Two It Yourself: Turn a Thrifted Cabinet into Laundry Room Storage (And Tips for Hanging a Cabinet)

After being stalled for a few weeks, my laundry room makeover is finally nearing completion. The biggest project - and what had me at a standstill - was the cabinet. I purchased the old kitchen cabinet at a thrift store for just $15 several weeks ago.

I cleaned it up and peeled off as much of the nasty shelving paper as possible.

Some of it just simply wouldn't come off no matter what I did. I wasn't sure how I would handle it so I decided I would paint the outside of the cabinet and hopefully some brilliant idea would strike me.

So I painted the entire cabinet with DIY chalk paint. I used white paint I already had on hand and used my favorite recipe.

I painted both cabinet shelves the color of the laundry room walls, but I ended up only having enough room for one shelf due to the height of the laundry detergent container.

I also spray painted the original hardware black rather than spending more money on new hardware. It is the laundry room, after all.

Do not worry - that is not paint all over my hardwood floor! Dear God my husband would really kill me! I have a few clear plastic desk mats down that I paint on to protect the floor.

By this point a brilliant idea had struck me for how to deal with the ugly inside: burlap and beadboard wallpaper. Yup, they save the day again. If you've been following along for a while you may have picked up on the fact that I like to use beadboard wallpaper on far more than walls (like on this thrift store dresser flip) and burlap is pretty much a daily ritual. I just so happen to have some wallpaper and burlap on hand.

I didn't have enough wallpaper to line both the bottom and the back of the cabinet so I just lined the bottom with the beadboard wallpaper. Then I cut two pieces of burlap the size of the inside back of the cabinet and used mod podge to 'hang' the burlap. It's easiest to do this if the cabinet is lying flat.

The biggest hang up was actually hanging the cabinet. I'm flirting with 5' tall and leaning over the washer and dryer and with only two hands - it's not an easy job to tackle solo. I had to call in some reinforcements in the way of my husband's cousin.

If you remember my original laundry closet plan was to have the cabinet centered in the closet over the washer and dryer.

It was quickly apparent that that wouldn't work due to how far out the wall mounted drying rack extended when it was open.

So we decided to center the cabinet over the washer. It actually worked out because we were then able to screw both the right side and the back of the cabinet into studs for added support.

I painted the cabinet with the doors on, but it's definitely easier to take them off to hang the cabinet. First, it makes it much lighter and secondly it's easier to hold. So go on...remove the cabinet doors. Are you ready to hang a cabinet?

The first thing we did was locate and mark the studs.
Then we held up the cabinet where we wanted it and marked with a pencil where the studs would hit on the cabinet. Remember to leave enough clearance for the lid if you have a top loading washer.
We then used a small drill bit to drill pilot holes into the top, bottom and right side of the cabinet since the right side is where it would be hitting the side wall. (Note: this is a photo from after the cabinet was hung and the doors were re-installed)

Then it was simply a matter of holding the cabinet back up, leveling it, and screwing it right into the studs.

It's actually not too tough of a job when you have stud finder...and a handy cuz. Here's how it looked right after we hung the cabinet. Clearly, I left the center of the back wall unpainted figuring the cabinet would cover it.

After the cabinet was hung it was just a matter of screwing the doors back on the hinges and adding the shelves which had come with the cabinet. I painted both shelves the same color as the wall (since I was out of the white chalk paint), but only ended up using one because shelf because of how tall my laundry detergent was.

I'll be sharing my laundry closet makeover reveal on the blog shortly...just working on those finishing touches now. If you're keeping track, my total so far - for a new light, drying rack, cabinet, and paint - is less than $25.