How To Organize The Laundry Room – The Bathroom Design ‘After’-shots

It’s interesting that I call this article ‘Laundry Room Design’ as frankly it is a ‘how to hide the fact that this is a laundry room as well as a bathroom’ article. The objective of this project has been to keep all laundry elements handy, however out of sight!

I thought I could get myself to complete this bathroom/laundry make-over project in 2 weeks, but alas, it has been a month now… Oh well. Most importantly, I did finish the project, sort off. There is still one thing to be done: buying Velcro and creating that sink-skirt… Given how many reactions I’ve had on my prior laundry room design, I thought to show you where I’m at, without the skirt in place. As we are here in a temporary rental, no structural changes can be made. So, what DID I do?

I. Hide all Laundry Tools

I’ve designed things so that the laundry elements do no longer show. I’ve done a few sewing projects, like:

Cover for the ironing board (which also hides the toilet paper supply behind it)
Cover for the washing machine.
Re-purposed wooden crate makes extra storage; covered with same fabric. It stores excess laundry powder, stain remover, iron, and specialty fabric soaps.
As well, the small vintage bathroom cabinet is now used to the max, and well-organized thanks to a myriad of shelf-dividers, all made from recycled cardboard.

- Ironing board (on the right) is ‘invisible’ thanks to neutral-colored cotton cover draped it. Ever so simple and effective. Laundry element #1 gone out of sight. Because of the flash I used to make this photo, in this picture you can see the ironing board cover’s flower pattern through the white cloth. But in regular day light, you cannot see through the cloth and it looks nice and white.
- I measured the dimensions of the washing machine and made a cover for it. Now it functions as an extra counter. A group of woven grass containers store bathroom toiletries, and create a nice ambiance. Bathroom toiletries out of sight.
  (the blue painted toilet paper roll flowers are an art-project in the making)
- Next to the washing machine is the covered wooden crate which stores lots of things. Washing powder on top in a nice container. The rest of the laundry materials, iron, specialty soaps, etc. are all out of sight. Thank goodness. Again, the washing machine can not be seen through the cloth in regular daylight (although you can now see it because I used a flash for the photo).
- My drawer cabinet has a ‘million’ of inserts in it (I’ll show you this in another post), making it the best make-up management system ever. The vintage Samstonite does double-duty: sometimes used in the bathroom, and sometimes elsewhere in the house. It usually stores ‘transitory’ stuff. Which befits a piece of vintage luggage.

Pictures of laundry room | bathroom

II. Add Pretty Decorating Details

I aimed to add details that gave the bathroom more of a living room feel, a place to be and stay for a while. So, I’ve prettied it up.

For day-to-day use, the washing powder is easily accessible and has been made pretty in a giant glass container.
There is a family of grass baskets on top of the washing machine now, which store anything from cotton balls, make-up, hair doodles and cream.
I’ve added 2 plants that are said to purify the air… A good thing in a bathroom.. They are also pretty and have been constantly in bloom since I bought them last year.
I’ve also usually have a little stack of books laying around.

III. Other Decorating Details

This house is endowed with interesting Italian country home features and artistic details, before we even moved in. Let me show you some…

Further Bathroom / Laundry Room Plans

I think it looks pretty nice as it is. All the cotton covers give the room a very cozy feel. The pretty bow-ed basket is nice. However, I feel we either need another one, exactly like it, next to it, or we need to do the one outstanding project,

i.e. buy Velcro and create a nice curtain of the same cotton around the wash basin, covering the ugly pipes below the sink.

I’ll share that photo with you when I’m actually done with that project as well.

Bathroom Make Over Budget

The cotton I’ve used is very simple Ikea fabric that I bought for just $2 dollars a meter. So, indeed all done on a nearly $0 budget.

Wrapping it Up

I am not sure if you can feel it from the pictures, but the difference in the bathroom is humongous. It feels like a bathroom, and not a laundry room all the time.

Like it?

If you have any questions or want any patterns (e.g. for the washing machine cover), let me know.

Click Here, to see the BEFORE shots of the bathroom / laundry room decorating challenges. As well, this article contains the laundry room organization & decorating ideas I’ve played with.