Mark Megahan
If you’re looking for a redo project to start off the New Year and boost your home’s value at the same time, it’s easy to make over the laundry room. You can get spectacular results for around $700.00 at the home improvement store.
Dingy Laundry Redo
One of the easiest spaces to make a huge improvement on, without a whole lot of effort, is the laundry room. A simple organizational redo can help make the most of the available space with the appearance of custom crafted design.
The things which can be done with shelving, drawers, cabinets and accessories are only limited by your imagination. For inspiration, Yamilec Branch of “The Grounded Home” fame, wasn’t happy with her dark laundry room. Something about the stark white walls and dated vinyl floor made her cringe, every time her family wanted clean clothes.
The Branch clan moved in back in 2018 but the “standard builder grade laundry room” never got the attention to a redo it deserved, even though it was used frequently. “It had a storage closet and one of those ubiquitous, white wire shelves in the main area.”
Sure, you could wash and dry your clothes but “the layout of the shelving wasn’t really making the most use of the space.” As time went by, the room started “looking worse for wear, with old vinyl floors and dingy white walls.” Not long after moving in, they turned their attention to the job.
After the basic clean up, Yamilec decided to start from the ground up and “tackle replacing the old vinyl floor first.” She called her dad for help to redo the floor. “We prioritized the floor tile because moving a washer and dryer is never fun and once they were moved in, we had zero intent of shuffling them around again.”
Together, they put down some stylish porcelain tile using a simple black and white pattern. That turned out to be a good call because “once the new floors were in, the laundry room project took a pause for a couple years while Yamilec worked on other parts of the house.”
Six weeks to perfection
When she got back to her laundry room redo, Yamilec completely transformed the space in another six weeks. She installed new beadboard wainscoting, “then followed it with a plywood counter for her washer and dryer that she stained in a warm dark brown tone.”
She notes that the “biggest obstacle was figuring out a way to cover the washer and dryer hookups while still making them accessible in case of an emergency.”
She did some online research and wasn’t impressed so Yamilec came up with the idea to use “a removable front panel that’s attached with heavy duty magnets.” She ended up with “a totally seamless look that’s also practical.”
That was followed up with “new pre-built cabinets — both uppers and lowers.” She did the installation carpentry work herself then painted them black and touched the redo look she wanted off with “chic gold hardware.”
“This was my first time installing pre-built cabinets and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be,” she assures. “If I could do anything differently it would be to hang the cabinets before building the cover for the washer and dryer.
Trying to balance a cabinet without putting your full weight on a piece of plywood was tricky!” The project was finished off with a new porcelain sink and faucet fittings to replace the plastic tub style sink. Total expense for the redo came in around $700 and “it feels like a fully decorated room.”
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