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Laundry Room Organizing the Home Design Dilemma

Laundry & Mudroom Design Dilemma

crazy4craftsman

last year

last modified: last year

There are several design challenges; I welcome your input

Side door often used by visitors, so dirty laundry, drying racks, & shoes need to be out of sight.
Wall cabinets above the refrigerator, the washer & dryer are inaccessible.
Keep walking path clear

Must haves:

Refrigerator
Sink
Accessible storage
Clothes drying rack that can be hidden away when not in use
Place for shoes (neat and tidy)
Place for guests to place coats, hats, purses, umbrellas
Place for dirty laundry (out of sight)

PS: This ugly room is getting a complete makeover!

Featured Answer

PRO

Christopher Scott Cabinetry and Design Inc.

10 months ago

This space definitely plays a lot of roles, and when a space is functioning as a laundry room, storage room, mudroom and entry, it’s a perfect opportunity for custom cabinetry to solve your design challenges. If this were my project, I’d start by removing the drying rack and adding closed storage for coats, shoes and backpacks, like in this project:

And then add ceiling height cabinetry around the sink, washer/dryer and refrigerator. If you’re doing a full makeover, I would consider stacking your washer and dryer and adding custom cabinetry around it to make your vertical space more usable. As you can see in this stacked washer/dryer, I added doors to the cabinetry to hide the appliances when they are not in use.

Finally, if you really want to give the space a clean, cohesive look, you could add a panel ready fridge to the space and use the same cabinet style to cover the fridge.

Your space wears many hats, but with thoughtful design and custom cabinetry, you can hide your fridge, washer/dryer and mudroom.

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Comments (8)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Waht do you mean by a makeover ? IMO close off the laundry add some hooks for coats and a rack for shoes and be done if a simple makeover is the aim. If ripping it out and starting pver I need to see hat is next to this space and also if changing the door entry to allow for a differnent layout So post a to scale floorplan of that area and how it relates to the rest of the house next to it.
apple_pie_order
last year
You can make it into a streamlined foyer by putting everything behind sliding doors. Remove the long clothes rack and replace with some hooks for visitor coats. Keep shoes in a closed shoe rack.
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I did not do the final designs you see. I used PAINT, but then my cabinet designer drew what you see above. The shelves in my study sit on top of an air return box (the grill is facing in the hall behind the study wall. I added a photo of that. Grill outlines in white.) Since there was this large hump sticking out in the study, I decided that the space above could be put to good use. I did a similar thing in the back of our house. Air return in hallway. Bump out was in my closet. I built shelves about it for pocketbooks. You could build a cabinet with doors above your air return.
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- The footprint question for me was regarding the "notches" (behind garage, front porch), it seems pushing/pulling here and there as needed would not affect the overriding property setback. - The kitchen island cabinet sizes, was just confirming that wasn't a 2nd DW to the left. Though 24" pullout is wide for a small kitchen, you can go skinnier for a 2-bin trash pullout. The minimal uppers was noting as your dish storage will want to be base drawers next to the stove. - "Chases" are just vertical spaces for larger mech/plumbing to pass. Usually the drawing convention is an 'X.' The fireplace 'chase' looked extremely large, but that may be the differing scales playing tricks on my mind. - Be cognizant of what both stairs are doing in the garage. One for clearance next to car if turned with landing. The other the ceiling height dropped down, as that could be 3' to 4' down from the ceiling plane. I agree garages should always have a man door, just be aware of circulation, and how that works around workbenches/shelving, and a long vehicle (trucks are 19' long, mid-size SUV 17'ish). - If the 2nd story is only over the garage, then the roof continuing over the "breezeway" section needs to account for the stair headroom height. - The porch may be better to have all one elevation, so put the stairs outside the porch, worked into the planter design. - The Dining Room circulation required reduces your available table area by quite a bit. You may not be able to fit a 6 person table if that is a req'mt.
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latifolia
last year
Can your washer and dryer be stacked? We have stacked LG units in a rental we own. That would permit you to have a floor to ceiling cabinet that would be easily accessible. I would go for something full depth, maybe with a hamper in the bottom.

If you have a Container Store near you, they have lots of options.

Why do guests use your "family" entrance? Maybe a landscaping solution would encourage them to go to your front door, where you likely already have a coat closet.
bpath
last year
Do you use the pedestal drawers? If not, consider removing them. You’ll be able to reach cabinets above, and even have room to put a laundry basket on top of the machines.

What is the weather where you are? Do you have to accommodate snowy outerwear? Wet stuff? or is it mostly dry?

Is the fridge fully utilized? Is it just for beer, water, and the occasional birthday cake?perhaps you can go with a smaller one? If it really supplements your kitchen fridge, then keep it.
crazy4craftsman
Original Author
last year
Thanks all. The reason folks (mostly extended family) use that entry is because it is closest to the driveway (aging folks with mobility issues).

I like the height of the W/D with the pedestals beneath so I don’t have to stoop down or reach up. Plus they add extra storage.

We use the fridge constantly since we often entertain and counter-depth fridge in the kitchen just isn’t big enough.

We live in sunny East Tennessee, so little snow.
emilyam819
last year
The appliance side looks great. Check out ikea shoe cabinets for the other side.
emilyam819
last year
And wall mounted drying racks like these

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