Easy Laundry Room Wallpaper Makeover Ideas (with Tutorials)

Adding laundry room wallpaper is an easy way to spice up your space.

One of my biggest pet peeves is hauling laundry all over the house, so I fixed that with our new home! This was supposed to be my oldest daughter's bathroom. Instead, I turned my other daughter's bathroom into a Jack and Jill bathroom my girls now share.

Thankfully, that opened up this space for a small laundry room. Luckily, now there is no more hauling laundry across the house!

Designing Small Spaces

Adding an accent wall to small rooms is a great design element because it gives your eye something to focus on. Since this is such a small space I wanted open shelves over the washing machine. Open shelves are the perfect place to store items and cleaner products for washing, as well as add some laundry room decor for a welcoming feel to the new space.

Laundry Room Makeover With Wallpaper

Laundry Space Before

Here is what this space looked like before. The white walls make for a fun blank slate for some new wallpaper. I really love the light fixture so it will stay and add to the overall design of the room.

Add Wainscoting

Starting with a blank slate is wonderful because you can pretty much do anything with an empty wall, especially laundry room walls. Adding an accent wall with wainscoting to the back wall is the first step. This wall is the primary focal point because it is the first thing you see when you enter the room. 

First, add the vertical battens. The battens are 1 ½" MDF. Space them 6" apart from each other. I put them closer together than standard board and batten since this is a narrow wall. Use a brad nailer and 1 ½" long brad nails to attach everything to the wall.

The top piece is a pre-made header that I bought from Colonial Building Supply, a local hardware store. You can find similar options at Home Depot and Lowe's too. Cut it down to size and attach it above your vertical battens.

Apply Paint for Small Laundry Room Makeover

Now that the wainscoting is up, it's time to prep for paint. Use putty and a putty knife to fill the holes. While the putty dries, apply caulk to fill in all of the seams.

After the putty is dry, use 120 grit sandpaper to sand the extra putty off. A clean and smooth surface is ideal before you paint.

Brush any remaining dust off the moldings, followed by vacuuming the room. You want to get rid of as much dust as possible so it doesn't ruin your paint finish.

The next step is to tape everything off. I have found it easiest to tape off the floor and walls with tape first. Then you can tape the paper directly to the tape. This makes for a stronger bond so it doesn't blow up when spraying. Since this is a little laundry room I used my HomeRight sprayer to spray everything. However, a paint brush would also work.

I painted the wainscoting the same color as the rest of my moldings in my house, Chalk White by Benjamin Moore.

Add Wallpaper to Laundry Room Accent Wall

After the paint is all dry, apply your wallpaper on the upper half above the wainscoting. I used the wallpaper from PhotoWall for this small laundry room. I loved the bold patterns in small spaces and this bold wallpaper is perfect for this room. I did stick with light colors as to not over power the space.

This wallpaper is super easy to apply. It came with the wallpaper paste that I applied straight to the wall. Applying to the wall is a lot easier than applying to the back of the panel. Place the wallpaper over the top of the paste and use a squeegee to smooth the wallpaper out.

When smoothing wallpaper out you want to push all of the air out with the squeegee. Some of the paste may squish out the sides. That is ok because you want your paper good and stuck to the wall. This wallpaper is very high quality making it easy to readjust and work with.

I applied all of the wallpaper within an hour. Wallpaper with a fun pattern is a fun way for an easy update to any space. Maybe it will even make laundry day a little more enjoyable.

Video Tutorial Below

Adding Laundry Room Decor

Let's get this space decorated up! One of the great parts about adding wallpaper to a space is it serves as a beautiful backdrop as well. Don't add too much decor so the wallpaper can still be the main focal point.

Rather than a upper cabinets we went with a shelf!  This open shelf from Shelfology is a great way to add function and decor to smaller spaces. The thick wood helps the space feel warm. It also matches the wood in the rest of the house.

Laundry Room Storage

Once the shelf was up I added some baskets to hold all the random laundry stuff. Using different colors, sizes and shapes of baskets is a functional way to add decor.

• Small gray basket - use for laundry sheets so they can easily be grabbed.
• Large ombre seagrass basket - perfect for a laundry basket
• Small stacked baskets have the laundry detergent and washer cleaner in them. Shop similar accessories here.
• Big rectangle basket - ideal for unmatched socks.

Additional Decorations

This fun laundry room sign is from Teal Barn signs.

I also added some greenery and a fun vase to top it off.

Shop Here

Laundry Room Wallpaper Choices

There are so many choices of wallpaper out there. It can be hard to choose the right wallpaper.

Peel and Stick Wallpaper

• Peel and stick wallpaper is a vinyl product and a great option. You pull the backing off and apply it to the wall. There is no water or glue involved.
• It is also removable wallpaper, making it easier to change out down the road. Or if you are renting it can be removed when you move out.
• This type of wallpaper will overlap each other by about an inch at each seam.

In my daughter's bathroom I used a peel and stick wallpaper with bold colors. I love to go bold in small spaces.  View bathroom here

​Consider another great place for the perfect wallpaper

• Dining room
• Living room
• Mud rooms
• Dressing room
• Kid baths
• Coffee bar

 In the small powder room I did a peel and stick wallpaper floral mural. This wallpaper has a canvas texture to it for a unique style.

In my master closet I added a black and white floral wallpaper. I have a full tutorial on how I installed it here.

Traditional Wallpaper

• Traditional wallpaper is when you are working with a glue, like this laundry room wallpaper.
• You either mix up the glue and apply it to the wall or back of the wallpaper.
• The wallpaper can be pre-pasted and you use water to activate the glue.
• This type of wallpaper will not overlap. You will just match up the seams.

My daughter's dark mural is a pre-pasted wallpaper. The advantage to working with a pre-pasted wallpaper is that you can move it slightly once it is on the wall. This is helpful when matching up the seams. (view her room here)

Hopefully you found some new laundry room wallpaper ideas to transform your space no matter your design style or color scheme. 

Happy Wallpapering!

Brooke