Clever Ways to Hide a Laundry Station

Don’t have the luxury of a vast laundry room for stashing your washer and dryer? Here are some of my favorite ideas to hide a laundry station so that it’s there when you need it — and out of sight when you don’t.

Cabinetry

Placing laundry units in a kitchen can make a lot of practical sense, but the exposed appliances don’t always fit with a traditional look. If you encase a laundry area inside a pantry-style floor-to-ceiling cabinet, it can be hard to tell that the space serves double duty.

If a swing or sliding door doesn’t fit into your floor plan, try a pivot sliding door. The door pivots open in typical fashion, then retracts into the cabinet to be completely out of the way. This feature costs a few hundred dollars but adds a lot of convenience.

Metal mesh on doors provides ventilation and softens the view of the appliances without erasing them, creating an elegant modern-meets-traditional look.

Boxing in a washer and dryer is easiest during kitchen construction, but you can still retrofit a cabinet around the appliances after.

Curtains

You don’t necessarily need built-ins to hide a laundry station. A suspension rod (the type that’s often used to hold a shower curtain) and a few pretty drapery panels will elegantly hide your appliances, giving the laundry area a dreamy softness without much investment.

For a charming prairie-home look, hang a short curtain skirt just in front of the machines.

Sliding Doors

A sliding door is a great solution for concealing a hallway laundry station where a swing-out door would block traffic flow. Expect to pay about $900 to $2,000 for the door, track and installation.
The fact that a laundry station is hidden behind doors doesn’t mean it shouldn’t get a little decorative love. A double roll of wallpaper or a can of paint is often enough to dress the interior walls of the workstation. This way, every time you open the doors, the first thing you see is something beautiful, rather than merely a chore that needs to be done.

Tip: Adding a plinth base to raise your machines off the ground costs a few hundred dollars, but it saves your back from straining to load and unload.

Did you invest in a sleek new front-loading washer and dryer set that you want to enhance instead of cover? Get a beautifully transitional look by adding a wood countertop.

Tip: You can typically let the weight of the counter rest on the appliances, but make sure to use a few shelf brackets at the back or sides to keep the counter from sliding.

Reconstruction

Often a laundry room or laundry area is located next to a bathroom, as they both need access to the home’s main plumbing lines. If this is the case in your house, consider opening the wall between the two rooms to create one luxurious bathroom.