This laundry room refresh might be my favorite project we’ve done in our house so far!
Our laundry room is upstairs next to our master – which is now something I can never go back from – and it was super basic and functional. It had a wire shelf above the washer and dryer, but it was pretty high and very thin. That was it! Just the washer/dryer, shelf, water heater, and some white walls.
I’ve wanted to use temporary wallpaper a few places in the house but never got around to it. I was intimidated about putting too much pattern on a wall, but I finally realized our laundry room would be the perfect spot to try! I only wish I had thought of this sooner!!
First, the wallpaper!
Here are the tools you will need, and then I’ll walk through the steps:
- Temporary wallpaper – mine is from Home Depot, but Target has a big selection, or you can use a site like Walls Need Love!
- Spray Bottle
- Utility Knife
- Smoother
- Level
- Tape Measure
One:
Make sure the wall is clean and you’ve sanded down any spots or bumpy areas. We didn’t put down a primer or anything because the wall was only painted 18 months ago, and it wasn’t a dark color. But if you have a light wallpaper going on a dark wall you might need to prime it!
Two:
Unroll the wallpaper and lay it out on the floor – you’ll need some space to cut and measure.
Three:
Figure out where you want to start – I started in the far corner.
***This is the first trick – you want to have some extra to work with when you put up that first strip. So if your paper is 24″ wide, you want maybe 4″ to play with. So what I did is measure 20″ out from the corner, and I drew a plumb line with the level. Make sure that line is level because you will use it for your first piece and then all other pieces!
Four:
Spray back of wallpaper (instructions are different for each brand, so just follows yours). Mine I had to spray then wait about 4 minutes before hanging.
Pro Tip: Spray the paper SUPER WELL – more is better! If it’s not sticky it’s super hard to put into place.
Five:
Place wallpaper against wall, smoothing as you go and making sure you line up with that plumb line (that you drew 20″ or whatever to the right!!!).
Six:
Use razor to cut off any extra wallpaper on the top or bottom.
Continue with the above for the entire wall – see, only 6 easy steps 😆 Once I got going I was pretty speedy and finished the entire wall in under an hour. The first piece took the longest by FAR!
A few tips:
- Measure twice, cut once! And cut longer than you think you need so you have wiggle room on the bottom and top
- Smooth after you’ve got your edges lined up
- It goes faster once you’ve done a few – I promise!
Ok, now for the shelf!
I wanted a place where I could fold laundry and have better organization than that sad wire shelf. Enter a huge wood shelf right above the washer/dryer! My husband got a piece of 3/4 inch plywood and cut it to fit, and stained it before we installed it. This shelf is honestly the best improvement of the room! It’s so useful and I’m using it with every load of laundry. No more having to find a random place to fold towels – I can do it right above the dryer. It’s so handy!
Basically the instructions are build a shelf……haha but really. We just measured how ever wide we wanted and then my husband attached it to the wall with some 2×4 supports. Pretty straightforward 🙂
If we had an entire weekend free we could have done it in one weekend – it took me probably 2 hours to hang the wallpaper, and it took my husband a few hours to build the shelf. It was a relatively fast update and I highly recommend it!
I love how cute this room looks if I have the doors open. I used to always close them to hide the room (it was just boring) and now I don’t have to. It’s functional AND cute. I only wish we had done it sooner – for real.
So if you’re considering a project like this – do it! It might seem unnecessary or frivolous to spend money decorating a laundry room, but it’s a room that gets a lot of use. And I know I will appreciate the shelf for folding even more! Happy DIY-ing!
