Create a Functional Laundry Room

Are you looking for ideas to create a functional laundry room? I have several ideas to share with you in this post that won’t break the bank!

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laundry room sink

Let’s start at the laundry room sink area. We used a 1980’s china cabinet that we transformed years ago. The cabinet was given a fresh coat of paint and a good cleaning.

You might notice I forgot a little detail on this cabinet. Comment below if you can guess what I missed!

DIY shoe rack

The side of the cabinet is outfitted with a DIY shoe rack. This laundry room serves several purposes one being shoe drop-off.

In order to create a functional laundry room, it is important to consider all of the uses of the room.

We come into our home through the back door all the time. Shoe drop-off is a necessity especially when those shoes are work shoes!

You will also notice a small handbuilt bench just inside the kitchen. It’s easy to sit down there and then reach around to put the shoes on the shoe rack.

The basket above hangs on a vintage hook and holds scarves and gloves in the winter.

new favorite view

This is my favorite view of the laundry room. It’s what I see when I walk into this functional laundry room every day.

Even though I only do laundry 2-3 times a week, I am in this room several times throughout the day.

Our pantry is on the left of this image as well as our back door.

The large window allows lots of light into this space and I didn’t want to hide any of that light with a curtain. A valance was all this window needed.

simple curtain

The gray and off-white buffalo check valance came two per pack. That allowed plenty of fullness on the curtain rod.

I also hung the curtain rod high enough that the bottom edge of the valance would just cover the top of the wood blinds. That maximized the amount of light that streams into this room most of the day.

pretty decor

Simple decor is a must in order to create a functional laundry room. So I looked for items that had a laundry theme and I only used a few items that weren’t functional.

This vintage glass washboard has been at our home for a while so I decided to keep it in the same spot.

You might notice the cabinet just above the washer is a bit messy. This summer I will take the time to fix that. I love the hardware cloth on the doors but I don’t like the chaos on the other side.

functional decor

The chaos on the rest of the shelves and on the other side of the cabinet is mostly hidden by baskets.

Light bulbs, clothespins, doggie grooming supplies, and cleaning towels are tucked nicely away in the baskets.

The pantry is also in this room and that is where I used to store the trash can. But I wasn’t crazy about that idea so I re-evaluated it.

The only real need for a trash can in this functional laundry room is for dryer lint. I found this one and it was a perfect size! A cup hook holds it near the dryer lint clean-out.

We found this sweet little tool caddy years ago at our local junk shop for about $4. That was before farmhouse style was a thing. It is perfect for holding scrub brushes and Lava hand soap for my hubby.

The little lamp is a strange little thing. It has a screw-on mechanism that I am not sure what its function is. But I secured it to the handle on the tool caddy. It takes a little 7-watt bulb and I made a chicken wire lampshade for it.

The light is perfect for the dark area on the transformed china cabinet and it acts as a nightlight as well!

laundry room organization

The cabinets were a mish-mash of free cabinets that we put together along with handbuilt shelving and then painted to create a cohesive look. So the area above the unit is perfect for open storage.

This is one of my new favorite finds. It is a wall-mounted clothes hanger that swings out. I can pull clothing out of the dryer and hang them immediately to prevent wrinkles.

When I am not using it, it swings close to the shelf and adds a bit of interest.

The swingarm clothes rack is also handy when I am using the clothes steamer to remove wrinkles from our clothing.

They come in a two-pack and I am sure I will find a use for the second one!

hide washer hook-ups

See that little curtain behind the washer? It serves a purpose. The backside of the washer usually has a visible water connection area that is just plain ugly.

No one wants to see that!

(By the way, did you catch my sweet little cast iron piggy bank? I like to collect spare change from the washing machine! It adds up quickly!)

My solution to hide the messy water connection was a simple curtain. It’s short – about 14″ and is the full width of a 6′ wide dropcloth. Also, I used the dropcloth hemmed edge as the hemmed edge on this curtain and the selvage edges for the sides. That way I only had one seam to sew for the rod pocket!

I made two of these ‘valances’ so that they would be full-looking.

The valance hangs on a tension rod made for showers so it isn’t going anywhere!

pantry organization

Let’s peek into the pantry area of our laundry room and especially this view.

See the long curtain hanging beside the doggie dish? That’s a drop cloth curtain I hung to hide the water heater.

The hot water heater was a huge eye-sore and this is the easiest way to cover it up but still have access to it if something goes wrong.

You might also notice the doors on our pantry. The one on the right had a nice area to paint a chalkboard for messages or lists.

I especially love this quote from a song called, “Please Come” by Nicole Nordeman. It’s a lovely song and this quote from it reminds me that we are better together.

Back to the pantry.

This little spot is perfect for our Barkly to have his dinner.

Previously, we had a plastic container for his dry food but it just wasn’t cute.

I found this one that looks like a galvanized bucket. Hubby crafted a lid from scrap wood so the food stays fresh!

vintage and functional clothes basket

Before we look at the new rug, let’s take a look at my clothes basket.

It’s a child’s toy crib on wooden casters that I found years ago. It is lite-weight and about the same size as a plastic clothes basket. Perfect for holding the dirty kitchen towels until I’ve gathered enough to wash.

And it makes the perfect clothes basket to take out to the clothesline! Yes, I still hang clothes out on the line! Are you old school like me and love putting laundry out on the line?

pretty rugs

Now, let’s look at the new rug! The bits of color on the neutral background add just the right amount of color to the mostly neutral room, don’t you think?

The grays and off-white pick up the color of the walls, the dropcloth curtains, and the gray checked valance over the window.

But there’s a slight problem…..

Somehow, I completely forgot to purchase the size I need for the back door!

Agh!! How did I manage to overlook that?? Oh well, a 4×6 of the same rug is on its way as I type!!

The green and neutral rug you see here will be on our front porch when the new rug arrives.

upcycled coat storage

The coat rack is an upcycled project we did several years ago. I don’t plan on painting it because I like the subtle difference in color it brings to this wall.

It has a shelf area just above the vintage coat hooks that are perfect for keys and spare sunglasses. It also has a lovely mirror with a gorgeous patina for those quick glances as we walk out of the door.

There are several vintage coat hooks left over from the pantry. I had previously used them to hold bbq utensils next to the hot water heater.

But I didn’t want them hidden behind the new curtain so I switched them out for store-bought hooks and hung the bbq utensils on them.

These will hold some vintage-style brooms and dust mop I plan on finding and then hanging just about the doggie bowl area of the pantry.

plan first and be flexible

Laundry tasks aren’t so bad when the room is as lovely as this one! I’m thrilled with the outcome.

Planning the space first was so beneficial! Even though I made a few changes as I moved along on the project, having the initial plan gave me direction.

But I am not completely finished yet! I have a plan for the floor that won’t come to fruition until the summer.

We have a big event happening in our backyard in the middle of May that needs some time and attention!

how to create a functional laundry room

Here are some tips to consider when creating a functional laundry room:

• consider all uses for the room
• designate specific areas for specific uses
• use storage solutions that are also decorative like baskets and vintage pieces
• utilize storage area above cabinets
• hide the ugly areas with a handmade dropcloth curtain
• use narrow shelving in the pantry
• keep it pretty, but keep it practical
• keep cleaning items near the area they will be used like laundry soap above the washer and a lint bucket near the dryer lint clean-out
• hang a chalkboard near the pantry for quick list-making
• choose a spot for shoe drop-off that is easy to access

laundry room process posts:

Here are the other posts about our laundry room refresh! Hope you enjoy clicking through all of them!

thanks for stopping by!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you found these tips to create a functional laundry room helpful!

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