With large appliances, countertops, cabinets, and sometimes a sink, laundry rooms borrow much of their inspiration from kitchen layout planning, employing favorites such as the L-shaped, U-shaped, galley, and open plan kitchen styles. Not only do you need the laundry room footprint to work with its given space, but it also needs to maximize your efforts while reducing your overall workload.
Galley or Corridor Laundry Room Layout
It is the most simple, basic, and economical style of laundry room layout since it fits into even the smallest of areas. Typically called a galley or quarter-style laundry room, this layout fits in long, narrow areas found off the side of kitchens or in mudrooms. Because the space is slim, often as narrow as five feet, there is room only on one side for appliances and other large items such as the washer and dryer, utility sink, countertops, and large cabinets.
The other side of the laundry room might be a wall only. At most, the other wall may have hooks or narrow shelving. Keep these to a minimum, though, since they will interfere with the operations of the washer and dryer.
L-Shaped Laundry Room Layout
An L-shaped laundry room layout is similar to a galley-style layout in that a majority of the services are clustered on one long wall: the layout’s long leg. The short leg of the L-shaped layout might have a washer and dryer, a short run of countertops and cabinets, or a laundry room sink. On this short leg is usually space only for one service, not multiple services.
Much of this layout is dependent on the location of the water supply and drainage, as well as the electrical receptacle or gas for the dryer. If these are located on the short leg of the layout, it makes smart design sense to place the washer and dryer here as this gives you a maximum amount of room to open and close the washer and dryer doors.
U-Shaped Laundry Room Layout
If you were to take an L-shaped laundry room, then extend it so that you have two long legs, you would have a U-shaped layout. Much of the heavy lifting of the U-shaped laundry room’s functions is already carried by the other two legs of this layout. This second long leg represents a type of bonus area for additional storage, organizers, shelves, hooks, and clothes racks. This laundry room layout should be at least 90 inches wide, to accommodate countertops on both long walls and a 42-inch wide aisle.
Open Plan Laundry Room Layout
An open-plan laundry room layout is the most design-flexible layout of all. To begin with, you will need a large space. Appliances and storage are located at any point around the perimeter of the room, dependent on the location of doors, windows, water, drainage, and electrical services. As with open plan kitchens that have an island in the center, open plan laundry rooms are usually large enough that they can have a folding table located in the center of the room.
Hidden or Invisible Laundry Room Layouts
When you have no dedicated space available for a laundry room but you still want to do your own laundry, one option is to tuck away the laundry room in an existing room of your house.
Because laundry rooms and kitchens share so many of the same characteristics and needs, laundry rooms are often found hidden away here. Bathrooms have water supply and drainage, so they are sometimes used, as well. One issue with using a bathroom as a laundry room is that they usually lack the 240V increased-power electrical receptacle needed for dryers.
A side-by-side washer and dryer are placed under the kitchen countertop, sometimes with a sliding door or curtain to mask them when not in use. In other layouts, a stacking washer and dryer are placed in the kitchen pantry and closed off behind a door. Storage for laundry items is extremely limited and sometimes is shared with kitchen items. If you have any type of extra space for a laundry room, creating a hidden laundry room within your kitchen should not be your first choice.