Laundry Room Makeover

Mandy Brown
by Mandy Brown
6 Materials
$75
3 Days
Medium
I was fortunate enough to have my current house given to me by my parents when they built a new home to downsize and so my mother wouldn’t have to climb stairs after living with near crippling back issues for over 30 years. My house was built in 1990 and the original owners used a LOT of wallpaper and loud colors. Instead of dealing with removing wallpaper, my parents painted over most of it which worked, but now that I’m trying to update everything I’m painstakingly removing it and painting fresh.

My laundry room was a very bright, sunny yellow and had a “wedding ring” quilt patterned wallpaper border around the top under the crown molding. It also had those white wire shelves above the washer and dryer and I’ve never been a huge fan of those so I knew something had to be done.

Since my laundry room is just inside from my garage entrance, we had one of those racks with coat hooks to hang our jackets on as we came in the door. I had a small three-shelf bookcase that I converted into cubbies to hold our shoes. This 6’x6’ space was not cutting it as a “mudroom“ so I decided to convert an empty space in my laundry room into a locker area.


This was the area in my laundry room that was just wasted space.
Most benches are 18” to the seating area. I was using a 1/2” thick board for the seat so I measured up 17 1/2” to place my cleat boards.
With my cleat boards in place I was ready to set my bench seat.
I purchased a 2’x4’ hardwood board from Lowe’s. The space was exactly 4’ wide so it worked out perfectly.
After securing the seat to the cleats I used 1/2” MDF boards to use both as dividers and supports.
I also used 1/2” MDF to build the “locker” areas and storage above.
I trimmed out the top with crown molding and used 1/2” beaded mullion to cover the raw edges of the MDF. I stained the seat and painted the rest white to contrast the light grey paint we chose for the walls and added 2 coat hooks to each. I also found some really cute fabric bins at Big Lots that fit great underneath to hold (and hide) shoes while hats, gloves, etc. can be stored above.
Now we can keep all of our things tidy and out of the entry. I have another idea for that space. 😉
The color of the room before we started.
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  3 questions
  • Mir12029640 Mir12029640 on Sep 25, 2018

    This looks great!! I have a similar area and have been wanting to do this for years.


    How did you fasten the upper portion to the wall? I don’t see any braces or screws.

  • Mir12029640 Mir12029640 on Sep 25, 2018

    This looks great!! I have a similar area and have been wanting to do this for years.


    How did you fasten the upper portion to the wall? I don’t see any braces or screws.

  • Cindy Cisneros Cindy Cisneros on Oct 03, 2018

    Where did you put your washer and dryer.

    Love the idea, but no room in my laundry room.

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  • Lou Ann Forman Lou Ann Forman on Oct 02, 2018

    I loved what you did with the empty space!!

    It is so neat looking!

  • Krysten Rene Ayer Krysten Rene Ayer on Oct 14, 2018

    This is so awesome I am going to try this in my laundry room I think it will be perfect in the space I have. Thank you for sharing this great idea.

    • Mandy Brown Mandy Brown on Oct 14, 2018

      Thanks Krysten! It has made our lives so much more organized. Good luck and post pics!

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