Laundry room to kitchen pantry -ish

[scottm]

Our laundry room door is in our kitchen, near the door to the garage. It was a convenient place to toss shoes and hang coats, which accumulated. It had a big laundry sink, which didn't leave much room for the new front-load washer. After a year or so of complaints I finally ripped out the sink and cabinet, and as I feared that just meant more changes were needed, starting with patching in the floor.

Next came a 36" wide peninsula somebody returned to the big hardware store: $50. I used a belt sander to sand the sides down until it fit snug between the walls, I used to build and install countertops like this.

Next we needed to cover the fronts, I came up with a lot of ideas, but then we found an oak bifold-door on Craigslist for $45. A bit more oak pieces for trim and support finished the front.

 

[scottm]

Next came shelves, I liked the floating shelf idea. Lag bolts with heads cut off slid into holes in the wooden shelves.

Then wife thought a glass-door would be cool, but I didn't want to spend $200+ on it, so I modified the existing door.

 

[45Kevin]

Nice job.

I have been reluctant to change to the front load, low water use washers. My sister-inlaw has one that takes about twice as long to do a load. Is that typical? Use half the water and twice the electricity.

I would have used a frosted glass in the door.

 

[scottm]

Ours doesn't seem to take long. It is gentler on clothes, and spins the bejesus out of them so the dryer takes much less time.

Clear glass gives the feel of a bigger and more functional kitchen area, which is my biggest reason for going through this. It is as much for show as practical. Beveled glass would have cost another $300, twice our total investment. A wine-room at a restaurant inspired the idea, but I don't think we would want to store wine in a laundry room. It has added a decent amount of kitchen storage, and forced us to hang up our coats in the closet. The countertop is plenty big for folding clothes, something we needed.

 

[thatcabledude]

Fricking awesome! Well done.


Kevin, some "H-E" washers do take forever. The plus side to some is they hold more.