My $10,000 laundry renovation in my period home

My galley laundry dreams were officially dead.

With no budget to change the structure or move doors, everything had to stay exactly where it was.

Not only was the cabinetry not moving it wasn’t changing either. I had to keep the carcass and the doors.

Having just finished the master bathroom, I wanted to carry as much of that design and colour palette through to the laundry and second bathroom as I could.

However, I had spent $7,000 just on bathroom fixtures and fittings which was ideally my whole laundry budget!! I had to try to create continuity without changing everything.

In the end in the semi-ensuite, the only fixture being replaced was the toilet. The shower, basin and tapware were staying. Whilst I love the idea of an update, they were white and inoffensive.

However, in the laundry the bench had to go.

I was excited to be getting rid of the mid blue benchtop with two oversized sinks that took up all the workspace. Swapping the benchtop while keeping the cabinetry is a cost-effective way to give a kitchen or laundry a cosmetic refresh without a full rebuild.

Unfortunately, the blush-coloured cabinetry had to stay. And yes, I considered changing doors or painting it, but they were fairly neutral and it just seemed an unnecessary expense. And something I could revisit in the future if I ever wanted too.

So, what could carry over from the bathroom? 

The final bathroom fit out

My bathroom’s wall tiles became my laundry floor tiles. The brushed gold curved tapware from the bathroom couldn’t come across, since the semi-ensuite had polished silver fittings, so I went with brushed nickel instead and a curved basin spout that swivels out of the way. 

I shopped around for value, including buying “new” items off Facebook Marketplace that hadn’t ended up being used on someone else’s renovation.

For the benchtop, I looked at off-cut stone (also findable on Marketplace) but got nervous about transporting and getting it installed by a separate tradesman. One of my benches was L-shaped, and if anything went wrong in transit or installation, that was my money gone. I couldn’t go back to the stonemason

I settled on a laminate benchtop cut to size, easier to pick up and install on my existing cabinetry frame.

All up $2,657 in laundry and ensuite supplies. 

Anyone who’s watched The Block knows wet areas need a lot of trades, and while I’d used a brilliant builder/carpenter for the bathroom, this job was too small to justify bringing him back. (or for him to want to come back!)

My tiler, though, had over 20 years as a tradie and had been telling me about his own ongoing renovations to his home. With some serious grovelling, I talked him into moonlighting as a carpenter too.

I kept the same electrician and plumbers from the bathroom job. And armed with two completed interior design short courses and one full bathroom renovation under my belt, I was basically an expert now anyway and I could coordinate the renovation.

A wet area renovation pulls in a long list of trades, each needed at different points in the build. Here’s the rundown from my project, all of whom did excellent work. 

Totalling $7,126 in trades.

Quotes are one thing; reality is another. Once the cork flooring came up, we found a patch of the original hardwood had rotted and needed replacing. The floor also turned out to slope slightly, which meant extra time spent working out how to lay the large 600×600 tiles level.

I’d also decided a new laundry deserved a new washing machine, so I had a top-loader delivered (yes, I know, but I love a top-loader). The plan was to plumb the waste water under the sink, except my new machine didn’t have the right shoe to connect the extension hose, so the plumbers had to source one on the fly.

I had a running five-dollar bet with my electrician on whether the job would be ready for him to do his work by the time he got back from his European holiday. Due to the plumber being delayed by an urgent job he claims he won! 

Start to finish, measurement to final fit, the whole thing took about 5 weeks.

I am very happy with my new laundry. Does it bring me the sense of joy my master bathroom did, not quite. 

Comprises were made due to budget constraints however smart choices (possibly mine) were made and the new benchtop and floor tiles having really changed the feel of the entire area. 

Could it have been done cheaper?

Probably. But these tradespeople did great work, and in an old home, you never quite know what’s lurking behind the surface.