Laundry Room Remodel design

What the room has to do

A laundry remodel is a counter and a rail. Somewhere to fold, somewhere to hang, and enough storage that detergent is not living on top of the machine. It is a small project with an unusually high daily payoff.

Layout rules

• Run a continuous counter over front-loaders at 36in — a broken counter is a folding surface you cannot use.
• Allow 36in of clear floor in front of the machines to load them.
• Give a hanging rail 24in of clear space beneath it for full-length items.
• Stacked machines free 27in of width; use it for a full-height utility cupboard, not open shelving.
• Leave 15in beside a sink for wet items.

Lighting plan

One bright, cool, unromantic layer. This is the one room where 4000K is right — you need to see whether the stain came out. Add an under-cabinet strip over the counter if there are uppers.

What usually goes wrong

• Top-loaders under a counter, which cannot happen, discovered after the counter is built.
• Open shelving that turns detergent bottles into the room's decoration.
• No sink, so the laundry happens in the kitchen anyway.
• A folding counter too shallow to fold on — under 24in is a shelf.

In a small one

In a closet laundry, stack the machines and take the full remaining width for a single tall cupboard. Splitting it into shelves and a rail gives you neither.