*Today’s post was made possible by Fancy Walls, and features gifted product for the purposes of a candid review. All opinions are my own.

I want you to pause for a second and think about when you toured your current home for the first time as a prospective buyer. What were some of the spaces that you knew you’d be making over after you moved in? Maybe a dated bathroom, or a cramped kitchen? Have you tackled those updates yet? If not, there’s no need to beat yourself up! Homes take time to design, and there shouldn’t be any rush to get things crossed off your list.

For me personally, one of the rooms I really wanted to tackle in our home after we moved in was our laundry closet. It was a tight color-less space that really needed TLC. But you know what? It took me a full two years and two months to even think about getting it fixed up. Point being, you’ve got time if your own problem room is still in need of making over…Let’s talk through what we did to our laundry closet, shall we?

As those photos above show, this closet was a horribly under-utilized space in our home. It was, first and foremost, a laundry closet, but we also use the space to host our rescue dog’s crate, as well as a few other odds and ends in terms of storage (think: bird seed, pet supplies, vacuum tools, etc.). There was already an amazing set of existing built-in shelves, but we just weren’t capitalizing on them as the closet stood before.

One of the biggest issues was the hanging drying bar that the previous homeowners had installed—I’m talking about that stained wood bar seen pictured above hanging over Chessie’s crate. We used it for drying laundry (of course), and it worked well for that, but it was hung right in front of the biggest run of built-in shelves. We had to reach awkwardly over and under it to access the shelves, and it just needed to be rethought through.

Ever since touring our home as prospective buyers, I knew this closet was an opportunity to have fun with color. The louvered doors are generally always closed, and we only open them when accessing the washing machine or the storage items on those shelves. In other words, we don’t look at this closet at all times throughout the day. We could go a little wild with color and pattern, sort of like what you see in powder bathroom designs. It was our chance to be a little daring. So, we decided to makeover the space with a new paint color below and around the built-in shelves (we used “Halcyon Green” from Sherwin-Williams), and new wallpaper from Fancy Walls.

I chose a pattern called “Pink Art Deco Clay” because I loved how it complemented the green tones in the new paint color. The repeated fan design also feels so energizing to me and playful, which is definitely the type of reaction I need to feel in order to get through my laundry chores with gusto! As always, the wallpaper went on like a dream. I love Fancy Walls peel-and-stick wallpaper because it’s super forgiving, and can be repositioned as many times as you need to in order to get it just right. I can’t even describe how giddy I was when I stepped back mid-project to gauge the results. That color combination between the paint and wallpaper is perfection, and really makes this closet feel like something extra special.

The final touch was styling and thinking strategically through the storage I wanted to incorporate back into the closet. I definitely felt like we could improve the functionality of this space by using more thoughtful storage totes, baskets, and containers. I went to a couple of different nearby stores to look for affordable storage options, but ultimately found everything I needed at Burlington. I spent about $150 on all of the baskets and woven boxes that you see pictured in today’s post. I also grabbed a few faux plants to help give the space more of a lived-in feeling. I couldn’t use live plants because this laundry closet doesn’t get any natural light when the doors are closed, but I could go crazy with faux plants, so that’s exactly what I did! A gold pedestal bowl for dryer balls and a couple of silver hanging bars for drying laundry (hung out of the way off to the side of the closet, of course!) really finished off the look and also added some much-needed sparkle to the space.

I love, love, love how this closet turned out. It’s easily my favorite before/after from our time in this home. It’s so validating to see my dreams from that first walk-through of our house come to life, and I genuinely enjoy doing laundry so much more now. We also now have a much better system for everyday organization items, too. We have pet items all in one place, and I created a little spot for water bottles and gardening tools. I bought a new color-coordinated watering can to keep close at hand, and have our laundry supplies in a much prettier metal basket now. There’s a spot of our cat carrier, loose electronic cables, vacuum tools, extra pillows, and frisbees for when we want to play games in the back yard.

Oh, and this hanging bar system and this segmented swing arm rack have been an awesome replacement for that cumbersome old bar that used to stretch the length of the closet! Now, we have what we need to dry our clothes from the washing machine, and it’s not blocking our access to what’s on the shelves. I hope this post can serve as encouragement to tackle your own “problem” space at home. It might take some time and lots of effort, but I promise that the results will be worth it.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission when you purchase products that I recommend at no additional cost to you. This allows me to provide free creative content for you to read, save, and share. Rest assured that I never recommend products we wouldn’t use or don’t already love ourselves.