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Pantry shelves in laundry? Layout advice/install questions

14 years ago

I've been perusing some of the great pantry threads for the past hour, trying to get ideas on what to do about my overall horrible storage situation in this tiny house (that's another thread for later!). My previous 2 houses had large finished basements I could use. This house is 1/2 the size with twice the people and a storage nightmare! We don't even have a coat closet. The vaccuum usually lies around in the living room - no home for it either. But I digress...

I've decided to add a bunch of open shelves and a few cabinets to my laundry room. I like open shelving for it's ease of access but not necessarily the clutter that might ensue. However, I love the look of organized shelves in some of the other pantries I've seen (buehl, sharb, others).

This "pantry" will be mostly for all the stuff that doesn't fit in my kitchen and other stuff that I don't know what to do with (lightbulbs, catfood, litter, pet meds, cleaning supplies, birdfood, bird dishes, small tools, paper/plastic bags, excess paper towels & tissues, weird little odds/ends, etc).

This laundry room is 8'x7' and will now do the work of 3 rooms (laundry, powder room, pantry/storage). I want it to be attractive and functional.

The one wall I have to work with, opposite the machines and commode/sink, is 95" long x 96" high. I want it to include shelves, cabinets and a space for a rod to hang wet clothes from the laundry. (Tentative sketch below.) I'd like the shelves to wrap around the corner (like buehl's). I also like having open floor space under the shelves/cabs.

My install questions is: Do fixed shelves have to have the long support board underneath or can you just use the decorative shelf brackets? And why do I see so many shelves with a long vertical stick going down to the floor in the corner? Must I have that?

Here's a pic of my tentative plan and some photos of the tiny room. Any advice appreciated!

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Comments (5)

desertsteph
14 years ago
that's a nice little room!
you could use the white (laminate looking I think) cabinets that you can get at HD etc for about 50.00. they're 5H x 2W and 1D. I have 3 of them here. 2 I use for kitchen stuff (1 for food and 1 for dishes/utensils etc) and 1 in my bathroom for towels, sheets etc. Being that they're only 5 ft high you could then put other white cab across the top of the wall. (they do have 'matching' cabs that would set on top of them too - they are only 1' W and you'd need 2 on top of each large cab). you could put one on each end of your wall and put a rod between them to hang clothes on (and store vacuum).
use 1 for food stuffs and 1 for misc storage (pet food/litter) and the above ones for surplus supplies/seldom used items. if storing canned goods you can insert another shelf on one in the cab to give more storage room. the shelves in cab are about 1' high and that is not needed for most canned goods. As with my dishes I use a wire shelf across one shelf and use the top of it for plates and saucers and below it (the cab shelf) for glasses, mugs etc.

or you could get a misc base cab to put on each end of your wall and run misc upper cabs across the top. put your hanging equip between the 2 base cabs. that would give you counter top space on each of the base cabs - for folding clothes etc. or you could put a few open shelves between the base and upper cabs.
rubyfig
14 years ago
That is a nice little room. Because it also is a powder room, I would consider closed shelving (which make the space look less cluttered, while giving you the most storage possible), or if the budget is tight, tall shelves with a curtain to cover it all.

In my last house, I used some Ikea narrow tall closet cabinets (with pull-outs) mixed with upper cabs in a laundry/mud room to store all sorts of things (including the vacuume cleaner, sewing machine, lightbulbs, paper towels, etc.) and that worked really well (much deeper storage than open shelves which is what I replaced).

There are also some nice fold away clothes dryers that recess into the walls that might be a nice option to give you several rungs for drying clothes in a tight spot (I'd put that over the utility sink to catch the drips from drying clothes, or possibly put rectractable line that runs above the doorway).

I'd start with a list of everything that needs to fit in there and go from there.

Good luck!
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rhome - we are definitely not a 2 person house ;-) -- I've got 4 young kiddos running around, chasing the dog who is chasing the cat.... I keep reworking this, trying to fit within the current confines of our kitchen. I guess I'm not in love with where the oven is now - always feel my back is to everyone/everything... plus our OTR micro is waaaay too low, so that probably gives me even more of a bias. I'm currently working with my kitchen now, trying to make it more liveable for the meantime. It seems my house has recently decided to work against me and keeps calling for much needed maintenance projects before my kitchen. So I keep planning. (but I did just fix my broken drawer... and "installed" some cabinet lighting in my prep area) -- I'm considering asking my brother to come take down the micro, remove the cab above, cut it smaller and then put the micro back up so it won't be so low. I'm hoping to get a wall oven (not sure if single or double yet) into the kitchen. I have a bad back that acts up on occasion and I think the wall oven will be much more comfortable. you're right, my fridge wall is not very helpful - both the student desk and that 24 in cab next to the fridge are clutter collectors. island would be nice except it is constantly getting covered (and unearthed by me)... hoping to give it more of a purpose so it won't be a catch-all... thanks :-)
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I like Rococogurls suggestions. There could be an island in the center for crafts, sewing, etc. too. Though, that may not suit your needs. The kitchen though, have you considered having the kitchen forum look at your plan. There are some real experts over there. The reason, is that I see some things that look like they might need rearranging for more efficiency. I am not a kitchen layout expert, but over on the kitchen forum there are experts, and very kind and helpful experts. For instance the location of the stove, between the sink and the frig, is possibly awkward. Back to the laundry room. You'll need room to store supplies, and more. You will need hanging space to dry items. You'll need a counter for folding. You'll need easy access for the dryer vent to clean periodically. You'll need access to quick shut off of water in case of leaks, or when leaving for vacation. Any cabinetry at the machine area, needs to allow for machine maintenance and pulling out the units for repairs. It looks like your current plan locates the set against an interior wall. How will the dryer be vented? It would be better to locate the dryer against an exterior wall for the shorted ducting you can get. Dryer vent spec installation varies between brands. The manual will spec length of run that is desired. If it is too long of a run, then an inline exhaust dryer fan is recommended, I believe. When there is a 90degree bend, that = 5' of your allowed run. So you can't put in very many elbows before you use up all your length. My machine is 8' away from my exterior wall over the basement, where the duct runs between the joist. Because of all the bends to get it 4' down into the floor, then out the exterior wall 8' away, I used up 33' feet in the equation. The vent on the outside of the wall = 10' of ducting I believe. I could be off on some of these numbers, but it needs to be considered when locating a dryer. Depending on your exterior, you could put them under the window in the upper right 45 degree angled wall. But you don't want the dryer vented onto a gathering area, like a patio, cause lint will blow out. It's best to have the front loaders against a load bearing wall too. When machines are placed on joist flooring system, they need to be near the end of the joist. Otherwise there is tendency to bounce the floor. Unless you are on a slab of concrete, that is ideal, and the machines can go anywhere. The machines need to be able to be absolutely level once installed.
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flseadog
14 years ago
Our old 7 x 5 laundry room had open shelving when we bought the house. It looked great for about 2 weeks. Then it was overloaded and dusty all the time and looked absolutely horrid. Although I'm a fairly diligent housekeeper I couldn't keep up with the mess. When we finally put in very cheap Home Depot laminate cabinets I was probably the happiest person in Florida. I know this is not what you asked but I would recommend that your rethink open shelving in a laundry room. IMO laundry rooms generate more dust and dirt than any other place in the house.
megradek
14 years ago
the long vertical stick question: most likely you are referring to the shelving systems that use long vertical hanging bars to allow for adjusting of shelf height (you can get these at Lowes, HD, or container store). I know that Container store and the Rubbermaid products at the big box stores offer online programs to fit your specific dimensions so you can play around with the design. I do recommend the adjustable systems for the open shelf portion for the ease of install (you basically just have to worry about the few vertical bars and being precise versus doing at least 2 brackets per shelf and being spot on! Also nice if you can't make up your mind (like me!) and want to keep shifting your pantry items around or find that certain items are better suited for different height shelves.

I have some open cabinetry shelves in my laundry room and haven't noticed them being any more dusty than elsewhere in the house, but it might depend on your laundry system??
Buehl
14 years ago
jenswrens...

The ...long vertical stick going down to the floor in the corner... is a support "stud". With the exception of the very top shelf, the 12" deep shelves do not go to the wall; so we had to support them where they ended...where the 12" deep and 25" deep shelves meet in the corner. The 15" deep shelves, though, go from wall-to-wall so the extra support was not necessary for them. If you look at some closeups of our pantry you'll see where the 12" deep shelves are supported by that "stud".

As to the support board along the wall under the shelves, my DH wanted to be sure there was sufficient support for anything on the shelves...lots of cans or small appliances w/o sagging. Those shelves aren't going anywhere!

If you use adjustable shelves, be sure to find out what the maximum load is for them...that max will be much less than the max load shelves w/support beams along the back will support.

In your case, your shelves will not run from wall-to-wall so you may be better off putting in the support beams along the back like you show. The more corbels & support beams you use, the more weight your shelves will hold. You might consider another corbel in the middle of each shelf and maybe move the ones on the ends out a little more so they're even closer to the ends than they are now.

My pantry album is linked below showing my plans as well as the building of it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Buehl > Kitchen Remodel > Pantry

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