Before and After: This Family of Five’s $600 Laundry Room Makeover Features a Brilliant Sink Hack
Laundry rooms work hard, but they don’t always get a setup that reflects that. In Lisa Chun’s (@ourhome.becoming) home, for instance, the laundry room was equipped with just a washer, dryer, and utility sink when the family moved in four years ago. Yes, it had the basics covered — but there was no space for storage, and no space for folding or hanging clean clothes.
Lisa built a waterfall countertop with butcher block not long after moving in; it was one of her first DIYs in the home, and it added a lot of functionality at the time. “But the room still felt very plain and lacking in storage,” Lisa says. And fast forward four years, she says, and “our family of five churns out a LOT of laundry!”
Lisa decided it was time for another round of upgrades for the space to make it more functional and a little more stylish, too. “I wanted to create a calming space that has touches of vintage style,” she says.
Lisa took on most of the redo herself, with a little assist from Brian when it came to installing the new cabinets. Hanging those high up, and installing crown moulding above, helps make the ceilings look taller (and doesn’t leave any dead, unusable space in the gap above).
Beneath the new cabinets, Lisa installed a new backsplash, choosing a glossy ceramic subway tile. Lisa kept her previously DIYed countertop in place, and also kept the utility sink — yep, that’s the same one! Rather than replacing it entirely, she built a pretty dark blue surround for it that gives the illusion of a fancy two-drawer vanity.
On the other walls, Lisa installed board-and-batten wainscoting that features a peg rail — ultra practical for storage or display.
That all sounds like a lot, but Lisa says taking it one step at a time helped keep it all manageable. “Tackle the project in segments so that you don’t feel overwhelmed,” she advises. “This could easily be just a cabinet project… or a tiling project… or a board and batten project. Doing it in chunks helped me to make progress when I had time while working towards the overall vision.”
This was especially important since each project completed here was a DIY first for Lisa. “I learned so much and can’t wait to apply this to future room transformations!” she says.
Now, the laundry room looks like the sophisticated space Lisa had envisioned, and it came together for just $600.
“I’m in love with how the space came out — the cabinets and peg rails add a ton of functionality,” Lisa adds. “My favorite part is probably the faux vanity cover for the utility sink because it made such a big visual impact.”
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This post originally ran on Apartment Therapy. See it there: Before and After: This $600 Laundry Room Features a Brilliant Hack for Transforming Ugly Sinks