Well, this is a long overdue before and after post. I recently shared pictures of my wallpaper project in this space, but I never actually showed you how we transformed the original laundry closet into a laundry room. This was part of a larger renovation project of our upstairs a couple of years after we bought the house. When we moved in (in 2015) there was a small closet with bifold doors at the top of the stairs that housed our washer and dryer.
But, with five young kids, this is how it stayed 99.9% of the time:
I did paint the inside navy and tried to add some bins, but it didn’t help. When we decided to renovate the kids’ bathrooms and pull up the carpeting, my biggest personal request was that I might have a laundry room (no matter how small) with a door that locks. It’s one of the best things we’ve changed about the house, in my opinion.
Here’s how our contractor did it: They first knocked out the wall behind the washer and dryer and took space from the adjacent bedroom’s closet to give me a deeper room that would hold my washer, dryer and some built-in cabinets. Since that left a bedroom without a closet, they built out a small one that created a little nook where we put his desk.
We were able to use a pocket door so I did get my lock, which felt more important when the kids were little and I needed a moment. 
And, here’s the flip side of the space. My son’s room where we built out a small closet:
This kid is almost finished with his second year of college, if that tells you how overdue this post is. . . Life!
You can find more details about the wallpaper I used here.
