When we first moved into our home, the laundry room looked like this. It had one shelf with a bar for hanging clothes. One shelf wasn't enough storage, let alone any good at hiding messes. My husband Justin and I contemplated adding prefabricated oak cabinets from Lowes or Home Depot and painting them white, but the spaces was not wide enough for two sets of cabinets. Then we realized that in all honesty, we’re short people, so putting cabinets above the washer and dryer wasn’t really going to be something we were going to be able to access on a daily basis. And probably not without a step stool. Another realization was that our current washer and dryer were nearly ten years old and were not in the best condition. So we came up with a a great solution!

We decided to rip out the existing shelf and replace with a multiple shelf arrangement that would look aesthetically pleasing, and be able to hold boxes and bins to store items we wouldn’t need often. At the same time we decided to purchase front loader machines with the pedestal bases that would store the soap, dryer sheets, etc, the things we need regularly, and down low where we could reach them. So we drew up what the new shelves were going to look like with the measurements, and Justin got to work! First he dismantled the current shelf, and removed the old washer and dryer.

The he put in the the bead board and chair railing trim. He didn’t paint the trim until later. Here’s a photo of the right corner of the laundry room before we put in the bead board and painted the walls. After the bead board and chair railing trim were up, we started testing out paint colors. At this time we also got the new front loader machines.

With the bead board in on the surrounding walls, Justin started assembling the shelves. We used mdf for the shelves for cost and convenience.

After the shelves were in, Justin added a 1x4 piece of wood for the backing for the crown molding. After he put the crown molding up, we painted the shelves, crown molding, and bead board white. We just used a pure Valspar pure white paint from Lowes.

After the room was painted, we went back and added this shelf with hooks to hold backpacks, gym bags, and coats. I found the cute metal hanging basket at Home Goods.

Loved framing my kid’s art work! It makes the room feel more inviting and the kids love showcasing their work!