Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Focus on workflow when planning your laundry room, as it impacts efficiency and comfort.
- Conduct a needs analysis to identify how your household currently does laundry and address any inefficiencies.
- Include practical features like countertop space, hanging options, and easy-to-reach storage for supplies.
- Plan for accessibility by ensuring adequate room around appliances and considering additional features like a sink.
- Choose durable materials that can withstand moisture and spills, ensuring your laundry room is both functional and stylish.
If you are planning a laundry room, it is easy to focus on colours, cabinetry, and appliances first, but the best laundry room design usually comes down to something more practical: workflow. Here are some laundry room design tips to help you avoid planning mistakes.
A well-planned laundry room should look good, feel organized, and make routine tasks easier. That includes washing, drying, hanging, folding, storing supplies, and moving through the room comfortably. Whether you are planning a compact laundry area or a larger mudroom-style space, the smartest designs are the ones that work hard every day.
Why laundry rooms matter more than they used to
In many newer homes, more square footage is being dedicated to laundry and utility spaces. Homeowners are increasingly treating laundry rooms as real living spaces rather than purely functional back rooms. That shift makes sense. Laundry is repetitive, high-use work. It benefits from thoughtful planning just as much as a kitchen does.
For some households, laundry room design is also tied to aging in place. Moving laundry appliances from a basement to a more accessible main-floor location can make everyday living easier and safer over time.
Start with a needs analysis, not cabinetry
Before choosing finishes or accessories, take a step back and look at how your household actually does laundry. A better laundry room starts with understanding your current habits, frustrations, and wasted motion.
Ask yourself:
- Where does dirty laundry collect now?
- Where do you sort?
- Where do you fold?
- What usually ends up piled on the floor or countertop?
- Do you hang dry a lot of clothing?
- Do you need a sink?
- Do you need room for hampers, baskets, or laundry bins?
- Do you need a steamer, an ironing board, or a clothing-care appliance?
Think like a process designer
One useful way to approach laundry room planning is through a lean lens. Lean thinking focuses on reducing wasted motion, waiting, over-processing, and other forms of inefficiency. Paul Akers’ 2 Second Lean framework and related resources describe the “8 wastes,” including motion, waiting, transportation, defects, and unused potential. It sounds simple, but these small decisions can make a room feel much more functional. Applied to laundry room design, that can mean:
- Storing detergents where they are easy to reach
- Placing hampers close to the washer
- Including a clear folding surface
- Adding hanging storage near the dryer or sink
- Reducing the number of times items are moved from one place to another
Laundry room cabinet design tips that make everyday use easier
1. Prioritize countertop workspace
A countertop over front-load appliances, or beside them, creates a useful place for sorting and folding. Even a modest amount of landing space can make the room feel more complete.
2. Include hanging space
This is one of the most important and most overlooked features. Many garments should be hung to dry or set aside immediately after washing.
That hanging space might take the form of:
- Pull-out drying racks
- Hanging rods
- Wall-mounted racks
- Retractable lines
At Superior Cabinets, hanging solutions are among the most relevant accessories to consider when planning a laundry room. Superior also offers a dedicated laundry room accessories category as part of its accessories program.
3. Make storage easy to reach
Laundry supplies should be easy to grab without awkward reaching, bending, or lifting. Think about where detergent, dryer sheets, stain removers, and cleaning products will live. This is also a good place to use cabinetry to hide visual clutter while keeping essentials close at hand.
4. Choose durable, easy-to-clean materials
Laundry rooms deal with lint, spills, moisture, and regular wipe-downs from leaking detergent containers. Cabinetry and surfaces should be selected with durability and cleanability in mind.
5. Consider a sink if space allows
A laundry sink can be extremely useful for hand washing, soaking, filling pails, rinsing dirty items, or cleaning up after pets, kids, or messy projects.
6. Add floor-to-ceiling storage where appropriate
Many laundry rooms benefit from tall cabinetry because there is often more to store than people initially realize. Cleaning products, backstock items, ironing tools, household linens, reusable bags, pet items, and seasonal supplies can all end up here.
What people forget when designing around the washer and dryer
Cabinetry built around appliances can look polished, but there are a few practical details that matter.
Access to shut-offs
Access to hot and cold water shut-off valves is important. Many designs hide these too well, which can make servicing or emergency shut-off more difficult. That said, planning access to washer shut-off valves and room to pull appliances forward should be planned during the design phase.
Appliance specifications
Always follow appliance specifications carefully. Leave room for ventilation, access, and proper installation.
Future replacement
Laundry appliances change over time. If cabinetry is built too tightly around today’s units, replacement in the future can become frustrating or expensive. Leaving a bit of flexibility is often wise.
Room to pull appliances forward
Appliances may need to be pulled out for cleaning, maintenance, or access behind the units. Plan for that movement.
Do you need a floor drain?
Depending on the home, location, and design approach, a floor drain or an indirect waste connection may be worth discussing early with your builder, interior designer, or general contractor.
In certain municipalities, there is guidance for the inclusion of an emergency floor drain in a main-floor laundry room, specifically referenced, and a 1 1/2-inch indirect waste pipe to a floor drain or other suitable location may be considered in certain residential above-grade applications. This is one of those details that should be reviewed with a qualified professional during planning.
Luxury laundry room ideas that may be worth considering
For some households, the laundry room is becoming a more specialized space.
Depending on your budget and lifestyle, you may want to think about:
- Two washers and dryers
- A built-in sink
- Integrated hamper storage
- A full-size or pull-out ironing board
- A handheld or floor steamer
- Extra storage for linens and cleaning products
- A chute system or advanced laundry transfer system, planned with the help of qualified professionals
Laundry Jet, for example, describes its system as a vacuum-powered laundry chute that can move clothing from installed ports in other parts of the home directly to the laundry room, with options for single-storey and multi-level homes. Another example is the LG Styler. LG describes it as a steam closet that refreshes, deodorizes, and smooths garments and everyday essentials. These are not essentials, of course, but they show how the laundry room is evolving beyond the basics in some homes.
A room that can be practical and beautiful
Laundry rooms do not need to feel purely utilitarian. In fact, this can be a great place to introduce warmth, personality, or a bit more design confidence.
From Superior’s Mudroom & Laundry project gallery, brighter and lighter cabinetry appears often, which makes sense in a room many homeowners want to feel clean and airy. But this can also be a great place to introduce coloured cabinetry, wood texture, tile, or more expressive hardware if that suits your style.
Final thoughts
The best laundry room design ideas are not always the flashiest ones. Often, the most successful rooms are the ones that quietly make life easier. Start with workflow. Think about storage, hanging, folding, access, and maintenance. Plan for real habits, not idealized ones. And when possible, work with experienced professionals who can help you balance aesthetics with function.
For inspiration, browse Superior Cabinets’ Mudroom & Laundry projects and explore our cabinet accessories to see how thoughtful details can improve the way a hardworking room looks and functions. Reach out to a Superior Cabinets Corporate Showroom and Design Studio in Saskatoon, Regina, Calgary, Edmonton, or Winnipeg. If you can’t make it to a showroom, Superior Cabinets has 300+ Authorized Dealer Partners across Canada and the USA who can help you plan your perfect, functional laundry room. Find a Dealer Partner.
A well-designed laundry room should include practical storage, countertop workspace, hanging space, easy access to supplies, and enough room to move comfortably.
Some of the most overlooked features are hanging space, no access to shut-off valves, not adiquate room to pull appliances forward, and future flexibility for appliance replacement.
Yes, if space allows. A sink can be useful for soaking items, hand washing, filling pails, rinsing dirty shoes, or handling messy cleanup tasks.
A more accessible laundry room should reduce bending, reaching, and awkward movement while allowing enough clear space around appliances and controls.
In some homes, yes. Larger laundry rooms may include double washer and dryer sets, sinks, tall storage, integrated hamper solutions, and clothing-care appliances.
