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Laundry Room Design Dilemma

Cutting Cabinets in Laundry Room

Megan Osterholt

5 years ago

We are building a brand new laundry room and the cabinets cost are more than the lumbar to put up the addition. I understand that I have tons of cabinets in the plan I would like to try to cut the costs. Currently I have a laundry sorting counter top with laundry basket and trashcan storage underneath and a hanging rod above it. On the wall with the washer and dryer we have a sink and 2 lower cabinets as well as 4 upper cabinets. I need some ideas and design suggestions to cut down these cost by taking some of these out.

Featured Answer

miss lindsey (She/Her)

5 years ago

It would help if you were to post your plan. It sounds like a lot of your cost is coming from the hardware to add pullouts. They are nice, but if you're trying to trim costs that would be the place to start imo.

Just going off your description:

-Could you install the folding counter over your washer and dryer? Or if finances are very tight, just fold on top of the machines. Of course this advice is irrelevant if they are stacked. But if you eliminate the pullout trash can and laundry baskets you should have room to have the machines side by side.

-use an off-the-shelf utility sink with cabinet underneath. We got one on sale for a couple of hundred dollars with faucet included.

-in the space next to the utility sink, hang a retractable clothes drying rack on the wall. They range in price from $50-$100+ and are much more versatile than a hanging rod. You can hang clothes on hangers from them, use jumbo size clips to line dry an entire load of clothes, lay a sweater on the bars to dry it flat, drape a couple of things over temporarily.

-add a laundry sorter under the drying rack, or use individual laundry baskets.

-a hidden garbage is really nice in the kitchen because nasty things go in a kitchen garbage. In the laundry room, the only thing that goes in my garbage is dryer lint and the occasional holey sock. So being hidden isn't as important imo, and actually I get better user compliance with an open garbage that people can access without too much thought.

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Comments (7)

Megan Osterholt
Original Author
5 years ago
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So, let's start with what are you ntending to store in this cabinet? In my laundry closet, I have a small plastic container I put a 'reasonable' amount of Charlie's Soap in (and the five gallon bucket is in my basement), a quart and a gallon of white viengar, a spray bottle of diluted liquid Charlie's Soap for pre-treating, the gallon of Charlie's liquid laundry soap, a box of dryel 'parts', and a box of dryer sheets cut into 1/8's (box is over 3 years old at this point... some day I hope it's gone for good). I also have a dryer lint brush and a vacuum attachment for getting into the dryer venting. In my laundry basket (in front of the dryer) I keep the 'odd' sockes waitng for their mateto show up from my kids rooms and my small item laundry bags. Otherwise, I have a rod and tons of hangers on it. My laundry is behind bi-fold doors, so no one really ever sees it but me. I keep the laundry supplies on top of the washer and dryer, and the dryer vent things alongside the dryer. Oh yes... I have a small bin of cleaning rags/towels also on a shelf above my hanging rod. IF I had a cabinet, I suppose I would keep the gallon jugs of the vinegar and charlie's liquid there, and the dryel... but the every day use soap container, the quart of vinegar (used for towels) and the per-treat spray get used most every day, so it would be more of a pain fo me to put them in and out of a cabinet rather than to just grab them from the top of the machine... same with those tiny pieces of dryer sheet for static. Maybe I'd move the cleaning rag bin into the cabinet. Anyway, look at the containers and 'things' that you want to store and think about shapes and sizes... do you want a drawer fo anything? Do you want shelving inside, how tall , 2 shelves or 3, should they pull out or not? I'm guessing this will be a semi deep cabinet, so I'm thinking I'd want pull ot shelves in there so you're not crawling over to reach stuff inteh back or 'losing' things way back inside. hope my rambling helped you some....
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Once you move the coats, you could install cabinets in an L shape, starting where the coats now hang. You will have a blind corner, but how convenient would it be if you have a countertop front the edge of the door to the wall? Hang tall cabinets above the counter to store laundry supplies on the lower shelves and less used items on the upper shelves. Your woodwork is beautiful and the proper cabinets built and stained to match would be stunning as well as useful. For the wall where the picture now is, you could have a coat closet built to fit the space. In our old house, we kept the chair rail and notched the back of our custom coat closet so we didn’t damage the chair rail. You can protect your bead board if you just set the closet in front and only use minimal fasteners to attach it to the wall.
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tqtqtbw
5 years ago
Open shelving or cubbies are effective for storing laundry supplies.
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A larger hang bar over the folding counter. Great if you want to avoid ironing, like me.

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Baskets on open shelves.
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miss lindsey (She/Her)
5 years ago
Your laundry room is nearly identical in size and layout to mine! Ours is under the stairs so I don't have room for upper cabs, but I do store our Christmas stuff in bins under the lowest point of the ceiling :)

So seeing the plan doesn't change my advice much.

I would completely eliminate the folding/sorting counter run of cabinets. You can easily fold on the counter to the right of the dryer (that's more convenient anyway, no need to truck stuff from one side of the room to the other). In that spot you could frame a closet if you need storage. A lot will depend on what you anticipate storing here.

Eliminate the base cabs to the right of the dryer. You can use supports to hold up the counter. Stack the laundry baskets under it.

Leave the two closed upper cabinets over the machines, eliminate the one above the sink in favour of open shelves (that you can DIY easily later). Also get rid of the one on the far right in favour of the retractable clothes rack I mentioned before. They really are so much better than a single rod because they do everything a single rod can do, plus more, and they can be pushed out of sight. You could install a shelf above it too.
miss lindsey (She/Her)
5 years ago
Oh, I meant to mention, if you like the look you can get pre-formed bamboo countertops at Lowe's very inexpensively. It looks like one would be enough for all your needs, if you eliminate the folding counter run.
tqtqtbw
5 years ago
Is that two stacks of four laundry baskets. I usually see stacks of two under the counter, using easily available baskets.

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They are just stacked until needed in this house.
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ci_lantro
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I don't know what the scope of the total remodel is....

What are you planning to store in the upper cabinets? (In a past house, the laundry was near the kitchen & I used about half of the upper cabinets for pantry, i.e., it was important to have those cabinets...)

If this is a pay as you go project, I would suggest getting the base cabinets now and adding the upper cabinets later. (Since your rendering is suggesting that you plan for different color base cabinets so no worry about paint matching.)

For the present you could throw up some temporary shelving. Even hang a curtain rod from the ceiling and hang curtains in front of the shelving (but that would be unnecessary expense and even those few dollars could go in the kitty towards the wall cabinets.)

ETA: If you're planning high dollar counters, I would nix that and get off the shelf laminate counters from a big box. You can always upgrade later but laminate is perfectly fine for a laundry room.

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