It all started when I tried to get a beach towel off the only shelf available in that laundry room... a shelf that I could barely reach and when I grabbed the towel... everything under it came tumbling down on top of the dryer. I decided right there I needed a manageable shelf.

That's how it looked. I decided that if we were taking that shelf down, we may as well make the room prettier. Shiplap is all the rage so I thought why not?! We purchased a sheet of plywood that we had Lowe's rip into 6" planks. They were installed one plank at a time. Luckily it's only a 6' wide wall. We do have 10' ceilings in that room so it did take a few planks to get it done. The full instructions are here.

I also needed shelves. I decided we could put up the iron pipe type shelves that are all over the interwebs. Lots and lots of pipes, flanges, elbows, caps- all quite dirty. They have to be cleaned before they can be used.. We bought two 2x12s for the shelves. They were cut to size then sanding, stain, and a few coats of Polycrylic made a gorgeous end result.

We also put up two long shelves over the washer and dryer.

Just to clear up one item: Several comments have been made about how I ruined the existing usefulness of the laundry room because there is nowhere to hang clothes. There actually IS a nice long bar we installed under the 3 shelf unit by the door. I just failed to put up a pic of it. So- here is the pic! I gained about a foot of hanging space with the new design.

I. Love. These. Shelves.! We also added a pipe for hanging clothes under the bottom shelf on the shorter shelves. None of what we did was particularly difficult... you just have to be brave and do it! It's a lengthy post so check it out here.