Our laundry room is in our semi-finished basement and isn’t super glamorous—but this is one of the room updates I’m most excited about! Ever since we’ve moved in, I’ve wanted to add cabinets and a countertop to our laundry room, and it finally happened.
I do most of our laundry, and the room was… terrible. It was empty except for an old washer and dryer, our water softener, and a concrete utility sink on rusted metal legs. Oh, and the previous owners left us an old IKEA table that… Sean promptly stole for the workshop. It needed some help.
Cue almost three years later and my wish came true!
This project happened in phases over the past few months. It started back in October when we ordered a new washer and dryer.
I know I’m an adult when I got so excited to shop for a new washer and dryer. We picked out the LG 3900 series, which is recommended by Wirecutter (I trust their recommendations with my life). They’re WiFi enabled, too, so I get notifications on my phone and watch when a load is done. *chef’s kiss*
But we were switching from a top-load washer to a front-load washer, and in order to get it so the washer and dryer doors weren’t opening into each other, we… needed to redo the utility sink. (Isn’t that how these projects always start?)
The drain pipe from the washer didn’t fit when it was in the spot further from the sink, so we needed to redo the piping, and the pipes and sink were in such bad shape that we needed to start over.
I’m seriously impressed that we didn’t break any bones when getting the old sink out. It was made of concrete and easily more than 300 pounds. When the plumbing started leaking (likely several years ago), the metal legs got rusted out, and as soon as we lifted the concrete off of the legs, they literally crumbled.
But once we safely removed all of that, we were able to replace it with a plastic sink with a giant spray hose that Sean can use to clean his brewing equipment!
Because, oh yeah, the room is actually now our laundry room / brewery. By organizing the rest of the room, we were able to carve out a corner for Sean to brew his beer!
The brewery actually starts outside of the laundry room, with our beer shelf.
It’s so organized and makes me so happy every time I walk past it!
When you walk into the laundry room, there’s an entire wall of cabinets. It’s wonderful!
We had priced out new cabinets from IKEA and Menards, but it was going to be way too expensive. I had mentioned it to my mom, though, and when one of her friends mentioned redoing her kitchen, she recommended we connect to see if they’d be a good fit for the laundry room, and they totally are!
We rented a U-Haul and loaded it up with all of her kitchen cabinets—during a big snow storm. Naturally. It was a grueling day, but absolutely worth it!
The lower cabinets stretch almost the entire length of the wall, and the butcher-block countertop goes the entire length. We put two upper cabinets on either end to give us a bit more storage space, too! We originally tried having more cabinets in the middle, but it got too crowded. Now there’s plenty of space for folding!
I took some decorating inspiration from my dad, who displays all of his old yard signs in the garage.
I love having so much storage space in here. It enabled me to finally organize all of my craft supplies and household stuff—we even have an entire drawer devoted to lightbulbs, so no matter which kind I need, I know where to grab one!
The cabinets didn’t quite extend the full width of the room, but that left the perfect cubby for our vintage dinner trays that I inherited from my grandma!
One of the cabinets was for a corner, so it had a cabinet door on one half and plywood on the other. We put that one on the far side (you can see it just next to the water softener) and cut a small square out of the plywood for the cat—that’s where her litter box lives now!
I also utilized storage space on the side of the dryer with some magnetic shelves! I picked up the wall pocket and wall shelf from Poppin and used the magnet to attach them! It’s not a perfect solution—the magnet isn’t as strong as it could be. That’s why the shelf has two metal poles underneath it—they have stronger magnets and keep it from falling off!
I keep the manuals for the washer and dryer in the wall pocket, which is really convenient! And the laundry tools that I need readily accessible are an arm’s reach away on the little shelf.
I used a magnetic curtain rod to hang a towel for easy access as well!
Once we were done organizing the laundry room (and even a bit of the main room of the basement), we had an extra upper cabinet left that Sean hacked to fit around the utility box! Now it blends in with the wall but is still just as accessible as it was before.
In the final corner (directly to your right as you walk into the room) is Sean’s brewing setup! When redoing the plumbing for the utility sink, he was able to add an exhaust hood and a water line right where his brew kettle sits, which is really convenient. Plus we had one extra lower cabinet and enough countertop leftover for him to have a small workspace!
We’re so happy with our new laundry set-up—it feels like an actual room now, instead of a corner of our basement where the washer and dryer happen to live. I wouldn’t say I look forward to laundry day, but it’s a lot more bearable now.
Things We’d Still Like to Do in the Laundry Room:
- Paint the walls
- Get a long rug for in front of the cabinets
- Recaulk and/or replace the windows
- Add some lighting above the cabinets
- Add a rod above the countertop to hang clothes
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