Homeowners share the clever upgrades that have made doing the wash much less of a drag
While such a utilitarian space may not seem like it deserves much attention, homeowners who’ve given their laundry rooms a facelift say it’s actually made them more enthusiastic about doing the wash. Because laundry rooms are typically tucked away, the space is an opportunity to take risks with patterns and colors (and, yes, disco lights) even if they don’t necessarily match the rest of the house.
Beyond aesthetics, rethinking a laundry room can also improve its functionality, allowing for easier access to detergent, for example, or creating more storage. And while you can certainly splurge on high-end finishes and a professional interior designer, those things aren’t required to create a space that’ll make folding and ironing feel less like punishment.
Dewald, a public-school teacher, and Le, a nonprofit administrator, spent under $100 on their entire project, which they tackled in their spare time for about two weeks. Their budget covered paint, a disco lightbulb, a decorative disco ball and mirror tape to cover the rust on the top of the dryer. The darker paint and low lighting also help mask imperfections on the walls. As a fun bonus, the room is viewable from another room through a peek-a-boo opening in some built-in shelves. Dewald says it feels like peering into a speakeasy.
Liz Butler, a full-time parent near Tampa, felt the need to do heavier renovations to her family’s laundry room. “The aesthetic of it did not make me want to be in there,” says Butler. “It was also not very functional.”
With the help of her husband, Scott, they redid the floors, cabinets and decor, all for about $2,000. “I’m a budget shopper,” says Liz Butler. “I will find the deals and I will wait on the deals, or scour Facebook Marketplace.”
Among her biggest scores for the laundry room: tiles on clearance at Lowe’s for 7 cents apiece, and cabinetry from a liquidation warehouse. The priciest item turned out to be a slab of butcher block for $270, which the couple used to make a folding station. They chose NextWall peel-and-stick wallpaper in a dark-hued garden print for an accent wall. Butler then took a swatch of it to Lowe’s where the staff helped her pick matching blue paint for the cabinetry and trim. To improve the lighting, they replaced a fluorescent tube light with a ceiling fixture and sconce from Amazon. Decorative wall baskets were the finishing touch.
The couple saved big by doing most of the labor themselves — though only being able to chip away at the project on weekends meant it took about five months. “With us being on a single income, it makes sense for us to learn how to do it, so we don’t have to pay someone else,” says Butler. The lone exception: a professional contractor tiled the floor.
Niky Foster, a content creator in Delaware, spruced up her laundry room last year on a $600 budget, around half of which went to new cabinets from Home Depot. (She replaced the included knobs with hardware from Amazon that fit her style.)
Foster zhuzhed up the walls herself using stick-on vinyl and a Cricut machine — a device linked to an app that lets users create and print custom patterns for craft projects. The result looks like wallpaper, but is easier to apply and remove. Foster decants laundry products into glass jars for better visibility (and aesthetics). She also bought collapsible laundry baskets that take up less space. “I really thought through the process of all the things I need when I do laundry and where they are,” says Foster. “Everything has a home.”
The countertop over the machines was installed by a contractor. It’s made of plywood and was finished with a layer of clear polyurethane to protect the surface.
Another DIY content creator, Alexis Combs, is sharing the process of her laundry room renovation on her YouTube channel. So far, she and her husband have removed a closet, utility sink and a layer of linoleum flooring.
Major renovations aren’t new to the couple, who surprised Combs’s parents with a $300 laundry room renovation at their house in South Carolina a couple of years ago. That redo included building a floating bench against one of the walls. Above the bench, they painted a soft green accent wall, with decorative trim and hooks. “That part alone really transformed the space,” says Combs.
Other changes revolved around functionality, such as adding a small utility cart between the washer and dryer to store detergent and other supplies.
For those with larger budgets, an interior designer can add expert insight. Stephanie Vanderveldt, a physician in Atlanta, tapped Michele Gratch Interiors to help redo her laundry room, which was part of a larger house renovation. She chose to work with Gratch both because she loved her style and didn’t feel qualified to do the job herself.
“The finished product is much more than I ever could have accomplished on my own,” says Vanderveldt. She estimates about $10,000 went to the laundry room, which included replacing the counters, cabinetry, washer and dryer.
The room’s most eye-catching detail, however — wallpaper patterned with illustrations of French bulldogs — was chosen by Vanderveldt herself, in homage to her two dogs. Before meeting with the firm, she’d already picked out the pattern from Spoonflower. She told Gratch that including it was nonnegotiable.
Though wallpaper is usually much pricier than painting (in this case, it cost $1,500), Vanderveldt says she has no regrets about the personal touch: “It happens to be the room that you see right when you come up the stairs, and it always makes me smile.”
Annie Midori Atherton is a writer in Seattle who covers culture, lifestyle, business and parenting.
