This $160 Laundry Room Makeover Proves “Paint and a Roll of Wallpaper Can Do Magic”
Butter yellow paint (and its sister shades in the yellow range) can add a dose of sunshine and cheer to any room — even a room that’s not typically cheery, like a laundry room. Painting the cabinets yellow was step one of maximalist Carrie Cumiskey’s laundry room revamp.
“I love color, and I wanted this space to reflect that,” Carrie says. “Doing laundry isn’t the most fun job, so I wanted to make it fun!” She and her husband, Ian, added the laundry room in a home expansion about five years ago, and, to save money (and prevent waste), they re-used the cream cabinets and laminate counter from their old kitchen in the space.
“The walls were painted a basic white when it was first done,” Carrie adds. “I loved having a separate space for the washing machine and tumble dryer and a place to hang up clothes, too. I didn’t like how neutral and uninspiring it was.” She gave it a cheery new look for about £120, or $160 USD in a makeover that proves “a tin of paint and a roll of wallpaper can do magic,” as Carrie puts it.
The laminate cabinets got a bold, gold makeover.
First she had to remove the laminate from the old cabinets so she could paint the MDF using a primer-paint combo. “I’d never stripped the laminate off doors before, but it was so easy!” Carrie says. She used a heat gun to do it.
“I’d seen people using hairdryers on social media, but my hairdryer isn’t very good, so that’s why I bought the heat gun,” she says, and she used Frenchic’s “Hot as Mustard” paint.
Carrie’s advice? If you’re thinking about painting your cabinets a bold color, just go for it. “I wish I had painted the cabinets when they were in my old kitchen! I was afraid it would go wrong, but it was so good,” she says.
Peel-and-stick wallpaper makes the room even more colorful — even the dryer.
After painting the cabinets, Carrie decided to give the room even more whimsy with Sorbet Dreams’ Wiggle with Me wallpaper. Because it was peel-and-stick, Carrie also added it to her dryer front for a little more personality.
“I wallpapered it on my own, which I had never done before,” she says. “There were a few times I wished that I had help, but I got there in the end … I’m very proud of my wallpaper skills and how well the bright colours all go together.”
The space between the cabinets became more functional, too.
Carrie says if she could change anything about the laundry room, she’d upgrade the flooring. But one little detail she added that she loves is the tension rod between the two existing cabinets. (Ian helped hang it.)
“Adding a railing between the cabinets helped make room to hang up clothes to dry,” she says. And there are yellow hangers to match her cabinets, to boot!
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