Laundry Room Reveal or How to Pack Lots of Function into Your Laundry Room for Less!

We are finally done with the Laundry Room!!!
If you've been following along, you know I packed as much function into this small room as I could.
 I can't wait to show you it all put together!!

Well let's not just stand there peeking through the window on the door lets go in!!!!

To be able to use the space behind the original door I took it off and

 replaced it with this sliding barn door. I used an old door I got for free, repainted it with free leftover paint, and used a vintage crystal door knob I got for $5.

 I added the word LAUNDRY to the glass which I cut out on my Silhouette so it cost me about $1 or less.  I used frosted glass vinyl. At first I had a more intricate design but in the end I like just the simple one word!!

The barn door hardware was purchased at Home depot for $150.  

Grand total for my barn door including hardware, $156!!!!  

You can read the whole story about this door here and here.

I also planked this hall wall so the door would look flush mounted and also to give a great textured background to my door. I used MDF boards I bought on clearance so the wall cost me $7 plus paint, glue, and nails. Grand total for planked wall around $30!!

See full details of how I did that here.

OK, enough about the door let's go into the room!! 

When my husband saw this picture he said, "That room looks huge!!"

The whole room is about 7 feet by 6 1/2 feet.  

The floor space you see is only 3 1/2 feet by 7 feet.

I gained space by stacking the washer and dryer, recessing cabinets, and stealing about 2 square feet from a unused cubby in my daughter's room.  

Just look at how clean and pretty is looks!!!  

I really love the gray cabinets against the crisp white walls. 

 At one point, the far end wall was stenciled, but I didn't like it.

 (You can check that out here.) 

 I really wanted to wall paper that wall; maybe someday I will find the perfect wall paper for a killer deal!!  

 I have to admit I really had a hard time with finding some art work for this wall.  I needed it to be flat, so it wouldn't get in the way of the function of the dryer door

 and I wanted some color and softness due to all the hard crisp lines in the room.  

I attempted two or three art projects but nothing looked right. I finally found this floral artwork my neighbor gave me forever ago. 

Besides being free, it fit all my other requirements and made me happy!! 

For all the built in cabinetry I purchased three used kitchen cabinets at the Restore for $5 each, and one 4'x8' piece of 3/4 inch MDF.You can see what these cabinet started out like here and how I painted and trimmed them out here and here. I repainted all the doors with spray paint and added some jewelry,

(I mean knobs!!)  

They look like jewelery.  I love these crystal knobs, and they tie into the door knob. I got them from 

D. Lawless Hardware and you can find them here. I think they finish off the cabinets perfectly.

Taking the swinging door off to this room allowed us to put a cabinet on the wall behind it.  We actually cut the depth of this cabinet down, and recessed it into the wall.  I built the top pediment out of scraps of MDF and trim.  But my favorite part about this cabinet is it's function.  One door opens to reveal storage and the other to reveal a swivel ironing board.  

 (Get all the details on this cabinet here, here, here and here.)

I call this next cabinet the "Clean Clothes Tower".  

The top section is for storage of extra towels for the girls bathroom and cute decorations. The wire baskets were from the $1 section at Target and filled with toilet paper. The awesome silver pot is from DI. The skinny drawers are my sweater or hand washable drying racks. I love how they are almost nonexistent until I need them. Then I just pull the whole drawer out, lay it on my counter, put the hand washed item on it and pop it back in place until it dries. If you want some of these babies go here to see how I built them.  

The bottom half of the tower consists of slide out baskets that I use to put my kids clean clothes in after I fold them. The kids are then responsible to take their basket to there room and put away their clothes.  I bought these at DI for $2 each!! Similar closet baskets sell for $25-40. I saved over $130. I used these drawer glides from D. Lawless Hardware.  

Of coarse, I had to add these cute labels to them. I had them in my scrap booking stuff and just printed out the numbers with my computer. I love the contrast of the white baskets against the grey interior of the cabinet.  

(You can check out how we built this cabinet and adjusted the hardware to work here.)

Now let's check out the other side of the room.  

Stacking the washer and dryer allowed space for a folding counter!! 

 I love that;

no more pile of clean clothes being dumped on my couch!!!!!!

We worked hard to leave some sort of access to the the back of the machines, which has already proved to be helpful. 

 Yes, we already had to take the machines out due to a leak!!

 Sad face.

 But that is another post!!!

One of my favorite things about this folding center is the grey plexi like walls. They were a Restore find for $5. You can read all about that story here and here.

Adding a hanging bar allows me to hang things up right as they come out of the dryer!!  

We added three new LED lights. You can't even tell where the old light use to be, check out how we did that without patching the ceiling here.

We all know details make or break a room, so lets check out the details. 

 I bought a 2 gallon glass jar from Walmart to store laundry detergent in and put an antique metal scoop in it. The jar was about $10 and the scoop was $1. My sister inherited some old clothes pins and pond them off on me. 

(Lucky me!!) 

 I poured them into another wire basket from Target's dollar section. I love the warmth and natural feel they add to the room.  

I don't always keep flowers in my laundry room, but occasionally I cut some from the garden and plop them in here to brighten up my laundry chore.

I keep a small plate on the counter for odd things I find as I go through the kids pockets, such as money, Chap Sticks, bobby pins, Crayons, or whatever.  

Some of my favorite surfaces are the faux marble counter top I painted. If you are new to Batchelors Way you have to go here and here to see how I created these $30 marble counters.

You may have not noticed the subtle textured wallpaper on the back wall of the folding center. That was a second hand score with just enough to cover my small area. I'm always buying wallpaper at second hand stores; you never know when it will come in handy. Oh and don't forget my cute little Key Box, go see what it started out like here. I love the punch of color it gives the space.

One last detail that I haven't shown or talked about yet, the dirty clothes bins; they store under the counter. I was going to build them out of wood and peg board, like we did in our Arizona house, but they were very heavy and hard to move around. I started a proto type out of PVC pipe, but in the end I purchased these two sorters from Bed,Bath,and Beyond and Walmart.
 They are light, easy to move, washable, and I couldn't be happier. The front one has four bags and the rear one has three bags. I used my label maker and labeled the sections so the kids know where to put each article of clothing as they sort there dirty clothes. If you are interested I labeled them:  Whites, Reds, Darks, Jeans, Towels, Hand Washables, and Rags.

That's it for the tour of my new laundry room.  

But it wouldn't be right to just show you the after.  

You know how I love "Before" and "After" pictures, so here you go!!

And the other side!!

I have to admit, I actually like doing laundry now.  

(Don't tell my family that!)

It's so bright and pretty, how could I not. I added so much storage and function: Ironing Center, Folding Center, Clean Clothes Storage, Dirty Clothes Staging Area, and Hand Drying Racks, just to mention a few. I did it in a fairly small area with a small budget. I don't have to clutter up other areas of my house for any part of my laundry chore. 

 Everything has a place so it stays clean without much effort!!  

What do you think? 

 Let me hear the good, the bad, and the ugly!

  (Hopefully more good than bad or ugly.)  

What would you put in your laundry room if you redid it?

If you want to see the whole journey I have all the links below in chronological order.  

Laundry Room
It Begins
Laundry Room Lights
Cabinets
Building A Box
Restore to the Rescue
Gluing up Imago Wall
Stenciled Wall that was all for Not
Wallpaper Back Splash
Trimming Out the Cabinets
Cabinet Doors
New Hanging Bar
DIY Counter Tops Part 1-The Fitting
DIY Counter Tops Part 2-Faux Painting
Clean Clothes Tower
Sweater Drying Racks
Small Laundry Room Project
Cork Board on a Cabinet Door
Laundry Room Key Box
DIY Built-In Ironing Board Part 1
DIY Built-in Ironing Board Part 2
Scary Laundry Room Door
Planked Wall and Barn Door

Thanks for stopping by.