Organizing a Utility Room For Form and Function

Utility rooms are frequently overlooked spaces in the home, which more often than not translate into the dungeons of modern day living. This is a shame, because the utility room is one of the most versatile rooms in the house. Since you are more likely than not going to spend a good deal of time there working to maintain your household, or even your house, why not make the space a light and pleasant place to be?

If you are lucky enough to have a large utility room, then your job is just that much easier, but if like most older homes, the utility room is little more than a large closet, you have some challenges organizing the room as well. Generally the utility room is a multi function room serving as command central for laundry, gardening, storage and crafts. Regardless of the size and function of your utility room, you can make it a light, open, organized and functional space. Here are some affordable and easy design ideas to make over your utility room.

Organize with Shelves

One of the easiest ways to organize your utility room is with shelving. If you already have shelving in place, clear it all off, because it needs to be attractive and organized. Metal utility shelves are sturdy but generally unattractive. While plastic shelving units may be better to look at, they are usually not very sturdy. Regardless of which type of shelving you have, you can get any kind of shelving to work for you. highland park homes for sale

If your shelves are ugly, there are some things that you can do to improve their looks. First if they are uniform distances apart, you can stagger the distances between shelves to add visual interest. If your shelves are plastic, you can create smaller shelves at the top for smaller lighter items and leave larger spaces at the bottom for heavier items. highland park homes for sale

These days you can paint anything that is properly primed. So whether your shelves are plastic or metal, there is a paint that will work for them. A quick conversation with your hardware store will line you up with the proper paint products to get this job done.

If you want to draw attention to the shelves and add a bit of an architectural element to your room, then you may want to paint them in a contrasting color to the wall. However, if you have a smaller space, or if your shelves are just plain ugly, then you can make them invisible by painting them the same color as the wall behind them. highland park homes for sale

Storage Boxes Visually Clean a Room

After your shelves are installed and painted, you can give your utility room a calm and cohesive look by using storage boxes on the shelves instead of just shoving clutter back onto the shelves. Storage boxes can again be complimentary or contrasting depending on the look that you are trying to create, but by putting large bins on bottom shelves for larger and heavier items and putting smaller bins on the higher shelves, you will organize your supplies and make them easy to find.

If you do not have a budget for bins, then you can make your own bins out of cardboard boxes. The boxes can be found for free from your local grocery store, and you can cover them with wallpaper. You can choose a theme for your bins, or you can design around that roll of wallpaper that you found on sale. Either way, the wallpaper makes the boxes sturdy as well as pretty to look at. If you are using vinyl wallpaper, then it will be easy to wipe the surface clean. If you are using paper wallpaper, you can spray coat it with Krylon® sealer to make a waterproof surface.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get your wallpaper to stick to the boxes using wallpaper paste, so instead you can use Aleene's Tacky® or Sobo® glue which are extremely sticky and will get the job done in no time at all. One thing that you want to be aware of as you are covering your boxes with wallpaper, is that if it has a design, then you want to make sure that you coordinate or match the direction of the design. It does not matter which way the pattern goes as long as you are aware of the direction as you are installing it on the box. highland park homes for sale

Then a great way to finish off your storage boxes is to add labels for easy reference. You can label with shipping labels, shapes, theme wallpaper or even a hand painted sign.