We have a small laundry room which was super boring. I hadn’t really worried about the way it looked. It hadn’t been a concern or something I even considered changing. For me the purpose was to wash and dry the never ending laundry piles.
Since there are only two of us there are a lot less piles of laundry but it is still a never ending job.
Our laundry room has the washer and dryer with a little space on the sides where we stored the vacuum and steam mop. There were also cupboards over the appliances that went the full span of the space. They are really handy to store laundry soap, cleaning supplies and other random items that need a home.
Trying to decide
When I decided I wanted to makeover the laundry room I had a couple options in my head. The first was keep the cupboards up, shiplap the wall with the cupboards and the wall with the door going into a small pantry. Then add a shelf below the cupboards for cute decor.
The second idea was take down one of the cupboards, shiplap only one wall and add 3 shelves. One below the remaining cupboard and two where the cupboard was. I know what I wanted to do but it didn’t seem as practical. I also know having cute decorated shelves looks good but I would miss bing able to put things in a closed cupboard.
Because of that I decided to keep the cupboards in place, shiplap two walls and add a shelf below.
Shiplap
I really love the look of shiplap. The shiplap purchased from Home Depot isn’t incredibly expensive if you’re not doing a huge space but it also adds so much dimension and texture.
At our local home depot the shiplap is available in two different lengths. Since we were working around the upper cabinet there is going to be a few shorter pieces. After measuring and figuring we decided the 8′ lengths would work above the cupboards and pantry door and the 12′ lengths worked best behind the washer and dryer and to the side of the cabinet. The problem was hauling the 12′ lengths. At the moment we don’t have a vehicle that can haul 12′ boards so we decided to get the 12′ lengths cut down at Home Depot for safer transportation.
Painting
I considered having Monte take the cupboards down to ship lap but we decided doing the installation with them in place would work out just as well plus require less product.
I have learned to purchase products one day and start making and creating the project another day. For some reason the purchasing takes so long that it’s nice to grab things a day or two before you’re going to start.
We have done a fair bit of shiplap work the past few months so we had a pretty good idea how long it should take. Because it is so hot here I didn’t want to paint in the evening. My garage is too hot to work in and the paint goes weird because of the heat.
The plan was to get up early paint the boards then Monte could get going on the install before it got terribly hot. I set up my painting station and got busy. I like using the 6″ foam roller. It works to get along the edge and then run the roller up the face after. I did manage to wear the foam roller out this time. The boards caused the end to rip a bit but I was able to make it last until I was done. I didn’t have another one on hand and really didn’t want to make another trip to the store.
Because the garage was so warm the boards dried in no time so we could get going on the installation.
Installation
Monte unhooked the washer and dryer then moved them as much out of the way as he could in the small space. Looking at what we were going to do didn’t seem like a huge job. Because the cupboards were staying in place we didn’t think it should take too long. Unfortunately it was one of those times where we underestimated the project time. There are a lot of electrical, waterline and dryer boxes behind the washer and dryer. They didn’t look too tough to cut around but it took a lot longer to install then expected.
We started on the bottom and worked our way to the top. Monte got a stud finder for fathers day so he was able to pull that out and try it for the first time. It made things a lot easier. He marked the studs and began installing. The first couple rows went up so quickly. It then got more fiddly as he worked around all the water and electrical stuff.
What I thought would only take a few hours ended up taking most of the day. Because the space is so tight and small Monte worked mostly on his own. Since I had the paint out I decided on a whim to paint the top of my fireplace. Something I’d been wanting to do for a while but hadn’t got around to. That will be a blog post for another week.
Shiplap one board at a time
When he finally got to this point things began to progress a lot quicker. When we add shiplap on two walls that join we work on them together. Doing so keeps you running straight. He did have to cut under the cupboards but that was a straight cut that wasn’t too difficult.
He had short pieces to work with then long ones again when he got above the cupboard. We have 10 foot ceiling so there was a bit of space. Instead of removing the crown molding on the top of the cabinet he used his Dewalt oscillating multi tool to cut back the trim. He then slid the shiplap behind the trim. The final pieces to install were narrow strips along the ceiling. He had an a/c vent to work around but made it look great.
It was nice to get to this point. Because Monte spent so much time in the tight space I did the caulking before I gave it all a final coat of paint. I caulked all the nail holes, around the ceiling and cupboards and down the corner where the shiplap met.
Because the shiplap adds depth to the wall you need to add extenders to the the electrical boxes so you can get the covers on.
Looking good after day one
This project did take a little longer then we thought it would but we were able to get it painted and the washer and dryer back in place by the end of the day.
I am so happy with the way it looks. It added so much beauty and depth to the space. We will get the shelf and decor up shortly.
This was a fairly inexpensive project that made the space look so pretty. We were able to purchase the shiplap for under $100 so worth the investment.
