DIY Laundry Room Makeover on a Budget
Our new builder-grade house couldn’t be more basic than that: One 11″ wide wobbly MDF board, which they called a “shelf” in the laundry room.
To handle the clutter at first, we bought some woven storage bins to help with organization. But then there were still the vacuum cleaner, broom, mops etc. which piled up in the corner. All together, it just looked like a pile of mess.
I wanted cabinets and a place to hide all the cleaning tools to achieve a clean look. Cabinets are expensive, yet, I pulled off this transformation project again by staying below $200 in 2021 when material prices were super high. Learn below how I did it.
Where to Find Cheap Laundry Room Cabinets
This projects could have ended easily in the $1000s, but luckily, there is Facebook Marketplace. You may not find what you are looking for immediately, but I wasn’t in a rush, so I simply checked every day for several weeks until I found them: Used stock cabinets with stainable/paintable surfaces.
All I had to do, was a little bit of sanding and a nice fresh layer of paint with the spray gun. Put on some new hardware from Amazon, and here they are, our laundry cabinets!
As you can see, they nicely fit over the washing machine and dryer. The rest of the wall I filled by building a little closet to store and hide the cleaning tools.
Cleaning Tools Storage Closet
To build the closet, I simply framed a little room by using 2″x3″ studs. I didn’t want to waste any space and spend more on materials by building an entire wall with drywall. Instead, I had some leftover OSB sheets which I used instead. It took a little bit of time to smooth out the OSB board by using Easy Sand 45 Minute Lightweight Joint compound.
To finish off the closet and to achieve a clean look, I bought these plantation louvered closet doors. Again, Facebook Marketplace enabled me to get those for a fraction of the costs compared to Home Depot or Lowes.
Laundry Room Shelf Above Washer and Dryer
I really wanted to have countertops above the washer and dryer but with our dryer configuration this was not possible. Yet, I still wanted a shelf. I still hade some 2″x12″ pine boards which were left overs from the patio construction. I used them to build a very simple shelf.
I simply stained them with Ebony Wood Stain (Varathane) and applied a coat of Oil-Base Polyurethane for Floors Clear Semi-Gloss (Rust-Oleum Parks PRO Finisher). The shelf is free standing so you can just slide it out in order to hook up or remove the washer and dryer.
Backsplash, Clothes Drying Rack and Finishing Touches
I didn’t like the knock-down drywall texture in the back. At first I wanted to install tiles as a backsplash, but I figured it wouldn’t be worth the costs. So I simply used this Silver Pattern on White Stripped Hexagon Peel and Stick Wallpaper from Amazon instead.
I added a wooden stained rod between the laundry shelf and the closet as a clothes drying rack. On the wall I also added a simply hook to hand and store the iron board.
Finally, I finished off the laundry room by adding crown molding and updating the light fixture. Now the clutter is gone and we have more storage space than we actually need.
