I recall redoing my laundry room this past year. The room had just a particle board shelf painted the same color as the wall and was placed just 18-inches or so above the washing machine and dryer. We wanted to addcabinetry to the space, but because all of our cabinets in the home were a shaker style and a light shade of gray, we knew we were not going to be able to purchase custom cabinets that would match the rest without knowing the manufacturer, and style types without some customizations that may drive the cost of that project up more than we were willing to pay. Equipped with spending just under $2,000 for the entire project, we purchased some white shaker style from an RTA (ready to assemble) dealer, but we needed to measure the space, decide on the layout of cabinetry and drawers and consider the fan in the ceiling, the placement of the washing and dryer hookups, as well as the drain hole and potential plumbing that may be in the wall. I measured the width of the wall, which was a total of 124-inches. For the top cabinets I knew I could go wall-to-wall, no problem, so I calculated that we could install four 24-inch upper cabinets, as well as a floor to ceiling pantry that was 18 inches wide. This left a 12-inch space, that we decided to install a custom shelf space to house the laundry detergent and other little knick knacks. The room itself is 9-foot tall, and we had to account for the fan, which was about 6 inches from the wall on the ceiling, as well as the air conditioning vent also spaced about 6 inches from the wall also on the ceiling. This meant that we could not go the full height of the room, instead that floor to ceiling cabinet could not be higher than 8-feet tall. When determining the bottom half of the cabinets, I had to leave enough room for the washer and dryer (each is about 27-inches wide, and to account for some space to wiggle them in together (do not try to squeeze everything into the exact space you need. Leave enough space to account for you installing or removing the washer and dryer. There will be a time you’ll need to change it and the act of moving the washer and dryer means you may need to wiggle it in and out of that space. There is no “standard” washer and dryer size. Please don’t make that assumption either. If you did not have enough space for wiggle roomyou’ll be setting yourself up for a very difficult installation, as well as a high likelihood that it wouldn’t fit.
Now, the standard distance from the upper cabinets to the lower cabinets is somewhere between 16 inches and 20 inches, with 18 inches being most common. Anything smaller or larger than that becomes very awkward. For my laundry room, I had to go a little larger than the standard 20-inches to 24-inches and that was because my washer and dryer are both very large and sit high. They both have an upper washing and drying chamber that can only be accessed by lifting the top. Because of the sheer size of these appliances meant that reaching those upper cabinets is a little harder to do (I’m 5’4). I can still access them as needed, it’s just not as easy as the access in my kitchen. To determine the layout for our bottom cabinets we figured we could add cabinets to the left of the washer and dryer and account for the drain hole and plumbing. We went with two 24-inch bottom cabinets, and when paired with the 18-inch pantry would leave us approximately58 inches for the washer and dryer. The washer and dryer at 27-inches each meant we would have about 4-inches of wiggle room space. The whole project turned out pretty good and we were able to stay within our budget. One faux paux we did encounter AFTER we were installing them was that we noticed that one of our outlets would land directly behind the cabinet we installed. This meant that we had to cutout the side of the cabinet facing the washer so that we could connect the plug behind the cabinet. Annoying.
1. Is it Structural?
2. Does it require Demolition?
3. Know the Materials
4. Preparing Your Space
5. How Much Will It Cost?
6. How Many People Do You Need?
7. How Much Experience Should You Have?
8. Does the Weather Matter?
9. How Much Time Can I Commit?
10. Should You Delegate?
