Laying Out Laundry Room Cabinets Around Machines and Hookups

Pull the washer and dryer out from the wall and measure the hose, the vent elbow and the valve box before drawing a single cabinet. In a laundry room in Austin, TX those three items decide where the cabinet can go, and the breakdown sitting on austin cabinetry spazio xyz lists the measurements in the order a cabinet maker needs them. Machine width is the number everyone knows. Depth with the vent attached is the one that gets missed.

Machines first, cabinets second

A front-loader needs clearance above it for the door, and a dryer vent needs a few inches behind it so the duct is not crushed. Many older houses in Hyde Park and Travis Heights have laundry closets that predate modern machines, so the opening is narrow and the shelf sits low. Measure the opening at the floor, the middle and the top, because walls drift.

Upper cabinets and adjustable shelves

Laundry cabinets mostly hold bottles, boxes and baskets, so an adjustable shelf earns its place. Drill shelf pin holes in two-inch steps and the shelf follows whatever bottle is in use. The cabinet over the machines should clear an open top-loader lid by a hand's width. A shaker or plain slab door keeps lint out of grooves that a raised panel collects.

Material for a damp room

Laundry rooms collect steam, and a washer hose that weeps once can ruin a base. A plywood box with a sealed bottom is the safest carcass, and a melamine interior wipes clean. Mdf doors work with a good finish coat on every edge, and maple or birch fronts hold paint well. Thermofoil is a poor choice beside a dryer that blows warm, damp air.

The folding counter and the utility sink

A counter over front-loaders turns the machines into a table. It needs a support at the back and a gap for the water valves so the hoses are not pinched. A base under a utility sink should be a laundry cabinet with a moisture-resistant panel floor and a removable back for the shutoff. A drawer box above the sink bay is usually too shallow to be useful, so a tip-out tray fits better.

Hinges, drawers and access

A euro hinge with a soft close damper keeps doors quiet during a spin cycle, since vibration shakes cheap catches loose. A drawer slide rated for the load matters when the drawer holds detergent jugs. Leave the valve box reachable, because a cabinet that traps the shutoff behind a fixed back gets cut open the first time a hose fails. Where old boxes are sound but worn, refacing the doors and refinishing the carcass can be enough.