modern farmhouse

I’ve been admiring farmhouse-style laundry rooms on Pinterest for months, and I’ve been wanting to create one in miniature for just about as long, so when I saw the roombox kits from ScaledRealmMinis, I immediately knew what my next project was going to be!

After collecting copious inspiration photos on Pinterest, I got to work on creating the mini laundry room of my dreams. Even though the roomboxes from ScaledRealmMinis have awesome laser cut floors, I knew I wanted a tile look in the laundry room, so I found trendy printable patterns from ChloeMiniHome for the floor and for the white brick wall. I printed the tile on glossy photo paper and the brick on matte.

Once the floors and walls were done, I added in the baseboard and a quarter round in the corner. Then, I started with the most important part of any laundry room – the washer and dryer! I used a standard wooden set, but I wasn’t happy with how they looked out of the box, so I decided to get a little creative and make some modifications.

To start, I printed out photos of Speed Queen control panels (in honor of my own Speed Queen washer and dryer). Once I placed those over the existing controls, they looked much better, but they still didn’t have the gloss sheen that you see on real appliances. Rather than try to repaint with a gloss finish, I decided I would try my luck with coating them with UV resin. Several coats later, I was pretty happy with the results! They’re not perfect, but definitely an improvement over the originals!

The other main elements I needed to install before I could get to all the fun little details were the lights, the counters and the sink. The awesome sink cabinet, faucet and handles all came from Melvin’s Miniatures.

From there, I just cut, stained and painted wood to create all the other countertops – including the L-shape in the corner and the enclosure for the washer/dryer set. I also installed two shelves with brackets from Melvin’s Miniatures above the counter and sink.

I modified an existing ironing board to fit my theme, painting the legs silver and recovering it with black and white checkered fabric. The rolling laundry hamper was inspired by some I saw on Pinterest, as well. I used chip board covered with cotton batting and gray fabric to make the hamper. I sewed an inner liner from white cotton fabric, and I used card stock and beads to make the casters. Then, I just filled it up with dirty laundry!

I was most excited about figuring out how to create my own working set of farmhouse-style sconce lights, but I also knew it was going to be the most challenging to do. After quite a bit of trial and error, I ended up using chip LED lights from Evan Designs along with suction cups, silicone tubing, wire, no hole beads and metal bezel stud settings, all spray painted a satin black. I absolutely LOVE how they turned out!

I also designed all the labels for the various jars and cleaning products myself. I’ve got everything from dryer balls to scent booster! After seeing detergent and softener dispensers on Pinterest, I recreated them in miniature by taking glass jars and gluing on spigots, then filling them with resin. The scrub brush was made from a piece of popsicle stick with little clumps of jute twine glued on for the bristles. I wish my real laundry room was this organized!

I had a blast coming up with decorative elements for the laundry room, and I thought eucalyptus would be a perfect fit – it smells nice and it’s very soothing. I made this one from laser cut leaves by SDK Miniatures.

I made these rolled towels and the folded towels next to the washer from white baby wash cloths. They are a little better for scale than standard terry cloth. Then I placed my Wash Dry and Fold sign next to them!

I made this little grapevine wreath with a paper magnolia flower and cotton bolls from my tutorial! There’s also a little pitcher of cotton over on one of the shelves.

A simple wood disc and a toothpick painted black makes for an easy paper towel holder. The sponge was also a cinch: just a piece of green felt glued to a yellow foam sheet.

This spare change sign was a last-minute addition after I saw a real one on Pinterest! After all, what else are you supposed to do with all the change that falls out in the wash? I made the mason jar from resin in a mold, and then I made all the coins from black polymer clay dusted with metallic mica powders in silver and copper.

The laundry basket is just filled with scraps of fabric that I saturated with water, scrunched up and arranged until it looked just messy enough to be unfolded laundry. Once it all dried, it looked perfect.

I don’t really sew too frequently, so I definitely wanted a no-sew solution for having a few folded shirts to display, and I followed this helpful tutorial on YouTube to create them!

In yet another burst of Pinspiration (that’s a word, right?), I wanted to make a little decorative wall shelf that looked like an old washboard. This was super easy to make, using craft wood matchsticks, balsa wood and corrugated paper painted silver and gunmetal gray. Isn’t it just the thing to display this Sir Thomas Thumb antique flat iron?

And of course, I just can’t seem to make a scene without an animal, so I tucked a little dog bed under the countertop and added a bag and bowl of food. He looks cozy, right?

Sources for other special items I didn’t make myself:

• Old-fashioned clothespins and clothes hangers by Reynold’s Metal
• Bucket, dustpan and brush by Miniature Corner – Bodo Hennig
• Wooden clothespins in jar by Dragonfly International
• Floor vase with branches by IslandTradingCo

Special thanks to my supportive husband, Tom, for helping me with the photos for this feature. I hope you enjoyed this look inside my little farmhouse laundry roombox!