Spice Up Your Laundry Room: Adding Personality to a Dull Space

The cottage laundry room is not a room as such. It’s a wall of cabinets within our main bathroom. For this reason, it was important to me, when I laid out my requirements for the space I was adamant that it be not only be functional but also pretty, I was not prepared to look at the washer and drier while putting on makeup. I, certainly, did not want to see a laundry basket or piles of dirty clothes. When the initial quotes came in from the cabinet maker, I knew shaker style doors were not in our budget. Neither was painted cabinetry. So, I requested flat, unpainted doors to be installed with the direction that I’d finish them myself.

What We Started With

Our laundry space was originally going to be a bank of doors with the services hidden behind. Due to the window size changing and the size of the washer/drier, we decided on an open sink area and two hidden cupboards. These house our linen, washer/drier and a broom cupboard for cleaning items. It’s a requirement where we live that the laundry has a sink. (I have no idea why. I don’t know anyone who uses a laundry tub on a regular basis.) There was not a hope that one of those ugly aluminium troughs was coming into our house, though.

Instead, I did some googling and found a deep, round basin that could double as a second vanity. Because we only have one bathroom, a second vanity is very useful when we’re going out and want to get ready at the same time. By having the sink as a basin and adding power points and a mirror, we can use this area as a vanity most of the time. Yet we still have the option of handwashing in the deep basin if necessary.

Adding Personality

I love the layout we created in this bathroom/laundry. The installed cabinetry, however, was flat and boring. It needed some life and an injection of the cottage vibes I love. I mulled over a number of ways to do this, including wrapping a mural over the entire surface to hide it completely. When it all came down to it, the budget is tight so I chose to use the left over wallpaper from the office makeover.

The first thing I did was to choose matching cottage style light fittings. The little shades over the sinks give the ultimate quaint feel to the space. The pleated glass has a vintage feel and plays off the sleek copper tones of the tapware. I really wanted a copper look for the tapware and it doesn’t come cheap, so I opted for a minimal and modern gooseneck. You know how I go on about mixing old and new items for an individual vintage but not too grandma look. This is how to do it.

The large window in the room, overlooks our neighbour’s house and it can be a little confronting when you’re in the shower, even though he can’t see us. So. to add personality and break up the hard surfaces in the room, I made a simple linen cafe curtain. This was hung on copper pipe cut to size and used as a curtain rail. Simple brass curtain clips hold the panel onto the rod. I’m enjoying the mixed metal vibe this creates throughout the house.

Adding Trim

As mentioned before, the laundry room doors were flat and boring, so we added some timber trim.. Adding moulding is a common way to dress up the look of flatpack doors,. Instead of picture frame trim, we chose 5mm square trim and added it around the doors with glue. We made two squares on the taller doors at a ratio of 1/3 and 2./3. This was done purposely to mimic the look of a traditional four panel door but in a modern way. To soften the look, I chose antique brass door pulls from TradCo. The curves of the handles look great against the straight lines of the trim and combine modern and old.

Pattern in the Laundry Room

Finally, I created a feature wall for our laundry room using William Morris wallpaper I had left over from my office makeover. This was added to the bathroom vanity area too, tying the two spaces together and adding some pattern to the room. We made a small utility shelf with reclaimed timber from a kitchen hutch and the same brackets we used in the kitchen but painted copper. I have to admit I was unsure about the timber to begin but now I love the look and how it ties in with all the warm tones metals.