After returning from our Christmas vacation I hit the ground running with the major list of repairs/projects I have to accomplish before we sell our house in March. I have been painting, loading our storage shed, patching holes and trying to finish all of my makeover projects.

One of the biggest ones on my list was our laundry closet. I mean it’s bad enough that it’s a laundry closet, but it was also dirty and had 0 functionality and of course the gaping hole in the wall left by the previous owners was not a pretty site. But since it is a closet and a laundry one at that, it was last on my to-do list for home makeover projects. However with selling time just around the corner I had to put on my big girl panties and get busy.

Here she is guys and gals.

I know, it’s bad. I couldn’t leave it like this and expect a buyer to not be completely put off by it. And here’s the gaping hole in the wall that must have come about after the pipes backed up because it was damaged from water.

I cut and cleaned out as much damage as I could without completely tearing the wall apart and then placed bead board on top and along the back wall. I knew I wanted to use my left over bead board and I figured it was pointless to add new drywall that was just going to get covered up.

I felt instantly better once I covered that hole. I caulked all around the casing for the water spigots and along all the seams of the bead board. I also painted it with a waterproof paint to help thwart any further water damage to the walls. This is an old house with old pipes so clogs happen. Better safe than sorry.

The floors were just a plain ol’ ugly concrete. They needed a serious scrub down and a little scraping as there was old paint and adhesive.

I debated what I should do with the floors. I had a little left over laminate, left over concrete paint and left over tile. I chose D, None of the Above and opted for a peel and stick linoleum that mimicked wood planks. They were incredibly easy to install and the only tools required were a sharp razor blade and straight edge. I added some liquid nails just to make sure they didn’t go anywhere.

I like the way they look and naturally I like the price tag on peel and stick tile!

For the shelving I decided to keep it open but make it a more functional. I put the bottom shelf right against the washer and dryer so that I could actually reach my soap. The left side was left open and I hung a towel rack under the top shelf so that I could use that area to hang clothes to dry. It also left me space for a MUCH needed lamp, finally provided me with light in this dungeon! I wasn’t able to reuse the old shelves cause once I pulled them down I realized they were old hollow bi-fold closet doors. And they were disgusting. I opted to replace them with actual shelves 🙂 .

As for the bi-fold doors to the closet itself, I added metal brackets to turn them into French doors and used cabinet magnets so they would close. I hung a shoe rack for cleaner storage and on the other side I hung a mop/broom hanger doohickey. (I’m pretty sure that’s the technical term, just not so sure about my spelling)

 

After painting the walls and adding a little wall décor, she is finally done! I still don’t like doing laundry but at least I don’t feel depressed every time I have to go in there.

How’s that for a before and after?! Now onto the 456 other items on my to-do list!