In case you missed any of the other posts in the Laundry Room Makeover Series, you can catch up here…
Part One – Inspiration & Bead Board Installation
In this post, I’ll share sources for everything (well, as much as I can source) and will also talk through the functionality of this space.
I must say that organizing the shelves was my favorite part of the makeover. I love it when things that are useful and hard-working can also look pretty and be out in the open. It really doesn’t have to be form OR function. It can be both.
So, let’s talk about the shelf over the sink first, since that’s where I put the things I use most. Because the washer and dryer are so tall, it’s a little hard to reach the cabinets over them without a step stool, so I put things I don’t use as often up there.
On the first shelf over the sink, I have an ironstone pitcher I use for watering my house plants along with a jar of plant food. It’s now easy to fill the pitcher at the utility sink and add the plant food when I need it.
A couple of baskets from Ikea are filled with microfiber cloths I use for cleaning…
The top shelf is filled with the cleaners I use most. I put them into my favorite glass spray bottles from Grove Collaborative. I also have a stash of some Mrs. Meyers from when I ordered four bottles of glass cleaner instead of one!
I labeled the clear glass spray bottles with a label maker, so we know which one is which.
I also keep my extra dish brushes in an ironstone sugar jar. When one wears out in the kitchen (and I really wear them down to stubble), I pitch it and replace it with a fresh one from my stash.
I spotted this shelf one day when I was at Hobby Lobby. (It was not on sale when I found it, so I used a 40% off coupon.) I was actually there to look for hardware for the cabinet doors that I wasn’t planning on removing, but I spotted this shelf and something about it made me think it would be perfect over the sink. I had considered corbels for the cabinets at this point and thought they might crowd out a shelf. I actually put the shelf away and then back in my cart twice. I finally decided I could just buy it and then return it if it didn’t work.
I am so glad I got it, because it’s perfect. It provides a little bit of extra space for things I want readily available, since there isn’t a lot of surface space surrounding the sink. It holds a jar that corrals brushes I use for cleaning along with some gardening shears and one of my favorite all-purpose paint tools.
I also have a mug with some twine in it and I made some “S” hooks out of wire to hang more garden scissors, a little broom, and some French soap. I do use the scissors, but the soap and broom are admittedly there just because I fancy them.
The Laundry sign is one of my own designs that was sold in Hobby Lobby.
In an antique English anchovy jar, I keep my MMSMP brush soap. It’s the perfect size for whole bars or to smush remnants of full bars together and I can hold it in my palm and clean the brushes right in the jar.
I also have a bowl with brushes I use for various cleaning purposes. The old jar lid might seem a little random, but I use the inside as a way to scrub my artist brushes. Before using the MMSMP brush soap (which is the best brush soap ever), I give them an initial cleaning with Murphy’s Oil Soap to get the bulk of the paint off. I used to scrub them into a microfiber cloth (as opposed to my palm, since some of the pigments are toxic), but the cloth would get pretty gross after a while and looked sloppy hanging over the faucet. The lid works great as a scrubber, protects my hand, and rinses clean after each use. There are even grooves on the milk glass insert in the zinc lid that act as a wash board.
I have two soap dispensers by the sink. The larger one has hand soap and the smaller one holds baby oil scented with a few drops of lavender essential oils. I use the baby oil to wash oil paint off of my hands.
I put a faux sage plant from Ikea in an ironstone bowl next to the sink, so it adds a bit of life to the windowless room, but also blocks the view of the hoses and unfinished bead board. The corbels help with that as well. They distract the eye from really looking behind the machines.
Of course, we have some cleaners in bottles and containers that do not fit with “my look”, so they are tucked under the sink along with some more dish towels, sponges, etc.
The curtain is made out of antique toweling hung from a tension rod. I just sewed a simple sleeve on the back as a pocket for the rod. The toweling was exactly the right size vertically, so I only had to hem the sides.
On the rest of the shelving, I have some more hand towels, some cutting boards and wooden dough bowls, cloches, candles, twine, some stacks of ironstone, extra locker baskets that have yet to find a permanent home, etc.
It’s all stuff I was storing anyway, but it’s too pretty to hide behind closed doors. And, as I shared before, it was good motivation to clean out those shelves and keep them tidy.
Someone asked to see inside the closet, so here it is…
I used the bottom half of a wire shelving unit to hold baskets while I’m doing laundry. It’s been such a good use of the space, so I don’t have baskets all over the narrow strip of floor in front of the machines. I also keep the laundry soap and dryer sheets on the shelf. In addition, I use the closet to store my stash of paper bags (Anyone else hoard those?), light bulbs, furniture hardware, the “pool bag”, some more cleaners, and just random household things. I still need to comb through the closet to really get it organized, but I can at least find things as it is now.
Here is a list of sources for items I used in the room –
- Cow painting – Cari Humphry
- Cigar Box Landscape Painting
- Key Hook Rail
- Redecker Dish Brushes
- Blue Jute Rug
- Faux Sage Plant IKEA
- Square Baskets (holding microfiber cloths) – IKEA
- Grove Glass Spray Bottles
- Soap Dispensers
Check out THIS POST for the tools, materials, primers, paint brands and colors used.
Now that I’ve been using the space a lot, I must say that it’s a delightful place to wash brushes and do laundry. As an added bonus, I’m more motivated to stay on top of keeping it clean and tidy! A laundry room makeover isn’t the most glamorous, but it’s certainly not to be underestimated…
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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