Small laundry room makeover + DIY easy “floating” shelf

It’s done. I started and finished a project in a single week and should really be given some kind of award because this is not the normal me! Honestly, it feels like everyone I know is building a home or moving into a home and I am beyond jealous of them having a new space to decorate. Since we’re not moving or building anytime soon I decided it’s time to redo all the rooms in the house. This is very exciting for me…not so much for Kyler. Haha.

I decided the first room to makeover was the laundry room. It’s a dream to have a whole room dedicated to laundry. You know the one’s on HGTV where there’s counter space and a sink and there’s room for decor?! One day it’ll happen but for now my set up is diagonal from the front door and is one big mess.

I had this vision of having two floating shelves where I could incorporate decor and the things we actually used. If you’ve been following me on Instagram you’ll know how much of a mess this idea was haha. I was so confident that I was going to build these shelves and that backfired on me quickly. I don’t have a table saw, I don’t have a nail gun, or any of the proper tools. I had Home Depot pre cut pieces for me and none of them were the same length which made it even more difficult. After a few tries and destroying the wall I decided to go another route haha. This way was SO much easier.

the makeover

I’m really proud of myself with this room because I spent less than $30 for the entire space. I shopped our house and used items that weren’t being used to their full potential.

For the paint I used Behr paint in the shade Barely Brown. This is the color we have in Chloe’s nursery and in our living room/kitchen. I love it. That alone did a whole lot for the space. I also switched the lightbulb out for a daylight lightbulb. I highly recommend switching to daylight bulbs in smaller rooms because that instantly makes the room feel bigger.

Here’s a quick before and after look of the space!

Doing a makeover is the perfect time to throw things out and organize. Because this space is so small I wanted it to give off a minimal feel and I think I did a pretty good job at that. We actually donated all the hangers you see in the before picture. I recently switched to all velvet hangers so we didn’t need the plastic ones anymore, and what we did keep I put in the upstair closets. I fold all our laundry on our bed so it made more sense to have them up there anyway. The basket on the dryer is actually a catch all bin that I try to go through every night. I also use it to transport laundry upstairs. I didn’t really need to get rid of a whole lot during this process.

I am still so proud for not breaking the bank on this and being able to find things around our house. The only two decor pieces I purchased were the dispenser jar holding all the detergent, which was a crazy good clearance find at HomeGoods for $11, and getting the print made which was $7.

What I used for storage was actually way more functional than what I had before. From left to right I have the Canvas shopping bag that is customizable from Apolis. In that bag we actually have all of our grocery bags. Next is the dispenser jar that I found on clearance at HomeGoods. I linked a similar one at the end of this post. The plant is from Ikea and the ceramic jar holding it is from World Market. The frame is a black 14×16 frame from Ikea that I spray painted gold, and the printable laundry today or naked tomorrow can be found here. The tall candy jar is from HomeGoods years ago, the clothes pins are a Walmart find. I couldn’t find a link to the cheap ones but I got a pack of 30 for under $2 in the laundry aisle. Lastly, the cloth bin is actually one I had in my closet. It’s from Pottery Barn and one of the sturdiest bins I’ve found. We keep all our dog things in it.

What do we do with all our extra laundry items?? Two pictures up you see a basket against the wall. Well, we have our iron in it and also three stain sprays. It’s pretty roomy and still doesn’t take up a lot of space. I was unable to find anything similar to that but I did purchase it at World Market. They still have it in store but not available online.

the shelf

I am in no way an expert so don’t take my advice haha. I would 100% ask someone that knows what’s they’re doing because I don’t. However, this turned out just fine.

I ended up getting a 2x8x10 pieces of wood. I know nothing about types of woods and went with one that was lighter in color. I am super picky when picking my lumber so I spent about 10 minutes digging through the stack of wood at Home Depot making sure there weren’t any big knots or imperfections that would get in the way. The Home Depot did cut this for me down to 72 inches. The space is 73.5 inches and I wanted the illusion of a floating shelf as much as I could without all that extra work.

I sanded the wood down smooth and then pre-drilled holes in the wood that would be holding the brackets and drilled the brackets into the studs in the wall. I stained the wood after I put it on the wall and used a Natural wood stain to keep the wood looking as light as possible. I let the stain dry for a good 24 hours before touching it. I actually think this particular stain dries in a few hours, but I’ve noticed that it still feels a little sticky after those few hours.

After that it was time to decorate! I had good intentions for making amazing floating shelves but it was a total bust and all for a good reason because this turned out better than I could have expected and it was fairly easy. If you don’t have access to some tools, Home depot and Lowes rents them out!

I am in love with this little space and think the next area I’ll get to will be our fireplace and living room.

Items I was able to find links for: