"New" laundry "room"

We've lived in our home for over five years and our laundry "room" has never been practical or functional.  It's not really a room, it's merely a space just off of the walk way to our backporch.  It was literally a washer, a dryer, a double laundry bin and a re-purposed bookshelf that held supplies. I'd been unhappy with it for years, but didn't know what I wanted. Scratch that, I knew what I wanted. I wanted shelves and cabinets (read: functionality), but I didn't know how I wanted it to look. Until I saw this picture on pinterest one day.  This laundry room is about the same size as ours so I knew it was totally doable.  I set out on the hunt for a cabinet.  I'm a thrifty girl, so there was no way I was going to pay full price for a cabinet. I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore hoping to find something there, but had no luck.  I looked very briefly on craigslist, but didn't see anything and got bored.  One day, a lady in my MOM's Club emailed everyone about her neighborhood yard sale. Let me tell you, this subdivision was organized!  She attached a map of the subdivision with each house that was participating.  And each family who was participating could list the main things they were selling.  So awesome! One house listed cabinets. Bingo!  

I got this guy right here for $10!

Here's the "before" of our laundry "room".  

Originally, the washer and bookshelf were in each others places, but about two months ago, I decided to flip them.  I couldn't access much below the first shelf with it in the corner. I took everything off the shelves, cleaned them, dusted off the products and re-organized.  There was still the problem of having the wall space and not utilizing it, plus, now it was more difficult to get to the washer.  

Now for the after pictures.  

Donald purchased some light blue paint for the ceiling on our front porch. When we vacationed and/or honeymooned in Charleston, we learned that people in the South paint their porch ceiling blue to keep wasps from building nests.  Apparently if your ceiling is blue, the wasps think it's the sky and therefore, do not make a nest.  If it's white, then they just move right in.  Like I said above, we've been in our house for over five years now and we noticed the ceiling needs a bit of re-touching.  Since he bought a gallon, I decided to borrow some of the blue paint and paint the cabinet.  Donald got one, 1 X 12, 8 foot board from Home Depot (which he cut into 4 sections himself), along with 8 metal brackets to make the shelves.   The knobs on the cabinet were brass colored. They had.to.go.  Since the brackets were a matte black color, I painted the knobs with leftover black chalkboard paint.  

Winner, winner.  

The baskets and jars were all re-purposed. 

I moved the washer back to it's original spot and put the laundry sorter in the corner.  I took the Bandit's dog food bin and his treats out of the pantry and put them on this little wooden shelf. It was making do as a temporary nightstand for Donald, but I snagged it instead.  The 3-drawer compartment holds batteries, superglue and little odds and ends. I wanted it on the shelf or in the cabinet, but it's very heavy because of the batteries. The cabinet was mounted on the studs, but the shelves/brackets are not unfortunately, so they cannot bear much weight.  Why does that always happen during projects/renovations?  Nothing ever seems to line up with the studs.  So frustrating, but I made it work.

I was able to get rid of the bookshelf completely. 

Everything fit in the cabinet or on the shelves.

The bulletin board came from Goodwill for less than $2. 

I actually got two of them and one is going in the office.   I've got a stain removal, list of chores to help serve as a reminder, a calendar and a few other miscellaneous items on here.

Donald painted the boards for me over a month ago. Then I painted the cabinet a week or so after that. And then everything sat.  And sat. Basically, the time changing messed us up. He could have hung the cabinet whenever, but he couldn't cut the board into sections because by the time he got home from work, it was almost completely dark. Then we went out of town 2 weekends ago. So last Saturday, Donald hung everything and went to a motorcycle show with his cousin, Justin. Stella took a 2+ hour nap and I unleashed my inner Monica Gellar and did all of this in that time. Ok, I didn't do the bulletin board, because it wasn't hung yet, but I got everything else done. I felt sooooo accomplished.  And organized. And happy.   Such a good feeling.  

So, here's the rough estimate for costs for the laundry room renovation.

1" X 12" X 8' board-$16.16

Metal brackets $6.87 a piece X 8=$54.96

Bulletin board-$2

Cabinet-$10

The gallon of blue paint was $31.87, but since I only used a little of it, I'll just say $5.

We already had white paint from house touch-ups. 

I already had black chalkboard spray paint, but I think it was around $7.

Basically, this transformation was done for less than $90.  I am thrilled with the results and it took less than 2 1/2 hours.