Laundry Room Facelift

Last week I shared two newly made over spaces in our apartment--my desk area and our craft/computer closet--and I teased about another space I'd redone using baskets & a shelf that I took out of the office during those other makeovers! I didn't want to be a complete tease, so I'm sharing that space now. It's our laundry room!

Our laundry room also doubles as a storage space. Earlier this year we placed a large chrome shelf in there to stash our linens, paper towels, toilet paper, tools, household odds and ends like batteries and lightbulbs, extra blankets, some recycling, our vacuum, and more! I loved that adding this shelf enabled me to remove that clutter from other areas in our home--mainly the hall closet, which I transformed into a pantry--but as a result the laundry room did look a little cluttered. See?

                       

Even though don't spend a ton of time in there, I still didn't want it to be an eyesore. So I grabbed the newly-vacated baskets and boxes from our office...

And put them to work holding paper towels, toilet paper, our extra towels, gifts for others, and some extra decor items that I occasionally pull out when I feel like changing things up.

I also repurposed some wire bins that used to hang on Ryan's computer cord shelf. They didn't have a spot in the office closet, but they are perfect for holding our cleaners!

Now, things admittedly looked better in the new baskets, but the bottom two shelves were still a little ugly. They house our cardboard and paperboard recycling and extra kitty litter pans, the litter itself, and our vacuum. So I decided to cover them up with some pretty fabric! I simply attached one yard of fabric (find it here) onto the shelf using safety pins. Now you see it...

...now you don't!

The fabric keeps the clutter out of sight, but it's easy to pull aside to grab whatever we need!

And I think it looks great with our colorful toolbox:

The slim shelf that was previously placed by my desk fit perfectly in the laundry room.

I stash more gifts and odds and ends in the containers on the shelf. (Don't worry, after I took this picture I found a home for the birdie and rhino!)

I also brightened up the room by adding some cute prints and DIYed scrapbook paper bunting!

And because I love a good before and after:

Plus I can't really link this to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After party without using that phrase in my post :)

 And Tatertos & Jello's Weekend Wrapup Party--be sure to browse the other projects linked up there:

And Serenity Now's Weekend Bloggy Reading--check out her blog to see some fabulous posts!

I love how the laundry room looks now--it's a happy place! And I only used containers and supplies I had on hand, except the fabric which was $10 total from Etsy--so it was a pretty cheap transformation!