The DIY Laundry

This post has been a long time coming, as our new laundry has been in for some time now (like wellllll over 6 months, probably more like 9 months!!). I guess it has never "felt" finished to me, as its not. Perhaps this post will give a little encouragement to the man of the house to complete the finishing touches. (Not so subtle hint there love!)

Anyhooo, since whipping up the last piece of wall art, I have felt compelled to share.

I wish I had before pics of our laundry, I would have them somewhere but not handy , and I am not patient enough to find them or wait  ( DH is nodding his head in agreeance).

Picture a very basic laundry. Just a big space for a washing machine, the standard trough and not much else. It needed help.

We purchased our house as a Spec home, directly off the building company and all in all, I am happy with most things. I do love it.  There are only a few things about our home I would change (other than adding a few extra rooms) and the laundry was definitely one of them.

We bath our babies and sometimes older children in the laundry, so we needed somewhere to be able to change them etc. I wanted more storage. And of course, to look prettier. I am a girl after all.

If money was no object ( a girl can only dream) , there would have been more that I would have loved to do. Including floor tiles and moving the power and water taps from the wall (again, so it would look prettier) but we were on a budget and it just didn't stretch that far.

Without further ado, our new laundry space;

Links to where items were purchased are listed also, or as close to them as I can find. Most items are from Ikea, Bunnings or Target.

We had already put the drying rack and hooks on the wall, but have recently added the 2 frames prints. The basket hanging from the hook has a roll of toilet paper , strange I know but Max and Lacey's pottys are underneath so this is a convenient spot for us.

Hook Rack
Similar Drying rack

I didn't want to spend any money on the wall art, so I found this FREE Wash, Dry, Fold, Repeat  printable on Pinterest and just popped it in an Ikea Frame, as with the home made art next to it.

I made that using some cardstock, letters and glued on a peg.

There are plenty of gorgeous prints on Etsy, and I found a few that would have suited my colour scheme etc but it depends on whether you want to spend the money, and I didn't. (scrooge!)

Printable from HERE

 The washing basket is from Ikea also ( I am sorry I can't find it on the site but I know its still there!) and divided into 2. I don't tend to sort , just throw anything in. Crazy but it works. We wash everyday so it has never bothered me.  But this basket is perfect as its narrow. The white trug you can see is my laundry basket and they are on Clearance in Target for $10 at the moment ( I also used one for storing my boots etc in yesterdays Wardrobe post)

The hanging bag is a peg bag, perfect

I framed a Stain Removal Chair by Martha Stewart , in a cheap yet pretty Big W frame for easy access and quick action. The basket has a box of wipes etc.

We replaced the trough with a lovely ceramic one from Ikea, and put in overhead and base cabinets. The best part of the makeover would have to be the benchtop. Also an Ikea buy and Hubby just cut it to size and finished the pipe area with a cord cap (the type you would use on an office desk).

All the gorgeous tags are from the very cool printable by Bianca at A Little Delightful available HERE , and I just laminated them, punched a hole and tied with some cute Bakers Twine. I orginally bought the Washing powder tin in the gorgeous blue, so that set the colour scheme for the room, and these labels and tags suited perfectly, like a match made in label heaven!!

Jar with Silver lid
Washing Powder tin from Target

All the important and well used products are stored here for easy access. The Stain removal supplies are in the cute white bucket, which is hanging from the rail by an S hook.
The wire rack stores anti-bac gel, baby bath etc, and the little basket hanging at the end holds plugs.

Silver rail
S Hooks on Rail
Wire Basket on rail

The cupboards are all from Bunnings and are part of the Flatpax range. We used the kitchen range, as there were more choices for cupboard sizes and they fit our space better. Plus I liked the idea of being able to choose different doors for the front, whereas the laundry cupboards, although a cheaper option, only came with the basic white door.
The website is great, and allowed us to plan and measure at home and just go into Bunnings to purchase the items.
Bunnings also do benchtops, as seen on the Flatpax website, but I liked the choices of laminate better from Ikea and the sizes too! Plus the Ikea ones come with extra laminate for redoing the ends if you need to trim them, and Bunnings ones don't, FYI.

The kickboard is still to go on (the part that needs to be finished) but its a matter of Noel having the time to cut them to size and fit them. Time is always an issue!!

The cupboard on the left stores baby towels, as this is where Angus gets bathed. We put a blow up change mat (which gets stored down the end of the bench against the window) purchased from HERE, on the bench and it quickly becomes a change station.
The white tub on the bottom shelf is for Noel's work clothes, I like to seperate them incase they are quite dirty and this is nice and tucked away.

Under the trough I store my cleaning products ( with a child locks on the doors) and Enjo mits etc.
All our doors on the base don't have handles, they are yet to be fitted but we are in no rush. No handles means the kids can't open them, we know how to but they can't . Smart eh?

And the little potty's sit neatly inside the door, although they aren't getting used that much anymore, they just take themselves off to the toilet.

Completed , this reno would have cost about $1000 and has made a huge impact on our life. Still not super duper cheap but its such a functional , easy to use space now, and just a fraction of the cost it would have been to get the pros in! The cupboards, bench top and trough all went in in a matter of a few hours , as DH had built them over the course of a few nights when the kids were in bed to save time on construction day.

The little bits and pieces to decorate and finish were super cheap too, but they make the space look pretty and that's what counts really, doesn't it ? ;)