously focus on how grateful I am for the family I wash for, grateful for the clothes we have, grateful that I actually have a washer and a dryer.  And now I can finally be grateful for this space, no matter how tiny and awkward it is.

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Sure, I’ve seen laundry rooms with more bling.  Elaborately decorated rooms with beautifully tile backsplashes and chandeliers, but for now, I just needed a space that didn’t make me cringe each time I walked by or into the room.

This is what the laundry room looked like when we bought the house. Not the worst ever by any means. Functional, maybe, but the shelves wrapping the room were overbearing in the small space. To make it feel even smaller, the wall just out of the photograph is angled into the room. And since this room is where we keep Tucker’s water and food, the door has to stay open.

Thankfully, the laundry room is not in a very public area of the house. It’s across the hall from the master bedroom.  So I see it a lot!

This budget makeover started by removing the shelving and giving the space a fresh coat of paint, Sea Salt by Sherwin Williams.

After we demolished part of the kitchen, we recycled this set of cabinets for the needed storage in the laundry room.

Obviously, it’s a beautiful piece of cabinetry with very heavy bubble glass that I was not going to let go to waste. Just like I recycled the small cabinet at the bottom to make our kitchen island cart.

Want to know the easiest way to hang a heavy piece of upper cabinetry?

Secure a piece of wood to the studs, at the bottom of where the cabinet will hang. Make sure your cleat is level. This temporary support will help hold the cabinet up as you attach it to the wall.

Once it was hoisted up, all our son had to do was hold it against the wall as my husband drilled the cabinet into place.

Then we added a shelf from scrap wood, two functional, yet decorative shelf brackets and a small rod to hang clothes.   The counter just sits on top of the washer and dryer. (The counter was recycled from the our previous house where it was installed with a cleat on the back and a newel post as a side support.  We thought we would just temporarily “set” the old counter on top of the washer and dryer and then install it “properly” at a later date, but in the end, we realized this works perfectly fine. Keeping it simple!)

And now for a bit more honesty, the functional pieces like the cabinet, shelf, rod and counter have been in place for almost a year.  But after building the new raised dog feeder for Tucker, I felt like it was time to actually finish up and make everything look pretty.

Click here for the Dog Feeder Tutorial.

The dingy, glazed cabinets got a fresh coat of paint. Art was added to the walls; a soft rug covers the fleshy beige tile and the bubble glass cabinet fronts were “frosted” with Artscape Window Film to obscure the items inside.

And now, with these budget additions, I have a beautiful laundry room to add to my Grateful List!

So, what do you say? Are you an efficient laundress or are you like me and find yourself doing laundry whenever family members start asking for clean clothes?

source list: rug, art & basket: Home Goods || wire basket, faux planter, glass canisters: Target  || shelf brackets, rod, frosted glass film: Home Depot

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