So we bought this house from a flipper, see, and he did a terrible job. Case in point, this laundry room. Don't get me wrong, I am incredibly thankful to have a room dedicated to laundry, absolutely. But everything was wrong with this space, making it hard to make it right.

It took years of thought and one day, I got fed up and got to work. Key to my projects is always being budget-mindful.

The whole saga, along with details, tips, material information, and more, is a series over on my blog, Flipping the Flip. You can read it from the beginning here.

Supplies

There's a lengthy list of supplies used here which I'll scatter throughout but generally it was:

leftover paint

end grain wood block stencil

spray primer

painters tape

new light fixture

wood lath

square dowels

plywood

shelf brackets

spray paint

free and reclaimed lumber

scrap wood

Step 1:

First, and key to making my plans happen, was shortening the gas line into the room. This, my handyman neighbor took care of for me as I do draw the DIY line on things such as serious plumbing. Once he got that done for me, I could barely contain my excitement.

Step 2:

After lots of playing around on AutoCAD laying this out, next, and huge, was having the machines unstacked. This room is very tiny, about 9'x5' with a 7' ceiling so I had to be mindful of that, along with where other critical elements were such as the breaker box, plumbing, outlets, and such. The appliance folks were out for a repair so I tossed them some extra cash and they made the unstack happen for me.

Once the machines were down, it was time to really get painting. I had purchased this super cool end grain wood block stencil and decided this room was perfect for it. Leftover paint in hand, suddenly the room was infinitely cheerier. Love love love this stencil.

For info on the stencil, click here.

Step 3:

Don't forget you can hide your breaker box, especially if it's in a really annoying place. Spray it with spray primer then paint it the same color as your walls and voila, no longer a visual eyesore.

Step 4:

Ok, next up was removing one of those horrid light fixtures better known by an anatomical name and replacing it with something that would spread light around the room since this is the only source of light for this windowless 45 square feet.

Step 5:

Redoing the ubiquitous white plastic laundry sink tub happened too.

Using leftover wood lath and scrap lumber, I built a cover for the sink. Square dowels became the legs and that boring white sink had a whole new look for nearly free.

For more details on this sink job, click here.

Step 6:

The main reason I wanted the machines unstacked was to create folding space which I did with a waterfall counter.

I doubled up on plywood, using regular eh plywood and then fancier ply for the outside, to give it some visual heft and ensure the plywood wouldn't sag everywhere. This was the biggest and most expensive part of the project but totally worth it.

I sealed the wood with a few coats of paste wax and buffed it to a nice smooth finish. You can read more about the counter here.

This counter though...my husband doubted the benefits but once he saw it in and tried it out, he understood my whole game plan for this room. It makes a tremendous difference.

Step 7:

I assembled a scrap wood pegboard for brushes and such for over the sink. It's not the neatest thing in the world but it does do its job. I had also done some minor tiling above the sink as a backsplash since I tend to get messy here.

Step 8:

Lastly I picked up some free lumber from a woodworker and some reclaimed wood from a nearby yard to make some shelves. Purely decorative but they really tie things together. The brackets I purchased on Etsy and spray painted a bright happy yellow, my favorite.