Finished DIY makeover of a small laundry room featuring stacked washer and dryer, floating wood shelves, white cabinetry, and silver hardware. Clean, modern design with efficient use of vertical space and warm, minimal styling.

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Before and After: Laundry Room Updates

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View our budget friendly laundry room update that we did in less than one day!

Laundry Room Design

Hand-drawn laundry room design sketch on lined notebook paper, featuring layout ideas for appliances, shelves, and storage units. Rough pencil lines and handwritten notes suggest early planning stages for a home renovation project.

I measured out the width of the wall – which came to about 65″ wide. Zack measured it and it was 64 5/8″ wide, haha. Then, from these small laundry room inspiration photos, I created a rough sketch of what cabinets I wanted to install.

I want more of a symmetrical design, but I also want a space for hanging clothes to dry.

We went with two 30″ tall cabinets on the edges with a short cabinet in the middle. That way we could add a hanging rod underneath with the space to hang a shirt. We ended up not getting a rod, because I found this really cool retractable clothesline instead.

With just under 65″ of wall space to design around, we chose one 15″ wide cabinet and one 18″ wide cabinet to frame the outside walls. The bridge cabinet in the middle is 30″ wide.

And that got us to 63″ wide of cabinets, so we also bought some cabinet filler pieces to fill in the gaps on the edge. Now the cabinets are flush with the walls and look like built-ins instead of free-standing cabinets.

Small Laundry Room Shopping List

We started first my measuring the height of where the bottom of the cabinets would reach.

Our kitchen cabinets hand at a height of 55″. We decided on 58″ to give us space to add in a narrow shelf right above the washer and dryer.




Laundry Room Silver Wall Paint

I picked out three colors for samples: Silver Bullet, Tin Foil and Flannel Grey. I absolutely thought I was going with tin foil from the pamphlet until I saw how the samples looked.

Three grey paint color swatches—Tin Foil, Silver Bullet, and Grey Flannel—painted on a wall surrounding a white light switch. The hues range from light to medium grey, helping visualize how each shade looks under natural and artificial light in a real room setting.

I chose Silver Bullet. And I’m glad I started with the smallest space in the house with this paint color because we ended up changing it later on!

After the first winter in the house, we decided to change the entire color scheme of the house trying to brighten our dark rooms from the tan nightmare.




Floating Shelf

Repaired section of laundry room drywall where a cut was previously made, now patched and smoothed to match the surrounding wall. Subtle texture blending and fresh joint compound suggest recent drywall work to restore a clean, finished look.

Zack wanted to open the wall to make sure that he didn’t install the posts into the water or electrical lines. He previously punctured a hole in the garage when we first moved in and hit a water line.

All the pegs were installed into the studs. We used blind shelf supports so you wouldn’t see them (so the shelf really looks like it’s floating).

We purchased a 2×6″ piece of lumber that was cut to the width of the space.

Note: The floating shelf was installed at a later date, so this was done in one day (but the cabinets were!).




Close-up of floating shelf pegs installed into a white wall, showing metal supports protruding horizontally, ready to hold a shelf with no visible brackets. Clean, minimal hardware setup for a sleek, modern shelving look.

Finished Laundry Room

This is how the finished laundry room looked like in 2021 after the original DIY. I love the new cabinets! I hate staring at clutter on the open wire shelving and this was the best solution for the room.

The total cost of this small upgrade is $619.75! This was totally inexpensive for us. Compared to the quote I received from California Closets almost double the price .

Finished laundry room featuring newly installed white wall cabinets above the washer and dryer, offering clean, concealed storage and a bright, streamlined look. Floating wood shelf mounted on the wall in a laundry room, providing stylish and functional storage space above appliances for organizing detergents, baskets, and cleaning supplies.

New Laundry Room Updates

Small laundry room after a DIY makeover, featuring freshly painted white walls and newly installed wood-look tile flooring, creating a bright, clean, and modernized space.

We changed the flooring throughout our entire house in 2024, so this is how our laundry room looks like today.

You can also see that we changed the trim (and painted it grey), as well as painting the walls back to white!

Gorilla Line retractable wire clothes hanging rack mounted on a wall, featuring a sleek, space-saving design ideal for indoor or outdoor drying, with extended wire holding lightweight garments. Rug hanging to dry on a Gorilla Line wire clothes hanging rack, suspended securely from the retractable line, showing the rack’s strength and versatility for heavy-duty household use. width=

Retractable Clothesline

I found this Gorilla Line retractable clothesline to install inside our laundry room. It doesn’t interfere with either door and it makes hanging clothes to dry (how little we actually need this) easy.

Mop and broom neatly stored on a laundry room wall using adhesive Command hooks, creating a clean, organized space with easy-access vertical storage for cleaning tools.

Cleaning Organization

To aid in my storage and organization, I bought some of these Command Broom and Mop Grippers to hang my cleaning supplies on the wall behind the door.

I hope this inspires you to look at your laundry room space a little differently with the small changes you can make with a huge impact! Browse through my other home projects to get more inspiration.

Cheers,
Katie

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We’re Zack and Katie and we’re so happy you’re here! We’re first-time home buyers discovering how to make our house a home. We’re designing a home we love and we’re learning as we go. We’d love for you to join us!

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