Easy DIY Laundry Room of your Dreams

Who here has a boring laundry room? Do you want an easy DIY laundry room makeover? Maybe it’s plain builder grade or just looking like its best years are behind it? Ours was BLAH and had a very “out of the box” builder look. Flat paint, wire shelf, zero personality. So, I decided to do something about it!

First, a little background …

We purchased our current house in July of 2019. We decided to go all Dave Ramsey on our debt (seriously, get debt free if you can!) and we sold our larger home spanning three floors and found a new build that was exactly what we wanted … a ranch on a basement. We chose the neighborhood because the builder made all the houses very energy efficient…another money saving move. Oh, and lawn care was included … even if you fenced in your back yard! So we were sold!

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However, we knew we’d have to spend time finishing the basement and making it our own by tossing out the plain builder grade look. I still have some updating to do. It’s taken me a while to get started since I found out I was pregnant shortly after moving in … but, I am now slaying my home projects! By the way, we will be out of debt this summer, sans the house. I can’t wait to do our debt free scream!

More on the DIY Laundry room of your dreams ….

And obviously my dreams, too. See how boring it was? I just shake my head looking back at the before pictures!

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When I decided to tackle my laundry room, the first thing I wanted to do was fix the space issue, as much as possible. It’s not a large laundry room, but it functions for my needs … I just needed to make it function better. Some sort of storage shelves was necessary. With our high ceilings I figured I could put shelving up a bit higher which would allow a laundry basket to hang out underneath … thus giving more floor room with the basket out of my path.

Shelving … and then what?

In addition to the shelving needs, I also wanted a farmhouse look. Getting rid of the wire shelf was a must and adding cabinets was a requirement (for storage space!). AND, after trying out peel and stick wallpaper in Harper’s room, I KNEW I wanted some in this room. It’s easy to hang, looks great and doing one wall isn’t very pricey. Check out my simple steps to install peel and stick wallpaper here!

Executing the idea!

First step was to remove the wire shelving, fill the holes with DryDex, sand and then paint. I chose Rainwashed from Sherwin Williams for the walls. It’s such a beautiful color that is elegant and neutral.

Pro tip: the wall you plan on doing wallpaper, make sure you paint your color behind it on the corners. Just in case the wallpaper (or the wall is not square) leaves a slight gap

After I painted the walls, I placed the wallpaper on the wall across from the entrance, so it could be seen in all its glory every time I walk by. It turned out extremely beautiful!

For the shelves, I purchased white wood (a less expensive option) from Home Depot. White wood worked great, however, I did need to use a pre-stain conditioner on the wood first. It went on easily and dried quickly.

Next, I wiped on a coat of Classic Gray stain from Minwax, let it sit for a few minutes, then wiped it off. After that dried, I followed it up by two coats of Weathered Oak, by Minwax as well. This layering of stain turned out gorgeous and gave me the look I really wanted.

I finished it off with a couple coats of General Finishes Gel Topcoat (this really is the best top coat for wood products in my experience!). Make sure to do a light sanding in between coats!

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More details on the shelves to come!

I’ll detail more in my next two blog posts on the storage shelves and the shelf above the washer and dryer, so make sure to subscribe to my blog on the right to get notifications each time I post! The shelving solutions are big part of building an easy DIY laundry room of your dreams!

Moving on, I found these awesome brackets for my shelves on Amazon. I chose one type for my wall shelf and a bit fancier brackets for the ones that would be between the cabinets. I definitely wanted these in black to standout and bring in the farmhouse look.

Next up, cabinets!

To save money, I purchased unfinished cabinets at Home Depot. I primed first and then painted them in Sherwin Williams Pure White surface paint. When I paint wood or refinish furniture, I always start with a good coat of primer followed by 3-4 coats of the chosen color. Make sure to put on thin coats and watch for drips. You can also use a surface roller to get a nice smooth finish. Often times, I’ll do that as my last coat to cover up any brush marks. I finished the cabinets with three layers of clear coat. Next, to put it all together!

Preference: I always use a Purdy brush for painting walls/furniture/etc. They have done me well!

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Pro tip: If you find some drips you can use a razor blade to shave them off, do a light sanding and then another coat of paint (or two).

DIY – Putting the pieces together

Shelves done. Cabinets done. Paint done. Wallpaper done. Now it was time to put it all together! This is where my husband came in handy as I tasked him with hanging the cabinets (I helped, of course!) and shelves. We placed the cabinets at the height we wanted and drew a line. Then we screwed in a 2×4 so we’d have a ledge to help hold the cabinets as we screwed them into the studs. These went up in about 20 minutes, which was quicker than I anticipated.

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With the cabinets up we could finally hang the shelves! For the shelves on the left wall, we hung all on a stud. The two shelves in between the cabinets didn’t have a stud on one side where we needed it, so we had to use drywall screws. It worked well and they are very steady. To top it off, we hung our Dyson Animal (which we LOVE) on the right-hand wall so it’d be easy to access and we were done. This easy, DIY laundry room transformation was complete!

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Didn’t it turn out beautiful? I have stared at this room more than I like to admit. And of course, I’m enjoing doing laundry. HAHA! Honestly, I love to do laundry. Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!

Supplies needed for this DIY Farmhouse Laundry Room

Ok, so here’s a quick rundown of supplies we used:

That sums up my easy DIY Laundry room makeover of your dreams … and mine! In total we spent about $330. It was a bit more costly than I originally wanted, but adding in cabinets and selecting nice hardware for the shelves was a necessity to me.

Let me know in the comments what you thought of this laundry room and if you plan on updating your laundry room too!

Be blessed!