DIY Small Laundry Room Makeover Ideas on a Budget

This article shares some DIY small laundry room makeover ideas that are affordable and easy to implement to keep it organized and pretty. 

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Back Story

After living in our new house for about 5 years, I finally decided to give our laundry room a makeover.  Our laundry room became a room where we stored ladders, cleaning products, rags, and more in addition to our traditional laundry cleaning products. The room has a very small amount of functional space. (The entire room measures 8 feet by 8 feet.)   With so much “stuff” in our laundry room, I no longer wanted to enter the space and was actively avoiding it.   

While I wanted to give our laundry room a makeover, I also didn’t want to spend a lot of money.  Today I am sharing how we gave the laundry room a makeover that made a huge difference in how we now use and enjoy the space. The best part of this project was being able to transform the room without spending a lot of money.   Here are some ideas on how to give your laundry room a makeover on a budget.  

DIY Laundry Room Makeover

This budget-friendly laundry room makeover was sorely needed.  It took me approximately 4 days, with 8 hours of work each day, to complete this project. The results are well worth the effort and the cost.  Throughout this post, I link sources for the materials used for this laundry room makeover.  Having said that, most of the supplies can be found at big box stores such as Home Depot or Lowes. 

Here are some changes you can make to your laundry room that are affordable, don’t require much time, and are easy to implement. 

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1. Clean and Organize

Cleaning the Laundry Room

The easiest and most affordable way to create a pleasing laundry room is to clean and organize the existing space.  I was surprised to learn how much better I felt when the room was cleared of “stuff”.  There are a number of ways to clean and organize a small laundry space without it being a lot of work.  

First and foremost, I pulled the washing machine and dryer forward and gave the floor and walls a good cleaning using a bucket of hot water, Mr. Clean and a scrub brush.  There was so much dryer lint behind the washer and dryer!  Clearing out the clutter and starting with a clean slate helped me to make strategic decisions on what items should be in the laundry room. It also helped me to visualize things I could do to optimize storage in the small space.  Here are some tips for cleaning the laundry room:

• Wipe down and clean the existing light fixture.
• Clean the windows.
• If you have upper cabinets, wipe them down inside and out.  Use bins or baskets you can put inside the cabinets to keep products organized.
• Vacuum and clean behind as well as underneath the washer and dryer

Tips for Organizing a Laundry Room

Here are some tips and tricks for organizing and creating storage space in your laundry room:

• Use open shelves effectively by putting a series of bins on them which can hold cleaning supplies and laundry products. 
• Use Command Hooks on your walls to maximize vertical storage for light weight items.  We hung our small ironing board, broom, Swiffer mop and more using 3M command hooks.
• Use an existing piece of furniture to maximize storage of items like dryer sheets, detergent, rags, bleach and other laundry supplies. We used an antique dry sink to create some much needed storage to the room.
• Buy clear containers for storing your laundry pods and or detergent.
• Buy a container to store your dryer sheets
• Use labels for the outside of your baskets or bins

2. Add Wallpaper and/or Paint

A fresh coat of paint is still the least expensive way to change the feel and look of a room.  The white walls in our existing laundry were drab and seemed to say “builder grade”.  Similarly, I wanted to inject some personality into our laundry room by using some wallpaper. The cost of wallpaper can add up quickly.   So, we decided to apply peel and stick wallpaper to only one of the primary walls in our laundry room and then color matched the paint (with help from Sherwin Williams) to the background color in the wallpaper.  

Thoughts on Paint

It took me a full day to paint our laundry room walls and ceiling.  Fortunately- it only required one gallon of paint, which was used for painting the walls and the ceiling of our tiny laundry room. The extra cost associated with using good quality paint, particularly for an area of the house subject to moisture, is definitely worth the money.

You can also paint old cabinets in your laundry room and switch out the hardware to give them a quick update. 

The beauty of making-over a laundry room is you can invest in high quality paint AND wallpaper because the overall space is small.  My two favorite and most reliable paint companies are Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore.   Even a fresh coat of white paint can do wonders to brighten a room.

Quick tip: if you decide to paint your laundry room, pour some paint into some red solo cups (or something similar) and use a 2 inch paint brush to cut in near the edges and corners of the room.  If you have any paint remaining in the cups, cover it with saran wrap and place it in the refrigerator to use the following day.  

Thoughts on Walllpaper

The wallpaper selected for this project is from North and Finch. You can find many other wallpaper designs online or at your local home improvement store.  We used peel and stick wallpaper in the event we want to remove it in the future.  Good quality wallpaper is noticeably thicker and adheres to the wall better than some of the less expensive brands.   There are so many fun wallpaper patterns to choose from!  The most difficult part is deciding on the pattern you want to use.  I ordered a couple of sample pieces and taped them to the wall before deciding. Choosing a wallpaper can help you decide on a paint color.  The different colors used in the wallpaper pattern can guide you towards selecting an overall color for the room.  

3. Hang Wall Art

Adding wall art to your laundry room can personalize the space and make it feel inviting.  We decided to hang an antique portrait of an “adopted ancestor”.  However, any type of vintage art would add character to a room.   Best of all, wall art doesn’t need to cost much money.  Pictures, mirrors or framed art you already own can be used. Similarly, you can purchase wall art from a thrift store or antique store.  Since laundry areas tend to be in a small room, a little bit of art is all you need.  Wall art can make a small budget go a long way and personalizes the space to reflect your style.   Here are some ideas for laundry room wall art:

• Laundry signs
• vintage oil paintings
• Collections of antique washboards
• Collections of vintage clothes pin bags
• Collections of vintage laundry bags

4. Add Wall Mounted Rack with Hooks

With such a limited amount of space, I had to think creatively on how to maximize the storage and function of the room.  A wall mounted rack with hooks is the easiest way to maximize the efficiency and function of a tiny space.  We mounted a vintage, hand-painted, wall rack with hooks to serve multiple purposes.  First, to hang up freshly laundered damp clothes to air dry.  Second, we use the hooks to store brooms, mops, Swiffers, dusters, etc.  This wall mounted rack is also a great place to hang wet jackets or swimsuits. 

5. Switch out the Light Fixture

Switching out an existing light fixture is an affordable way to give a space some personality and style. This is an easy DIY project you can complete in under an hour.  While our laundry room has good natural light from the windows, we still need an overhead light fixture in the evening hours.   We switched out our builder grade light fixture for a school house style fixture.  You can also purchase a similar light fixture on Amazon.  Just be sure the total wattage and lumens in the new light fixture are adequate for task based lighting. Additionally, creating warm ambience lighting is nice and so we added a petite lamp for a soft glow. 

In Closing

I hope these 5 budget friendly ways to makeover your small laundry room were helpful.  Now that the room is organized AND pretty, I don’t mind laundry day.

Task Breakdown by Day

Here is a break down of the time spent for each task for our laundry room makeover.

Day 1 – Remove contents and clean the room. Complete prep work for painting- removing switch plates, taping off baseboard and window trim.

Day 2– Paint the room, including the ceiling – two coats of paint.

Day 3 – Hang wallpaper.

Day 4 – Bring in dry sink, move washer and dryer back, install light fixture, and add new accessories.

Here are some final photos of our DIY small laundry room makeover. Pin the images below to bookmark this site for future reference.

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