DIY Laundry Room Reveal

Give me a weekend and I’ll give you a new laundry room! For Christmas this year, we made over my mom’s builder grade laundry room. Do wire shelves bug anyone else as much as they bug me??

Her only request: hidden storage. I asked if she wanted a spot to dry her clothes, and she opted for maximum storage instead. 

If you’re just here for links, scroll on down to the bottom of the post and you’ll see a nice long list of all of the supplies and tools that we used on this project.

So let’s first start with a little before photo of this builder grade laundry room: 

The moment I posted the before on Instagram, my DMs were flooded with messages saying “my laundry room looks exactly like this!!” So if you’re in that boat too, I hope this laundry room renovation gives you some good inspiration! 

Since the main goal of this laundry room was hidden storage, we first started by building the upper cabinets and face frames. Remember, cabinets are just boxes, so this part isn’t too difficult. 

Rather than using pocket holes to install the bottom, we broke out our Kreg Quick-Flip bit and secured it through the sides. This way you won’t see pocket holes when you see the bottom of the cabinet. 

If you’re interested in printable plans for a DIY wall cabinet box, you can grab them here.

For the doors, we made shaker cabinet doors and then added a delicate moulding to elevate them a bit. I love how the simple moulding addition turned out! I’ll definitely be doing that again. 

We installed the cabinets 15” above the top of the floating shelf. Once we got the cabinets installed, we added crown moulding, and some moulding to the bottom of the cabinets for a more professional finish.

Finally, we added some shoe moulding to the sides. Many stores sell a similar, but slightly thinner moulding that would be slightly better for this, but we were in a time crunch and needed to select a pre-primed option.

Cabinet Tutorials + Helpful Blog Posts: 

• How to Make a Simple Wall Cabinet 
• How to Build and Install Face Frames 
• How to Install Upper Cabinets
• How to Install Concealed Hinges + Cabinet Doors
• Recommend Tools for Cabinet Building

The next stage was the beam/floating shelf. This wasn’t requested, but personally I think every laundry room needs a shelf over the washer/dryer. It’s so much nicer to have all of your laundry supplies right above the washer rather than having to lift them down from a shelf above your head! 

Tutorial: How to Make a Floating Shelf Over Washer Dryer

Between the shelf and the cabinets, we installed a pretty peel-and-stick wallpaper. I had never installed wallpaper before and was a little bit nervous about it, but it took about 15 minutes to install with such a small space. I’d say it really pulled the room together! 

Overall, the longest part of this project was waiting for the paint to dry between coats. 

Colors + Finishes: 

• Cabinets: Benjamin Moore Saratoga Springs in satin (we used the Advance line), inside finished with 3 coats of Minwax Polycrylic in semi-gloss
• Walls: Sherwin Williams Frosty White in Flat 
• Shelf: Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner, one coat of Minwax stain in Honey immediately followed by one coat of Minwax stain in Dark Walnut, two coats of Minwax One-Coat Polyurethane in satin 
• Primer Used: Sherwin Williams Wall + Wood Primer 

Laundry Room Links: 

• Floral Wallpaper 
• (2) ¾”x4x8 Sheets of Maple Plywood (used for both shelf and cabinet boxes) 
• (3) 1x2x8 Primed Pine (face frames) 
• (4) 1x3x8 Primed Pine (door rails and stiles) 
• (1) ¼”x4x8 Poplar Plywood (door centers – maple would also be a great choice, but ours doesn’t carry it)
• (2) 2x3x8s (shelf supports)
• (1) 3 ⅝” Crown Moulding 
• (4) Trim Pieces (door detail) 
• (1) Trim Piece (underneath the cabinets) 
• (1) Shoe Moulding (sides of cabinets) 
• (4) Knobs
• (8) ½” Overlay Soft-Close Hinges 
• 1” Foam Insulation Board
• 2.5” Cabinet Screws 
• 3.5” Wood Screws 
• 1.25” Wood Screws
• 1.25″ Softwood Kreg Screws
• DryDex Spackle 
• Minwax Wood Filler 
• 220 Grit Sanding Nets 
• Purdy XL Paint Brush 
• Purdy Jumbo Ultra Finish in ⅜” Nap 
• Painter’s Tape 
• Delicate Surfaces Painter’s Tape
• Titebond 2 Wood Glue

Tools We Used: 

Note: you do not need all of these tools and jigs to build something like this. We’ve accumulated a lot of little things over the years that make things easier, but many are not required. 

• Circular Saw 
• Straight Edge XL Cutting Guide 
• Kreg Accu-Cut Cutting Guide 
• Random Orbital Sander
• Miter Saw 
• Miter Shears 
• Drill 
• Kreg 520 Pocket Hole Jig
• Dewalt Brad Nailer 
• Dewalt Table Saw (for the doors)
• Kreg Multi-Mark Tool 
• Corner Clamp 
• Kreg Face Frame Clamp
• Easy Read Tape Measure
• Laser Measuring Tape
• Large Level
• Irwin Quick Grip Clamps 
• Glue Bot 
• Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig 
• Kreg Quick-Flip Drill Bit 
• Kreg Drill Guide 
• Kreg Shelf Pin Jig 
• WorkTunes Headphones
• Safety Glasses

If I missed any links, let me know in the comments below!