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We just completed a light renovation makeover of our builder basic laundry room. And, shockingly enough, it went very smoothly?!?! Normally when we take on any sort of project for ourselves, we end up in the 5% of the unlucky folks who for whatever reason nothing is “standard.” What works for the masses, for our clients, or in every single YouTube video seems to never quite work for us. But I’m happy to report that this time, friends, it came together seamlessly!
I’m so excited to share it with you today because:
This project made a huge impact for the effort
It was quite budget friendly, and
It’s applicable to SO MANY OF YOU who have really basic laundry spaces and struggle to imagine a world where it could be something really special.
This is a lesson in doing what you love in your home, despite what anyone else might think! (foreshadowing – this makeover is not for everyone!)
THE LAUNDRY ROOM BEFORE
Imagine a 6’ square white box annnnnd you pretty much have it!
Sidebar, the walls look two toned because we had just prepped for wallpaper and I’m a bad blogger who forgot to take pictures before that started!
The only bit of personality this room boasted was the patterned floor. If I’m being totally honest, the tile is not my favorite, but we were limited with what we could choose with our builder. And while we did replace much of the tile floor after we moved in, we didn’t want to spend the money to splurge in this room. We may swap it out one day, but honestly, that’s a real low priority!
Other than the floor, we had white wall cabinets, and that’s literally it.
THE PLAN
I fell in love with this Kate Kime Wallpaper ages ago and have been dying to use it somewhere in my house. The original plan was to use it in our powder bath, but for speed and cost savings reasons we just painted that room, and wound up loving it. It’s a modern take on a classic toile featuring iconic elements from Fort Worth, Texas, which is where we went to college and where Steven and I met and married. It even has a tiny horned frog, which is TCU’s mascot, and it became the jumping off point for this room.
A favorite color combo of mine that we’ve used throughout our house is dark green + blush pink. It happens in our Powder Bath and Master Bathroom, and I knew it would work well in here too! If you can’t have some fun in your laundry room then, honestly, what are we even doing here?! My adoring husband has been a champ through me adding pink to our house, so he agreed to a pink laundry room with the caveat that we should now be done with painting walls pink. FAIR ENOUGH.
I also knew I wanted to add wall paneling for visual interest and durability, and wanted to include a peg rail for hanging cleaning supplies.
Inspo locked and loaded, it was time to pull this room together. We DIY’d the wall paneling and hired our favorite wallpaper installer to hang the Katie Kime wallpaper because we really wanted that to be right (and my husband assured me our marriage may not survive a wallpaper install 🤣 – KNOW THYSELF).
We were able to put the paneling and trim up over a couple of days. This is a SUPER friendly DIY project. The look we were after was a vertical nickel gap wall paneling, and my plan had been to do true boards, but then I found this ¼” x 8’ x 4’ sheet paneling (!!!) that gave that nickel gap look but – here’s the important part – since it’s only a quarter of an inch thick, I didn’t have to remove and re-install my baseboards! Such a huge time and money saver.
Painting took another few days, and the wallpaper another day. Truly this whole project only took a couple of weeks and the impact was enormous.
THE LAUNDRY ROOM AFTER
This room is not large, you guys, so it is a wee bit tricky to photograph! But here she is in all of her pink and toile glory!
Let’s talk about the paneling. This feature adds so much character to this otherwise pretty character-less space. Adding trimwork is one of the best ways you can bring personality and detail to a space. We used the same baseboard that runs through our house (it’s about 6” tall), then added 4’ of paneling, a 1x6 with pegs on the deeper side of the room, and topped it with a 1x2 top cap for extra definition.
All of the trim, including the door frame and backside of the door, are painted in Sherwin Williams Spun Sugar.
FYI It reads a bit more salmony/yellow in this image because there was no way to photograph this room without the light on, which casts a yellow hue. The other photos are more true to life color-wise.
We moved the electrical outlet down to be able to mount our Dyson wall vacuum, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it yet because the dang thing, while useful, is so ugly and purple! Eventually functionality will win out but for today, I’m just enjoying the simplified look of the room without a bulky vacuum. Or I’ll partner with Dyson to create an aesthetically pleasing vacuum, whichever comes first.
The peg rail might be my favorite feature. Our dustpan previously, I’m ashamed to say, had been sitting on the floor for 2 years! I couldn’t bring myself to junk up the wall with what I knew would be a temporary wall hook situation. Now it’s off the floor and in easy reach.
I decided to keep the upper cabinets white, since ethe wallpaper surrounding them has a white background. And honestly I think painting the cabinets pink might have been a bit much for this space.
Another easy upgrade was adding a shelf above the washer and dryer. Things fairly notoriously fall behind the washer and dryer and are a PAIN to retrieve. This shelf rests just above the washing machine water hookups and camouflages all of that piping for a much cleaner and cuter look. It’s painted in the same pink and resting on basic wall brackets that I also painted pink to make them go away. You can see them if you look realllly close, but you can't spot them IRL because of your eye level.
I am a indoor houseplant enthusiast, but since this room has exactly zero natural light, I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep a real plant alive, so I opted for a good looking faux plant to add some life to the room.
Now, I’ll admit that a brass horned frog is probably not going to win me any Design awards, but the Horned Frog is the mascot for TCU where Steven and I met and married, and the wallpaper has a little horned frog in it. So I figured where else can I display this where it would make a lick of sense?!? We are huge proponents at TLD of designing your home in a way that makes you happy, despite what’s on trend or what everybody else is doing, and this fits squarely into that category.
The frog is guarding our laundry detergent, which is now much easier to reach on this lower shelf. Also if you aren’t using powdered laundry detergent for all of your cleaning needs, go follow GoCleanCo on Instagram and it will change your life.
Nearby are a few other laundry essentials – a scrubbing brush, lavender essential oil and wool dryer balls (also, if you aren’t putting lavender in your dryer balls yet, this will also change your life and your laundry), plus a small lidded catchall for legos, small rocks, and loose change. I have 3 boys; this is a huge part of laundry life.
The last small-change-big-impact item on our shelf – a small pop up lidded trash can for dryer lint. I’m apparently airing all of my dirty laundry here (couldn’t help the pun) but the way we’ve handled this for 2 years was a plastic grocery bag hanging off the door knob!
I tell you this not just to embarrass myself, but to remind you that home takes time. Even for professional Interior Designers. Not every room is going to look or work perfectly all the time, and that’s okay! Perfection is not the standard. But it is certainly wonderful to make impactful changes that are functional and beautiful, particularly when you’re working with something like laundry which, let’s be real, is kind of a pain. If we can bring a little joy to this chore, it will go a long way!
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a huge fan of wall art with words, BUT this one at least has a purpose! This print has all of the laundry symbols that you see on your clothing tags but never know what they mean. I created this print and chose the same green as in the wallpaper and framed it in a wild hot pink frame (scroll down to get yours FOR FREE!)
Again, if you can’t go a little wild in the laundry room, where can you!?! It’s fun little touches like these that infuse your space with personality and make it totally unique. Maybe a hot pink frame isn’t for you (it probably isn’t) but that’s the whole point! Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing and do what makes you happy!
*To be honest, I’d call this room mostly done. There are still a few more things I’d like to do in this space. I’m on the hunt for the perfect rug to tone down the black and white tile a bit, I have another piece of art coming for the peg wall, and I’m considering swapping out the recessed can light with a more decorative fixture. But dad gum it, y’all, if I waited until I felt a room was 100% complete before I shared it with you, I wouldn’t have anything to show because my house is always evolving. But there’s beauty in the progress! It’s such an incredible change from the builder basic box this room started out as!
GET THE LOOK
Perhaps a pink and toile laundry room isn’t for you, but in case it is, here’s how you can recreate the look (or a version of it) in your home!
Grab your free Printable Laundry art in 4 colors here!
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