It just makes sense that a room that keeps your life on track — like the laundry room — looks and feels organized. The laundry room is the room you need to wish to spend time in it (even if it’s not very fun!) because, after all, your laundry isn’t going to clean itself.
DIY fan Dana Lee (@djl3262) gave her family home’s “cluttered” laundry room some much-needed TLC. Dana’s house was built in the early 80s, and the laundry room hasn’t gotten much attention since then.
“I liked that it was a second-floor laundry room, so there were no stairs to climb with baskets of laundry to contend with,” she says. “But otherwise, the walls were off-white and the ceiling had a horrible, spiky, ‘collapsed’ texture. Imagine: a popcorn ceiling, but a swirl with sharp points – it looked like a dirty cobweb to me.”
The project started with the ceiling upgrade.
To start the project, Dana drywalled the ceiling. “I took the texture off the ceiling myself and borrowed drywall tools from a neighbor (trowel, trowel, sanders…) to apply a beautiful layer,” she recalls. “It was by far the hardest and dustiest part of the process, but I’m thrilled with the result.”
Dana originally asked the professional for a quote on the room, and it was $300. Her version cost about $30 total for drywall compound and sanding materials. “We knew he’d do a good job—he’d similarly enhanced the ceilings for most of the other rooms in the house—but since it was such a small room, I thought I might as well try and save us a little money,” she says. “I’m happy with the result, but in the end maybe I was just as happy that he did it and spared my back. You have to bend over backwards when you’re on the ladder, and it’s hot and sweaty up there with those ceilings.”
Green color and wallpaper add style.
After the ceiling was smoothed, she decided on a bold design inspired by nature with green paint and floral wallpaper. The wall paint is Sherwin-Williams Studio Blue Green, the ceiling and trim are Sherwin-Williams Pure White, and the floral wallpaper is from Wayfair. (Here’s a similar pattern in a different color!)
“I love the design aspect the most, so I spent a lot of time researching colors, wallpaper and potential designs for counters and sideboards,” says Dana.
Woodworking projects added functionality.
Besides the ceiling, the other big DIY jobs in the laundry room remodel were building storage cabinets and folding countertops, and adding moldings and trim.
Dana already had a plinth under the appliance (her father built one years ago), but she added a $100 custom door to hide the storage hatches underneath. She also added a new cabinet to the right of that and the top cabinet. Although she was intimidated by the measurements, “In the end, the pieces went together really easily without a lot of fuss,” she says.
The molding and decoration projects, however, were a bit more challenging. She didn’t realize until it was too late that the foam molding she ordered had a small “edge” that sits right under the ceiling instead of touching it, and she would buy slightly larger moldings for the box trim if she does the project again.
“I was trying to save a little money and went with a very affordable profile: only $5 per 8-foot piece,” she says. “Since the room was small, I thought a little trim would work… but a slightly wider paneling would look even better and be easier to work with. My air stapler separated several pieces of trim because it was so thin.”
Using leftover materials helped keep costs down.
However, something Dana is particularly proud of is how she has kept costs low. She estimates her total project was about $800. As with the basic cabinet under the appliance, Dana used a lot of leftover materials – for example, the last inch of wood veneer, primer or wallpaper glue. She also used the door and ceiling paint from the previous project.
Dana learned a lot of new skills during the renovation and found great satisfaction going down the DIY route. “The laundry room is connected to my office, and I work from home. It’s right where I work every day all day,” she says. “The beautiful colors of the wallpaper, the simple elegance of the box frame and the calming effect of the dark green really bring joy to my work day.” Plus, Dana says that a thoughtfully designed laundry room keeps it from becoming “mess headquarters.”
“I’m looking forward to heading over there to start the laundry now!” she says. “I joke with my friends that I still buy a tiny armchair to put in the corner and just hang out there – read, sip tea and watch the clothes just spin and spin.”