I am so thrilled to be sharing some after photos with you today of our laundry room we have been renovating. This project has been one of our favorite and a very new kind of project, because it wasn’t a laundry room to begin with at all. Maybe you remember, it used to be a 4th bathroom off of our kitchen/dining room!
We never used it and no guest wants to use a restroom right off of the kitchen. Fortunately, we have another bathroom in the entry to our home and we started brainstorming how to make better use of this space. That’s when the idea sparked to turn our old laundry space into a walk in pantry and this unused 4th bathroom into the laundry room.
Here’s a before photo facing what was the bathroom, before we tore down the wall:
I couldn’t find a photo of this area before we laid the new flooring in here, but after we started demo, we had to tear up a portion of the wood tile and re-lay it where the wall, toilet and vanity were.
We also had to take off the whole back wall to move the washer and dryer hookups over here, a vent for the dryer that directed out of our roof, and although it was tight, we even made room for a small utility sink!
Here’s how the angle looks today:
This room doesn’t have any natural light, so we installed 4 small recessed lights and 2 beautiful accent lights to really brighten up the whole space and make it feel a lot larger. If I zoom out a few feet (see below), you can see the sliding door to the right leading to our great room (kitchen, dining and living) and the door to the left, which we painted a satin black to update it, leading to our garage (and side yard, hence the doggie door).
Having a sink in here was really important to us, and we were thrilled to find a small bar sink that fit perfectly into a slim 15″ wide base cabinet. We looked at so many laundry rooms with sinks and almost all of them had a step down countertop from the appliances to the sink, but there was no room here for a step, so we mounted the sink directly to the walnut countertop underneath and added a filler piece between the cabinet and sink to close the gap. We love the height and the seamless countertop. Truly couldn’t imagine it any other way.
Although I’m sure the sink will come in handy for lots of reasons, we mostly use it for filling up Charly’s nearby water bowl (we recently DIYed!) throughout the day.
In fact, the laundry room is kind of Charly central. Her food and water bowls are in here, but also we keep her treats in one of the glass canisters on the counter (the other filled with laundry tablets), her large bag of food is kept in the big pull out drawer in the base cabinet (love that thing), and one of the baskets above is dedicated to her–filled with her leash, harness and toys.
Adding an open shelf under the closed cabinetry was a last minute decision we actually made while picking up our cabinets at Ikea. We were walking through the showroom and saw a similar example and loved the idea of easy access to often used items. Right now, we have a basket dedicated to socks without a match, Charly, dryer sheets and an empty one–I’m sure it’ll have a purpose soon enough.
On the left wall, I commissioned my sister, Victoria, to do a his and her getting dressed drawing and they turned out so much better than I had even imagined.
(Update: There are now prints available in her Etsy shop for a steal! Click here for the man, and here for the woman.)
On the right wall, we hung a valet hook so I can fold and hang clothes all right here, or even hang something to dry if need be. It folds up when it’s not in use and packs so much function in such a little thing.
Through all of this, the real stars of the show are the actual washer and dryer, appropriately. We’ve been using them for a couple months now and they have truly made our lives easier and our laundry cleaner. In fact, while we were away in Mexico, my mom watched the girls at our place and washed allllll the clothes because she loved using these so much. I understand–they’re great and strangely fun. No wonder they have over 500 5 star reviews. Also, easy on the eyes.
So that’s the story of how we turned this:
Into this:
Now we’re ready to whip the rest of the plans into place in the kitchen–onward!!
To read/look back on every post regarding the laundry room, click here to be directed to the titles.
Sources
Washer and Dryer: Whirlpool Duet in Diamond Steel from Lowe’s | Cabinets: Ikea Sektion cabinets in Bodbyn off-white | Area Rug: eSale Rugs | Brass Bin Pulls on cabinets: Rejuvenation | Black Walnut Plank-style Counter and backsplash: CraftArt | Trinsic Faucet: Delta Faucet | Thurman flushmount accent lights: Rejuvenation | Sink: Lowe’s | Glass Canisters: Rejuvenation | Baskets: World Market | Art: Victoria Bradley-Morris | Valet Hook: Amazon | Wall Color: Valspar’s Soft Wool | Wood Tile Flooring: The Tile Shop | Black door color: Benjamin Moore’s Onyx
This looks beautiful. Did your house decrease in value because you no longer have that room as a bathroom? We want to change a full bathroom into a half bathroom / laundry room. But probably not a good idea having a bathroom in a laundry room. Any advice?
We sold our house for a large profit.
What size are the picture frames on the wall? Thanks in advance!
I am so sorry about the fire at your A-frame. I can’t even imagine the heartsickness of having done all that work and the wonderful pieces you found for the different rooms. I love your style and try to mimic it somewhat in our home. I’m also thankful that you and the children are all safe. We almost took our young son on a whitewater raft (or I should say I wanted to but when we got to the launch site the man who steers the raft and my husband both said No. Way. could he come along. I was totally unschooled in the whole rafting thing and so I was disappointed. The wife of the other couple with us said she’d stay with our son and meet us at the take out point. Just before the take out point the water became extremely wild – the front of the raft flipped end over end and I flew through the air, landed in a whirlpool that kept sucking me down. It finally released me. I lost my glasses but that was the worst of it. We later found my glasses in the back of their van (total mystery). The river had seemed so calm and relaxing when we put out and I thought it would be that way all the way to the take-out. I was shaking like a leaf and couldn’t let go of my son all day. I also had nightmares for weeks, months. So I kind of know how you feel even though we lost nothing but my pride.
I hate to ask such a trifling question at this time, so feel free to take your time answering me. We have had a few break-ins on our street lately and I’m thinking of getting a guard dog. You said yours was very protective, Can you tell em what kind she is and how old? Did you get her as a puppy and was she rambunctious? Is she older now and calmer with age? We are retired and don’t think a rambunctious puppy would be something we feel we could tackle right now.
Also we are getting a new front door and i was curious if you were still satisfied with your door, as i’m thinking of using that same company
thank you so much for taking the time to answer me.
God bless all of you.
What color are the baseboards?
Love this…I googled converting powder room to a laundry and your beautiful design came up. Maybe later on we can do ours