Rethinking The Laundry Room: Storage and Design Ideas

Last updated: September 19, 2016


Modern laundry room with upper and lower cabinetry on either side with a washer and dryer below a large paned window


Of all the rooms in a home, few are more important to keep clean and organized than your laundry room.

For most of us, it seems like the same story every week—you tidy up your laundry space, get everything cleaned and organized, and before you know it things are piling up again already!

You can yell at your kids or your partner to keep it clean all you’d like, but perhaps the problem is in your laundry space itself.

As you can see in these fresh design ideas, a laundry room doesn’t have to be a drab, dusty place where your socks go to disappear. Give these ideas some thought if you’re renovating your laundry room or starting from scratch in a new home!

The Laundry Room as an Extension

With the right amount of space and a little bit of storage savvy, your laundry room can become an extended storage unit full of opportunity. Having a spacious laundry room is useful for all kinds of storage, not just laundry.

Blue painted laundry room with washer and dryer nestled into butter yellow upper and lower cabinetry

Image VIA Houzz

In this gorgeous design above, you can see all the potential of a large, spacious laundry room. A room like this could hold tools, table-top appliances, unused seasonal wear, and so much more.

With a design aesthetic that looks more like a kitchen than a musty sock graveyard, the possibilities are endless!

Laundry room with dark hard wood floor, soft beige upper and lower cabinetry, white washer and dryer, and polished nickel pendant lights

Image VIA Houzz

A Little Nook for Your Hallway

Have you ever been in someone’s home and came across a spacious walk-in closet that nobody seems to use? Maybe you even have one of these in your own home. These spaces can be ideal for a minimal laundry unit space that can easily be tucked away by a sliding door.

Hallway laundry room with stacked inset white washer and dryer, open upper shelving, a folding counter, lower grey cabinets, and barn-door style sliders

Image VIA Houzz

A setup like this gives you surprisingly ample space to store hampers, linens, and detergents. And when it’s not in use, simply slide the door closed to conceal it!

A Place to Gather, Work, or Play

Making the most of your laundry room space can open up possibilities as a working spot or a gathering spot while still serving its main function as a laundry room.

Laundry room with stainless steel washer and dryer and plenty of storage (upper white cabinets, island with storage below and folding counter on top)

Image VIA Houzz

Many washers and dryers are designed as “front-loading” nowadays—this means you could easily install an island counter to cover your laundry units and open up a brand new space to eat, work, and study.

With laundry units getting quieter and quieter with each model, you needn’t even worry about distracting noise, either! You might even be drawn to the gentle, ambient hum of your clothes being washed.

Black painted laundry room with lower white cabinets and floating shelves on the left, and a white washer and dryer on the right with a rod and shelf above

Image VIA Houzz

Boundless Possibilities

When we stop thinking of the laundry room as “just” a laundry room, there’s no telling what kind of space solutions we can come up with. So, get creative with these ideas and others and turn your laundry room into a space you can actually use.

A large walk-in closet with dark espresso upper and lower storage cabinets leading to two sets of stacked stainless washers and dryers, and open lower shelves with a closet rod on the right

Image VIA Houzz