$100 Laundry Room Makeover Reveal

It’s finally done!

And I’ve learnt my lesson – I hereby swear that I will never try to do a room makeover challenge in the same month that I go on a week-long road trip and my mother has hip replacement surgery. July was just crazy. What was I thinking? I mean…at least the odds of those two things happening again are pretty slim..Right mum? Right.

Anyways! The laundry room is done and I succeeded in keeping the makeover at less than $100 (just barely) – high five!

Do you need a reminder of what this room used to look like? Here’s a shot of it right before we started the makeover, after I’d cleaned it up a little bit (just a little mind you):

If you really want to see what this room looked like when it hit rock bottom you can that embarrassment in my laundry room makeover introduction post here.

Thank goodness all that craziness is behind us! Now that I’m finally finished, our laundry room looks like this:

I swear I’ve never been so freakin’ excited to do laundry!

I definitely hemmed and hawed over the decision to stack the washer and dryer. It seemed like every laundry room makeover I saw on Pinterest people were unstacking their machines! But, in the end we did it (or I should say, Chris and a lovely neighbour did it) and I’m really glad we did – for us the stacked machines work really well.

 

The cabinet was built using this upper cabinet project plan from Ana White and is actually build from the old wall shelves that used to be in this room – yes! Re-using! I love that all of our supplies are nicely hidden away behind closed doors. P.s. I think Chris might own the complete Nikwax product line – so if you need anything waterproofed come on over to my house. Just sayin.

I’m also really happy with how this countertop turned out – it might be my favourite that I’ve built. I really think the flaws in the rough pine give it a “live edge” look at the front and those farmhouse table legs? Yeah, those are stair newel posts from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore with the tops cut off!

The legs support the countertop along with two wall brackets. My mum had the ikea utility cart in her office and had been talking about replacing it for a while so I claimed it for this room (thanks mum, prefect timing!). It holds small laundry supplies and helps to hide the water hoses. 

Above the counter, an antique washboard that I found on my recent road trip to the Haven Conference (I think we were in Knoxville?) hides the water shut offs. I also added some bead board wallpaper that I had leftover from our powder room makeover which looks great on the back wall.

For clothes that don’t go in the dryer I still have a little folding drying rack that’s hidden behind the door, but I also added an “Instahanger” above the light switch for anything that needs to dry on a hanger. I love that it folds down when it’s not in use so my pink flamingo can be seen in all her glory.

You may have noticed that the wood bead light fixture that I was showing on Instagram is not in the room – it ended up being too big of a fixture for such a small space (really sad). BUT it turned out great and I think it’s going to find a new home in our guest room (maybe my next $100 makeover?).

The light fixture in here is nothing special but it’s definitely doing the job for now. Maybe one day I’ll replace it with one of those cute school house style ones – what do you think?

With the cost of the light fixture materials freed up I hit the clearance section at HomeSense and picked up the flamingo print and the comfy floor mat – two decor items I had not originally planned for!

Luckily I had a lot of the materials and paint left over from old projects to help keep costs low. So, how did my $100 (USD) budget breakdown? Here’s everything I bought:

Brackets   $19.05
Newel posts $7
Folding clothes hanger $14.58
½” Aluminum channel $14.22
(This is what holds the ¼” plywood doors on the cabinet in place)
Flamingo print $12.64
Floor mat $19.74
Vintage washboard $12

Total: $99.23

Phew, that was close! Thank goodness for the clearance section at HomeSense!

Laundry Room Sources:

Wall paint: CIL in Sone White
Newel posts: Habitat for Humanity ReStore (similar table legs)
Cabinet & leg paint: Benjamin Moore Advance – Day’s End
Wood stain: My own blend of Minwax Early American and Golden Pecan
Flamingo Print: HomeSense clearance section (similar)
Floor mat: HomeSense clearance section (DIY tutorial for similar version)
Folding wall hanger: Arrow Instaghanger
Utility cart: Ikea RÅSKOG
Washboard: Antique (similar)
Laundry Detergent (in case you’re curious): Homemade from this recipe