I would not recommend putting up curtains; It never looks like it does on Pintrest. Cutting a hole into the drywall is an easy solution. Patching drywall is super easy if you ever decide to sell or change your laundry setup. I see a breaker panel in this photo, so if you have on in your laundry room, be sure to turn off all the power and check with an AC live voltage detector before cutting. Be wary of any piping, and cut your hole at a 45 degree angle to make for easy patching in the future.

Thank you! @StijlTree we are leaning towards cutting the drywall. We already patched a few holes after buying the home so that won't be a problem. We plan on having our handyman come and cut the whole. There is a gas line that can also run to the dryer (we are using electric). But we don't want to experiment with cutting around that so we will just hire someone.

@dadoes good point. we will make sure we cut a big enough whole were we are not crushing or putting any sharp bends in the hose. hopefully this is an easy fix and our handyman won't charge us to much to do.

We actually had to do the same w/ours. cut a pocket in the drywall large enough to comfortably fit the hose (it's not bent or obstructed). We had moved ours into a closet as well. had to have those bifold doors (which I hate, but they work).

A periscope might be an option, but installation can be difficult. At a minimum you will have to pull the washer anytime you want to pull the dryer. With a periscope I'm, at 3.25" from the back of the dryer to the wall. Next time I pull the dryer I'm going to relocate the wall vent above the top of the dryer, install a space saver vent that extends to the top of the dryer, and a short flex hose. It won't be pretty but it'll make the hook up a lot easier.

@Beth H. so glad to hear someone has done this and it worked! we have the bifold doors as well. hope to get them upgraded one day but for now i want them to close. Did you cut the pocket yourself or did someone do it for you?

hub is a contractor, so he does everything! (we did have a laundry room but we expanded the kitchen and took over that part, hence moving this to the entry way closet!) oh, it's been like this for 11 years w/no issues.

where are you venting the dryer tube?

Periscope-type vent connectors slide for adjustment and leak air and lint at the seams.

Periscope should have the excesses trimmed off and the seams taped, there's no adjustment after that and part of what makes them such a pain to install.

Return the dryer and get one with side venting. Just Google side venting dryer.

Dadoes... we used the periscope vent connector, we had to because of space. My husband extended it to the length needed then wrapped the seams with the foil tape that’s used on Hvac systems. We have no lint leaking out at all.

@Beth that sounds awesome! I'm sure your new kitchen is beautiful. That is also on our reno list but we have a few months before we get there!

Beware of optionally side venting dryers!!

We bought a dryer and side vent kit (extra $40) from speed queen because we didn’t have space to run hose behind dryer. We bought them remotely from ABT (better price and customer service than very limited number of local dealers) and had the dryer shipped to us so we had the responsibility of installing it. There were no online instructions for installing side vent and we assumed it would be an easy change so we didn’t ask. It wasn’t. The instructions required disassembling the entire dryer (removing motor, electrical wires etc) and rebuilding it. We were shocked! We can’t even imagine what this would have cost not to mention the risk of something going wrong and voiding warranty. This should have been done at the manufacturer or dealer. We ended up throwing out the side vent kit and making a hole in the wall. Less risky. In our case, not less complicated. Trippled cost of dryer.

If you are going to buy a side vent dryer from any manufacturer, before buying, check what the procedure is for converting the dryer to side venting and who is making the conversion. If not done by manufacturer, will a mistake or problem from conversion void the manufacturer warranty?

You can get a recessed dryer box. Most new homes are putting these in as a standard now. It Fits in between your studs and lets the dryer be slid in flush against the wall.

Thanks. We saw those. Unfortunately, this would not have solved our problem because the hose needed to travel sideways behind the back of the dryer and then halfway around the side of the dryer where it vented to the outside. We ended up making a hole through the wall to the closet behind it and then put in a new hole to the outside from the closet. The good part is that we can now clean the dryer duct without having to pull out the dryer. The bad part is that we lost space in the closet behind it. However, we managed to push the dryer back so that it is only 2 inches from back wall. In a very narrow laundry room, that really helps.

@houztongirl was it difficult to cut the hole? did you have someone come in and do it for you?

Check the track at the top of the framed opening for the doors. I once had this problem and was able to move the track several inches forward to clear the w/d. You might even add some trim on the outside wall and reinstall the track for the bi-folds. Could be easier than messing with the dry wall. Or might even be necessary as well as recessing the vent. Good luck.

We hired someone to cut two holes. The first was between the laundry room and the closet behind it. The second was from the closet to outside. The duct connects to the dryer, runs thru corner of closet and connects to outside vent. We made the duct a little longer than necessary, so we can slide dryer forward without disconnecting it if necessary. A new dryer vent was added on outside. While we were at it, we upgraded the vent on the outside to a style that does not require us to manually empty lint trap. (Side Note: it is really nice not to have to remember to run outside every few weeks to empty lint trap. Old one was in a very awkward location. Also better for dryer because after one year, no lint buildup in duct. I believe Our old dryer bit the dust because of stress on motor from duct clogging). I really like being able to check whether duct needs cleaning from closet side, without having to move dryer since our laundry room is very tight and it is hard to get back behind dryer.

No, no, no to the curtain! Ugh! Per everyone else's suggestion - go with a recessed vent box or cut the drywall. I'm sorry this happened to you! How frustrating.

I use one of these. Pull the dryer and connect this to the back. Push the dryer back and connect the hose to the top. I've had it for over 10 years. I think it was a fixed length. Or I used duct tape.

periscope

Ductape is great for all sorts of applications, except for ... ducts. If you want to seal any type of duct, you should always use metal tape. That's what it's made for.

Thank you everyone. Our handyman comes on Saturday to cut the hole so we will see how it goes!

Do your washer hoses make your washer come out from the wall? Mine do even though the shutoff is in between the studs and the dryer is the same....dryer hose comes out from the back and over to the side through the closet and out. Mine is not in a closet so don't have the "lack of space" problem. Does look nice with the washer and dryer out of sight.

We're struggling with this same dilemma at the moment. W/D in narrow closet with bifold doors in kitchen of our old house. We've been here a year and are ready to finally tackle this issue. Our home came with a Bosch set that fit but are compact size ... meaning many many small loads. We've considered cutting the recess into the wall behind them, and moving the bifold door track out and we already use the slim dryer exhaust extension. But, even so, as ERINSEAN mentioned, we still have to leave washer drain hose space between the washer and the wall. We've noticed that our Bosch washer has a much smaller drain hose than our former Whirlpool set so if we buy a non-Bosch set, we'll likely need to allow even more space between the washer and wall. Not completely ready to give up, but pretty much resigned ourselves to a future of compact machines.

Get the installation instructions for a couple of the washer/dryer combinations that you are interested in. Figure out the actual dimensions that these appliances need to be fully functional. As you identified correctly, that includes space for hook up, space to open the door, and probably even space to pull out the appliances for servicing.

Then call a few general contractors and see if they can give you a quote for how to make this space available in your house. If you are OK with cutting into walls and/or possibly reframing, things might be less bleak than you think. A good GC who thinks outside the box can sometimes work miracles.

You won't be able to magically gain many additional feet of space. But even just gaining a few inches can make a world of a difference.

We have the same issue as the original post but live in a condo so we cannot cut any holes in the walls. Do barn doors work?

I too am curious about use of barn doors for this dilemma. Has anyone tried this as an option?