Our laundry room has been kind of horrible since we moved in 14 years ago. I know, I know. How did we get by for FOURTEEN years without me doing something about it… especially when I’ve redone the nearby bathroom like 3-4 times? I don’t know, I guess I tried to just ignore it.
Which is kind of hard when I have a straight view into the washer and dryer from my favorite spot in the den. And I let the dogs out into the backyard with that door to the left multiple times a day. And I enter from the right door every time I come in from my garage. Anywhoo, I finally decided to just go for it and within a week, our laundry room had a glow up!
Here’s the before:
So yeah, it’s kind of a ‘hard working’ room.
The ugly brown walls were leftover from the last people who owned the house (I KNOW). When we moved in, I added the curtain and pictures from my ‘home decorating stash’ and they were okay, I guess. We also added the ‘stockroom’ portion which is what we call that food shelf and it is invaluable when we do our Costco/Sam’s Club shopping for extras.
My goal for the refresh was: lighter and brighter. I wanted it to feel clean and crisp and have better organization. I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money to do it and planned on doing every single thing 100% myself.
The plan: repaint the walls to something lighter, add tile to the back wall, and mount some shelves to give a natural spot to end the tile and start the upper wall paint. Also, clean out some unneeded stuff and add better organization options.
Here’s what I purchased for the project:
- Peel and Stick Tile, 3 boxes at $52 per box
- 2 Pack of Shelves, $42
- Slim Rolling Cart, $20
- Pet Food Storage Containers, 2 for $18 each
- Rainbow Tassel Garland, $7
- Small container of spackle, $3ish
Total: $265
Things I already owned: 1 gallon of Behr “Greige” paint (leftover from when I did our living room and upstairs bathroom/walk-in closet), ceiling paint, white trim paint, white silicone caulk, command hook, wall mounted laundry drying rack, and assorted stuff for shelf décor.
First up, was cleanout time. I removed everything from the laundry room, dragged the washer and dryer away from the walls, and took down everything from the walls. I scrubbed the crap out of the gross laundry room sink too, which frankly has needed to be done for a while. Then, I spackled all the holes in the walls and let them dry for about a day before sanding the bejezzus out of them to get them nice and smooth.
Next, I grabbed some ceiling paint I had sitting around and painted the tops of all the walls. The person who painted previously was messy, so there was some brown on the edges and the ceiling – so in repainting with a new color, I wanted to make sure I’d have nice, crisp edges with no ugly brown lurking around.
Then, it was time to start the tile… which is quite fun and gives some immediate gratification of what it will look like when it’s done. I used a level and tape measure to make sure that everything was going to be perfectly straight and then I started peeling and sticking that tile on from wall to wall. I absolutely loved the tiles I picked and they were relatively easy to work with. For piecing the puzzle together, I would eyeball the sizing and then take a pair of hardy scissors and cut the thick plastic tiles to the correct size, making adjustments as needed. The edges (where the tile met the wall) didn’t need to be perfect since I was planning to caulk.
It took 2 coats of paint for nice coverage of the previous color. Once I was done painting the walls, I grabbed some trim paint and re-painted all the trim so it looked nice and fresh/white/clean again. Then, I caulked each side of the tile to give it a professional look.
Then it was the easy bits of hanging/re-hanging everything – up went the shelves, laundry drying rack, vacuum charger and pictures. Oh and if you’re wondering why I had to take down the laundry rack and vacuum charger, fill the holes and then re-mount them both… they had to move over a few inches to accommodate the new shelf.
Here’s the after:
If you’d prefer to see a compilation video, you can see it here:
I’m so happy with how it turned out! It just feels so much more bright and clean, and it is a much prettier view from my spot on the den couch. Of course, I’m kicking myself for not doing this year’s ago, but I’m quite satisfied with my less than a week of work (in my spare time, I have a day-job) and less than $300!
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