Laundry Room Horror Show.....Before and After and My Top 3 Money Saving Tips!

Our laundry room used to give me the creeps. No really. Unfinished floor, fake wood walls, harsh fluorescent light, and an open gaping hole to the crawl space...I mean who knows what could be coming and going in there??? It felt more like it was built to accommodate spiders than human beings.

It was also large but not well laid out. It may have smelled funny too. As I write that I'm not sure if I just made that up or not. But given the fact that we have never had a house with a laundry room in it before I am so so spoiled to even have a laundry room! 

Our first place had a stacker unit in our garage. In our apartment overseas we put a washer in our kitchen, and in our condo we had a stacker in a bedroom closet. So having a laundry room is a complete luxury that I am not taking for granted.

This was before we even moved in (ie. not our stuff). Insert gasp here......

I will be honest, it is still a work in progress. Far from done. But we are getting there.

First of all, we wanted a finished floor. My husband found this beautiful marble tile on Craigslist. Buying it new from the store would have cost a fortune but this way we got a quality product for a bargain price. Note: the light in here is casting a yellow glow on here but these tiles are definitely a cool, crisp white.

Secondly, I wanted a graphic punch of black. I love black and white. Love it. So when my husband (did I mention he is the best at finding things?!?) found these wall tiles (also second hand) I was all over them. Again, they are white but the lighting is softening that a bit.

We are eventually planning to build butcher block over the washer and dryer but in the sink area we have this quartz counter. We also had originally wanted a brass faucet (and we may swap this one out if we find a good deal) but for under $40 and still new, this tap allowed us to complete the sink area.

As you can see, that is still just drywall on the left. The room isn't finished yet but we are (slowly) getting there. Stay tuned for another post when it's all done! In the meantime, don't mind the giant mirror sitting there and the exposed drywall. 

My top three tips for re-doing your space on a budget:

1) Buy your materials from people who have them left over from completed home projects. We snatched up these marble tiles on Craigslist because a whole room's worth was around 100 bucks. That's an amazing price and waaay cheaper than heading to the hardware store.

2) If you can, do it yourself. I get it, not everyone can. My husband and I installed this floor together. Same with the backsplash. I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it on my own but my husband is great at home DIYs and doing the project together made it way easier than him doing it on his own.

3) Buy used. We bought our washer and dryer off Craigslist as they were in good condition and were just over $200 for the pair. That is incredibly affordable and these were a massive upgrade from the top loading washer and inefficient dryer that came with our house. Buying used items is the best way to save money on your home projects.