DeLappenings: Laundry Room Makeover

Okay, peeps.

Last weekend, we finally tackled a MAJOR laundry room project that was so very badly needed that it has truly changed my laundry and entry-to-the-home life, now that it’s complete.

And that’s no exaggeration.

But before I show some pics, lemme give a little background.

When we were considering the purchase of this house, we definitely saw the potential. But there was a lot o’ work involved in making it the best environment for our particular family and life stage and style (understatement of the century).

And one of the toughest rooms to wrap our brains around and make as functional as possible—given a ton of limitations—was the laundry room. One of the most-used, most-necessary areas of the home.

And, boy, did we have some toughie stuff to work around.

Heeeere’s a before of the laundry room:

So. Some of the massive challenges:

Tiny square footage
A floor that was sunken down by half a foot (why?) and sloped toward a drain in the center
A terrible layout that meant you had to sidestep the washer and dryer to get in the room, because they blocked half the doorway
A sink in the right corner of the room that there legitimately wasn’t room for, as the door literally knocked into it when opened.

I mean...nothing about it was bueno.

So we tackled logistics during the renovation, including:

Leveling the floor (buh-bye, drain), and putting in some awesomesauce—and wild—textured tile
Removing the traditional door and creating a pocket door for space saving
Removing the sink
Moving the washer connection to the wall facing the entry

Basically, we just did the best we could with the space allotted, and it was definitely far better than before. But...the dryer connection was unable to be moved so we were stuck with the massive eyesore of the hose (pipe?), and we had no storage to speak of, other than a free-standing bench we utilized for shoe storage—that, unfortunately, took up more space within the cramped room. Boooo.

So, here’s what it roughly looked like for nine months or so...if you removed absolutely everything from the room, besides the washer and dryer, ha.

But here’s what it generally looked like (and this isn’t even the messiest of shots).

I mean...just a hot mess of shoes and backpacks and odds and ends dragged in from the car.

Such a hazard to my ankles that loved to roll over everything I had to stomp on top of when doing multiple loads of laundry a day.

And holy heavens was it annoying on my back to have to stand far away from the washer or dryer and lean over all this crapola to tackle the clothes washing. Let alone deal with where the heck to put a laundry basket (more often than not, I just set it down teetering on top of all this heinousness).

The one saving grace to our current laundry room is that you don’t enter the house through it, as you did in our previous home—which was a larger space, but also the entry point from the garage...

So at least we have a small entry hallway, separate and apart from the designated laundry space. Not great, but I’ll take what I can get.

So...basically, the hubby and I spent months and months, trying to design something inexpensive and functional in our heads—not to mention, something we could actually pull off on our own.

And it had to utilize the very narrow space vertically on either side of the washer and dryer, and cover up the eyesore of the dryer hose. Oye.

But. After so much time imagining something that might work, we finally dove in last weekend, bought our goods, and spent hours and hours making this work.

I mean...we had to get pretty creative with pass-throughs.

But also, pretty practical with adding support beams and connecting/stabilizing pieces. And just really creating “built-ins” on either side of the washer and dryer from five separate cabinet pieces that we combine into one.

But the end result had been super functional, had kept the floor completely free and clear, has created a home for everything (backpacks in upper cabinets, shoes in storage bins, extra odds and ends in larger baskets on top), and seriously made me so much happier walking into the house a million times a day, and tackling laundry.

Deep sigh.

It will always be a cramped space that’s not ideal, but at least now it’s an organized cramped space, and my slightly obsessive heart can rest a bit easier.