Laundry Room

I finished this project a while ago, even before Ryan joined us. However, I’m sure at the time we were more focused on keeping Pamela healthy and preparing the house and ourselves for his arrival than documenting this project.  I still managed to take a before picture so you can see the transformation.

Before

Just an empty room with washer and dryer hookups. I suppose sticking the laundry machines in a bare room is adequate for some, but we felt we could make this room more functional and give it some class.

After

We had cabinets over the washer and dryer at our old house so that seemed to be an obvious addition. The countertop though stands out as the major upgrade. Its visual appeal is surpassed only by its functionality. It gives Pamela plenty of space to fold and sort laundry as well as hold the detergent bottles without the fear of anything falling off or slipping between the machines. At our last house (no countertop), we had one incident where an unbalanced washing machine load tossed a full jug of detergent onto the floor. That soapy gross mess was definitely a contributing factor in deciding to add the countertop.

I usually try to be frugal with my house projects and this was truly no exception. The house purchase was only a few months in the past and my mind was probably still going over all the money we had just put down and the new monthly payments we signed up for. I ended up buying the plain white cabinets from Walmart. They look good enough for a laundry room and I didn’t mind a little bit more assembly to save some money. A piece of finished shelf board from Home Depot, cut to size, created the decorative shelving between the cabinets. Then my favorite part was the countertop which is a repurposed headboard from Pamela’s sister’s old Ikea bed. It was almost the exact perfect size, I only had to shave off about an inch from each side.  Pushing the washer and dryer carefully back into place was the finishing touch. A fairly easy and cheap addition turned the laundry room into a functional and attractive space.