Navy Laundry Room Makeover and a Giveaway
When it snows, I apparently paint. Yup, we had 3 crazy snow days the other week, my kids were home from school and I started to go a little stir crazy in my house. So, I did the only logical thing on the planet, I dropped my kids off down the street at my mom’s house and drove to Ace Hardware…
in a complete blizzard…
here I’ll show you –

yeah there is a road in there somewhere!
I blame the laundry for my momentary lapse in sanity…
I legit hate doing laundry and it kept piling up and piling up with all the wet clothes my kids kept coming in with from outside. In lieu of actually doing said laundry, I decided the only thing to do was completely makeover my laundry room instead. Clearly I can’t do laundry in a room that’s being painted right? See, logical!

PS – this room is so hard to photograph, because it’s so long and narrow, so hang in there with me!
Also, the laundry room needed a redo bad, you might remember the BEFORE looking like this –
Not so bad right? Well, that was before little man got his hands on it…literally
He found my ink pad and cute custom return address stamp and decided to make his own “wallpaper” on the walls. Our address was stamped on the wall about 150 times, we were for sure not going to forget where we lived anytime soon…there was also some lovely black finger print abstract art as well, which saved me time dusting for fingerprints…
It was time for some paint in here, preferably paint dark enough to cover up my son’s artistic endeavors.
This month’s Ace Hardware challenge was perfect, they wanted us to break a paint rule, as following rules is not exactly my strong suit (nor little man’s apparently), this was right up my alley.

Most of my house is white, and I love white paint, but I was craving a darker color for once. Hence I set out to prove, you can indeed paint a small room a dark color. The color I chose was Cadet Song by Valspar. I love this grayish navy color, it’s so dark, it’s just shy of black.

It makes the room feel so cozy, like I may just hang out here now, maybe.
To offset the dark color (and the fact that I have black countertops in here, there I go breaking another rule mixing navy and black, but I happen to think navy and black look fab together) I planked the large wall that I call my command center.

The good news was, it gave me just the look I wanted and I was so excited for an excuse to haul out my power tools again.
The bad news – I needed to buy 10 ft planks…
which meant I needed to drive with said planks sticking out my window…
which meant that not only was I driving in a total white out, but it was actually snowing inside my car as well. I had a good inch of snow in my front seat by the time I made it home. Just another day in the life :)
The other thing I built in this room that I LOVE is this long shelf across the back wall. Not only does it stop random socks and stuff from falling down behind the washer and dryer, but it gave me a cute spot to decorate.


Since I was going all out with my power tools, I built this little shelf over here by my mail center. I lovingly refer to it as the Mr.’s “phone timeout shelf”. I drilled a little hole in the shelf to make it the perfect charging station for his phone, bonus we now get work free dinners with the family as his phone is in “timeout” until the kids go to bed at night.




On top of the plank wall you may have noticed I rearranged things a bit. I got this enormous and just way cool wall calendar, which the Mr. likes to joke is just the right size for my senior citizen eyes (no joke I’m totally as blind as a bat, like think coke bottle lenses for my glasses, and then probably double that and you have my situation).

I also bought a few clipboards and printed out chore charts for our kids. My girlie kept complaining the reason she couldn’t do her chores was she couldn’t remember what they were. Ask and you shall receive darling! The clipboards are just hung on a nail, so I can take them down and hand them over to my kids after school, then they can go right down the list.


I kept the same wire storage wall unit, but instead of looking at a bunch of messy papers I stuck cute folders inside to tidy things up a bit.


Oh and check out my cute new recycling bins! I picked up a few metal trashcans at Ace and then hit them with some glossy white spray paint for a nice clean look.

This space works so much better for us now! Proof sometimes breaking the rules isn’t such a bad thing, just don’t tell my daughter…

How about you? Any major painting projects coming up, to help keep the stir crazy away this winter? Enter my giveaway below for your chance to win $100 gift card to Ace Hardware and start your own fab room makeover! Giveaway will be open for 1 week, winner will be notified via email.
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Disclosure: I’m a member of the Ace Hardware Blogger Panel. Ace Hardware provided me with products and compensation for this post, but all opinions are 100 percent mine. All opinions and positions here do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware.
UPDATE: You can find all the laundry room sources here.
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Hi – Nice job on the laundry room – love everything in it. Would you be able to provide the dimensions of the room? Thx
Hi Lynn off the top of my head I would say it’s about 5 x 8?
Thanks Kelly!
Woops never mind I found it on the other post!
This is so pretty! Can you share where that key hanger/storage basket came from? It’s perfect!
We are building a house and seriously I think im going to try your paint color! Love.
Oh fun, good luck building!
My next painting project will probably be my dining room and I would like it to be blue and my husband likes green so a compromise of a bluish green would work!
gray for my next project. Love your laundry room!
What a GORGEOUS room! I wouldn’t mind doing laundry at all if I had a space like that. I can’t wait until we buy our next house so I can start doing projects like these! I might be starting with furniture though :) I’m going for black or white with those so I can add pops of color with my décor. Thanks for sharing your amazing talent. I just love wandering through your house via your blog :) xo Liz
Seriously, Kelly! You are brilliant!
I love your laundry room!! It’s so organized and clean-looking. We just bought a house and will be moving in in about 10 days, and the whole house needs to be painted! I think we’ll start with the foyer and great room, which will be a light silver color! I’m thinking of using Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams.
I really want to paint my son’s room a bluish grey color.
My next paint color will be a lovely greige for my living and dining room!
I’m going to paint my guest room gray.
I think we are kindred spirits with the small weather issues not stopping you!!! Looks great!
My next project is an office redo.
I want to paint the built-ins and wood paneling white in our fireplace room! Maybe a dusty gray for the half wall above the paneling…Ace will help me decide that!
Turquoise, white, and gold. I’m going for a luxe beach theme in my living room. Thanks for the giveaway! :)
My nest paint project will be blue for a bench that I want to repaint soon.
I plan on painting our bathroom a silvery gray color.
My next paint project will also be in the laundry room and I’m planning to do red or black on the cabinets and we live in a log home so the one wall that isn’t logs will be painted a dark brown.
I would love our next project to be in the color red
Not sure at the moment but the navy is beautiful!
I have a whole new house to paint, but I’ve definitely been wanting to do a navy wall somewhere in my house. This post is perfect inspiration!
Where did u buy the large calendar & wire basket with hooks? Looks great.
Love the paint color and the shelf you built above the washer and dryer, everything is perfect!!
I just finished painting our grandson’s room in Stop (red) and Silverplate (a soft gray) separated by a black stripe edged with white. My next project is staring me in the face. I’ll be painting our storage room Orange!
Oh fun color choice!
My next paint color will be either sage green or a grayish lavender.
I love the blue! I am in desperate need to paint the dining room/living room to coordinate with mt newly painted kitchen and kitchen cabinets :)
Greeen goes with everything!!!
Most likely green
I’m going deep red in my den… I hope to cozy it up a bit! Thanks for the chance to win some paint money!
Pink Mauve by Benjamin Moore for my daughter’s room
This is absolutely gorgeous Kelly! I love the rich blue and all the shelves. This is such a cute and practical space!
I would not mind doing laundry in a room as beautiful as that!!! I need to do some painting inside my house. You are an inspiration!
I am dying to paint my living room and dinning room navy. Just need to convince my hubby it will look great!
You are something else, Kelly!! Love what you did with your laundry room! Looks great!!
Just bought a house and have 2 bedrooms to paint. One will be a pale blue and another a light grey.
I just had my sons room painted a pale gray. Now I need to do the doors. I am leaning toward white. There are so many amazing colors out there. Maybe I need to have more of a wild side.
Your laundry room looks great. We just painted ours white. I will have my first matching washer/dryer delivered Saturday. It’s about time. After 23 years of no matching…….
oh exciting!! Yay for matching washer/dryers!
Laundry room looks Amazing!
Can you share where you got the hanging wire key basket and the hanging wire wall file? If love to buy them!
Hey Grace I’ll be posting a resource list Monday along with free printables for the art in the laundry room too, so check back!
O K Thanks…..Your such a doll for responding!
Love this makeover! I’m usually afraid of bold or dark colors, but you are inspiring me to be brave and try something new! :)
This all came together beautifully! Great job as usual!!
I plan on painting my sister’s room a dark gray! I’m excited because I find myself drifting away from dark colors and sticking to the lighter grays and beiges.
Gray for the master bedroom
I’ve got a whole cottage to paint when it starts warming up in the spring! So excited!
ohhh fun!! Good luck!
I would like to use a grey paint for my computer room.
Love the chore/to-do area! Great idea!
Thanks Melissa!
Wow your laundry is gorgeous and so organized.. I’m jealous ;)
I love the navy and white. It looks beautiful. Totally worth risking the blizzard
I’m doing a lot of navy and gray lately,I would gladly do your laundry for a week in the super organized room.
I love your laundry room. I live in the snowbelt off Lake Erie, I would be housebound all winter if I didn’t drive in the snow. I sure enjoy your blog, especially liked reading about your new sunroom addition. Enjoy winter!!!! Mickey in northwest Pa!!!!
I hear you! When you live around the great lakes you just have to learn how to deal :)
Golden yellow on one of our living room walls!
Such a beautiful, organized space! Love how you painted the garbage cans and the navy paint color is amazing!
dark blue!
love the makeover! great job! will you provide a source list soon? thanks for the giveaway!
Coming Monday, along with the free printable art on the shelf, stop back :)
Our next project will be the whole basement. I tend to use mostly neutrals, like a brown.
Love the navy. Where did you get that calendar?
I’ll post a source list Monday along with some other fun stuff!
Love it! So refreshing! my laundry room is dimly lit, with oak cabinets, and beige walls..so BLAH. Definitely needs a fresh coat of paint!
We’d like to do a chocolate brown accent wall.
My next painting project will be my kitchen. I’m thinking a soft blue-grey.
Interesting to be thinking about the next paint color I want to utilize! U-m-m-m, I have been loving the grays I am seeing everywhere I go of late. A beautiful Dove gray or the Steel gray I saw the other day. I want to use at least two colors of gray in my next project so that when you enter the room (Family Room) you go wait…Are the walls getting darker as you scan the room? I have red corduroy covers on our love seat and chair and everyone knows red and gray look awesome together! A gradual transition on the walls from light to a darker gray would accent my furniture and the accent pillows as well as my gauzy curtains gently being moved by a breeze. I know, in the middle of winter? I’m looking ahead to the Spring and Summer already! Thanks Kelly for reminding me that anytime is a good time to paint and go against all my husband (who was a painter for years says must be done) is ok!!
Sounds like you have a plan Debrah!
i was thinking of a blue or green for my sons playhouse not sure yet
Your laundry room is beautiful. I will be painting my kitchen in the spring. I’m leaning towards a bright vibrant color. It’s a sienna color now and I’m over it.
WOW!!! That is fabulous! Great job.
The next paint color is going to be Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray. Nice job on your laundry room makeover.
This room would take doing laundry to a whole new level! Love the color, the white trash cans and all the details. Such a fun place to work in! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks Mo!
Some shade of white :)
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this makeover!!! We just moved into our new home (new to us, house is circa 1989 and LOOKS that way too ha) and the laundry room is on my list to do as soon as possible! We finally have a mudroom/laundry room and with a 3 year old and 5 year old its a must! We had to get a new washer and dryer after moving in and because of the height we had to take down the cabinets (to paint and rehang) only to find some AWFUL wallpaper! And that’s how its stayed! So I really need to get cracking! We need some snow days!
Oh yes my kids are 3 and 6 so I understand the need for a mudroom/laundry room ha!
I love the laundry room makeover! I am planning on redoing my laundry room after the holidays, and I am thinking navy might be my top choice after seeing how yours looks!!
Go for it Jett, so cozy in here now!
Ok, how did you sneak in my house and take pictures?!?!? :) I LITERALLY just redid our mudroom with a navy wall (Twilight Chimes by Behr) and white planks on the three other walls. And put up lots of cool stuff on a command wall/center to try to organize life with three kiddos! I was lucky enough to convince my husband to move our laundry up stairs to an unused closet (is there such a thing? Not really, but I hid all that junk somewhere else to convince him!) and got to change the old TINY laundry room into a mudroom. So much better!!!
haha great minds think alike!
I was contemplating navy blue for my small half bath, and now I’m totally gonna go for it!! Love your style!
Just painted a room in our house a very similar color- looks great!
I am painting my living room gray.
Beautiful and such great ideas! My laundry room is horrible and I spend so much time in there!
And I’m painting my kitchen a light gray.
I’m planning to paint my dining room a calming green/blue color :)
demureprincess7(at)gmail(dot)com
This laundry room is awesome. I loved everything about it!
LOVE LOVE the makeover! You are a brave soul weathering the snow storm to do so! Here in the south that kind of snow would paralyze us and we wouldn’t go out for days! LOL! Love your blog! It gets me so inspired! Next paint project will probably be my kitchen!
Thanks Sharon, send some warm temps up here would you? :)
looks great Kelly! I redid my laundry room last year and it really does make a difference … :-)
I love your chore clipboards …especially the “no Whining” chore!!
great job!
Ha my 3 year old’s chore chart is full of “behavior chores” since he can’t help out as much as his sister, he also prefers to be paid in candy bars ;)
I am in the process of updating my laundry room and your layout is a great inspiration for my space. I ran into some problems and love what you did with the command center side. This gives me all sorts of ideas. To answer your question, the next room I’m painting is our master bedroom, don’t know what color but that’s the next room on my list.
Good luck with your redo Darnetha!
looks great@ and functional.
love it.
Your room is SPECTACULAR! Love, love, LOVE! Our next project is to paint our dining room and I think we’re going to go with the color you chose for the laundry room.
oh it would look great in a dining room!
We are painting our living room this month and we’ve chosen NAVAL. I’m very excited to see the results.
That is awesome!!!
Our laundry room is half laundry/mudroom right now. We will be building a separate mudroom room. I am beyond anxious for that to be done so I can have my laundry room back and re-do it!! Our “command centre” has been moving all over, and it needs to be in there instead (but I must wait).
I have been all over the map about what colour to paint the walls (the tiny amount of walls that we have anyway). I have been wanting to use navy somewhere but chickened out on every other room. Sooooo maybe it’s time for a navy laundry room!
We just finished painting a wall in our new nursery a dark navy and it is a teeny room. I love it! It makes it feel cozy. I also used hits of black and it looks amazing. Break all the rules!
I love the clipboard idea!
I’m planning to paint my bedroom (over the wallpaper) something in a s light blue or lavender, maybe a robin’s egg blue or periwinkle. Love everything you did to update your laundry room…even the navy wall!!
Love the whole room!
Years ago my mother painted her guest bedroom walls a pretty navy blue with crisp white trim. I always loved that room, but they moved not long after it was painted. We live in a rental, so I can’t paint walls, but my next painting project (in a few days) is furniture. The color is an antique white. :)
I love the color! I wish I had a laundry room to paint…alas I guess I have to be content with at least having the washer and dryer in the the damp unfinished basement.
oh our last house was like that and I still painted the floors in there to brighten it up a bit!
I plan on painting my kitchen next. The color is a toss up between a gray or green.
We are painting our cabinets white.
I plan on painting my bathroom blue.
I absolutely love it! We’re actually in the middle of a laundry room makeover (and bathroom and backyard, and kids room….you know how that goes). We’ll be going the all white route, but we are also doing a paneled wall! P.S. I’m super jealous of all your counter space!
oh fun, you know I love all white :) The counter space is my favorite part, I love having all the space to get my folding done!
I painted my bedroom a similar color – don’t remember the brand, but it’s called “boat blue” , and I love it! Suits my sailor husband and his very traditional cherry bedroom furniture (think four poster bed and bail drawer pulls!) very well!
Sounds pretty!
I just told my husband I want to change our bedroom color from yellow to a light gray. It desperately needs painted. And we always use Benjamin Moore paint from Ace! Was just there Saturday buying a sample : )
I just love this! My laundry room needs a make-over too! Maybe everyone’s does :) I’m definitely getting those trash cans.
For my next project, it will be robin’s egg blue for a table I am going to paint for the living room.
I love the makeover ! We had snow days, too, but I wasn’t as industrious as you – our next snow days, I promise I will be……and we’re expecting lots of snow in Michigan again this year. Thanks for your inspiration!
love the laundry room color!! I need to build shelf as you have on my back wall, great organization!
I am in love with that navy color! I’m thinking I’m going yo do something grey for my next project.
We’re getting ready to start the kitchen cabinets and they’re going to be a slate blue color.
Love the dark blue with the white. It looks very clean and nautical!
Looking for the right grayish taupe for my living area.
What a beautiful laundry room! I enjoy reading your blog. You have a sense of humor and you make me smile. Thank you, Kathleen in Az
Thanks for reading Kathleen!
I’m planning on my bedroom to be painted greige! Can’t wIt!
After the holidays I’m painting my living room white!
oh lucky! The Mr. won’t let me paint anything else white, ha :)
Where did you get your calendar? Room looks amazing!
I’ll be posting a source list and some free printables on Monday, so stop back!
Well, you’ve just taken a productive snow to a new level! Wow! I love the color and the organization was so great I had to look at everything twice. The dark blue paint with white trim are beautiful together. Maybe now doing laundry might not be so bad.
Thanks Becky, sometimes you just got to get out, I couldn’t handle sitting inside my house another minute without a fun DIY project :)
Your gorgeous laundry room has inspired me to work that navy color into my house – somewhere!
It’s beautiful! I need you to visit me for a weekend! I have all the basics but can’t put things together like you! Your home is beautiful!
I’ll be right over! ;)
I love how sharp it looks, Kelly!
And I really love the “Stay in Bed” and “No Whining” chores. ;) I need to make a couple of chore charts now!
I love it, Kelly! The dark color is perfect, and I love how you have everything organized!
Thanks Traci! And thanks for sharing on FB!!
My next painting project is my son’s room. He’s decided he would like it blue, so now the hunt begins for a perfect shade of blue
Love the makeover, your laundry room looks amazing. So much storage and you have created a great command center. Love it all.
love it! ha, the first thing i noticed beside that gorgeous color of course ( you did after all risk your life in a snow storm to paint…who does that!! :) ) was that calendar, and I am blind as a bat too! where did you get that? the room looks amazing.
I’m love love loving the griege trend, so most of the rooms in my house are lending themselves to that color. I have a can of BM’s Hale Navy that I recently used to paint a thrift store desk and the back of a bookcase, so you’re post gives me motivation to look for a room with walls I can slap it on. :)
Gosh, I don’t think I would mind doing the laundry at all if I had a space like this! I love the colour you went for, and you were right to ‘break the rules’ with it because it looks great! I also really love the planks, it’s a great contrast.
Thanks Suzie, my laundry days are much improved now!