Easy Upgrade to a Basement Laundry Area

June 6, 2022

If you’ve ever seen beautiful laundry rooms on Pinterest or Instagram, then you know that they can be absolutely swoon-worthy.

(Whittney Parkson Design | @the_fox_group | @jscott24)

Unfortunately, that just isn’t realistic for my basement laundry area. Sure, I could frame it out, add some drywall, and make it a beautiful space. But, it honestly wouldn’t make much sense to do that in my house.

But, instead of being bummed about that and living with an ugly space, I can still make some quick and easy updates right?

Basement Project Recap:

My Basement Laundry Area

This area is quite bare-bones and like any other unfinished basement laundry area. The washer and dryer are on the older side, but they still work, so they will remain until they no longer do! Aside from this area not being a beautiful space, my biggest issue was that we used the top of the dryer to store all of our laundry supplies. It was messy, unorganized, and regularly covered in dryer lint.

Building a Basement Laundry Shelf

I went back and forth on how I wanted to build this shelf for quite some time. I really wanted to build a shelf that would be behind the washer and dryer that I could also style beautifully. But, with all of the cords and the dryer vent, that wasn’t realistic.

(Thrifty Decor Chick)

Then, I thought about building a shelf that would sit between the washer and dryer. Unfortunately, our washer sometimes likes to jump around a bit, so I knew that wouldn’t work either.

(Elizabeth & Penn)

Ultimately, I decided to build a small cubby unit to the side of the washer. I had some scrap melamine leftover from my workbench build, so it was also a free project for me! This was a very simple build, and it’s by no means perfect because I used scraps. The shelves aren’t the same depth as the sides, and some of the cuts are a little crooked. But, for what it is, it works great. I used a little caulk to cover up some of the gaps and painted any exposed edges so they’re better hidden.

Organizing the Laundry Area

To organize my laundry pods, I grabbed two of these jars from Target. For the size, I thought they were extremely affordable! We recently switched over to Dropps pods, and we have like a two+year supply of them! So that completely filled one of the jars.

But, we also have some leftover Gain pods, and some Oxy Clean pods we use for sheets and towels, so I put them in the second jar.

On the bottom, I used this basket that I picked up at Home Goods to store our bleach, our Affresh washer cleaner, and some extra dryer balls.

Then, I wanted to keep our dryer supplies near the dryer, so I used an old tray that I had in storage to organize our dryer sheets and balls. I also found this cute tissue paper box cover that worked perfectly for the dryer sheets.

This basement laundry upgrade was a really simple process, but I can already tell it’s going to be a big impact!

My Basement Utility Sink

Oh, this sink. I’ve hated it since the day we moved into this house and I still really don’t like it, haha! It’s creepy and gross and I didn’t use it for years. But, ever since I started doing DIYs, I had to start using it, mostly for cleaning off my paintbrushes, so I gradually got used to it. But, it was time to give it a little bit of TLC.

Cleaning the Utility Sink

I started by giving this thing a DEEP cleaning. First, I doused the entire thing with this cleaner. It’s very affordable, so I didn’t mind using the entire bottle, which I did. You want to let it sit for about a minute, then just rinse it. After it was rinsed, a lot of crap started to come up, which was good.

After I gave it a good rinsing, I attached these scrubbers to my drill and started to go to town! This is when I realized that this sink may have NEVER been cleaned the entire time since the house was built. There was a lot of dried paint in each of the bowls, and there were many layers of colors that came up.

I was also making sure to not allow any big chunks to go down the drain and was also regularly snaking each of the drains too. In the end, the water was flowing throughout the entire basin nice and clear and going right down the drain without any backup.

The entire process took me about 30-40 minutes. And I felt really gross afterward. But, it’s done, and I’m so glad that I decided to do it. It doesn’t look like much, but I’m not anywhere near as creeped out by it!

Adding a Sink Skirt

I always knew that I wanted to cover up the bottom of the sink. It’s just such an eyesore, and while I can’t do anything about the basins, I figured I could do something to dress it up. I had originally thought about building a cabinet-like storage system, but it seemed like a bit of a waste with lumber prices. We now have so much storage down here that I don’t think we’d ever need to use it. Plus, I know that it’d end up getting wet and could be a bit gross.

So, I decided to add a skirt! My original plan was to use a curtain rod and some s-hooks that I looked around the edge of the sink. I actually ended up buying the rod and s-hooks to see what it’d look like, but decided that this likely wouldn’t work very well once I tested it.

So, I purchased this velcro tape instead. I just attached the tape all the way around the edge of the sink, and then did the same with the curtain.

It took me quite a while to decide on the curtain to use. I wanted something affordable, but durable. I had also debated on using outdoor fabric. But, ultimately, I found this really affordable cafe curtain that I think worked great! It doesn’t go all the way to the ground like most sink skirts, but since this area can get wet, I think that’s for the best. And it still covers everything nicely, so I’m happy with it. What do you think?

And with that, I’m officially done with the basement! This project took twice as long as I thought, and I did go slightly over budget. But, I’m so happy with how it all came together! Check back for the final reveal post to see the finished product!

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