HD has thermafoil kitchen cabinets that you could customize for your area. Here is a photo of them. I don't know if they are less expensive than IKEA.

I think your ideas sound like great ones. I'm not totally familiar with what Ikea has, as there are no showrooms close by, but I've been told they're well-made and reasonably priced. Love the idea of the tall closet cab for the vacuum! As for a new, smaller laundry room sink, check out this site online: www.faucet.com. They have lots of laundry room sinks to consider. I have built-in cabs above my washer and dryer. I had the builder add a rod for drip drying clothes over the counter at the end, too. The cabs are a row of 3 double-door cabs with 2 or 3 adjustable shelves in each. If I had to do it over again, I'd add a second set of storage cabs over them, instead of having the (wasted) display space I have now. Although they'd have to be accessed with a step stool, they could have stored out of season dishes, seldom used serving pieces, beach towels in the off-season, extra bedding for guests, holiday decs, etc., etc. My advice: use any and all storage options wisely!
Lynn

Ikea has such great ideas, I can't wait until ours opens here in the fall.

Same as Brutes (love the molding on top) and Lynn -- mine are 2 sets of 3 door units for a total of 6 doors. They were $98 each (total $200) from Home Depot. I added my own brushed nickel knobs. They did have the matching pantry unit but I don't have room for it. They have adjustable shelves and have been pretty sturdy. I centered them on the wall so I installed a rod on each end of the units so I have hanging space between the cabinets and the walls. I also have hanging options on the wall opposite the cabinets but the are more decorative to match the brushed nickel associates in the laundry room.

jrmmom - we are building a new home and the laundry room will be like yours - just a walk through area from the garage to the house. I was planning cabinets like you describe - a tall one is good for the vacuum, brooms, mop, etc. I wasn't going to put in a heavy duty laundry sink, but there will be a countertop and I'll put in a set in deep aluminum sink with maybe a fitted cover matching the countertop to give more room when folding clothes.

Thankyou everyone,brutuses the price for the cabinets from Home Depot are inline with the ones on the Ikea website. Home Depot is 5 minutes away, Ikea is 2 hours....I'll be going to home depot tonight! Lynn, thanks for the web site for the sinks, I will check it out. My dh has a good friend that is a plumber, so I know he would install a new sink for me. Mustangs love your laundry room...where did you get that light fixture.....I really like it. I'm excited to start this project.....my dh is on board...just to get the vaccum out of the hallway.

He is in the middle of doing a quick crete walkway on the side of our house that I showed him from this website...he told me to wait until he's done, but I can shop and plan...thanks guys, this site is a weath of information.

JRmom, The house originally had one of those utilitarian/workshop florescent fixtures. I found the oval one at HD. It was $85 and as a bonus, had the brushed finish I was looking for.

Good luck.

Oooooh what I wouldn't give for my DH to be hand! I installed the light fixture in the LR. It really took two pair of hands because of the length, but instead of helping me, he watched the Bucs (football) game and I held it up with my head while using my hands to attach each end of the faceplate to the ceiling.

mustangs....that's too funny about the football game, We are in Ohio also....and I couldn't ask to have anything done during the bucks game either, I want to go to HD tonight, and we have to go before the browns game. He also does the time clock for our high school team, since our football player graduated. But he will fit me in....I would probably zap myself trying to install lighting....I can also enlist my 17 year old....he's pretty good at putting up drapery rods.

randita, I think that we were posting at the same time...I tried to respond to your post and it wouldn't let me because I was the last one to post. I love your countertop idea, I have to see if I have room after the vacuum closet.....did you buy your sink yet?....I'm going to look at HD tonight and the website that lynne suggested.

OT: JRmom--Tampa Bay Buccaneers

We have IKEA cabinets and I think the quality and design flexibility of their kitchen line is worlds above the HD stock ones. I have a half finished laundry room with the IKEA white Lidi doors and wood counters that I will post as soon as I can get pics taken.

The favorite part of our redesigned laundry room is a tall cabinet with 5 wire baskets (one for each member of our family). It sits directly opposite our dryer and as soon as clothes come out of the dryer they can be folded and put into each persons basket. It makes it so easy for our kids (4, 6, & 9yrs) to see when they have clean clothes that they can simply take from their basket and put them away.

Sorry mustangs....here in ohio we are crazy for the Buckeyes (called Bucks sometimes).

jrmom - I haven't bought the sink yet, but have researched it a little bit and have seen deep aluminum set in sinks available. I like that idea a lot better than a free standing industrial looking sink because it just looks nicer and you can have nice cabinets underneath it for storage. I got the idea of the sink covers from our motorhome. There are corian countertops in the motorhome and because the counter space is so limited in RV's, you get fitted sink covers, which, when in place expand your countertop space.

I don't know what my countertop will be in the new home (haven't started building it yet - just have the plans), but probably will be laminate because of the cost.

Brutuses and mustangs, did your HDepot have base cabinets in the thermafoil. We went last night and they have a tall cabinet, perfect for the vaccum and wall cabinets with three doors, but the guy said that they don't have any base cabinets for the sink. I could buy an unfinished one and paint it...which I may do...but an another HDepot may have the base cabinets. The price is great. I may hang the cabinets high and do a shelf under like mustangs, then I won't have the wasted space that Lynn is talking about. Mustangs is that just a painted board on brackets?

Randita...I love the idea of a sink cover I'm going to use that....I always put the laundry basket on top of the sink I have now before loading the washer.

Gardenergwen, I can't wait to see pictures of your laundry room.....it sounds great....I would love baskets for everyones clean laundry. You guys are so great for helping me with this project...thanks....

Jrmom, I didn't look for the base cabinets at the time I purchased the uppers so I don't know if they were available.

The shelf is laminate.

Jrmom, don't forget to show us pics when you finish up your laundry room.

Mustangs: you have my very favorite laundry room . . . love it!

Lynn...I will post pictures....I have to learn how, but I will. I have to take some before ones....I have the cabinet wall all mapped out on graph paper...just have to go and buy everything....also my dh right now as I type is outside digging out for widening the driveway and a quickcrete pathway (that I learned about on gardenweb), our teenage boys have trucks, and the extra room is needed. I think the first rainy day will be laundry room day. I can't thank every one enough for their help...I never had heard of those thermafoil cabinets....already one of my friends is interested in them also. They are a great price.

I'm still trying to get our LR up and running "just right" too, but have run into a problem. We checked out the HD cabinets in white, but the ones they had were damaged. Every single one. The person working couldn't provide any answers or options for us. So, we decided if they get crushed so easily, maybe they aren't for us after all.

They also said they didn't know how to create a hall-tree bench type area for us.

What are we doing wrong?!

Now we're looking at having our kitchen cabinet guy do them. But that will be more money. And on the other hand, we know he knows what he's doing.

Oh, btw, only one of our local HD has white. The other locations near us carry the other colors.

big sigh......

I'm still trying to get our LR up and running "just right" too, but have run into a problem. We checked out the HD cabinets in white, but the ones they had were damaged. Every single one. The person working couldn't provide any answers or options for us. So, we decided if they get crushed so easily, maybe they aren't for us after all.

They also said they didn't know how to create a hall-tree bench type area for us.

What are we doing wrong?!

Now we're looking at having our kitchen cabinet guy do them. But that will be more money. And on the other hand, we know he knows what he's doing.

Oh, btw, only one of our local HD has white. The other locations near us carry the other colors.

big sigh......

jrmom, please forgive my big error, the cabinets are from Lowe's not HD. I'm so sorry. I do try to keep up what comes from where, but as you can see, I get confused. So sorry. DH just went the other day and bought ours for the laundry room. He found a 36" with top draws and a set of doors and an 18" with 4 drawers. Again, I'm so sorry for the misinformation.

jrmom, You asked about base cabinets so I wanted to let you know that a closet company did the base and counter tops for me. That may be an option for you.

mustangs, I love your laundry room. I remember that photo from another thread. Where do you put your dirty laundry? And how do you clean behind the washer & dryer?

Brutuses....I did find the upper cabinets at HDepot, I may not need the base ones because I found a laundry sink and a cabinet built into one, they had one at home depot, I thought it was kind of cheap looking, but Lowes had one that looked better, so I'm going to probably get it from there. Wearybuilder, I didn't check the cabinets at HDepot, but I will now before I purchase them.

And now the snowball effect....I think we are going to put in new flooring before the cabinets....any inexpensive, easy to install ideas?

We are also looking for a washroom cabinet with sink and also found the HD one dinky looking. The only one we saw at Lowe's was in a wood tone and we need white. We're still searching. Let me know what you find and where.
For flooring the easiest and least expensive would be peal and stick vinyl. I've had that in my current laundry room for 20 years. It's held up well and still looks brand new.

Jrmom, have you considered custom? That way you could get exactly what you want. When we did the kitchen remodel we used the same cabinet maker to make cabinets for the laundry room. Only cost a few hundred more.

Brutuses, The one at Lowes was white, and you could flip the doors from plain on one side to beadboard looking on the other side, check their website it's on there, or Local Lowes was out of stock, but I could get it at another one....about 10 miles away. I was considering the peel and stick tiles, my neighbor did them in his bathroom and he said that they spread apart a bit when the house expands and contracts, I wonder if it is our cold climate in the winter. I really don't mind because 90% of the floor is covered with a large waterhog mat that I have in there, but when I get all the new storage more of the floor will show.

Natal, what a beautiful laundry room, I love it. I might consider custom, but our driveway expansion project is running more than we expected, so I'm doing what I do best, trying to make it look great for little $$$!

Natal, What I wouldn't give for a window in my LR! Looks great.

You should be able to get a set of upper cabinets at HD or Lowes? we had our builder install upper cabs, laundry sink, and closet with bi-fold doors, and a built in ironing board across room, in our long narrow laundry room.

Here is a link that might be useful:

susieq, can I ask where you bought your sink and cabinet? We are looking, but can't find any we like, in white. Thanks

jr, the cabinets we bought were kitchen cabinets with the traditional raised doors like in the photo I provided, from my neighbor's kitchen redo.

I need help with visualizing this....our ceilings are 9'. Should we have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, or have open space up there?

I think I'm leaning toward having it go to the ceiling, but is that too much cabinet? Natal--I think it would look like yours...how tall is your ceiling, and how tall are your cabinets?

Any more pics out there would be appreciated! :)

Mustangs, it's so nice to not even need the overhead light most days, lol! I did laundry in an old detached garage (in fact the window is recycled from the garage) for 25 years. The new room is a pure joy!

Weary, the ceilings are 8' and the cabinets are 38" tall. But even if I had had 9' I would have taken them to the ceiling. You can never have too much storage space.

If it were me, I'd install the cupboards up to the ceiling to give more storage. Three yrs ago when we bought our current home, we did a remodel that included adding the laundry room since there really was none. At the time-- trying to economize, I just went with standard height cupboards. We have 8' ceilings, so cabinet maker installed them down about 6"-8" from the celings to make them easier to reach.

As I needed more storage, I began to wish I had a shelf below them to put a few things in decorative containers or baskets. Hence our current remodel again---to add the shelf (which then became an enclosed shelf with beadboard backing, which led to raising the existing cabinets to the ceiling and adding crownmolding to them, which led to adding beadboard around the lower wall in the room, which led to adding a window seat below the window with storage below...) and which is all half done, or I'd take pictures to show you. BUT, I'm loving what I see of it and the extra storage...just wish I'd done it to begin with. Did I mentions we're DIY'ers you are finding that these things really can be done by amateurs--they just take awhile to get finished with all the interruptions! Good luck with your project. You'll be thrilled with the storage.

I'm loving seeing all your pretty laundry rooms!

sorry can't help you, our builder sent us to a cabinet maker here in our town...

I think this thread goes to show you that laundry rooms are very important, I don't think the average homebuilder gives them much thought, unless you are custom building a home. My dh said to me, I can't believe we waited 15 years to think of this. A lot goes on in a laundry room. I've loved some of the beautiful laundry rooms posted...thanks.

Thanks anyway.

I have the IKEA cabinets in my office and love them. I wanted them for my LR, but DH was having customs done for his office, so the guy did cabinets for my LR as well. His cabinetry was not much more than the IKEA cabinets and he did all the work:)).

I've decided that for now I like the cabinets sans doors. I told my cabinet guy that I want to see how well they work without the doors before I go ahead and have him put doors on them. I went out and bought lots of baskets from Target and it is a great set up for our home. Everything has a place and so organized. This is my first LR, can you tell how excited I am about having one? The LR at the moment is my favorite room!