A disorganized laundry room is not helped by closing all the clutter behind the cabinet doors. Instead, you must tackle any laundry room storage problems and organize your cabinetry in a way that best utilizes all available space.
This is particularly true if your laundry cabinet doors have glass fronts, as clutter behind glass is still visually distracting.
While an organizational laundry room makeover can feel daunting, making the most of your laundry cabinets will save you time in the long run. Take your time checking out the following laundry room cabinet ideas and take note of the ones that promise the best results in your laundry room. Then make plans to get your laundry room squared away.
1. Innovative Hanging Laundry Room Cabinet Ideas
A well-designed utility room will incorporate some form of drying rack for clothes that cannot go in the dryer. While a folding drying rack hidden behind a cabinet door is ideal for some, those with limited floor space may prefer another solution. An open space over the laundry sink, between upper cabinets, is an ideal place to install a bar for hanging clothes to dry.
Hang several plastic hangers on the bar and you’re ready to let items air-dry while the sink is there to catch any drips. If you iron in your utility room, you can also use the hanging bar to hang up freshly ironed clothing. Maximize small laundry room storage by hanging hooks on the sides of cabinets. Hang small linen bags, storage baskets, or towels from the hooks.
2. Space-Saving Inspirations
A narrow laundry room configuration may not leave much space for anything beyond the washer and dryer. However, if possible, conduct a laundry room makeover and add some cabinets, a small undermount sink, and counter space to make laundry day easier.
Many retailers now sell small utility sink styles to fit into the tightest laundry spaces. Watch this video to learn the basics of installing a small cabinet in your laundry room:
As with other small laundry room layouts, a narrow utility room benefits from the use of white paint to make it feel open and airy. Choosing a white washer and dryer, white countertops, a white tile backsplash, and white cabinets all work together to achieve this goal. If your laundry room is narrow but tall, extend your cabinets as high as the ceiling allows.
3. Embracing Wooden Designs
Wood cabinets are one of the most common fixtures used for laundry room organization. Wood cabinetry is classic, durable, and relatively easy to change with a simple coat of paint or stain. Wood can be made to look rustic, modern, or beachy. It’s a natural material that can work with any interior design style, from craftsman to contemporary.
If you have an older home, you may be able to keep your existing cabinetry during a laundry room renovation. Sometimes all you need is a new coat of paint to restore solid wood cabinets to a like-new appearance. If the doors are damaged or just do not blend well with your décor preferences, leave the framework but replace the doors and hardware with something more suitable.
Wood shaker cabinets are a classic design that’s always in style. Whether finished with a natural wood stain or painted, shaker-style cabinets are always a good laundry room idea.
To create visual continuity, paint your cabinets to match the color of your laundry machines. For example, if you have stainless steel appliances, use grey paint on your cabinets. Black appliances look great nestled in an expanse of matte black cabinets against light-colored walls.
4. The Elegance of White Cabinets
White cabinets almost always work well in the laundry room due to their clean, bright surfaces. In a room dedicated to cleanliness, white is a neutral that looks good next to any other color.
A laundry room with white or beige walls looks great with grey cabinets and a countertop surface that incorporates these neutral hues. White shiplap highlights white cabinetry and is practically a necessity if your home is decorated in a farmhouse style.
White cabinets also provide more freedom in choosing decorative accents for your laundry room. Ideally, many of your decorative touches will double as laundry room storage solutions. For example, put laundry detergent pods in an antique tin or store powdered laundry detergent in repurposed clear glass flour canisters. Add green plants in ceramic or metal planters if your white laundry room needs a splash of color.
5. Stackable Cabinet Concepts
A stackable washer and dryer unit is one of the best inventions for small or freestanding laundry areas. Having the washer and dryer stacked frees up room to build cabinets beside them, and possibly a small cabinet above them. If you have room for a small sink beside the washer and dryer combo, all the better. A sink guarantees cabinet space beneath it.
Even if you have a spacious laundry room, you may wish to switch to a stackable laundry machine unit to free up more room for storage. Stacking the washer and dryer can leave enough floor space to add fun features to your utility room or mudroom.
For instance, the laundry room is a perfect location to turn an open cabinet area into a cubby for your dog’s bed. If space allows, hire a plumber to create a pet bathing station in the area no longer occupied by your dryer.
6. Maximize Space in a Small Laundry Room
A small laundry room may not have space for a lot of cabinetry. Therefore, small laundry room ideas for storage will need to be creative. If that’s the case with your laundry room design, install shelves above your lower cabinets and use baskets or bins for extra storage. If the washer and dryer take up too much floor space for lower cabinets, you must rely on upper cabinets instead.
Even a tiny laundry room can benefit from the addition of a wall cabinet above the washer. If you live in a small house or apartment, your utility room might have to double as a linen closet. In this case, it’s definitely best to install cabinets for linen storage. Don’t overlook the space between your washer and dryer as a possible spot to locate a narrow cabinet or shelving unit.
7. Seamlessly Integrated Mudroom
If you have a mudroom laundry room, you may want to conceal your washer and dryer behind folding cabinet doors. If you don’t want to spend time on a DIY cabinet door fix, hide the washer and dryer behind a curtain. Either solution also works well to cover up a freestanding washing machine in the kitchen or bathroom.
Liven up your mudroom laundry room cabinets by painting upper and lower cabinets different colors. You can make upper cabinets fade into the background by painting them the same color as your walls. Make your lower cabinetry pop by painting it your favorite bright color. Use mudroom cabinets to store everything from cleaning supplies to school supplies to winter weather gear.
8. Effortlessly Chic
A laundry room makeover doesn’t have to be complicated to make a big impact. Depending on the rest of your home décor, choose flat-front modern cabinets or plain recessed panel cabinets for a classically simple appearance.
Basic cabinet hardware—or no hardware at all—is best for attaining a simple cabinetry design. A white enamel farmhouse sink mimics the glossy white appearance of some washer and dryer combos and blends well into an all-white laundry room.
Rolling canvas hampers are a simple laundry room organization tool. These handy hampers help you move dirty clothes to the laundry room and clean clothes back to your bedrooms. Create an open space between lower laundry room cabinets, beneath the countertop. Leaving this open area in your laundry room design allows you to park your rolling laundry baskets when not in use.
9. Transforming Hallways
If your laundry area is located in a hallway, cabinets are one of the best ways to take advantage of vertical storage space. The number of cabinets you can have in a hallway laundry room depends on the size of your hallway. If it is crowded, consider painting your walls and cabinets white, which tends to expand a space visually. Glass cabinet door faces can also make a hallway laundry space feel more open.
Sometimes a hallway laundry room is basically a repurposed closet. If a laundry closet is all the space you have available for washing clothes, you may not have room for actual cabinetry over or beside your washer and dryer. Open shelves with bins are probably a better laundry room storage idea in a hallway closet.
FAQs
What should I put in my laundry room cabinets?
Use your laundry room cabinet space to store your essential cleaning and laundry supplies. A good laundry room design will include cabinets for large items, like hampers and baskets. It will have tall spaces for your ironing board and drying rack, and a smaller storage space for detergent and other cleaning supplies.
Do laundry room cabinets need to match kitchen cabinets?
In newer homes, kitchen and laundry room cabinets usually match. This is because it’s cost effective for the builder to make all the cabinets the same. However, you aren’t breaking any design rules if your laundry cabinets don’t match the ones in your kitchen. Each set of room cabinets can even be a different color if you wish.
How deep are laundry room cabinets?
Usually, laundry room cabinets follow the same measurement guidelines used for kitchen cabinets. Lower or base cabinets have a 24-inch depth. Upper cabinets aren’t as deep, measuring 12 inches in depth. Custom laundry room cabinet ideas may include other depths to accommodate a laundry basket, drying rack, or ironing board.