The single biggest upgrade you can make in a laundry room is wallpaper.

The laundry room is one of the best places in the house to go bold with a print. The square footage is small, so you use less material and spend less time installing than you would in any other room. The white, charcoal and black appliances give you a built-in neutral backdrop that makes almost every color pop. And if you go peel and stick, the whole thing is an upgrade you can take with you when you move.

Curious which type of wallpaper is best for laundry rooms? Our guide to laundry room wallpaper covers everything from humidity and surface prep to how to remove it when you’re ready to switch.

It’s hard to overstate how much the floor affects the feel of a small space. If the floor is original builder-grade tile or worn vinyl, a peel-and-stick checkerboard upgrade is one of the easiest swaps on this list. No special tools, no adhesive, no grout. It goes down in an afternoon and comes up without damaging the subfloor underneath.

Nobody thinks about the lighting in their laundry room, and that’s an opportunity for an unexpected WOW moment.

Swapping a builder-grade fluorescent fixture for a pendant or a globe light changes the entire mood of the space. Add a ceiling medallion around the base of the new fixture and it looks like a planned, finished design choice rather than a random hardware swap. The result looks like it has always been there.

If you have front-loading machines, the top of your washer and dryer is wasted real estate. A butcher block or wood panel cut to fit converts it into a proper folding station and gives the room an intentional, furniture-like quality.

For top-loaders, a narrow floating shelf mounted just above the units does double duty: it adds a little surface area and, more importantly, covers the mechanical equipment and valves on the wall behind the machines. It’s the perfect place for cute faux plants, dryer balls and detergent pods.

Pro tip: Skip the custom milling. A standard 1x8 board is almost exactly the depth you need. Most front-loaders leave about eight inches from the machine to the wall, which is precisely what a 1x8 covers. Grab one in your preferred wood, cut it to width and you’re done.

Built-in cabinetry maybe isn’t the easiest laundry room upgrade. But it is an upgrade that makes a laundry room look like a designer was involved, and stock cabinets (from any home improvement store) makes it easier to pull it off.

Wall cabinets mount directly into studs above the machines and maximize vertical storage without touching the floor. They run 12 inches deep, come in standard widths, and look completely custom once they’re painted and fitted with hardware. Crown molding along the top seals the illusion. For brooms and cleaning supplies, a tall utility cabinet with a pull-out organizer inside keeps everything vertical, hidden and off the floor.

Base cabinets sit on the floor alongside or flanking the machines. They’re deeper (24 inches), work well placed side by side and are freestanding, which means renters can take them when they move.

The tradeoff: wall cabinets make the most of a small room but require drilling into studs. Base cabinets are renter-portable but use more floor space. Either way, the right paint color and hardware does most of the heavy lifting.

These mount flat against the wall when not in use and fold out when you need a surface.

Closed, they look like a design element. Open, they become a folding station, a hang-dry bar or a place to sort whites, colors and delicates.

One TikTok creator described the appeal perfectly: disguising a folding station as wall art turned out to be just as satisfying to use as it was to look at — she installed it for a folding surface and quickly realized it was just as useful for hanging garments fresh out of the dryer. Genius!

A freestanding drying rack on the floor takes up space, falls over and looks like what it is: a utility item that hasn’t found a home. A wall-mounted retractable version solves all three problems.

It pulls out when you need it and folds flat against the wall when you don’t. It’s a more intentional solution, and it makes the room feel considered rather than cluttered.

Most laundry rooms don’t have a mirror. They should. An arched or round mirror above a shelf or the machines bounces light, adds dimension and makes a small room feel finished in a way that’s hard to explain until you see it. It signals that someone thought about this space.

A set of matching glass or ceramic canisters to decant detergent, dryer pods and stain remover. Swapping plastic packaging for consistent containers is a small change with a visible daily return. The room looks cleaner because it actually is more organized, not because anything structural changed.

Caroline is the owner of Funky Paper Co. What began as a creative outlet is now a full-blown wallpaper wonderland specializing in patterns that are hand-drawn, high-quality and always a little bit funky.