Do you remember back in Middle School or High School when there was a huge room that was called “the multipurpose room” used for both a cafeteria and gym and whatever else was needed at the time? I I used to think that saw so odd until recently when realized I have my own multipurpose room in my house.
At my house, you enter from the backdoor which is closest to the garage, not the front door. So inevitably you walk into the laundry room / mudroom rather than a living room or dining room. Walking straight into a washer and dryer really isn’t the cutest look, so when I had an opportunity to do some minor renovations this last fall, adjusting the way this room looked while on a budget was important to me.
Below is what a part of the laundry room looked like when I bought the house. I don’t have a before of the paint color in the laundry closet, but you can see it after it was painted below. Initially the paneling was a brown as was the trim. Within a few months of moving in, I painted the inside of the closet blue. No other changes were really made other than putting up curtains and taking out that big piece of furniture from the photo.
2015
2016
There’s a few unique things about this room. First the entrance comes right into the room, but then there’s also two additional doors, one for a closet, and one for a bathroom. There’s also a heater that only controls this room with it’s own separate thermostat which you can see in the photo above. This was likely an addition after the original house was built which is why it has it’s own heat source. The heater limits what furniture can go here as do the various door openings and oddly curved ceilings.
Below is how the room looked in 2020 when I moved back into the house after living in Florida for two years and renting out the house. The walls were white but trim was still brown. The curtains were still on the laundry closet and the old lighting remained from when I bought the house.
Summer 2020 
Summer 2020
The fall of 2020 I moved back into my home and had independent contractors here working on the spaces I wasn’t an expert on. I had a crazy idea to take down the wall in the laundry room as it was clear it wasn’t load bearing. I also wanted a counter for on top of the washer and dryer and wanted to update the trim to be white as well as the door. What you will see below are some photos after the wall was removed, the back wall painted, and the plumbing moved. We added a half wall, a stocked cabinet from Lowes, and a countertop.
Fall 2021 
Fall 2021 
Fall 2021
The cabinet I purchased in stock at Lowes and added my own hardware. The countertop was free, as my dad had it from a property he had renovated in the past and kept (lucky me). I kept the washer and dryer from before, and we built the half wall to house the plumbing. I purchased the light online and then added a few things to the space like lockers as well as my Peloton and equipment. I also painted the inside of the closet, the trim, the window, and the bathroom door.
As I mentioned, that heater is a heck of a thing to plan around. So rather than figuring out how to cover it with something and keeping proper ventilation or put something in front of it like a table or desk for laundry folding, I figured my Peloton may fit there which it does and is perfect. While the ceilings in this room are low, I can still work out in the middle of the room which is how it’s become my multipurpose room. It’s laundry, storage, and a workout room.
Below is a wide angle of the room. You can see the flooring from before is still there from before. This is the room’s current state, but I also have some plans for what I’d like to do to continue adding to it in the future.
I’d like to change out the floors when I decide to update my kitchen and plan to put down either a tile or durable wood like product. What you cant see in these photos are that in order to remove the closet walls but keep the flooring, we cut out floor from the storage closet and pieced it into the ground. I have a welcome mat covering it so you can’t see it. So the flooring in the future is something I’d really like to update.
I also plan to put some shelving above the washer and dryer for storage but also some way to hang clothing to dry. Not sure how yet, but something on my mind.
The other thing I’d like to do is potentially paint the lockers black, or move them to the guest room or sunroom and instead build a built in cubby/shelving area here. I’m not sure yet so we will see.
Now for the cost breakdown of everything in the room that I didn’t already own.
Paint: About $50 for the wall, ceiling, and trim paint.
Lockers: I paid $99 for these and about $15 for the paint. They were initially a beige when I bought them.
Cabinet: I got it from Lowes for about $190 and then bought the hardware for under $10.
Countertop: I was very lucky that my dad had this huge piece for free. When I update my kitchen, I plan to use the same countertop from the kitchen likely out in the laundry room. What I have now is a good but temporary solution.
Light: I bought the light on Amazon for about $30.
Labor: Since I had the walls removed, a new one built, plumbing moved, and a few minor things done, it was probably about $300 or so for labor but I’m not exactly sure without pulling out the old invoices.
Total: It was about $690 for the updates for the entire room.
You could likely figure out how to do all this on your own. I did what I could (paint) but was not about to figure out plumbing. This updates aren’t the most Pinterest worthy but that’s okay for me as it was not expensive for an entire renovation and is very functional.
