Schoolhouse Vibes Laundry Room

If there's one thing in a home I can't stand, it's wasted space and an inefficient layout, and that precisely described the laundry room when I moved into this house. Our basement already has a small footprint, which the builders for some reason decided to cut in half, leaving a small but decently sized finished room--and a massive unfinished utility area.

We got by for a few years with some decent utility shelving, but there was still so much wasted space and inefficient storage. I knew that finishing the room would be the perfect opportunity to make the room more functional.

Here's the laundry room in its original state:

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And here's the room now!

I had a contractor in to handle the drywall, plumbing, and electrical work, but the rest of this renovation I did by hand, from the flooring to the cabinetry to the waterfall countertop design. I love doing this work myself, because each piece and part is customized exactly to our needs. For example, we foster kittens for our local animal shelter, so I incorporated a dishwasher into the design. This makes it so much easier to sanitize our supplies between litters, and much safer for the kittens!

I had a tricky time figuring out how to make this design work, because accessing the plumbing behind the installation was going to be difficult, and I didn't want to have to pull the whole laundry stack out every time I needed to clean a drain. In the end, I created a modular design for the waterfall counters: the main countertop is the only part of the whole design that's fixed in place. The tiled backsplash and both vertical panels are removable, so it's easy to deal with any issues that arise!

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One thing our small home is lacking is storage. I customized these Ikea pantry cabinets to add a ton of useful space! On the left I keep the majority of my tools and DIY supplies, all neatly organized and readily accessible. On the right we have a linen closet, hiking and beach gear, and kitten supplies.

I finished off the design with a green grid tile backsplash that for some reason makes me think of school desk chairs from my childhood, and a pair of vintage rugs I've picked up along the way. On the whole this room makes use of every square inch. I love it!