Our new home {part 6/ laundry room redo}

We have finished our laundry room and I am beyond excited because it is functional and pretty darn cute.  I am so thankful to have a place to fold laundry that doesn't involve me hauling clean clothes half way across the house to a bed or floor to fold.  In our last home (rental) we had absolutely no available space on top of the washer or dryer because it had to also act as our pantry (gasp right?).  So, when we bought our new home I was giddy that the laundry had a designated area and I couldn't wait to make it functional.  Lets cut to the chase, I spend lots of time dealing with laundry and I absolutely dislike it beyond measure.  I figured if maybe, just maybe I liked the space I was working in, that I may just enjoy doing the laundry.  We'll see if it works now that the laundry area is completed.  This redo cost little to nothing and that is what I want many of you to understand.  Making a space like-able, functional and appealing doesn't have to cost a fortune.  Sometimes it just takes being resourceful, handy on a small measure and creative.

This is what we created for almost nothing!!!  Continue on for all the details.

Here is what the laundry area looked like before we moved in:

It had baby blue walls, a chalkboard-like white paint on the cabinets (honestly never seen a finish like it), yellowed trim, horrible carpet and extremely dated washer and dryer.  And yet I saw this space and it was like hearing birds chirping...I was in aah.  I knew this space would work and work great!  I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Here is the in-between stage; we had painted the cabinets with a fresh coat of semi-gloss pure white paint and the walls were painted with Benjamin Moore Light Pewter.  We had the Frigidaire front loading washer and dryer already.

The space was a bit better, but it was not working, it was always messy, and not functional at all.  If any of you have tried to fold laundry on top of a washer and dryer you know how many socks and personal items have fallen between the two!  Something needed to be done and quick.

So my husband and I got to work. When we started looking at the options of either a large piece of wood approximately 28"x65" or a slab of some type of counter top to make into the shelf we wanted, we were looking at more then our little budget could handle at the moment.  We happened to have an extra door that used to be part of our three door bathroom (don't even get me started on that) that my husband decided would work just right.  It would need to be cut down a bit and the door handle hole needed to be filled in.  Wood putty to the rescue for us.

Here is the door trimmed down, I had never seen the inside of a door like ours, interestingly enough it is mostly cardboard...great quality door ha! =)

Here you can see where we have filled in the door handle hole.

And final step, just painting over what we had filled in and it disappeared.  

(And yes, a water table works perfectly as a work station.)

We let the door dry and then we installed really simple, black metal brackets similar to these from Home Depot to hold the shelf up.

With some measuring and leveling, the shelf was up.  Then all the final touches came together and here it is now:

This laundry area is part of the main hallway so it had to be appealing to the eye and I have to say we are really enjoying it.  I hope you do too.

Sources:
Southwest minis by Walls by Mur
Guide to Procedures
Hanging rod
Hangers
All baskets from Home Goods
Light was available at Target, but doesn't appear to be online any longer. My husband wired it into the ceiling

Total cost of my redo:

$110.00

(already had washer and dryer)

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