The front load washer and dryers are sold at Home Depot on pedestals.

You can buy them with or without pedestals. My question is as the store bought pedestals are fixed boxes basically, how do you slide out the units if ever the need arose? Plus I would rather have open front pedestals in order to slide laundry baskets underneath. So I was thinking of building open front boxes on wheels so you can easily move the units in an emergency.

See part A170 and A180 in the drawing above. They keep the machine from bouncing off the pedestal. I think I have something a little different but this would work for your DIY.

The drawers of the pedestals can function as hampers, or you can fit smaller laundry baskets into some of them (depends of size of it all). Personally, I'd rather have pedestals with drawers -- I don't want to look at dirty laundry, plus they just look more "finished" (even if you build drawered units yourself).

I'm certainly no expert and admit I didn't read the other post, but my thought when I look at the above design is where are you going to fold your clothes? At least with the non-pedestaled drawing there is some counter space; with the pedestals, there is nowhere to fold clothes or even set them down once you take them out of the dryer. Also, pedestals really raise the height of the machines -- a friend has her on pedestals with countertop on top, and I can barely reach to the full depth of the countertop, and I'm average height --> how are you going to be able to reach anything in those cabinets that isn't on the lower shelf without a stepstool? (assuming you're average height)

Do you need closed cabinetry in this laundry room? We had front loaders attached to manufacturers pedestals. I kept all the detergent, etc in the pedestal drawers and my baskets went on a deep shelf that went the full width of the laundry alcove. We replaced upper cabinets with the lower shelf because I wanted something deeper, simpler, and more accessible.

Mine are on the store bought pedestals. They have drawers to store the detergent and I use the one drawer to store worn bath towels that I use for rags. I would just pull the whole thing out if needed.

Every appliance manufacturer recommends (demands, really) that its appliances be placed on a solid surface. I would not recommend movable pedestals such as you propose.

Pedestals should be attached to appliances so they cannot fall off. If you needed to service an appliance you'd move the appliance and its attached pedestal. The pedestals in the picture look solid but there is nothing to prevent the washer from vibrating and "walking" off the pedestal. Imagine the disaster that would occur if the washer fell off and broke a filler hose. I would check the manufacturer's website to see if you can buy pedestals built for the appliances (if they're old, try ebay).

Be sure to follow the installation instructions for the appliances to make sure that you provide proper clearances on top, back, and sides.

Here is a link to the original thread for anyone interested in the evolution of the layout.

Post

In the 20+ years of my current home with large laundry/mud room I have never folded laundry in the laundry room. I always take the load, dump it on my bed and fold while watching tv. However, I stated in my original post above that I will include a flip up folding table to have in a pinch when folding a quick load of towels and such. It’s on the wall across from the w/d but I removed the wall from the pic to get a better view of the cabinet wall.

As this laundry is part of the main floor guest powder room I am trying to make it easy to keep things neat. I have lived with open shelving in various parts of my current home and I hate it. Everything is always dusty and messy. I prefer to be able to cram stuff in and shut a door lol.

The entire space of the laundry portion is 68”x78” so I can only have one wall with cabinets in order to have walking space in front of the machines.

Mr. Amateur's suggestions:

1. Put the appliances on the floor. Put an appliance-height and -depth cabinet between the appliances. Paint the front cabinet front to match the appliances.

2. Put a countertop over the appliances and center cabinet to hide the hoses and wires, and to use as a worksurface. Make it removable in case you need to service the appliances.

3. Hang other cabinets on the wall. If you want to watch TV while you do laundry, buy a cheap one and hang it on the wall behind the countertop. Or attach it to the back of a wall-hung cabinet with a swing-up door. Or bring in your laptop and put it on the counter.

For servicing, it will help to have the cabinet on the end, not in the middle. You will need room to pull the machines out and get behind them. If the cabinet is in the middle, they may have to be completely removed from the space.

I have had to have my machines serviced and also had the dryer vent cleaned since we have a long in-slab run.

Regarding placing the appliances on the floor: I've had front loaders on the floor and on the pedestals. I am only 5'3" but I find it much easier to load and unload the washer and dryer situated at a higher height. My husband, being taller, finds it even more convenient.

The suggestions made above to keep the cabinet at the end sound like valid points.

Have you thought about putting a door between the toilet and laundry areas, maybe a pocket door?

So in the original post, my initial question was putting in a way to block that opening, that wasn’t a barn door! . But it’s a log cabin and doing structural stuff is problematic. Cutting through wood and logs is a pain, plus it is impossible to match up woods later down the road. So after many good posts with helpful input it was the consensus that the best thing to do was to pretty it up.

Folding on top of even floor mounted front loads will not happen. First, like I said I’m happy to fold in my bedroom, there is a big flat surface in a big room with a tv right there, Second, every large capacity front load I’ve looked at are a minimum of 38” high(without a pedestal) so add a counter and you’re at 42”. I think that height will be very uncomfortable to fold at. That’s the other reason I don’t want stacked units, I have used them in vacation rentals and would have to find a stool to be able to see what was in the back of the upper unit.

Maybe this-

As an aside, I don’t mind the laundry baskets. The only time they are in the room is when we bring in a load and the clothes get put immediately in the wash. Everyone in the family has a set day to use the laundry room for their clothes and they aren’t allowed to leave stuff in there. (I don’t wash anyone’s clothes but my own!) Linens and such get done the other days.

The manufacturer pedestals all are meant to be bolted to the machine, so you can slide the entire unit out if needed to service or access the back. Basic pedestals have large drawers where you can store supplies, or even use as hampers. Fancier pedestals can include another washing machine (see LG sidekicks). Whether on pedestals or not, I find almost all front loaders too tall to fold laundry on top, but you could still use a shelf above for more storage if you wanted.

With your own built pedestals you would still want to bolt the machines onto the pedestals as a safety issue (and to protect your machines and floors from the machine smashing down). So you would want to make sure they can take the shaking and flex, and you would need to unbolt to move them and it would be even more work to take them off. I have seen them done many times, but just things to be aware of. Oh, and the times I have seen them done they were more solid boxes - I’d be concerned about the durability of “open” pedestals, or if it would affect the machine warranties since it is not a solid platform.

But for space savings stackables are nice. I have a laundry room with side by side washer and dryer on the manufacturers matching pedestals on my second floor (no problem reaching controls or soap trays from standing) but I put stackables in my mudroom to have a second laundry on main floor near kitchen and garage entry. I am 5’4” and don’t have difficulty reaching into the dryer tub on top without a stool - and the tub lights up and it is not that deep that things go missing in there :)

i would not put cabinet in between machines. Far less convenient to move set laundry to the dryer, and exposes the cabinet to more moisture.