Laundry Room Make Over

Adam and I have been hard at work giving our laundry room a little make over.  When we moved in to our house, our washer and dryer were in the kitchen.  About a year later, we moved them in to the third bedroom because it shared a wall with the kitchen and it was easy to swap the water that way.  We had a small screened in porch that wasn't getting much use so I thought that we could frame it in and create a new laundry room.  It would be great for extra storage and of course I wouldn't have to look at the washer and dryer in my guest room.  

Waaaaaay Before.  Screened in Porch.

When we first re did the laundry room we painted it a super neutral color and just hung some really inexpensive shelves from Ikea.  All of my junk could be seen and it drove me crazy!   I bought some cheapo window treatments from Bed, Bath and Beyond.   Over time, I grew to hate the room.

Before The Second Time:

Our laundry room is also the room we walk through to access our back door so I wanted it to be more pleasing to the eye.   When we have cook outs everyone walks through this area and it was so ugly I was embarrassed.

So, about three weeks ago, Adam and I decided we thought we could give the room a little make over on a serious budget.  The first things on our list, remove all that horrid Ikea shelving and replace it with cabinets we had left over from when we re did our kitchen.  I thought it would be fun to paint them a barn red and rub black stain over the red.  They turned out great!  We decided to paint the walls grey thinking that the color would make the red really stand out. I am so happy with the way the color turned out.

The Start of the After:

You can see some of the grey in the back ground.

They aren't this bright but my camera was acting crazy tonight.   We are waiting on a stock Lowe's laminate countertop to come in to go underneath the cabinet and above the washer and dryer.

We didn't want to spend the time or the money to install tile in the laundry room so we used the 12x12 Peel and Stick tiles that you can cut with a razor knife to fit your area.  Also, looks so much better!!!

We wanted a bench so that we could store our shoes and sit down to put them on. I didn't have much space so I decided to use the Lack Shelf from Ikea and I saw on a blog somewhere (I didn't save the address silly me) someone use Ikea cabinet legs on the bottom to support it. They used 6 legs. We only used 4.  One on each end and two in the center. We attached our shelf to the wall. 

 Aidan modeling the new bench.

 The AFTER (for now).  Those are also Ikea shelves above the bench. 

 In this picture you can see the peel and stick tile.

 The bench holds a ton of shoes and is definetely deep enough so that it is comfortable to sit on. 

Here's the list of things we still need to do:
Order blinds for the windows.  My girlfriend Natalie turned me on the these custom roman blinds at JCPenny.  You measure your window and they send you the blind and all for super cheap! Mine are less than $40 a window!!

Hang up the deer hooks that I bought for our coats on the brick wall opposite the bench.  I bought them at World Market/Cost Plus for $7 each.  I had a coupon so they ended up being super cheap.  Aren't they cute?

Buy a runner for in front of the washer and dryer.  The concrete floor underneath the tile makes it pretty cold in there. I just want something to keep my toes warm while I'm folding laundry.  This is the runner I want. It's Fieldcrest Luxury from Target.

Pick up the counter top from Lowe's and have Adam install it over the washer and dryer. 

So we still have a little while to go but it is looking so much better!!!

We are loving the new laundry room!