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It's probably thanks to Pinterest that I developed an obsession for a pretty laundry room. I had a vision for what I wanted it to look like, but it took years for that vision to come to life. At our last house, the laundry room was in the basement and there wasn't any drywall covering the cement walls, or tile on the floor. It was cold, wet, and I hated being in there. When we moved into our current home, the setting was even worse.
The wall and floor situation was about the same, except scarier, and now also included cobwebs and a lot of spiders. Any time I dropped something on the floor taking it out of the dryer (constantly), it had to be washed again, because of the dusty cement floor. I hated being in that room too. We had to focus on the main floor for about a year, but my goal was to have the laundry room as the first completed room in the basement when the time came.
We demolished the basement in December 2016 and began to look at the entire floor plan to rework it. Before, the layout just didn't make sense for us. We used scrap pieces of paper and started brainstorming a new layout (I wish I still had these rough sketches, but this photo still gives you a feel for the changes!) and had new framing done the following fall, 2017.
We moved the laundry room as well as our furnace (we had to redo our duct work anyway to increase our ceiling height) to a different area in the basement. Winter 2018 we had our tile work done, and began making this room a pretty one.
In our home, Matt and I tend to end up compromising over every. single. detail. We are usually both happy with the outcome, but at the beginning, we both have very different visions. The laundry room was the one and only room that I got full say, because he "didn't care" what it looked like. Full decision making felt incredible.
The tile is my favourite feature in this room. We originally purchased it for our kitchen, but decided to go with something different, and I held onto the tile to use one day for the laundry room. I am a sucker for shaker cabinets, and Matt thinks they are "overused", so I took full advantage of my one shot at getting them in our home. I wanted a farmhouse sink (doesn't every girl?), but couldn't justify the price tag that came with it for a laundry room. Instead, I found this white one for a third of the price, and haven't really thought much of it since. We warmed the space up with butcher block countertops, and a runner that is mostly white and grey but with fun touches of colour.
The storage in this room is incredible. Our home was built in the 70's and in general, lacks the storage space that newer homes have. We designed the laundry room off of the furnace room, and included a closet that is deep enough to hold large items without taking away from shelf space. Between the closet and the cupboards, we have more than enough room to grow into should we need it.
As you can probably tell, the room isn't 100% finished yet. I still need something for a couple of the wall spaces, but I tend to hold off until I come across exactly what I'm looking for before settling for anything, and we need to add trim around the doors. We decided to leave the closet space open because otherwise there are just too many doors in this small room, and I don't mind being able to easily get what I need.
The laundry room did end up being the first "completed" room in the basement though, and I am so happy about that. The rest of the floor took some time, but this was the only place I needed access to on a daily basis, and I was very thankful that it was clean.
Products Used
Cabinets | Ikea
Countertop | Ikea
Sink | Ikea
Washer & Dryer | Whirlpool
Rug | Wayfair
'Laundry' Sign | My Painted House